A Day at Sea- July 21

Days at sea are so very restful and fun! We enjoyed sailing along as we read and chatted between our balconies. We did have our cabin steward, Rio, open the panels several weeks ago so we could move back and forth and visit freely. Makes it nice.

Today there was the tour of the galley...the kitchen.

It is always amazing to learn how much of various kinds of food get consumed during a

day or week. The galley

is always so gleaming and so well organized. I guess it couldn’t be any other way in order to serve the amount and variety of foods that are prepared and served. Vegetable carvings and ice sculptures were decorating different spots.

As cruisers on this “Collector Voyage” we were invited to a special Indonesian Buffet Lunch today. The food featured was tasty and spicy. The chicken satay, the spicy shrimp, the beef salad, the spicy sugar snap peas and the slices of mango were especially delicious…..for those of us who like spicy food…..for the others it was a bit much. The servers, all of whom are from various Indonesian islands, wore beautiful shirts featuring hand batik art that t

old various stories or contained Indonesian symbols. Was a really nice gesture by Holland

America to say they appreciated our traveling with them for the 2 cruises. Lunch even included complementary wine.

A center decoration between the many buffet tables was made of 3 Indonesian stick puppets like the kinds we bought when we were in Indonesian. Reminded us of that fun tour and of some puppet shows that we’ve created and watched. These puppets were a bit fancier dressed than the ones we bought from street venders but the faces looked exactly like the ones we bought.

It was another formal night so we were later than normal eating our dinner. Our pattern has become to meet about 7:00 in the Explorers Lounge and listen to the String Quartet and have a drink together. Bill has become the person putting our name in for a table. Sometimes we get seated right away and sometimes it is a long wait. They give out coupons if you have to wait for a reduced price on drinks. Last evening was the worse we have had. I think more people choose the dining room on the formal nights so the process is long. On this ship the upstairs has 2 seatings- 5:45 and 8:00 and the downstairs in open seating. They are trying to please all people and tonight didn’t work with our crowd because we had to wait so late, were led upstairs to a table and then had not so sharp service. BUT on the whole, Holland America does a great job with most everything.

Pat has had a really bad cold and Lucy and I have now acquired it. Both Pat and Lucy have been troopers going to everything even though they don’t feel 100% yet! Tomorrow is another day and maybe we’ll all be well!