A Wonderful World....

For those who were waiting to hear the blow by blow about our vacattion, I must appologize. The Celebrity Zenith is a nice ship for being so old, but she doesn't have the high techness needed to update a blog in a few minutes or less. I could hardly respond to an email much less post a blog. The web response time was horrible (netscape only) and the cost was .50 per/minute. At that price, you all can wait till now to hear about the events and such.

The cruise was great....mostly being with great people made it great. Arnie and Bobbie are wonderful to be with.....easy going, fun no matter what, just want to relax and enjoy. Even when things didn't go quite right, time with them was still great!

I got to do a little working out, a little reading, a little sun, and more than anything, a lot of just kicking back. I thought a 5 day cruise would go by too fast but it was fine....just enough of everything....enough gambling, enough sun, enough food, and enough of doing nothing before realizing you cannot live your life (or a vacation) doing just nothing. Everything was smooth....the trip down, the days at Diane's, the Polo, the ship boarding, the cruise, and the return. I liked the idea of coming back on Thursday..... for work on Friday.... to prepare for Monday. It seemed to mesh well.

Our shore excursions did not work out to well....one snorkel trip was cancelled due to high seas and another should have been cancelled due to high seas. Have you ever tried snorkeling in 3 foot waves? Forget about it..... We had the most fun just sitting around, talking by the pool and listening to the greatest cruise band I have ever heard ("Changes" from St. Lucia).

We returned home to normalcy...a little taner, very relaxed, and happy to know the Munsons just a little better. We met Doug and Jean (a retired art collector and his wife from St. Augustine, FL) and Bill and Robette from the south shore of New Jersey (two people dedicated to helping unfortunate [disabled] / Autistic people) on the cruise at our dinner table. It was nice talking to them and learning about them.

While the Celebrity Zenith is a little old and a little worn, she was still in great shape and a pleasure to experience. As for shore excursions, we have learned to be even more inquisitiive....as in .....how many people will be on our tour? We love people....but sometimes there are just too many! For the tour operators, it is often about money......and sometimes they forget that what makes a tour special is the right number of people (not too many and not too few).

Anyway, vacation is over.....Reality is back. I can look forward to the next vacation like this (I think next October) but I will not dwell on it. Instead I will look forward to simple weeks and weekends, time spent with family and friends, celebrations of sorts (Carie will be getting her masters degree, Tony will finally return home for a visit, Jamie will soon be a year older, Jim and Jamie will celebrate a wedding anniversay in May.....and no matter what else I have to say about life, I know it will simply go on).

I did get two more tee shirts this vacation and I wore one to work today. More memories, more pictures, more video, and ......more to remember. The quilt just got bigger. I know I will never see or hear from them again, but I wish the best of luck to Bill and Robette because people like them are few and far between. I wish Jean a happy remainder to her life, and Doug all the art in the world....and I hope that we cruise again with Bobbie and Arnie, because we had a wonderful time with them, and vacations are meant to be filled.......with wonderful times.