The best thing we ate, though, wasn't meat at all. It was pineapple. Yes, pineapple. Slow roasted pineapple crusted in cinnamon. Unreal. Now, I have previously made my love of pineapple known. To paraphrase George Steinbrenner, you could put pineapple on an old shoe and it would taste pretty good to me. However, my wife does not share my love of the tasty fruit, but she agreed with me that it was the best thing they served us.
And the wine....oh, the wine. 2008 Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Simply astounding, as it has been each time we've had it. And this is their "crappy" one; can't wait to taste their Napa Valley offering on our trip down through Cali later this year.
After dinner we wandered around the ship, took in a few more tunes from our friendly neighbourhood lounge singer, and then headed to the 1100-seat theatre to see the Second City comedy troupe perform. Very funny show. Some sketch comedy, some improv. Improv is always hit or miss for me, it usually depends on the suggestions they get from the audience. In this instance, it was a story called The Goat Herder that they had to make up as they were pointed at. By the end of the story our protagonist Sheamus, a Riverdancing Broadway performing goat, had been killed by a stampeding herd of zebras while New York City was covered in goat cheese that fell from the moon. Well, they didn't promise us a happy ending I suppose.
At bedtime both of us noticed we did a pretty shitty job of applying sunscreen. I am burned across my belly, one half of my chest and one forearm. Tracey got it on half of her back and her nose. Rudolph, the red-nosed wifey. Going to make tomorrow's beach excursion in Belize an interesting challenge. Hope they have some shade or we will both be in trouble.
Monday, April 14
"I hate Mondays" - Garfield the Cat
Normally I concur with our lasagne eating feline friend, but today should be a good day. First to breakfast!
While eating we hear an announcement that they are not letting people off the ship yet, due to the windy conditions. There is no dock here, everyone has to be transported to Belize City in small boats and the waters are too rough. Looking out into the water, there are some small pleasure crafts being tossed around like rag dolls. Anyone on those boats right now is getting wetter than a boatload of schoolgirls at a One Direction concert.
During breakfast they announce that they are taking some guests ashore. Waters still look choppy to me. Anyway, hopefully the winds die down a bit as I am not going to enjoy the boat ride to the mainland in these conditions, and chances are anyone else on the boat within barfing distance won't either.
It comes time to board the shuttle boat and I can barely stand it, before we even take off. The 30 minute ride to the island is one of the worst half hours of my life. Although I wouldn't say I am fearful for our safety, I feel horribly sick and I think I'm going to make quite a mess of this boat at any second. That doesn't quite come to fruition thankfully, and we land on a beautiful private island. I can't get off that boat fast enough. We are there for 3 hours and it takes half of that time for my stomach to feel back to normal.
We are sharing the island with some cruisers from a Royal Caribbean ship that is anchored in the ocean not far from our ship, but the island is plenty big enough that there is lots of room. Finally lots of bikinis; not all of them are on women that should be wearing bikinis though. One woman walks by, reasonably attractive, wearing something that could be called a bikini only under the most generous of circumstances. If you took a couple of band-aids and attached them with dental floss, you'd have a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about. I was genuinely shocked, and I don't think I've been shocked by anything like that since they invented that Internet thing.
Shortly after we arrived on the Island they called everyone out of the water because of a shark sighting. Fan-tas-tic. Didn't last long though, maybe a false alarm, and everyone was back in the water soon after. The wind was intense, but it kept us ver comfortable so no complaints. Some girls were trying to play volleyball. I say "trying" because the wind was making it a bit of a challenge. You ever seen the YouTube video of the soccer goalie who scored on himself by kicking the ball into the wind, and it blew back behind him into his net? Yup, just like that. Check out the palm tree below.
As bad as the ride to the island was, the return voyage was twice as pleasant. The seas were barely rough at all, until we got right back to the ship. All in all, a very nice excursion.
For dinner we skipped the buffet and went into the main dining room for a sit down dinner. The waiter was terrific - in fact all the wait staff has been too notch on this cruise - but the food was just OK. Buffet quality at best and we were hoping for more. We actually ended back up at the buffet an hour later to have a snack and some ice cream before calling it a night. We are both exhausted; it's amazing how laying on a beach doing absolutely nothing can be so tiring!!!
Tomorrow back to Mexico; this time Cozumel, and our Mexican cooking class!
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