Back In The Swing Of Things

Home is a good place to be.
We have been back from our shortened cruise adventure for about 10 days now and I consider myself older and wiser with the lessons I have learned. I can share this much with you:

#1. Never book a cruise that leaves port the weekend of a Monday holiday.

#2. If you are traveling during hurricane season, buy travel insurance*.

#3. If you are sailing on Norwegian Cruise Lines, don't expect a straight answer from anyone on board the ship or on the phone.
*I reserve the right to amened that statement after we settle the claim with the insurance company!

To make a long story short. Our cruise that was scheduled to leave port on Sunday didn't leave until Tuesday. According to NCL this was the result of dangerously high seas. That's odd, because the marine report called for 4-6 foot seas on Monday. Labor Day. A national holiday here in the U.S. One of those holidays where union port workers would have to be paid holiday overtime pay. I have a feeling that the "safety of their passengers and crew" was less a determining factor than their bottom line.

This is a photo of the Music Park that I took while we were waiting for out ship to come in - doesn't that look like a nasty day for sailing? Note the ominous skies and wicked winds.

NCL graciously granted us a "refund" for the two days and two ports that we missed. They decided the best course of action was to apply that credit to our shipboard account. We didn't use the entire credit so now we have to wait 3 weeks or more for a refund. We were told that our pre-paid dive trips in the ports that were skipped would be refunded to our credit card. We were also told they would be credited to our shipboard account and that they would be refunded via check. I am quite sure that if I asked 6 more people I would have six different answers. It is going to take weeks, possibly months to straighten everything out.

We did finally get to dive in Costa Maya and Cozumel. We saw sharks (not the dangerous kind) lots of Lion Fish, my first eel - a huge 5' long green eel, lobster and beautiful tropical fish. The best part of the vacation. Although I have to admit that the beniges at Cafe DuMonde were pretty good too.

Oh, one more thing to share on the list of things I have learned:

#4. If you get sunburned on the first day out wearing a tank suit and all of the evening wear you brought with you has a V neck, you are going to look ridiculous at dinner!

Now I am going to enjoy the rest of National Sewing Month by doing a little sewing. Until Friday, when we have to leave for Quilting Around Chautauqua at the Chautauqua Institute in Chautauqua, New York. Are you going to be there? Stop by and say "hello". I am giving a lecture on Sunday Morning and my husband and I will be manning a booth in the ballroom of the Anthenaeum Hotel. It is a fun weekend and well worth the trip!

Home from Vacation!

Hi Everyone, I'm home!

We had a great vacation last week! I think that it would have been impossible not to. The weather was perfect, the travel was relaxing and the company couldn't have been better. This ship, the Celebrity Summit was our home, docked in Kings Wharf Bermuda. You can see our room in this photo, up on deck 8 mid ship, two floors above the lifeboats.

This is the view from the balcony of our cabin looking out over our temporary backyard! Not bad, not bad at all.

Not that I saw much land in Bermuda. The boat was just a way to get to the island. This trip was all about the scuba diving. It was a dive trip for my husband and myself, just the two of us for an entire week.

I think we spent as much time on a dive boat headed for a wreck or a reef or 40 feet under the water as we did on land.

You might be wondering what possesses a woman of my age to strap on what feels like 100 lbs of equipment, including a weight belt, to make her sink to the bottom of the ocean just too look around. I do it because it is great fun and because my husband LOVES to scuba dive. I also do it because I can, and I know that someday I won't be able to say that.

That is my gear at the back of the boat and that is my husband standing in the middle of the boat watching the island get smaller and smaller. (Martin is the other diver on the right side of the boat and at this point I am praying that he doesn't loose his breakfast all over my gear. Martin was a bit queasy on the boat.)

Before you begin to think that I am a fabulous self-sacrificing wife, I should point out that this photo is of Julio, part of the Dive Crew on the boat. Behind those Ray Bans are some of the most gorgeous eyes Mexico has ever produced. He and his wife travel, island to island, season after season working as crew on dive boats. They have been all around the world. Great life! No 401K, but he didn't seem like he was worried about it at all.

He also has a great personality and really knows his stuff. It is nice to feel comfortable with the people in charge of your air supply!

There are absolutely NO photos of me from this vacation. I made absolutely sure of that. We were at the dive boat at 8:15 each morning after a 20 minute moped ride from the ship. Then I spent 15-30 minutes on the boat getting to the dive site, almost 2 hours on the ocean floor and another 15-30 being whipped around on the boat retuning to shore. Then it was another 20 minutes back to the boat on the moped before I could hit the shower. It gave new meaning to "bad hair" day.

If it OK with you, I will just insert this publicity photo of Jacqueline Bisset from the movie The Deep. I look exactly like this when I dive...

OK, I look nothing like this when I dive. The only thing I have in common with her is that we actually explored the sunken ships that the movie the deep was based on.... and I was cold too.

Now it is back to reality. The Western Pennsylvania Shop Hop starts this week and I have to get busy with my 9 Patch Blocks!