First and foremost I must apologize for the delay of this post, which was due to a technical glitch in that alcohol consumption does not pair well with anything technical. We arrived in the Port of Los Angeles– the first leg of our journey complete– and surprised to learn that 650 guests were getting off, but another 700 guests were taking their places. We thru-cruisers need to learn and remember all these new names and faces…. bringing light as to why Scott Bornstein was brought onboard for the first leg of our journey (the memory guy).

Port of LA in San Pedro

Our friends who live in LA arrived in style at noon, dressed in large hats and cruise wear, the crew taking notice of both Suzan and Michael, surely wondering if they were our entertainers for the next leg of the cruise. Had they played their cards correctly, they could have remained with us…..

The beauty and bountiful of this ship is that you are immediately served Champagne whenever you board, or awaken for that matter. There is simply no reason needed… “Thank you…. but could you please direct me to the restrooms…”

When Linda arrived we toured the ship and then settled down to a wonderful lunch on the Lido Deck where the more Champagne seemed to evaporate from our glasses…. I will need to discuss this with the sommelier….

After plenty of hugs and kisses we waved goodby to our dear friends and casually made our way (ran) to the Palm Court, located in the upper bow, to see our ship pull away from the pier and watched as San Pedro slipped under a beautiful sunset toward the horizon.

With the start of the second leg ahead of us, we turned in our seats and listened to silky jazz of the lounge wondering what incredible experiences are yet to come.

At 8:00 PM, balloons rained down in the Crystal Lounge to the sounds of the Crystal band and the ship was brought to life by those just joining and those already here.

The picture of our time with the Captain at dinner last night finally arrived today…. it was a lovely evening…

Captain’s Dinner

Time to head south west for the next six days toward the equator and the South Pacific to Nuku Hiva.

For us thru-cruisers, we have completed the first leg (Miami–>LA), a warm up exercise having adjusted to living in 269 sq. + balcony and regulating our daily intake of food and drink… okay… food….okay, neither.

Our clocks have rolled back to Pacific time and we awoke just after sunrise in the Port of San Pedro (LA). More on that later, but here is a recap of yesterday.

The day started as usual in the Bistro for coffee, then up to the Lido Deck for breakfast then down to the Galaxy Lounge for the first of two attended lectures, starting with Bob Ray in his continuing Rock n Roll series covering Tommy James and the Mob. Melissa, if you are reading this, Bob Ray covered Roulette Records and Morris Levy.

The Know Nothings final team appearance

At noon we met in the observation lounge for our final day of Trivia and our team (The Know-Nothings). We faired no better than the other days but had such a high degree of confidence– so who cares. We will miss our teammates who are getting off in LA: Dan, his wife Maria, who was injured in the contact sport of shuffleboard, and her Mom Pat (not in picture). David on the far left and his wife Ann (not in picture) are continuing to Tahiti.

During lunch yesterday, the Captain announced that the USS Nimitz was to starboard, running landings and takeoffs. The Nimitz shadowed us much of the day with the roar of afterburners overhead.

The second lecture of the day was with Scott Bronstein (The memory guy) and we all leaned how to remember faces and names…. this stuff is incredible! “It’s Easy, And I Like It”

Meredith then headed off to Bridge and I met up with another David–a true nuclear Physicist who worked on projects at Los Alamos in NM. We had met David on our snorkeling excursion and I wanted to sit with him to discuss a SciFi treatment I had started, called HUM, coincidentally about a nuclear physicist from Los Alamos trying to prevent an alien invasion. We sat for two hours where David brought me up to speed on particle physics, quantum entanglement, electron spin, PSI wave formula, Coherence, etc., (see notes on napkin… aren’t all great novels started on napkin scribble?). I now have everything I need to make my plot plausible to the average reader. This will be a long term relationship and a fun one indeed. Tomorrow, we will be constructing a particle accelerator on the Tiffany deck.

David W. – the Nuke Guy

Notes on quantum entanglement

Which brings us to dinner last night at Nobu, once again for an evening of incredible sushi and ice cold sake….

Umi Uma – Nobu

And what would a day be without a gorgeous sunset…. Although this looks more like David and I with a fission experiment gone wrong……

One would think that a day at sea is time to do nothing but curl up in a chair with a good read and stare out the windows at a passive (Pacific) sea.

The day starts early with us, 7:00 AM, give or take, contemplating all that we have done and how many amazing treats lie ahead. We start at the Bistro Cafe for a cappuccino and head up to the upper deck for breakfast. This morning I had Miso Soup, a first for me in the morning. It was quite delicious, adding all the sides to it such as sticky rice, chives, shaved mushrooms, tofu, sesame oil and a splash of soy. Meredith went more traditional: scrambled eggs and bacon…. my miso was immediately pushed to the side… only kidding….

We attended two spectacular lectures as part of the enrichment program. The first (by Ian MacLachlan) who is an expert in Latin American politics and culture. as well as its geological makeup. This was a continuation from a previous lecture about the political aspects of handing back the Panama Canal to the Panamanians. The 2nd lecture (by Jim Brochu) was about his personal friendship with Lucille Ball. Jim’s lectures are stories of his life as an actor, writer and personal friend to some amazing stars.

Then off to Trivia (our team name, the Know-Nothings) ,and we once again proved just that.

For lunch, the Know-Nothing’s sulked our way to the back deck and quickly forgot about our loss when you can look out at the Pacific and dine on anything and everything delicious.

Then back for the 3rd enrichment program and a lecture by Scott Bornstein on, Mastering Your Memory Power. Scott’s father had founded the company and together they have taught over 2 million people on how to improve one’s memory— and his techniques are mind bending. By the end of the lecture, everyone could remember 15 objects he chose, at random, and recall any and all of them in any order… for life… the technique is a simple association. This has solved a question I have had since college. I had a professor who taught physics and the first day of class he handed out a blank card to each student and told everyone to write their name on it. He collected the cards, studied the student’s face for a brief second, lectured for 45 minutes, then handed each card back to the correct student. I now know that he must have looked at me, said to himself, ‘No hope for this one… Nada……’

After that, meredith and I went our separate ways: she to play bridge and me back to the Bistro for an afternoon coffee and to write by the window, listening to some awesome music on my headphones.

We then met up again at 4:30 for a tour of the main kitchen, which is incomprehensible to describe but now obvious why these have been some of the best meals of our life.

Then for a little of PT, we walked the deck for 20 minutes to enjoy the enjoy salt air. By the way, the windiest part of a ship appears to be the starboard bow. I have noticed this on our last cruise as I did this one.

Tonight we will attend a show, then off to a black tie event as a guest of the Captain in one of the specialty restaurants, Prego, for dinner.

Then a nightcap in the upper bow of the ship with a quartet playing as we recap what a wonderful day is was.

Here we are, two weeks into this amazing voyage with perfect weather this morning for our snorkeling excursion along the Sea of Cortez. With just a handful of us we were treated to some calm waters, lots of sea life grazing along the coral reefs, kayaking, paddle boarding and underwater sea scooters ushering us along. Then, when we thought it could not get any better, our guide and captain treated us to a spur of the moment whale spotting adventure, where we followed alongside, at a respectful distance, a mother and calf traveling northward. What a treat. What a day. What a cruise.

There is an odd phenomenon aboard this ship when I try to navigate back to our cabin after attending a show, a lecture, a lunch, a dinner, or an evening at a bar. Just when I think I know exactly where an elevator or stairwell will place me, I end up in front of cabin # 9120… when our cabin is 9034– all the way at the other end of the ship.

It’s like that movie, “Being John Malkovich,” where you enter a portal into the mind of John Malkovich and get spit out into a ditch along the New Jersey Turnpike, every time!

I know… you hear the word buffet on a cruise ship and you immediately think hordes of people coughing on plexiglass …. LOL… At least I do….. I’m not a big fan of buffets.

However, from my understanding, Crystal only does this now and then to showcase the pure artistry of their craft. Under the direction of Executive Chef, Frank Weiss, each head chef of their area goes all out to showcase their art of taste and presentation. The kitchen staff and servers are unmatched in their service of excellence and I rank a couple of their specialty dining venues in addition to their main dining room (Waterside) as some of the finest dining experiences we have had in all the years we lived in NYC.

Rest assured that nothing goes to waste, everything is shared among the guests and staff. Trust me… there will be not a crumb to be had.

Starting off at Nobu, then one incredible show of piano, then onto a white dress party in the main lounge…. well… it’s exhausting… but someone has to do it. it’s like our cabin neighbors said…. “Its like being Michael Bloomberg at Nobu in NYC….. you can have anything and as much as everything you like…. and we did.

We pulled in at dawn to this lovely Bahía and the town of Huatulco, Mexico, which is a planned town for tourism and consists mostly of Canada tourists. Now you may wonder why I specified “Canada” and not Canadian. I did that for the geese! LOL. This town was started 34 years ago.

We had a rafting excursion along Copalita river’s last 5 miles where it empties into the Pacific (on an awesome surfing beach). Copalita means, ‘place of the Copal’. Sap from the Copal Tree is made into an incense used in religious ceremony, and oddly, you cannot readily find it in town because the town is too new and no one here practices the ceremony of rooted religious culture. My understanding is that the fragrance is quite lovely. So I settled for a tee-shirt.

And so ends our time here—one more beautiful sunset. Tomorrow is a sea day, then onto Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Waiting for the sun to set over the Pacific, somewhere along the coast of Central America.

This city has advanced faster in the past 25 years than it had since Captain Morgan set foot on the shores over, with 500 of his pirate friends, 350 years ago. This view is from the old city built and destroyed, twice, before it was moved to its present location, further out on the barrier island.