It’s exhausting doing nothing

There was a faint knock on the door … room service at 7am.  Before heading to bed last night, Karen read in the “Alaska Cruise Handbook” that said to get up early to watch the scenery.  Once everybody got moving, We headed to the Lido Restaurant to enjoy breakfast.  There was lots of selection from mango pancakes to scrambled eggs to smoked salmon.

Karen saw in the Explorer (daily magazine) that there was a class to create beaded lanyards.  Her and Nana went to that while Papa and I hit the casino.  It was Papa’s first time and he didn’t do too bad.  I put $20 in a quarter machine and I started to play so that I could show Papa what to do.  Between us, we won $50.  I then put Papa on his own machine (penny slots) and had a pretty good run.  He started with $20 and walked away with $7.  We met up with Karen and Nana after their crafting class and headed to the Crow’s Nest which is at the very front of the ship.  The view from here is spectacular.  It is pratically a 360 degree view.  Before lunch, we attended a demonstration on how they make Le Cirque’s lobster salad at the Culinary Arts Centre.  We also got to sample their famous creme brulee.

We decided to have lunch in the Vista dining room.  Once again we were amazed at the great service that we received.  Today’s lunch menu included assorted wedges of melon and pineapple (the girls), minted melon and raspberry soup, baked macaroni (Karen), the Canadian burger (Dorothy) and crabmeat chop-chop salad Nana and Papa).  And for dessert, chocolate ice cream (Karen and Papa), apple pie (Nana) and lime sherbet (Dorothy).

We dropped Nana and Papa back at the room and then headed to the Exploration Lounge/Crow’s Nest where we were able to find a couple of very comfortable chairs with a view.  The chairs were so comfortable that I swear I only closed my eyes for five minutes.  We went back down to our room, put on our winter coats and enjoyed the view from our balconies.  We were so close to land, that you could almost reach out and touch it.  Karen and Nana decided to have a pre-dinner snack so they ordered the assorted cheese platter from room service.

We decided to have dinner at Canaletto which is the Italian restaurant.  From start to finish, the meal was excellent.  The meal started with an antipasti and assorted breads.  For appetizers, we had the minestrone soup (Papa) and insalata Canaletto (the girls).  The mains were chicken marsala scaloppini (the girls) and veal milanese (Papa).  But the best part was the dessert … trio of tiramisu (Nana), strawberry gelato (Papa), mille-feuille of madagascar chocolate (Karen and me) and cotton candy.  Yes, I did say cotton candy.

After dinner, we went to the Vista Lounge where we enjoyed “In Concert” which was tonight’s show.  Papa was getting tired so we went back to the room.

I’m writing this blog entry at 9:30pm in the Crow’s Nest where it’s still daylight.