I still wear a watch so I can get to meals on time

Seven fifteen AM – Thursday?

I am sitting on the balcony of our stateroom which is currently facing due west. There is a nice little squall blowing past, and I am attending the birth of a magnificent double rainbow which appears to have its feet in the ocean about ten yards away from the ship. Both arcs are perfect half-circles, the colors in the top arc mirroring the bottom arc. Stunning! Just stunning! God does nice work.

Dinner last night was – well – you know how it is when you have been eating really healthy and you begin to develop a craving for something else? I was getting hungry for beef. And since we missed lunch, I was hungry enough to devour stale soda crackers just to take the edge off. For dinner, I got a big chunk of beef (fillet mignon) tender and flavorful, and perfectly, perfectly rare. The outside was seared and the center was still chill. It’s what they call, “blue rare,” and almost impossible to get. I was in hog heaven!!

Later: Today is (sob) Friday, December 14, 2007, and we have only one more day of cruising to go. A day at sea, which I intend to enjoy to the fullest. I am going to ride the big water slide, wallow in the sunshine, and eat self-serve frozen yogurt till my tongue is numb!

Today, Friday, DH and I took separate tours. He went and rode the ATVs around the inland part of the island. I went swimming with the stingrays. It was SO COOL!! They feel like oiled suede, and they rub up against you, begging for squid. They hang out at a sandbar that is between four and five feet deep, and when they hear the boats coming in, they all flock around because they know that we come bearing squid. I got a picture of me holding one in my arms (They have a couple of pets – trained stunt squid that are especially tame and will pose with tourists for extra rations of squid.) There was feeding frenzy for a while as timid tourists tentatively held out dead squidlets, and the stingrays SUCKED it out of their hands. I can now say that I have been run over by a stingray and have a small stingray hickey on a foot which evidently seemed squidish to a famished ray.

After the squid ran out, the rays wandered off, and we spread out to enjoy snorkeling over the bit of reef inside the safety fence. I found a sea cucumber, dove down and picked it up, and freaked out a nice German man who had never seen anything like it. I had such a grand time! Finally, as I was floating along with the swells, watching the fish darting over the coral, I heard a piercing whistle and looked up to see that I was the only person still in the water, and everyone else was sitting in the boats, waiting to go home. Ooops.

The place where the boats docked had a nice little snack bar, two big cages with three monkeys in one (Momma, Daddy and baby. Baby monkey made me homesick for Ben and Peper) and dozens of caged birds. There were parrots and macaws and cockatiels. I was standing and talking to a cockatiel who was calling “Hello” in the sweetest voice, and I was resting my had against the wire of the neighboring cage which I thought was empty. “Hello” cooed the cockatiel, bobbing and dancing prettily, and suddenly, YOWZER! Something BIT me! There was a small green parrot with an orange beak and an evil gleam in his eye, glaring his personal hatered at me, and the cockatiel was laughing! Well, at least I have a souvienier from Antigua that cost me nothing and will be with me for weeks. That feathered son of a bitch drew blood!

Our bus driver was named Romeo. “Romeo by name, but not by nature,” he said. I was sitting in the front seat, and notice that nearly every block he was smiling and waving at another woman. His phone rang five times while he was driving, and he would answer, “Hello? Oh sweetheart! I been wantin’ to talk to you! But I’m workin’ now. I’ll call you back later, Darlin’. As we were headed back to the port, and he waved at yet another woman I said, “I think you are Romeo by nature.” “Oh no,” he said, in his beautiful musical accent. “She just my cousin.” “You seem to have quite a large and affectionate family,” I remarked, and the tour guide laughed until she had tears in her eyes. “She got your number, Romeo. She sees you!”

Christmas carols played on steel drums, warm breezes and sunshine – oh, I am not ready to leave this.

Last night, in the wee hours, for some reason unknown to us tourists, the ship slowly heeled over about thirty degrees to port, then slowly righted itself. All the stuff on our counters slid around, and some of it fell to the floor. I slept through it all. DH tells me that there was a woman on his tour who remarked that she had heard that the ship had rolled in the night, but it hadn’t happened in her cabin. So all the ship, except for her cabin was affected. Wow, she must be really special! Bet she’s one of those folks who wonder if the staff sleeps on board.