Arrival in Barbados

Finally, a day at sea so I can catch up on writing and give you a little update about the trip so far.

When I left KC last Sat early morning, it was snowing and they had to de-ice the plane a couple of times before takeoff.....wow, does that ever feel like a lifetime ago! I flew to Phoenix and met up with Dez and then we flew to Houston and on to Miami, where we waited for his family to arrive from CA.

(OK, have to take a break and go see flying fish at the front of the ship)

Saw one, but it was quick and I thought it was a bird at first (hence the name "flying" fish). Apparently, the wake created by the ship scares the fish and they fly out of the water for quite a distance.....maybe see more later.

Back to arrival....great to meet Dez's parents and sister Janet and her husband, Brad. Waited in Miami to board our final flight to Barbados and took off around 2 in the morning. Unfortunately, this flight crew was all about serving breakfast and coffee with all the lights on, rather than creating a quiet and dark environment to sleep. I dozed a bit, but then we ended up doing crossword puzzels at 4am! The desire to see some of Barbados on Sunday, before the ship set sail, quickly vanished as we were so sleep-deprived the main objective became finding a place to lie down. After trying to sleep sitting up for over 24 hours, it is amazing how restorative it is just to stretch out horizontally and sleep...an otherwise simple pleasure for such great satisfaction.

The ship is relatively small and the crew is extraordinarily nice and very accessible. The six of us eat dinner together at the same table each night (there's a lot of eating going on around here, so thankfully we do a lot of walking at port!) I'm still learning my way around the ship and get disoriented from time to time about which direction to go. Our cabin is small as you might imagine, but very sweet and we have an outside room, so we have windows which we love as we'll be onboard so long. Aliza, we hung the beaded peacock scarf on the wall for decoration. I think I brought too much stuff, but who knows, may feel different in 38 days.

As I sit here to write, I am struck by the juxtaposition of the decorated Christmas tree next to the palm tree, with the open sea out the window. You warm-weather-coastal dears probably don't find that unusual, but not so typical in the midwest.

That's about it for ship orientation....sorry nothing more to report on Barbados, but what I remember of the bus ride from the airport to the ship was nice. We awoke to the sounds of the engines being fired up for departure around 1:30am and our voyage truly began. An entry on Grenada follows.....Love, Pam.

Dec 19, 2005

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