Dominica

As I wake I can not believe how rested I feel, how relaxed I feel, how stress free I feel. As we lay there chatting about everything that comes to mind, which is often hard to do at home with all the pressures of work, home, and schedules.  Somehow on a ship we have the time to chat about whatever enters our minds and share.

How do you explain that to people (well I guess like I just did) but the fact we have time to sit across from each other and have a glass of wine and just talk. It is the same with friends we make on board.

It has been lovely sailing with Bruce and Sharon again. Even though we have not sailed with them in a long time, the fact we can catch up with them just by passing their table in the International Cafe and converstaion flows says a lot.  A ship brings that out in you.

Last night as we sat at dinner, Michael's son Franklin loves playing rummy and I mentioned Rummy Block and we both walked over to the library where I showed him the cases with the Rummy Block game.  I promised that we will get together today and I will show him the game.

Again the fact that families have time to sit down with their kids and play games is priceless.  I will advise later on how the Rummy Block game turns out.

But back to Dominica.  I wish I could say we did something exciting but for us we did what we needed to do and we just stayed on.  I do love this island but a few things are in play this cruise.  First this is an added trip and one we squeezed in and just being on board is the best relaxation for us.  And heck this ship is beautiful so why not enjoy it.

Second we are at the industrial pier in Dominica and it is about 2 miles to the town center.  Shuttles are available for $2 per person one way. And the beaches here are great (black sand because of the volcano) but they are a distance away.  Our favorite thing to do here is River Tubing but again since it was booked so last minute we had to be conscious of spending and so tours were sort of out of the picture.

Instead we donned our bathing suits and headed to the Enclave.  Only one other couple was in the Enclave - actually I have never seen the Enclave so quiet.  This may be because we are in port and it is the morning or it may be the demographics of the ship (much younger, families and newer cruisers) oh heck who knows why but it is lovely.

After showering and dressing we ended up in Alfredos for lunch which is so busy.  Guess people have figured it out now. But it is still a nice change and today I had a bowl of minestroni to start which was very good and then I had the calzone, again very very good.

La La Land the movie is playing in the Vista Lounge and Bernie wants to watch the Star Wars movie in the cabin so I am sitting in the International Cafe sipping a kiwi limi cooler (one punch on your coffee card) and writing my blog.

Ship is decorated for Easter and it is fun to see the decorations. I have lots of pics of the decorations that I will put up in the blog when I get home.  This is the first time we have sailed over Easter.