Somewhere in the Northern Pacific Ocean

We are on our 4th sea day, sailing in the Bering Straits, heading towards the Aleutian Islands. Our first night at sea was very rough and continued rough seas thru the first sea day. Brian was fine and I was uncomfortable, but not really sick. As long as I kept somewhat busy, I did not have to think about being miserable…lol! Brian, of course went to all 3 meals but I only managed dinner and then only had a baked potato. Thank God the seas have been calm for the last two days, but they are expecting stormy weather once again tomorrow.
Brian and I have been exploring all the ship board activities and I am happy to say that there is very little down time… They have sports activities from 10am in the morning, so I am actually up and almost awake for those. We have participated in Wii tennis & bowling, ring toss, bean bag toss, ping pong, & shuffle board. There are usually 3 of these sporting events per day, so you can see we are very athletic and should be in great shape when we return…lol! I have won a couple of these events so have started a great “crappy” prize collection… But like I always say, “it’s not the prize that matters; it’s the winning that counts!”
And speaking of winning, I have done a bit of that in the casino. There is Texas Hold ‘Em/poker and I won the tournament the other day. Then last night I tripled my money at 3 card poker and today won a Black Jack tourney. Not big bucks and it certainly won’t pay for the cruise, but I refer you back to what I always say…lol! Brian has made friends with all the casino staff, bribing them with chocolates and other goodies. The pit boss keeps trying to buy us drinks as repayment, but so far we have not accepted – I will soon tho…hehe B has been feeding the slots, “washing Georges” & not really won but not really down either.
Since I finally felt better today, I managed to walk a mile this morning and worked out in the gym this afternoon. I did a stretch class then used the machines to lift weights, and finally did sit-ups. Since I have not been to the gym the past two weeks at home, I only managed 10 reps and 50 sit-ups. Will have to build that back up again.
The Amsterdam ship is very nice and easily traversed. Most of the activities are on the 5th floor: the casino, the library, the coffee bar, the Ocean bar and the dining room. Our room is on the 2nd floor towards the back, not quite midship. Above us on the 8th floor is the buffet and the pool/Jacuzzis and the 9th is the spa/gym. There are probably 20 folks we know from our pervious cruise on HAL around Africa in 2008. The ship has about 1100 passengers total and we have made friends so far with about 100, only a thousand more to go. Of course I have managed to annoy a few at the poker table already, lol!, but I am not the only stickler at the table…hehe There is only 1 trivia game each day and the cruise director, Bruce, runs it. It is called Bruce’s Brainbusters and it somewhat hard. There are 16 questions and the best we have done is 8 correct. Some of my teammates are discouraged and grumble that it is too hard, but I like it and enjoy the camaraderie and competition. We will eventually get more correct as I think we are up to the challenge. We have also played Taboo and Scattergories with better success.
We had our first formal night last night and it was lovely. The Captain’s Welcome party was nice as anytime you can get a free drink it is great. Most everyone looked elegant and appropriately dressed. Of course you always get the guys who only wears t-shirts, wearing a guava shirt and thinking that is formal or the lady that puts on a shiny sh*t top with sweats and says she is dressed up to make a formal evening interesting. Brian & I wore our purple outfits last night and we looked marvelous… As we hate ship photos, I do not have proof of this but will soon. I had rack of lamb and B had a steak. I am making an attempt to eat beef only once a week and so far have been succeeding in this effort. I am hoping you all will keep me accountable as I know you read this and I can post my efforts.
We will arrive in Russia soon and I will post again then. Happy Sailings

Seattle

23 September 2010
Greetings Blogger Followers:
Well we have spent a week in Seattle and truly enjoyed ourselves. I believe this is the first time Brian or I have spent any time in this city. Exploring the downtown is a lot like walking around San Francisco – hilly, interesting architecture, and even more interesting people. Pike’s Place Market has a somewhat foreign flavor to it as folks of all nationalities mingle together enjoying the sites and sounds. We watched the famous, flying fish – where the fish mongers tossed fish back to be filleted and packaged for purchase; listened to a variety of bands/singers as there was a buskers festival; watched a magician and a silver mannequin/statue perform; and ate a great breakfast, drank a coffee and enjoyed clam chowder. Seattle is a fun city with but a few drawbacks – the weather for one, as it was rainy 60% of the time; parking is outrageous costing UPWARDS from $8; and although the food/lodging is good it is not cheap either. A coffee & a donut cost at least $5 and that’s not even Starbuck’s…lol!
We had a marvelous time with our Canadian friends, Ginny & Chris. Our first meal together was a Brazilian chorizo, where they bring all kinds of meat to your table and cut it right off the skewer. I enjoyed the buffalo and the pineapple the best-they also had wild boar, but we did not try it. B filled up on tri-tip, pork and sirloin. All of it was tasty, but it was the company that was the best.
Others days, Brian did some georging: entering bills and spending bills in new Washington zip codes. We went to a mini-gathering where we met up with some fellow georgers-we will also have breakfast with Tim tomorrow morning…
I met up with Bonnie and Kim at the Tulalip Casino where we enjoyed playing poker together. This casino is beautiful, well laid out & has a great poker room with a high hand jackpot every hour. I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling to WA… It was fun to take a break and walk over to the Outlet Mall, get a little exercise and go back to the casino. We had a good meal and I even got a free dessert, as I was wearing a necklace that the casino had given me indicating it was recently my birthday…
Today we sorted & packed – Brian likes to gift the casino staff on the ship with treats, so he purchased 3 shipping boxes worth of candy, nuts & snacks – it’s a good thing there is no limit to what the porters will take to your stateroom! HA!
We went to see The American, George Clooney’s new movie, but I would not recommend it – was kind of strange…
We embark tomorrow, Friday 24 September, and will depart around 5pm.
I will blog again if a few days… Bon Voyage my friends… GB