Budding Artist

The Color of Music art contest is an educational project presented by the Jackson Symphony League and sponsored by The Macy's Fund and Aeneas Internet and Telephone. All pictures for this year's competition were inspired by movements from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.

Educators in all West Tennessee school systems grade levels K through 8 are invited to participate. Last year over 9,500 students participated.

My talented, smart, and beautiful niece, Carly, currently a kindergartner at University School of Jackson, was selected to represent her school as a finalist. Her picture was the winner of the 2010 Color of Music Jordan Tang Prelude Award. Here she is pictured with her trophy with super supportive brother, Reed, in the background. Also shown is the award winning picture.

I love her and am so proud of her.

Babymoon Day 6: At Sea (Aborted Half Moon Cay, Bahamas)

We were awakened early on Friday morning by a lot of ship movement and sounds. We needed to get up early anyway to have time for breakfast and take the tender to Half-Moon Cay in time for our date with the stingrays. Just after we got up and started out the door for breakfast, the captain made an announcement that there was a storm in the area with 30-knot winds that made it too dangerous to stay in port. We aborted the port call and headed out for another fun day at sea. While we had breakfast, the ship’s activities coordinators were hurriedly making and distributing new daily schedules.


Our chosen activities for the day included more team trivia (Peter and Dick did not show up, but our team took second place), more Name That Tune (where we took 2nd place to a professional musician of 40 years and where I answered my first question of the cruise to earn the team one additional point), and a very enjoyable lunch with our trivia buddy Alex, his brother Adam, and their aunt. After lunch, we wandered out to the 3rd deck and napped/typed on the trip journal and enjoyed the sun.

I enjoyed a final trip to the spa and did a little packing before dinner. The dinner, while not formal, was a special affair called the Master Chef’s Dinner. The Master Chef set the menu, and the waiters performed very minimally rehearsed dance/serving entertainment as they served each course.

After dinner, we wandered through the photo studio to look at all the pictures we had taken throughout the cruise. None of the shots could compare to the black and white photos Miki produced, but we did find one casual shot that we decided to get. We asked them to print a copy for us in a different size and promised to return after Game Show Mania.

Finally, we had a mission. We needed another bag or small suitcase to pack all the T-shirts, sweatshirts, and other HAL merchandise that Dallas won throughout the cruise. Our suitcases were fairly snugly packed as we started the cruise and were butting up against the airline’s weight limits. We had been very good about avoiding the siren call of the on-board shopping opportunities, but on Friday night we found ourselves on the shopping deck along with every other passenger that didn’t get enough of shopping at all the ports of call. After a successful shopping trip, we headed back to the room to finish packing (Dallas was just starting) before the exciting finale of the cruise, Game Show Mania.

Our evening entertainment was the game show style trivia contest. We arrived plenty early and sat in the front row since Dallas very much wanted to be chosen as a contestant. Since our cruise director (leader of team trivia) and DJ Dave (leader of name that tune) both knew Dallas by name, sight, and talent and since these two men were hosting Game Show Mania, Dallas was the first chosen to play. It soon became clear that Game Show Mania was about having fun, not winning, which was a little difficult for Dallas to stomach at first. Soon after the game started, Dallas became so far ahead on points that he was not allowed to play for several questions and the other contestants were awarded double, and in one case triple, points for any right answer. It was determined that Dallas had no life and must spend all his waking moments watching TV and listening to the radio. There could be no other explanation for his knowing every answer. The game got so muddled with extra points and players not allowed to participate for several rounds that it ended without a clear winner. As planned, fun was had by all.

Since it was after 10:00 and we had yet to finish packing and put our suitcases in the hall for the porters to take away, we headed back to the room. We got packed, including the new duffle bag, and were just about to turn the lights out when I remembered the picture we were supposed to pick up. Dallas “volunteered” to get dressed and run back to the photo studio. Mission accomplished, lights out.


Epilogue: We got up and had a nice leisurely breakfast while we waited for our debarkation time. At the assigned time, we left the ship and found our 2 suitcases in the properly color coded section. We waited in another line to declare our purchases and headed out to board the bus for the airport. As we were sitting on the bus waiting to leave, Dallas got a phone call. Guess what we forgot? That’s right, the new duffle bag with half our clothing. It’s great that the HAL porters were paying attention and that Dallas actually answers his phone regularly. We had an uneventful trip home and made sure we had 3 suitcases before leaving the airport to head home.

Babymoon Day 5: Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Our adventure in St. Thomas started off with a bang! Most people leaving the ship were doing one of two things: going on a HAL sponsored tour or going shopping. There was a well-organized and large group of taxi vehicles and drivers right at the boat dock ready to escort the passengers. The tours tend to be overpriced and overly restricted. Neither of us likes to be herded around very much, so we try to take the tours only when they offer something you couldn’t do on your own (like the snorkeling and stingray adventure in Grand Turk). I found lots of maps and information and an entire walking tour complete with directions and full descriptions of sites in St. Thomas on the internet. So, unlike 90% of the passengers, we didn’t go on a HAL tour or plan to go shopping.


It is important to understand that St. Thomas is basically built on the side of a hill. One of the main tourist attractions is the famous 99 steps that lead up to all the things we wanted to see. The shopping district is at the bottom of the stairs. Since we are both fairly intelligent people with physical considerations (his back, my baby belly), we decided to start at the TOP of the stairs and work our way DOWN. When we told the taxi drivers we wanted to go to the TOP of the 99 stairs, they started bickering and arguing. There was a big power struggle going on. The boss even fired one taxi driver for refusing to take us. Wow! Finally, someone told us to get in a taxi (a minivan) with 4 other people. After all that, the taxi wouldn’t start. So, we got into another vehicle – a pick-up truck with benches welded into the back of the truck and a transmission on its last leg. Finally, we were leaving, and I am certain this taxi driver learned to drive in NYC. Very aggressive driving coupled with the fact that they drive on the left side of the road and the transmission was shot led to quite an adventurous drive up very steep, narrow roads to Blackbeard’s Castle.

We made it! Blackbeard’s Castle was not built by Blackbeard, but legend claims he occupied it for a period of time. The views were fantastic. When we got there, we learned that the area was called Blackbeard’s Complex. They had their very own rum making facilities and provided tours and tastings. There were also 3 historic homes along the tour. One of the docents was a very traditional St. Thomas resident who was very angry about the way American women treat their men. She doesn’t think we show nearly enough respect. She started shouting at us (and the other tourists) when we entered the house and didn’t stop yelling at us until we were out of sight down the hill. The other docents (and most of the other shop owners and customer service people we encountered) were from the American mainland and were very pleasant. The tour also included the Hotel 1829 and the famous Amber Museum. Because we were criss-crossing down the hill through the houses, etc., we only went down part of the 99 stairs. Dallas felt like he was missing out, so he walked all the way down the stairs and back up to meet me. He counted 105 stairs.

The last stop on our planned walking tour was another fort. When we got there (in March of 2010), the fort was closed for construction. The St. Thomas website noted that the fort was closing in 2005 for repairs and would be closed for about 18 months. A local fireman told us that the fort had, in fact, closed down in 2005. That is government efficiency at its best!

We hit the shopping district for lunch. Unlike San Juan where the shopping consisted of upscale outlet stores like Polo, Coach, Armani, and others, the shopping in San Juan was street upon street of jewelry, electronics and t-shirt/tourist stores. I can’t imagine that there are enough people on the cruise ships to keep that many jewelry stores in business! The whole area consisted of rows of buildings full of these shops with narrow little alleys in between. In one of those little alleys, we stopped for lunch at Calico Jack’s. As we were leaving Calico Jack’s and walking down the alley, we saw 4 or 5 huge iguana’s hanging out on the wall – in the middle of all the shopping. They were 1-2 feet long. Dallas, of course, wanted to get up close and friendly with these monsters. Fortunately, one of the locals warned him that they could be quite dangerous. A few of the local restaurants dump their lettuce and other scraps out, and these iguanas just live there and eat for free.

Fortified by lunch, we started searching for the one t-shirt store we were interested in finding – Harley Davidson. We saw the signs and walked up and down and around the building where it should be. We finally asked for directions and learned that it was closed. How can a Harley t-shirt shop not stay in business when all 4 gazillion jewelry stores were thriving? We decided to call it a day and risk our necks in the taxis to get back to the ship.

After checking the scheduled activities for the evening, Dallas discovered a new favorite on-board activity…team trivia! He headed to the Explorations Café, but I chose to relax my sore back in the spa. Dallas joined me soon thereafter in the thermal pool excited to have won (is anyone surprised???) team trivia with the assistance of his new trivia buddies Peter and Dick. We were only halfway through the cruise, and Dallas owned pretty much the entire HAL logo clothing line given as contest prizes.

We arrived for our scheduled appointment with Miki, the black and white photographer, determined to purchase one picture. As much as we loved these photos, we couldn’t justify purchasing a ton of photos with our family not quite complete. We started with our top 34 favorites and narrowed those down to 5. We couldn’t agree on our favorites and the photographer made us a great deal on 5 pictures, so we got them all.
We had an early dinner on the Lido deck. Dallas went to the gym, and I went back to the spa to relax on the thermal loungers. We also attended the superstar Karaoke competition (apparently we missed the prelim rounds earlier in the week). The contestants ranged from exceedingly bad to exceptionally good. The “judges” became more obnoxious as the show progressed. Finally, we went back to the theatre to watch “Up in the Air,” but it was standing room only. Dallas was able to snag a bag of popcorn before we headed to bed.

Babymoon Day 4: San Juan, Puerto Rico

We had a leisurely morning on the ship because we didn’t dock in San Juan until 1:00. We got up for breakfast, because after all, you can’t possibly miss a meal on a cruise ship, and I’m eating for two! After breakfast Dallas headed up to Explorations Café for some internet time, and I went to the spa to rest on the heated loungers.


Because we were arriving in port during the middle of the day, the crew allowed passengers access to the front decks of the ship to watch the arrival. It was a spectacularly lovely day. Our tour guide on the ship gave us all a history lesson and facts and details about the port. I took tons of pictures of Del Morro, the 200 year old fort that was critical to protecting Port San Juan from the danger of approaching enemy ships. I also learned that there were free trolleys traveling around Old San Juan and a brand new CVS just a few blocks from the cruise dock!

Armed with all the knowledge learned from my time spent on the deck watching our approach and listening to the tour guide, we headed into San Juan. Would you believe that the first thing we ran into was a Harley Davidson T-shirt shop? Since all the shops in San Juan close around 6:00, we went ahead and made the requisite HD purchases.

We left HD and went across the street to wait for the next trolley. We waited, and waited, and waited, and finally got on the first trolley that came by only to discover it didn’t go to our first desired location, Fort Del Morro. We got off along with 4 other frustrated folks from the ship and all grabbed a taxi. We were at the Fort in about 5 minutes. We enjoyed the tour of the Fort, a massive 200 year old concrete and stone structure with breathtaking views of the ocean and huge cannons, some with a range of 3 miles.  Here's Buster and Dallas at Fort Del Morro.




By about 3:00, however, it hit me very hard that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. We were too excited getting off the ship to think about lunch. The only thing the gift shop carried was water and Gatorade. I had a Gatorade and sat in the shade while Dallas finished touring the fort. We had much better luck with transportation on the way out of the Fort. There was a trolley waiting to leave just as we exited. We jumped on for a short ride to the main street on my list of “things to see in San Juan.”

The food situation was getting desperate. The first place we saw that looked promising on our walk down the hill was a Ben and Jerry’s with a sign that said “we have good food.” Worked for me! I ordered what ended up being a delicious platter of hummus, veggies, and pita. Dallas gave into temptation for an ice cream sundae. While eating, Dallas noticed that every picture, magazine cover, and newspaper article in the café was of a US Olympic medal winning gymnast. There was also a very tiny woman working at the restaurant. Dallas became convinced that the owners must be related to the gymnast and that the person working was probably her sister. Showing an unusual amount of reserve, he didn’t ask, so we’ll never know the whole story.

Feeling much better, we headed down the narrow, picturesque cobblestone streets to the San Juan Museum. This was a very quick stop since the term “museum” was a bit of an overstatement. We toured the San Juan Cathedral (established 1511), the final resting place of Ponce De Leon.

From the cathedral, we walked down a lovely street to the “Main Gate.” For security, the city of San Juan was originally surrounded by a huge wall. The Main Gate, the only way in or out, was locked each night. If you were outside the gate, you had to stay outside until the gate was unlocked the next morning. The only part of the wall remaining is the section at the ocean’s edge. The rest of the wall has been torn down to allow for expansion. We noticed a lot of cats lounging on the rocks at the water’s edge. San Juan apparently has a problem with stray cats. The National Park Service (this is the same park service that maintains all national parks since San Juan is a US territory) has a “Save a Cat” program and has made it illegal to feed the stray cats.

After wandering along the wall, we headed back into town where we stumbled upon the shopping district. No cruise dock is too far away from a shopping district! Having already purchased an HD shirt, we avoided the siren song of shopping and continued wandering. We were just about to turn the corner and head back to the boat when a shop owner lulled us inside with the promise of a 15 minute foot massage for $15. After walking on concrete and cobblestone all day, we couldn’t resist. The owner was committed to entertaining us. There were 5 of us inside, and the owner bet us a longer massage if we (as a group) could get 6 out of 10 trivia questions right. Dallas thought that was great! All the trivia was about Puerto Rico, and we didn’t do very well. I was just impressed that Dallas consented to a foot massage!

We stopped at a restaurant with outdoor tables to eat. The maitre d informed us that if we wanted good Puerto Rican food, we should go down the street; however, if we wanted great Puerto Rican food, we should eat at his establishment. How do you argue with that? The food was good, but I’d take Cuban food over Puerto Rican any day!

After dinner, we were beat, and the only things left open were the bars. We took advantage of the brand new CVS to get some bottles of water and soft drinks and headed back to the ship where we went to the Mainstage for the night’s entertainment, a comedian named Julie Barr. Julie had on very bright clothes and her hair was hot pink and purple. She was quite a colorful character, entertaining but not hilarious. Since there was no trivia contest for Dallas to win, we called it an early night.

Babymoon Day 3: Grand Turk and Caicos

We docked right on time this morning, and after a quick breakfast, headed off the boat for our first day of adventure. After meeting our tour operator just off the pier, we boarded a pontoon boat and headed for a nearby coral reef for the first half of our excursion, snorkeling!


Our tour boat had a staff of three: Captain Stumpy, his mate Lucky (both Haitian), and our tour photographer, Sean (British). Lucky and Sean were already in wetsuits, as they would be joining us in the water. Sean also strapped on a scuba tank as he would be parking himself under the surface in order to get good shots of us from below. Lucky doled out masks, snorkels and flippers, and Captain Stumpy gave us a quick briefing on our snorkeling boundaries and the need to respect the reef.

The reef, while pretty, was lacking in vibrant color...mostly brown with a few dashes of color here and there. While Whitney was able to scoot around at will, my experience was a little less mobile. My moustache prevented the mask from sealing properly, and so my mask would quickly fill with salt water, making it necessary to surface and clear the mask every 60 seconds or so. Needless to say, this situation took some of the fun out of the experience for me. While I did get to enjoy close passes with an abundance of colorful fishes that called the reef home (including a stingray with a 6 or 7 foot wingspan), when the recovery horn sounded I was ready to move on to the second part of our adventure.

Once we were all aboard, Captain Stumpy pointed our boat toward a shallow beach on the end of the island. Once the boat was anchored to the shore, we all entered the warm, waist-deep water for our second activity, known as the “stingray encounter.” While this sounds a bit dangerous, in actuality it was a tremendous amount of fun. The local stingrays were nearly domesticated, having learned to swim up and accept fish pieces from the people at this beach. Most of the people in our group were happy to stay with Lucky as he handled one stingray for photo poses and petting. I wanted a little more direct experience, so I moved away from the group with my own pieces of fish in hand.

It didn’t take long for another stingray to make his way over to me, and he happily accepted my offered snack. Having a stingray eat out of your hand is interesting. Their mouths are on their bottom side, and they gnaw the food from you using sort of a bony “gumming” motion. Once I fed my stingray, he let me cradle him in my arms, with his face just under my chin, and Sean managed to get a good picture. Stingray bodies are so smooth and slippery, it’s a bit of a balancing act to keep them centered, but I managed to keep him in place for about a minute before he kicked himself free with a strong thrust from his tail and swam off looking for more snacks.

During another “encounter,” I noticed a three-and-a-half foot barracuda swimming lazily by, no doubt attracted by the smell of the chopped fish we were using as stingray snacks. I called out the ‘cuda to the others, and Sean warned me not to keep the food in my hand underwater, as barracudas have sharp teeth and can take off a finger along with the snack. So, I waited for the ‘cuda to make a closer pass (about six feet away from me) and tossed the bait in front of him. He snatched the bait so quickly that I was glad I hadn’t had it in my hand, as there is no way I could have moved fast enough to ensure I kept all my fingers.

Meanwhile, Whitney stayed near the group that was playing with the first stingray. Lucky was putting the ray in pose positions with each of our tour members that were interested. Whitney took advantage of several chances to stroke the ray, and even kissed the stingray on the nose, which (we were told) results in several years of good luck.


Once our tour was over, we headed back to the cruise dock. Hungry from our adventurous hours in the sun, we wandered over to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, which is one of a chain of restaurant/bars throughout several island locations. It’s a beautiful facility, with several pools, a small waterslide, and thatch-roofed gazebos. For anyone familiar with Buffett’s music, it’s no surprise that one of the signature menu items is the “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” While it seemed almost an obligation to try this, we decided to split our order: I had the cheeseburger, Whitney ordered the conch stew, and we shared. Here is a shot of me attacking the cheeseburger:
 

Once lunch was over, Whitney wandered over to get a massage in an open-air cabana on the beach. Yes, life is hard sometimes. I went down to the beach to get a couple of nice pictures of our ship surrounded by the gorgeous water of Grand Turk. Here is one of those shots:  

Once Whitney’s massage was complete, it was time to board our ship for the next leg to San Juan. It was only 3:00 in the afternoon, so we had plenty of time for the Wii Bowling contest! Whitney really wanted to to see what all the fuss is over Wii sports. Wii Bowling was hosted by our favorite DJ, DJ Dave. There was a definite generational gap on the Wii teams. We were playing against a sister/brother duo around ages 7 and 9 and against a mother/son team ages adult and 6. We were a little embarrassed to win, but had a lot of fun anyway. Due to this win, we added to our growing pile of HAL merchandise, more HAL T-shirts. Since Whitney already had a T-shirt thanks to my brilliance at music trivia the night before, she got a small shirt and gave it to the 2nd runner-up…the 6 year old. After watching this wonderful, sweet natured, polite, well-mannered young man, she decided that maybe all boys aren’t bad!

Hungry from all that “bowling,” we headed up for a nice dinner on the Lido deck. Having already perused the menu for the formal dinner and deciding we weren’t interested in another 3+ hour dinner, we happily discovered that the Lido restaurant served the same menu in a buffet style atmosphere…shrimp cocktail anyone?

After dinner, we went to view the digital proofs of our B&W photo session, and I have to say I was extremely impressed with Miki’s work. The lighting was extraordinary, and I fell in love with one picture of Whitney that I felt captured her beauty perfectly. We agreed to discuss what we wanted and return Wednesday evening with our choices.

The entertainment for the evening in the Mainstage was the magician, Jeff Ceilen. Much of his magic was pretty standard – pull a bird out of a scarf, magic rings, sword through the assistant in the box. But one part of his act (which wasn’t really “magic”) involved two adorable toy poodles. The dogs were Whitney’s favorite part of the show!

With plenty of leftover energy from my nap yesterday, I wasn’t quite ready for bed. Whitney valiantly tagged along with me to the theater where they were showing “The Invention of Lying,” a cute romantic comedy. She made it through about 35 minutes before leaving and going to bed!

Babymoon Day 2: At Sea

Today was our scheduled "day at sea," which means we headed past the Bahamas on our way to Grand Turk. Since all the Cruise lines leave Ft Lauderdale on the same day, each line sequences their itineraries a little differently so that all of the ships don't arrive in the same ports on the same day. We'll hit the Bahamas on our way back. So today was our day to explore the ship, and also for our first of two "formal" dinners in the dining room during our cruise.


Unfortunately, I was still in some serious sleep deficit from the combination of the prior week’s hectic schedule and the fact that it took me a little while to get used to the rocking of the ship. We hit a rough patch of water early in the AM, and it felt like someone was shaking me awake every few minutes. With that in mind, we both headed for breakfast (mmmmmmmmmm....waaaaaaffllllllles), then I returned to the room to nap for a few hours. This turned out to be the best decision I could have made, as I awoke refreshed, energized, and ready to face the day.

While I was sleeping, Whitney had a wonderful nap of her own in a deck chair in the sun, watching the ocean in between snoozes. She also took a tour of the ship’s kitchens, which was very interesting. During lunch, she met a nice couple, and it turned out that the husband was an Air Force veteran. Once Whitney shared that I was recently retired from the Air Force, this immediately made them feel comfortable talking...and talking...and talking. It turns out this couple has two sons, one 46 and one 48, neither of whom were married, and they had given up on the idea of grandchildren. Whitney pointed out that I am nearly 46 and about to become a first-time daddy, so they should still hold out some hope, however slim.

When she returned, I was out of bed and feeling grrrrrreat! We toured the remainder of the ship discovering several additional decks full of chairs, views, and sun. We found the Explorations Cafe, which is a combination internet cafe, coffee shop (Whitney was very happy), and fairly well stocked library. You can check books out just like at the public library. We noticed some beautiful black and white portraits around the ship and learned that the photographer was on board. We booked a slot for a sitting. This was our formal night for dinner, so we were already dressing up anyway. The photo shoot was a lot of fun. If felt much more like a photo shoot than a “sitting.” Miki, our photographer, put on loud music and took pictures constantly while instructing us to look at him, look at each other, look away, turn, hug, whatever. It was a pretty neat experience. We will see the results tomorrow.

Dinner in the formal dining room took FOREVER!!! It’s a good thing we were eating early, or Whitney would have left before dessert to get to bed! We ate with 6 other people, including a couple from Boston (she is actually German, but has lived in Boston for 20 years, which makes for a very interesting accent!) The other four were from California, a woman who was touring with her in-laws and her mother. While everyone was nice, we would have preferred to be seated at our own table to enjoy some intimacy over dinner. We decided afterward that we would go to the next formal dinner (Thursday) but spend the other nights to ourselves in one of the casual dining areas.

After dinner, we headed to “The Mainstage,” which as you might expect was the theater for the live productions we would see throughout the week. Tonight’s performance was a revue of nightclub music over the years, from the Cotton Club to the Copacabana to the Moulin Rouge, and a sampling of others. The young troupe was high-energy, and a few of them displayed real talent, particularly the female vocalist. We would see these young singers and dancers cross-supporting other entertainment offerings during the week, with one of the young female dancers serving as the assistant to the magician (including disappearing/reappearing in a see-through globe).

Once the revue was over, I still had energy from my nap, so I talked Whitney into entering the Music Trivia contest hosted by “DJ Dave.” We teamed with an aunt and her two nephews, Alex and Adam. Alex is a musician, and had a surprisingly deep knowledge of 50’s and 60’s music for a younger man. It turned out we made a great team, and won the contest by a significant margin...only our first of several victories during the week.

Once trivia was over, it was finally time for bed. We were looking forward to an early disembarkation the next morning and wanted to be rested and ready.

Babymoon Day 1: Ft. Lauderdale

Well, it was a bit of an early morning! We awoke at 5AM in order to ensure we were packed out and to the airport for our early morning flight. The flight to Fort Lauderdale was uneventful, and our approach to the West runway allowed us a great view of the port. There were six or seven cruise ships in the port, each the size of a major resort hotel...a pretty impressive sight!


We were met by our cruise representative at baggage claim, and herded to our bus for a 10-minute ride to the port. Once there, we were glad we had chosen the early flight: lines were nearly non-existent, and we breezed through our processing and on to our ship, the MS Eurodam of the Holland America line (HAL).

We sailed on Holland America for our honeymoon (the Alaska Inside Passage cruise) and enjoyed the experience. HAL is geared toward adults, with more of a refined experience than you might find on one of the "family" cruise lines (like Carnival or Princess). We were fortunate that the Eurodam is the newest ship in the HAL fleet, so everything from our room to all the facilities was sparkling.

Since our rooms weren't "turned" from the previous cruise yet, we spent the afternoon on the "Lido" deck, which is the main level of the ship for non-formal dining and lounging. The center of the Lido deck has a retractable glass roof so it can be opened during good weather and closed for wind or rain. Today the roof was open, and they had all of the buffets loaded for embarking guests.

With time to kill until until our room would be ready, we enjoyed a bit of lunch in the sun. A 4-piece band (“Cassandra and the HALcats”) was playing, and the atmosphere was clearly festive...everyone was happy to be on board and beginning their vacations.

It wasn’t long before we learned our room was ready, and we headed down to unpack. Whitney and I had decided to book a “Verandah” room on this trip, and were very, very glad we did. A floor-to-ceiling glass window and door that opens to our own private patio greeted us as we arrived, with a spectacular view of the water. On our previous cruise, we had the same-sized room without a window, and the difference was literally night and day...I don’t think we’ll ever do that again!

After unpacking, we headed to the observation deck to watch as the ship pulled out of port. Since most of the cruise lines leave from/arrive to Ft Lauderdale on Saturday, we had to wait for our position in line. We were fourth out of the port, and managed to capture a shot of several of the ships that departed before us.

 
Once we cleared the port mouth and were underway, we decided to forgo the formal dining room, and instead headed back to the Lido deck for the ship’s “welcome BBQ.” As it turned out, it was not a BBQ, but more of a steak grill-out, with thinly-sliced strip steaks and some fixin’s. I had one of these “steaklets” while Whitney enjoyed a cool cucumber salad...not all that filling, but we knew that going hungry was not going to be a problem for us this next week.


After the " BBQ" was over, we toured the spa, which has several levels of service. We decided to go for the self-service "Thermal"package, (steam rooms, aromatherapy rooms, whirlpool, and a set of ergonomically-curved, ceramic-tiled benches that are heated to 98 degrees...VERY relaxing). We spent a little time in the whirlpool before relaxing on the heated tile benches, and by the time we got up we were very much ready for bed.

Dreaming of Blue (from Dallas)

Today was our 20-week Ultrasound, and the news is fantastic...we're having a BOY!!!! (Actually, a girl would have been fantastic, too...but we've decided that this is what we've always wanted. Nyaaah.).

The bad news is that this means that a little Dallas will be set forth upon an unsuspecting world, wreaking havoc with his devastating good looks and irresistible charm...or something like that.

The first picture, which is the normal ultrasound, clearly shows his manliness if you are trained to look for such things. The other pics are the BONUS, 3D Ultrasounds. That's right, I said 3-D! I didn't even know they did this, so I'm still a little amazed.

Mama and baby are both perfect. Baby weighs about 11 ounces, Mama just a little more. "Buster" (as we've jokingly nicknamed him until his real name comes along) was extremely active during filming of his big scene, as you'll see in the 3-D shots. You'll notice that Buster was continually striking dramatic poses for his adoring fans during today's photo shoot. In one scene he's actually covering his ears from the hum of the ultrasound. Clearly, his hearing is better than his Daddy's.

He's halfway to his world premiere as of tomorrow...