"Hence! Home, you idle creatures, get you home!" (Julius Caesar)

We sailed the ocean blue, and our saucy ship was a beauty. (Courtesy G&S).. This ship, the Emerald Princess was three football fields long, and consequently caused me many, many painful walks from the bow to the stern, and from the stern to the bow. Could have used one of those scooter thingies...as I saw several of them scooting around the decks. We left Ft. Lauderdale on Dec. 6 and after two days at sea, we docked at Aruba. I didn't go ashore, but Rhoda did. Then on to Bonaire, Grenada, Dominica, St. Thomas and a private island. We got off the ship in Bonaire whose claim to fame is thousands of Flamingos and the production of salt. We were on a bus tour around the island which was lush with a rain forest and very mountainous...but we did see wild Flamingos in the various lakes. When they are first born, they are white, and later when they are barmitzvahed they are grey. And when they leave home, they are pink. As far as salt is concerned I saw something I've never seen before...pink lakes...and I do mean pink. Apparently, the color is caused by the quantity of salt. They were beautiful. All lakes should be pink from now on. So between the Flamingos and the salt lakes, Bonaire is what I call the "Pink Place".

In Grenada, another island paradise...except for the bumpy roads and driving on the wrong side...we took another bus ride--this time for 3 1/2 hours and all we saw were different kinds of flora and fauna. I couldn't wait to get off the bus and back to the ship. And the first bus we got on had to go back to the terminal for a different bus because the A/C konked out. So, the tour started an hour late. When we got back to the ship, it was dark and time for dinner. The company was very pleasurable because we sat at a table with four other couples from Huntington Lakes who were good friends of ours. The food was very European and I could barely find a dish I liked, so for 3 nites in a row I had fettuccine Alfredo. And as Robin would say--Oy Vey.

Our next port was Dominica, and since from the ship to the town was a very long walk on a bumpy wooden pier, I opted not to go. But RH wanted to walk to town. She never got there because she tripped over one of the wooden pier planks and split her chin wide open and colored the pier crimson with her gushing blood. Fortunately, people were very helpful. One lady had a towel and covered Rho's chin with it while someone summoned the medics from the ship. A South African doctor then had to put four stitches in her chin. Yesterday she went to our own doctor who took out the stitches and discovered that her wound was infected so he put her on anti-biotics.

All in all, we did have a very good time. The shows each nite were very professional and entertaining. The Pina Coladas were excellent. The ship's crew was extremely helpful and friendly. The Casino was very relaxing, fun, and costly. There were very few activities that were geared toward seniors and the ship was much too big for me to get from one place to another, and from one deck to another without pain. So--smaller ships from now on.