5.22.09 Day at Sea

When one’s motivation to get out of bed is derived primarily from the fact that the breakfast restaurant will close in fifteen minutes (at 10:30), one knows that one has had a good night’s sleep. We wandered up to breakfast and sat there for quite a while just looking at the sea going by. After the busy days that we’ve had at port, I’m glad that we have a day at sea. We need to relax. I think I’m at a point where I know where everything is on the ship and I don’t have to ask questions about where something is or how to do something (like laundry, internet, etc).

After breakfast we changed into our swimming suits and went up the top deck and lay on the beach chairs by the pool. After about an hour I decided to go get my hat – the sun had come out (it was slightly overcast) and my sunglasses weren’t enough to keep the sun out of my eyes. When I came back, I heard the tour director say something over the PA (for just the pool area) that only 4 people had signed up and he wanted more. I got to where we were sitting and before I could ask Melba what people were signing up for, she told me that I needed to go sign up for the belly flop contest. Sure, Melba. I remember somebody saying earlier in the day that the ship was going to have ‘Pool Games’ at 1:30 – I guess this is what they were talking about.

Now, I’ve belly-flopped before and I know that it doesn’t hurt if you do it right – that’s the trick. If you do it wrong, it hurts. I was in the contest with 5 other people. Once it started, we were told that they would play music for each of us – and we had to strut/dance around the pool and then belly-flop. The first guy didn’t do much dancing, did an OK belly-flop and got a nice reaction from the crowd. The second guy was somewhat goofy while strutting to the jump point and got a really big reaction from it. I decided then that the key would be a goofy dance. I went fourth – I moonwalked for a little ways, then I did the sprinkler and then the lawn mower. I stuck my tummy out as far as I could for the crowd and then jumped.

I got up from the water and the tour director, who was the MC for this event, looked at me and said, “That was a REALLY loud pop.” The guy after me didn’t do much dancing, but did a really big and loud flop. The MC said that we were going to have a tie-breaker between me and the guy who jumped after me. Great – I didn’t really want to do another belly-flop. The first one kinda hurt. I went first and did some more goofy dancing and jumped. The next guy did basically what he did before. The MC said the winner would be determined by crowd noise – the other guy got noticeably louder cheers and applause. (Of course, I leaned over to him after it was done and pointed out that I had all of the high-pitched voices cheering for me – meaning I won the female vote. ) It was fun. 2nd place in a belly-flop contest will make today memorable.

Everybody who participated got a free drink – rum lemonade. I politely told them I didn’t drink and they walked me to the bar to get a soda. I asked for 2 since I got 2nd place and they said that was fine. So Melba and I each got a free soda from it all. They were barbequing out on the deck (REALLY good steak) so it made for a nice lunch.

We swam for a little while and then I came back and got ready for dinner. Melba stayed a little bit longer at the pool. As I was leaving to go down into a lounge to get better internet reception, Melba came back. I did some emailing and came back for Melba. Tonight is a formal night so I was in a suit and Melba was in a dress. This is the first formal and there will be two more. (The other nights are ‘smart casual’ meaning no shorts or jeans.) It was nice to dress up – that made for a fun evening. We had lunch with the 4 sisters we met on the shuttle in Livorno. They are a really fun group of people. We’ve seen them a few times on the ship and had a lot of fun talking to them. These 4 sisters act the way Melba and her sisters would be acting if they were to be on a ‘girls only’ cruise together. (Of course, Melba says this would never happen because if all of the sisters went on a cruise together they would want Larves to come along – so it wouldn’t be all sisters – and then they would also want Joe to come along. He probably wouldn’t, though.)

I had lamb with mint pesto for dinner – delicious. We left dinner and went to the 8pm show. It was much better than the one we saw 2 nights ago. It was called “Ballroom Blitz” and mostly dancing with a little bit of singing. The dancing part of the show was pretty good, but the singing screwed it up. But it was still enjoyable.

Melba has a fun day planned for us tomorrow in Barcelona. We’re heading to bed early so we can get up early and make the most of the day.