2nd Sea Day

January 22

It is Thursday.  But by now I have to ride the elevator just to know the day of the week.  One day runs into the next and you have to plan your sea days carefully since you have no port to take your focus away.  The last day before Da Nang but I get ahead of myself.

Terrie and I have this down pat now.  We have a Sam’s list and a Terrie’s list of the day’s events.  Mine for the day is fairly short.  Wine sale on the Lido deck, Mariner Society Brunch and then a Veterans meeting.  Terrie however was much more active.  Two cooking demos, time out in the Sun, a sale of clothing on the Lido deck, and maybe a Samba lesson with exercise in between.  So here is how we did.

Sam bailed on the brunch, as it was way too crowded and fussy for a lunch.  Who needs another formal meal when you can trade that in for nachos and a beer by the pool?   The wine sale was visited but not inviting enough to participate in so the big event of the day for me was the Veterans meetings. 

Interesting group with the ship buying a round as thanks.  An Aussie, a couple of Navy lifers, a dentist, and a Marine F4 pilot with a couple of wives thrown in for good measure.  Most had not experienced Vietnam up close and personal.  The Aussie was a carpenter around Saigon, the Navy guys were in Vietnam but only saw the water however the Marine flew missions out of Da Nang.  I had to thank him for delivering the mail to us and saving our bacon even though he personally didn’t serve when I was there.  Without those crazy F-4 pilots we would not have survived and I had only waved to the sky in thanks.  It was nice to be able to personally thank one of those guys.

Terrie’s day was much more eventful.  So full of decisions that she had to bring out the coin to flip.  It was terrible to have so much to do and so little time.   The two cooking classes made the cut and we accidently met and both stopped for Nachos together.  It was that after decision that brought out the coin.  Samba lessons or a sunny deck chair.  My job was to sit back and stay out of the discussion.  Heads or tails…and the winner was the sunny deck chair. 

And so the day went.  Nice day most relaxing and we ended with another day in the up scale restaurant with a nice wine.  Can’t beat the cruise life.