Well, I've left the sunny, 90-plus-degree days of the Caribbean and Mexico and returned to the 40-degree environs of home, complete with wind and rain, dead leaves in the yard, and not a cabin steward ready to serve coffee anywhere in sight. Blast!
Great cruise, considering it was my first. We were on the Carnival Pride, which is brand new, slightly huge, and immaculately kept. Did some snorkeling among the coral reefs of Key West (which were truly breathtaking), hung out for a day in Cozumel, Mexico, smoking Cuban cigars (which are mostly overrated; I've had better domestic ones for a quarter of the price), and half-successfully stopped the missus from buying every pointless nick-nack in Belize and Mexico. Great food and drink throughout, some great stage shows on board the ship, and a great storm at sea last Sunday night, which was spectacular and exciting, especially from out on our balcony, completely exposed to the elements.
The only downside was the damned Casino, which was kind to me the first two nights, then merciless thereafter. In the end, lost about a hundred bucks, which was small change compared to some of the folks we knew. Saw a couple of people win over $10K, but sadly I was not among them, heh heh. I made a couple of bucks back playing nickel-ante poker with some of our friends.
Was able to check email on board the ship, but could not log in to the DS board, due to the browser and/or network they were using.
No opportunity to write, as you might imagine. I've got an article to write this week for a magazine, but once done, I'll attempt to get right back into
LABYRINTH, which I hope people have enjoyed to this point.
It's good to be home, if only to get attacked by four attention-starved wildcats, who managed to mangle quite a few of the house's fixtures while we were gone. Our daughter came in to take care of them, but the cats apparently wanted to let us know that leaving for a week is not wholly convenient for them.
