A Day At Sea

Another day, another blog post. Today is Tuesday. I know this because there’s a nifty little panel in the elevators that gets changed on a daily basis. So when you board the elevator in your idyllic vacation stupor you can look down and say, “Oh, wow, it’s Tuesday. Fascinating.” And then you can go on with your blissful fantasy world. Today we spent the day at sea. The pace was definitely slower than our other days so far, but we were still fairly busy. We went to lectures, cake demonstrations, played family Bingo, visited the dining room several times (some of us more than others), wandered around, explored, etc. etc.

At two o’clock we headed to the pool to watch the International Men’s Belly Flop competition. We were originally hoping that Max or Mike would compete, but it was for adults only. (What am I insinuating about Mike, you might ask. Oh nothing, absolutely nothing). The belly flop contest was just as ridiculous as it sounds. There were six competitors in various sizes. There was one guy in the 100-150 pound category, two in the 150-200 pound category, one in the 200-250 category, and one guy weighing in at 275. Okay that makes five guys, but some of us here contributing to the blog are convinced there were six. All of the competitors volunteered except for one, who was pulled out of the audience on account of his big belly. This of course made me a little uncomfortable, but the guy was out there without a shirt on, so maybe he wasn’t uncomfortable with his size. Anyway, he was a good sport.

The guys who wanted to be part of the competition were hamming it up when it was their turn. The DJ played a different song for each guy. They all had signature dance moves , the guys from Spain looked like they had plenty of clubbing experience, the dude from Serbia, well, he had a few 80s moves, our larger friend (the one who didn’t volunteer gave a few fist pumps), and the guy from The Canary Islands was the biggest ham of all. This fellow took his first dive wearing a ball cap and had two straws hanging out of his mouth. He was nicknamed the Walrus. On his second round he took his swim trunks off to reveal a teeny-tiny speedo. He then wore his swim trunks on his head.  The mental image is unfortunately burned into my brain, possibly forever.

 So we, the audience, would count down from three and then yell “FLOP”. And so it went.  The goal in the first round was for the biggest splash. In the second round the goal was both a big splash and a red belly. There were only two rounds total. There were some decent splashes and I am guessing some red bellies, it was hard to see for sure. To score the flops, we would hold up fingers 1-5. The cruise director and his assistant would then make up some random score supposedly based on the audience’s opinion. In the end the speedo wearing Walrus won. So yes, I just spent 400 words describing a Belly Flopping contest. It’s called vacation people. Don’t judge me.

We did a lot of stair racing today. It’s a little friendly competition that the kids came up with on the first day. So if Mike and/or I were going to take the elevator the kids would take the stairs and see who got there first. This game evolved into no one taking the elevator, which is fine by me, and everyone racing to see who got to the destination first. This is not so bad on the downstairs occasions, but the upstairs is a little painful. Today we did A LOT of stair racing.  I know some of you already know this about me, but many of you don’t, so here it is…when I race or play tag, I get the giggles, I have no idea why. I’m not a sprinter any way and so I am not counting on winning such things-ever-but to make matters worse I am slowed down by my uncontrollable burst of giggles. Tee-hee-hee. My children are very generous, as you know, so they have taken to given me head starts. As in “Mom, go ahead down to floor nine and start from there; we’ll start here at floor ten [and still beat you].” This leaves me by myself, a grown woman, running down a stair case, laughing to myself as I go. I try not to make eye contact with the other passengers hoping they won’t recognize me later. “Hey, aren’t you crazy stair lady?” “Me, oh no, you must be mistaken. I always use the elevator. By the way it’s Tuesday. Isn’t that fascinating?”

Tonight was formal dress for dinner on the ship. We got all gussied up. Mike even rented a tux. Mike and Madison got an opportunity to meet the Captain. Max and I weren’t able to, but there’s still plenty of trip left. We have only eaten in the dining room a few times and we sit with the same family every night. (assigned seats, did they do that on the Love Boat-I can’t recall). There is also another couple assigned to our table, but tonight was the first night we actually met them. Like us, they have only dined in the dining room sporadically. They are a really great couple from Germany. It was nice to chat with them. After dinner we went to a show, which wasn’t really our type of music, but very good nonetheless.

As is tradition, we are now all gathered in bed, I am typing, Max is contributing and Mike is (shocker) sleeping. Maddee has actually dozed off, too. I guess this hasn’t been the most riveting blog. People are falling asleep left and right. Hey, woh, wait. Is that snoring I hear from out there in cyberspace? Looks like you’re sleeping, too. Sheesh.  No t to worry, though, tomorrow we will jazz things up as we report on Venice.