I watched the Fight

I just watched Saturday's Klitschko fight. Four knockdowns in five rounds culminating in a definitive KO. What an underrated, powerful left hook. As the commentator said of his opponent: "it wasn't a case of the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak; the spirit was willing, but the flesh was concussed." #mancrush #greatness

The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Just finished watching "The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." Apparently there are two types of Marvel movies. The good ones . . . and this one.

Sad

I think it's a bit telling that I spend my first day off each week obsessing about how much I dread going back to work. Kinda ruins the mood.

My Kids :)

The kids at embarkation

Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B

Just finished watching "Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B". It's not anywhere near as bad as social media indicates; it was actually pretty entertaining.

Day Three

Day Three at WDW was the best day we had. Animal Kingdom is my favorite Disney park and I could spend all day there, but we also hit Hollywood Studios and returned to Magic Kingdom in one epic day that was fun from start to finish. 

Likewise, Day Three of the cruise was the best day, by far. 

After another morning buffet at Cabanas (just a bowl of oatmeal for me, thanks), we headed off the ship and onto Castaway Cay, the Bahaman island Disney leases for its exclusive use.  

Gorgeous weather. Gorgeous views. Gorgeous beaches. Wow. 

It was a decent walk from the ship to the beach, with Lauren and Parker stopping to take a pic with a picture of Frozen’s Olaf. Aside from that, there was no messing around: we found a set of beach chairs in the shade, tossed down our stuff, and headed out to sample the Atlantic Ocean. 

This was a BIG thing for me. I was 32 years old before I swam in the ocean, and here my oldest two were doing it for the second time. We all waded in, although Lauren took some convincing on account of a media inspired fear of sharks. We all swam and horsed around for quite a few minutes, and it was a blast. 

Then, while Lisa chilled on the lounge chair, Grace swam, and Lauren 

occupied herself with making sand castles, I took the Centerpieces to claim the activity packages we bought . First up were some intertubes, then four sets of snorkeling equipment. (why the odd number? I don’t recall the reason, but there was one). The package also included bike rentals, but those would wait until later. 

We dropped the intertubes off by the lounge chairs and headed to the snorkeling lagoon to try out the equipment. It was the first time I’d ever done it – the first time for OJ and PD too, I believe – and it took some getting used to. To my regret I’m not the strongest swimmer, so we stayed only within in the lagoon itself, but I got a chance to see underwater vegetation and some fish :)

OJ acted a bit like the fool by freaking out whenever she saw or heard of a fish coming near. At one point Parker and I were a good fifty feet past her when I told him “Don’t tell Lu about the fish we just saw.”  

“What did you say?” she yelled at us. 

“I said, I hope they serve a good dish for lunch,” I said. 

“Oh, okay,” she said. 

Parker and I looked at each other and laughed. “I can’t believe she bought that,” I told him. 

After their curiosity exceeded my swimming ability we retreated from the lagoon and Lisa joined them on the intertubes – one of which wound up drifting away to sea! – while I chilled for a bit. We had a few, very brief rain bursts (I’m talking 20 seconds each, tops), and it was my dire responsibility to make sure . . .well, to make sure I was there to watch it rain for twenty seconds. Mainly, I just lounged. 

We took a break for lunch at the island buffet, dining outdoors on a picnic table. Ala 2006, the buffet featured mahi mahi and I tore it up. Olivia took an interest in it and tried a bite, then devoured one of her own. “This is delightful,” she said. Until we mentioned it, she had no idea she was eating fish. I’m glad I have another seafood fan in the making!

Note the picture of the “perfect ice cream cone”. Olivia demanded the picture, citing her “awesome” ability. Take no note of it; her next cone looked like poop LOL

After lunch the little ones wanted to go to The Club – temporarily moved to the island – and that’s where they spent the rest of the afternoon. Meanwhile Lisa took the two older girls out snorkeling. While they were in the water I walked across the island, checked out the bike rentals, then walked back and waited for them. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

Lisa is 1000x the swimmer I am, and she took the girls out as far as was allowed by Disney – I think it’s more than half a mile, past the rocks; they looked like little wine corks in the distance– then around the perimeter of the beaches and back again. 

Meanwhile I read. I lounged. I took selfies. I read some more. I napped. I took more selfies. 

They finally came out of the water a little shy of three o’clock, having seen a bunch of underwater wildlife, including a stingray that scared the heck out of them, and many items Disney had placed on the ocean floor for their viewing. The disposable underwater camera worked like a charm, and they took some great shots. 

Lisa, for her part, said it was the most thrilling experience of her life. 

You had to be back aboard the ship by five, so there wasn’t a whole lot of time to cross the island, get the bikes, enjoy them and get back on time, but Olivia and I were up for it. Lisa and Grace returned to the ship to get ready for dinner. 

Lu and I rented the bikes and headed out for a nice ride. I hadn’t been on a bike since mine was stolen in 2012, and boy oh boy did it remind me of how much I miss it! We biked down the marked trail, and then down a mile or so along a big loop, at the top of which was a large observation tower. I joked with Lu that I found it horrible that the reward for biking a mile uphill was then climbing four flights of stairs to the top of a tower! But the view was great, and it was a nice moment for Olivia and I. The tower was the end of the route the booth had marked out for me (I hadn’t expected to be up for any more than that) but I was feeling fine so Lu and I continued down the road for another twenty minutes before turning back. 

I would DEFINITELY purchase that activity package again (snorkel/tube/bike). What a great day!

Now, by the time Lu and I got to The Club to retrieve PD and LK the club had closed, and they were huddled outside with a Disney castmember. After some apologies for being tardy we hiked over to the tram station and rode it back to the ship. 

We still had a long evening ahead of us, for it was Pirates Night aboard the Disney Dream!

Two Exams

Two exams yesterday, one of which was a surprise, upgraded assessment. I think I did well on them both.

A Visit from Mindy

Mindy and Isaiah are over for dinner. Lisa made sloppy joes and wonderful homemade fries, and I ate far far too much.

Isaiah and I had dinner at  [Team Slap's] house 🏠 I had such a great time and always love seeing the kids... Especially my God daughter [LuLu] who is growing WAY TO FAST! times like today remind me of when I was younger and practically spending the summer with Dan and Lisa n helping n playing with the kids... I miss it...😩 I know its Friday, but today was my throw bak Thursday lol...😊😃

A Great Day Aboard

One of the reasons for haste while shopping was that I had a 4:30PM appointment at the golf simulator on the ship. It was my first time using one, and I stunk up the joint. Not *all* of it was my fault – no one told me that putting was useless on such a machine because it fails to register the motion, so I racked up a zillion strokes on the greens at Pebble Beach – but, yeah, mostly I sucked. 

It was fun though :)

Then it was back to the stateroom to shower and change for dinner. On our first cruise dinner required dress attire, a restriction that had been relaxed in the years since. We abhorred that change, even as we ourselves attended at least once in shorts, because part of the fun of the cruise was acting like you were fancier than your measly station in life. 

On the second day from port (Day Five by this tale’s reckoning) diners were encouraged to dress their best, and so I put on my shirt and tie and the kids and Lisa tidied up as well. Some of the kids whined that we would look out of place, and sure enough, some people still showed up in shorts, but oh well - I’m glad we dressed up. 

Dinner was marvelous. As always dinner was a four course affair. I wish I had a copy of the menu, but I know I had some marvelous roast duck, and a soufflé for desert that was so decadent, so wonderful, so undeniably heavenly that I do not hesitate to say that eating it may be the most pleasurable thing I have ever done, and by itself a justification for enduring forty years on this Earth. 

That said, not everyone could hang with the “fancy” food. LuLu by this night had already opted out and ordered off the kids menu. Grace kept trying but often couldn’t pull the trigger and actually *eat* the food – I ate half her escargot, and the rest went untouched. At least she tried. 

During dinner professional photographers came by to record the moment, and Tony and Jupa, our servers, made the kids origami animals. 

Afterwards it was back to the club for Smiley (the kid wanted to spend every spare waking moment there) and YaYa, despite her long standing wish to see Hades host the show that night, had some pressing engagement at The Edge and backed out. Lu went to The Edge too, but eventually returned to the room to read and chill. 

Only Junie remained with us to see “Villians!”, hosted, as I mentioned by Hades from Hercules. It tells the tale of Hades as he struggles to prove to the Fates that he’s just as evil as ever. 

Afterwards we took her to have her autograph book signed by Princess Tiana, and she got the chance to dance with Goofy in the atrium!

With a big day ahead the next day, I think we were all in the staterooms and asleep by midnight.