Cruising is the only way to travel!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 27th:

Standing at the bow of the Carnival Ship Miracle, waiting, watching, listening for the horn, for that first pull away from the dock, I was happy, calm. At peace. Wind blew my hair, sun warmed my skin.

My thoughts were only on one thing initally, "How far I have come from when I was a scared little girl".


May 30th:

About three hours out from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
I have a newfound respect for nature. So many have said it before, we call this planet Earth, but it truly is a planet of water.
It is humbling to stand on the rooms balcony at any time day, or night, and only see the cobalt blue, almost navy, ocean, that travels forever as the eye may see. (Which, I will admit, is not so far with my eyes. But I digress.)
And then, at days break the paler powdered blue sky and white clouds creep up on the sea.

The ocean right now is blue glass. It looks as if it were created by a master glass blowers breath and very being. Tiny white caps spring up as the ship cuts through, leaving tiny etchings through the glass.

At night, blackness without the moon. Reflections only from ship lights tell me that there truly is water around me. And then I look up at the sky, so different from home, stars lighting the heavens like candles on methuzelah's birthday cake. There are too many to count yet I feel like I know all of the individually.

There is a gentleness being on the ship. I get rocked to sleep like a baby in a cradle. It is calming side to side motion that leads me into my dreams.

I like this feeling.

I promised myself I would do all the things I have never done before.

So far I have gotten a full body massage. Once I got over the concept and was comfortable with the female masseur(sp?) I let go and afterwards walked so effortlessly, so lightly. No pill could ever have made my pains go away so well.

The cost was very high monetarily, get this $119. And I definitely got suckered into buying the oils and such that were used. But you know what? For what she did for my spine and neck I would have paid $500.

Needless to say, I made another appt. for after we get back from our excursions on Friday June 1st. Hehehe.


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San Juan is the first place we dock. We, Paula, Andrea, and I, booked a short bus tour of old San Juan and tour of one of the old forts on the island. I had been deliberating what I wanted to buy Mitchell and Andrea gave me a great idea. I will get him some souvenier from the fort. Mitchell loves old war stuff and so I will take lots of pics and see if there is a book or two regarding the fort and San Juan.

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Oh, just an aside. We sit at dinner with three single men. Felix is in his 70's and came on board to sleep. He likes going on cruises to get away from everyone. Bill is in his 50's and an accountant from California. He came on ship to eat and sleep. The third guy is Jose, an IT supervisor in NYC, who is 54. I sat next to him and we got to chatting. He was interesting and fun and it was neat that he too is watching what he is eating.

So, this morning I went up to breakfast around 8:30am and then decided to walk laps around the ship. 4 laps equal a mile. I ended up doing about 5 miles. Jose came out walking at about my mile 3 adn we ended up walking the ship together. We talked and kind of flirted with each other (Another thing I wanted to do on this trip). All in all it was a wonderful morning. I found out he was born in NY but his folks were from Puerto Rico. His mom moved back to San Juan about 5 years ago so he is going to her house for lunch.
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Anyway, back to San Juan, Jose told me that most of the crap sold in San Juan is expensive and not worth wasting my $'s. So, unlesss there is a book about military and the forts I will wait to really shop when we get to St. Thomas.


wait jazzy wants to play