Whither Hattie?

Hilo, Hawaii

March 7, 2015

One of the first things we learned today was that the Hilo Hattie's store here in Hilo has closed for good. How can this be? Is this a result of global climate change?

The weather was cool and sprinkly and 70 degrees. I know the temperature because we rented a car here. I also know that at elevation 4000 ft the temp was 57. That is where the Visitor's Center for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located. It is on  a volcano named Kilauea. There are two other major volcanoes on this island - Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It was too socked in to see the other volcanoes. Allegedly, there was a snowstorm yesterday on Mauna Kea or Mauna Loa, but we were not able to see for ourselves.

The visitor's center had some interesting exhibits, some knowledgeable rangers, and a nice shop that sold a lot of long-sleeved t-shirts to under-dressed tourists.

Kiluaea is active right now. Lava flows are threatening houses and roads. The lava is all on private property quite a distance away and not visible from the park.

We took the Crater Rim Road and arrived at a small parking lot where you could see steam vents up close and personal. People will throw money in any hole in the ground, and the steam vents were no exception.

Next we came to a lookout over the caldera. The last eruption here was in 1959. There was a smaller caldera inside the huge caldera. The small one was smoking. At night you can see the lava in the bottom glowing red, but not in the daytime.

Our next stop was the Jaggar Science Museum, at the end of Crater Rim Road. There was another lookout here, and an interesting small museum. I liked the volcanic glass called Pele's Hair. It really looks like hair. There are QR codes on everything so that you can listen to more details on your phone.

Tourists were just as bad in 1924.

Heading down Crater Rim Road in the other direction we came to Thurstin Lava Tubes, but it was too crowded to park. We continued on to the trailhead for Devastation Trail. There were only two other cars parked here, but we were met by a welcoming committee:

I wish I knew what these were.

We took a very short hike on Devastation Trail and arrived at another caldera. The trail name refers to the devastation caused by the 1959 eruption. There was a trail down inside the caldera and a lot of people were walking around down there. This is also an area where the Nene can be seen. The Nene is an endangered Hawaiian goose, and also the state bird. We did not see any, but I thought I heard some honking until I realized it was my pants legs rustling together as I walked. Oy!

Walking along this trail gives you a good idea of how long it takes for vegetation to return after an eruption. Very large fiddlehead ferns were well established in many places, but in some areas they were just starting to come back. They seemed to prefer little voids in the lava created during the eruption. Perhaps the large ferns were out of the direct path of the devastation.

Our drive back down to Hilo was uneventful. We decided to try the place recommended by the shuttle driver who took us to the car rental place at the airport - Ken's House of Pancakes. In addition to pancakes, this place has all kinds of local foods. It is your typical greasy spoon, so there is a lot of local color also. Ken ordered Kalua Loco (very flavorful) and I ordered Macadamia Pancakes. For dessert we had Macadamia Pie and Warm Pineapple Upside Down Cake (not as good as the PUD at Aloha Mixed Plate).

We took the car back to the airport and then caught the shuttle back to the ship. All the way back we had to listen to a Good Ole Boy bragging about the Jaguar he rented. Okay, that isn't quite accurate. He was bragging about himself because he rented a Jaguar. At least the ride was short.

When we were back in our cabin we went out to our balcony and were able to watch whales just outside the harbor. They were blowing and breaching and showing off. As we sailed away we witnessed quite a bit of whale activity just to the east of the harbor. This is one of the reasons we like balcony cabins.

Before dinner we went to a show called Words and Music. It was in the Vista Lounge, a smaller venue than the theater, and the perfect place to really enjoy the show. It was a tribute to Cole Porter, Leonard Bernstein, and Somebody Lesser (who wrote Guys and Dolls). Clever staging and costumes, good choreography, and lively music.

At dinner we sat with the couple from the Isle of Man again, along with a couple from Saskatoon. We all talked about what we had done during the day. The Canadians told us they went to Walmart, Starbucks, Macy's and IHOP. I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying, "Why did you 

come on this cruise?" The Manx couple (have you ever gotten to use that word outside of the context of cats?) talked about how the Brits didn't always "get" American humor, and we talked about how we didn't get British humor.

After dinner there was a comedian named Tim Walkoe. He was about a C+ or B-. We thought about all the jokes the Brits would not have gotten: his joke about the Chrysler Cordoba with "Corinthian leather" (whatever that is) and the non-traditional colors of AMC Gremlins, a song about the AARP sung to the tune of YMCA, and his Beatles tribute - I Get By with a Little Help from Depends.  By now you may have deduced that the average age of the audience is OLD.

When I get home I am going to add a link to Jimmy Buffet's song, Volcano, but you can hum it to yourself now if you know it.  Here it is: "Volcano"

If I Lived Here I Would Have a Papaya Tree and Eat Local

Lahaina, Maui

March 6, 015

The first thing I saw when I looked out towards Maui was a beautiful rainbow.

Listen to Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

It rains a lot in the mountains and then the wind blows little droplets of water out towards the shore so that when you are near the shore and you look up towards the mountains and the sun is just so, you will see a rainbow. In fact, you can often feel the drops of water when you are several miles from the place where it is raining. Because it is so windy. Like today.

We anchored in Lahaina Harbor today around 7 am. We wanted to wait a bit until the crowds died down before we tried to get on a tender. The truth is that the crowds never die down, but that doesn't stop us from believing it could happen. We went down to get our tender tickets at 8:40. After a short time we were called to board a tender. Our ride to shore was very choppy - about the roughest we have ever experienced aboard a ship's tender. Usually they will not try to use the tenders when it is too rough because it is so hard to load and unload the tenders - but after missing Kaua'i, I guess they didn't want to miss another port. I wouldn't say they threw caution to the winds, so to speak, but maybe they pushed their conservative envelope a bit. I think we had Force 6 winds today, in case you were wondering. 

All this wind and chop made the ride to Lahaina slow. When we got there we had to wait about 15 minutes for the rental car van. Then we had a 15 minute drive to the rental car office in Kaanapali. Elapsed time from leaving our cabin to getting behind the wheel in the car: 1 hour +. Is this worth it?

Did I mention that it was windy? It was also about 71 degrees and threatening to rain, so our best laid plans to go to the beach today had to be abandoned. We decided to drive around Kaanapali instead. Kaanapali is a large PUD-type development consisting of golf courses, timeshares, hotels, and condos. It is very pleasant to drive around there, but it does have a vibe of entitlement and gated community and haole. 

We parked near a beach access point and got out to look around. By lucky coincidence, it had just started raining, so we got to see what Kaanapali looks like in the rain. There was some kind of a flea market going on nearby, so we walked over to see if there was any good stuff. They had the same type of stuff you see in all tourist-driven flea markets, but more expensive. Some of the stuff was maybe a little more artsy and a little less souvenirish than we had seen elsewhere, but still . . .

In addition to hand-blown glass, and hand-thrown pottery, and ugly things made out of cut up license plates, there were handmade soaps and lotions. I heard one of the lotion vendors talking to some ladies: "Are you by any chance from Alberta? Wow, what a coincidence. Did you know that we sell more of our lotion to people from Alberta than anywhere else?" Marketing genius at work, I guess. Or eavesdropping.

We didn't stay long - it was cold, windy and wet. We decided to continue driving to Kapalua and then turn around and take the coastal route back. Not a whole lot to see there.

Next we went to the Hilo Hattie's Outlet. Woo hoo! (Not really.) It turned out to be a bust, so we had dessert - HH's "famous" pineapple whip. Pineapple flavored soft-serve ice cream. Not bad.

That made us hungry for lunch, so we started to drive to a fish place we had seen earlier, but when we passed a beachfront place called Aloha Mixed Plate, we knew that was where we had secretly wanted to go all along.

(In Hawaii, a "plate lunch" is a popular menu item. It consists of some sort of meat or fish, often Teriyaki-style, plus a couple of scoops of sticky white rice and a scoop of macaroni salad. A mixed plate is a plate lunch with three kinds of protein - in this case beef, chicken, and fish.) 

It was windy and cool, all the seating was outdoors, but the view of the water was so nice, I put on my pullover and acted Alaskan, and toughed it out.

We orderd a Mochiko chicken plate lunch and a Loco Moco. (A Loco Moco is a hamburger with grated carrot and other stuff mixed in, with an over-easy egg on top of it. The burger sits on a pile of sticky rice, and brown gravy is poured over all of it. And a side of macaroni salad. When in Lahaina, eat local.) Ken had a local beer that was made with a lot of wheat and a bit of passionfruit.

A little liquid Aloha - note map of Hawaii on the top right

We enjoyed our lunch so much we decided to split a piece of pineapple upside-down cake for dessert. I would have to say that this was the best pineapple upside-down cake I have ever had.

After lunch we thought we should at least put our feet in the ocean. The temperature had gone up a little and we imagined there might be less chance of rain if we drove in the other direction, so we headed towards Kihei. We passed several beaches, but they were either too small or had no more parking spaces, so we turned around at Olawolu and headed back towards Kaanapali. We used a different entrance and found a tiny parking lot by a beach access point and took a two-minute walk to the beach.

It was a very beautiful beach: scenic, clean, wide, and uncrowded. 

Tip 
How to find an uncrowded beach:

Look for a beach that is very windy and has cold water.

We did achieve our goal of getting our feet wet, and then we quickly retreated before our legs got blasted away by the blowing sand.

We returned the car just in time to catch the next van back to the dock in Lahaina. During this trip we learned that the 5:15 ferry to Lanai had been cancelled due to the rough seas. We wondered how the Princess tenders were doing.

By the way, if you are going to Maui, try to avoid using Dollar Rent-a-Car. I will eventually be providing a full explanation on TripAdvisor, so I will not go into it now.

There was a huge line for the tenders so we elected to walk around in Lahaina for a while. This was not logical. We were well aware that the line only gets longer and longer as it gets closer to the time for the last tender. But you never know. I went into a quilt shop to see if I could find a nice pattern for a Hawaiian-style quilt. There were some nice ones, but all of a sudden a little voice reminded me that I already have more quilt patterns than I can ever sew in my lifetime, so I left that shop empty-handed. 

When we got back to the tender line, we waited 35 minutes to board a tender. Elapsed time from the time we got in line until we reached our cabin home-away-from-home: 1 hour+. Was this worth it?

Upon returning to the ship we learned two things:

1) At around 11:30 or 12:00 this morning, tender service from the ship to the shore had been suspended. A number of people who were in no particular hurry to get off the ship were ultimately unable to get off. (A few days later we spoke to one of the ship's officers. He told us there had been some concern on the bridge over the possibility of hundreds of passengers being stranded on Maui.)

2) Shabbat services were not listed in the schedule, but we were supposed to know that they would take place at 5:15.

There was a crew member from India at Shabbat services. He told us he was Jewish. Everybody else there was older than we are. They were so surprised to learn there were Jews in India. They were just as surprised to learn there were Jews in Alaska.

Guess what . . . The ship was over an hour late leaving Lahaina because of the slowdown with getting people back to the ship. Guess what else . . . we skipped dinner tonight.

After not eating dinner we went to hear Paul Tanner, a vocal impressionist. We didn't like him and we didn't stay very long. Enough with Tom Jones already.

Shabbat Shalom!

If I Lived Here I Would Drink POG Every Day

Honolulu, HI

March 5, 2015

We woke up as our ship was sailing into the harbor. As we docked we could see Diamond Head from our balcony.

When we went down for breakfast we walked outside on the other side of the ship. The first thing I saw was a pair of small tourist submarines being towed somewhere. Then I looked up and a saw a rainbow over the mountains. Then I looked down and saw a fuel barge right next to the ship. The fuel barge was spotless - one of the cleanest vessels I have ever seen.

After breakfast we walked off the ship and headed towards 'Iolani Palace. On the way we passed one of the famous gilded statues of King Kamehameha I, so we stopped to admire it and take photos.

We realized we were in front of the Hawaii Supreme Court so we went inside for a look around. It is a beautiful building with lots of marble and a stained glass ceiling.

There is a small "judiciary history center" on the first floor. A small theater has five short films that you can watch by touching a computer screen. I picked a film about land law. It was around 10 minutes long. 

At one time, the land was commonly owned by all the people and individuals had rights to use the land. This changed after contact with the outside. Europeans and Americans wanted to be able to own land, so a new legal system began to emerge. I think the Hawaiians got the short end of the stick.

The museum contained exhibits about the Hawaiian judicial system and a full-size replica of a courtroom from 1913. I thought it was interesting that they used to pick juries based on the parties in a case. If both sides were Hawaiian, the jury consisted of twelve Hawaiians. If both parties were haoles, the jury was all haoles. If one side was haole and one side was Hawaiian, the jury had six haoles and six Hawaiians.

Almeda Hitchcock, the only woman lawyer in Hawaii during the monarchy.

We crossed the street to 'Iolani Palace - the only royal palace on US soil. After buying tickets we watched another short film before being escorted over to the palace. The number of visitors is carefully limited to preserve this treasure. We had to wear shoe covers inside and we were given audio guides to listen to as we wandered through the palace. The Palace was completed in 1882 and housed Hawaii's monarchs until 1893 when the monarchy was overthrown. The Palace is an ornate Italian Renaissance Revival style building. The luxurious interior is reminiscent of European palaces of that era. 'Iolani Palace had electricity before either the White House or Buckingham Palace.

The Hawaiian royal family enjoyed a very lavish lifestyle, traveling to Europe and Washington, DC, and entertaining foreign dignitaries at the Palace. In all the portraits and photos they are dressed in Victorian-style clothing. Their china, silver, and crystal came from Europe. There was nothing celebrating traditional Hawaiian culture in the palace.

I wonder what the common Hawaiian people thought of all this extravagance. I wonder if the Hawaiian kings and queens thought they had to act like the European royalty in order to be taken seriously as a sovereign nation. I wonder if they tried to live like Europeans because they were insecure about their non-Western culture. I wonder if they just did it because they enjoyed the money and the good life. I wonder if it was what everybody expected. I suspect it was a combination of all of the above. I do believe King Kalakaua and Queen Lili'uokalani fought for their people and loved their land. Queen Lili'uokalani wrote the famous song Aloha Oe and King David Kalakaua wrote the song that became Hawaii's state song, Hawai'i Pono'i. (Click on the links to hear the songs. If you are inclined to skip Aloha Oe, don't. I really recommend that you watch it.)

Queen Lili'uokalani

The role of the US in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy is embarrassing and shameful. After US Marines went ashore in Honolulu, an act that some have considered illegal, Lili'uokalani was deposed and the Republic of Hawaii was established by a group of European and American businessmen. After two years of political turmoil, the Queen was arrested and imprisoned in a bedroom in 'Iolani Palace. Eventually the US annexed the islands and set up a territorial government.

After our tour it was time for lunch, so we walked to Chinatown. I had previously looked up some places on TripAdvisor. Some of them were food trucks or takeout places. We wanted a sit-down lunch, so we went to a dim sum place on my list. When we got to the address there was no restaurant. It was more like a dumpling factory. There were some street people on the corner who seemed to be doing a drug deal, so I wanted us to get out of there as fast as we could. 

We ended up at the Little Village Noodle House where we had eaten last year. It seems very authentic. There are items on the menu that you don't see in most Chinese restaurants, such as beef tendon soup. We had more standard fare. It was good, but nothing to write home about. The place is noisy and crowded and seems to get a lot of tourists. Some kind of movie or TV show was being filmed on the street just outside, so we had something to watch while we were eating. We didn't see any actors, though. Mostly, it was just technical people standing around looking self-important and a lot of trucks full of mysterious pieces of equipment. 

On the way back to the ship we stopped at Walmart to get bottled water and POG and some other odds and ends for our cabin.

POG = Passion-fruit, Orange, and Guava juices

Then we went to a little plaza where there was free wi-fi. It's easy to spot these places because you will see crew members from the ship sitting around with phones and tablets and laptops. I wanted to use the free wi-fi to upload some more photos to my blog and correct the dates on blog posts, but it was so slow it wasn't worth it. Even the ship's wi-fi is faster.  So at that point we decided to head back to the ship and maybe get some sun by the pool. Honolulu is such a great port because the pier is RIGHT downtown. You can walk to a lot of places.

We never made it to the pool - it was too windy. But we did see another rainbow from our balcony.

At dinner we sat with a couple who were to be getting married the next day on Maui. (They were older than us.) They showed us photos of their Hawaiian wedding clothes. Very nice. 

After dinner we went to see The Imitation Game. I liked it but I would like to see Benedict Cumberbatch (I love that name) play a role other than a genius with Asperger's before he gets typecast.

Sailaway wasn't until 11 pm.

Full moon over Honolulu.  Happy Purim!

Nawindiwindi

Off the Coast of Kaua'i

March 4, 2015

Due to Force 7 winds we were not able to dock in Nawiliwili today. It is gray, overcast and cool, so it would not have been much of a beach day anyway. However, there was a quilt shop in Lihue I had hoped to visit. :(

Instead of docking, we sailed all the way around Kaua'i. Since it was socked in, we couldn't see that much. I was hoping we would get a spectacular view of the Na Pali coast, but we just saw some dark cliffs off in the distance. The good news: our cabin was on the side of the ship facing toward the island. The other good news: the whales put on a great show for us. Watching for whales is hypnotic. You never know when or where you will see one, so you can't take your eyes away from the water.

It was cool and windy on our balcony, but we managed to spend a little time out there enjoying the changing scenery. One side of the island has dramatic cliffs. The other side is drier and has gentle slopes. Kaua'i is one of the wettest places on earth, so I'm not sure "drier" really conveys the idea accurately.

On the "drier" side of the island there are lots of large white spherical things that look like giant puffball mushrooms. Some kind of radar? Perhaps they are helping my blog get to the internet. The photos of them didn't turn out.

Here is my favorite factoid about Kaua'i (though I'm not 100% sure it is true): No construction on the island can be taller than a mature coconut tree.

Since we didn't want to miss anything, we ordered lunch from room service. It was very peaceful and relaxing watching the island as the ship glided by silently (more or less).

Room service chocolate cake

The cruise staff hustled up a new schedule for our unanticipated day at sea. A lot of it was not interesting to me, so I opted for bridge, which is always interesting. (I found out that my partner and I finished first East-West yesterday.)

The mood on the ship today is: relaxed. People don't seem too disappointed, perhaps because the weather is so uninviting. Our steward, Santosh, was very disappointed because he missed his chance at shore leave. This is his first time in Hawaii despite 8 years with Princess.

We had hoped to visit the famous malasada food truck in front of Walmart (it has moved to Kmart), pick up a few supplies, visit the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, and Poipu Beach. Perhaps we will come back another time. This island is very beautiful.

Someone else's malasadas

After bridge we took another self-guided art tour - of the midship art this time. Here are some of my favorites:

Green Valley by Keith Finch from the US

Sofa Roja by Didier Lourenco from Spain

Venice I & II by Renzo Andreon from Italy

Untitled, by Don-Li Leger from Canada

And finally, my favorite: 

Federal Orchid, by John Ng from the US

I don't know what's federal about this orchid - maybe it is a species?

Not much going on after dinner. There will be a King Kamehameha Festival in the atrium and they have hung several colorful quilt-like banners:

Notice that I didn't call them "quilts." And now I will call it "quits" for today, unless something really interesting happens this evening.

SNL at Sea

OK, I do have one more thing that came up this evening.
You know the Saturday Night Live skit where Kristin Wiig plays a woman, Penelope, who always has to one-up everyone else? Well we had dinner with the woman who inspired that character. And her mother. And I can only say, "Like mother, like daughter."

And then there is the skit where Will Ferrell and Anna Gasteyer are dorky middle school music teachers.

Those music teachers are here too. They are actually decent performers, but there are several things about them that just scream "SNL."

 

No, I don't want to see pictures of your dog
 
Penelope's mother sat down to dinner with a group of strangers three minutes ago and already the iPhone is out with all the photos of Poochie.  Sorry, ma'am. I just met you and I'll probably never see you again. My interest in your dog is less than zero.

The Curious Incident of the Ukrainian in the Night Time

At Sea
March 3, 2015

"It is sunny and getting warmer," she said hopefully. 

Today is another day and maybe we will have tropical weather and I won't eat too much. I am taking the stairs in lieu of the elevators, and I am walking much more than I do at home. If my Fitbit hadn't broken right before we left I could tell you exactly how many stairs and how many steps.

This was a typical day at sea, so I'll just fast forward to dinner. We are sitting in the dining room and suddenly there is an announcement from the bridge. They are asking a particular crew member with a Slavic name to call ext. 1400 immediately. I have never heard this particular type of announcement before. It is very unusual for any announcement to be broadcast in the dining room.

Five or ten minutes later there is another announcement. They were still looking for the guy with the Slavic name. That certainly gets the attention of everybody in the dining room.

After another five or ten minutes the Captain himself makes an announcement. He says they are looking for the 2nd Engineer, they are concerned about him, he is Ukrainian, he is wearing a blue shirt and has a slight build, etc., and if anyone has seen him, please call. This is extremely unusual and everyone in the dining room begins speculating. The best theory at our table is that his shift was supposed to start at 8 pm, he didn't show up, and he had last been seen drinking.

After another five or ten minutes the Captain announces that the Ukrainian has been found, he thanks us for our attention, and (ominously) he will see the erstwhile engineer in the morning.

Musical interlude

I later found out from another officer that the man had indeed been inebriated and as a result he had been put off the ship in Hawaii. There is zero tolerance for that sort of conduct. The ship has "designated drivers," so to speak. Officers have to get permission to have more than one drink, and if they get permission they are taken off the "safety list," which means they will not be on call in the event of an emergency.

Being on a ship is kind of like Upstairs, Downstairs or Downton Abbey. There is a lot of drama going on behind the scenes. Most of the time the passengers are never aware of it.

Not All About the Bass - Live-Looping with Cesar

At Sea
March 2, 2015

I haven't been writing much these past few days. You'd think that with all these sea days I'd have plenty of time to write. But I've been so busy playing bridge and being sick that there's only enough time left to eat.

My sinuses were so bad last night I could barely breathe without opening my mouth and sounding like Darth Vader. I went to the doctor and got a Z-Pac and some other stuff, and it's a good thing, because we were about to run out of tissues. The doctor was a nice woman from South Africa. The nurse was a nice man from Romania (who smoked).
 

The weather is not nice. The sky is gray, the water is dark, and Captain Nash says a front is moving in and it will get rougher tonight. Please pass the Dramamine.

There was a flood two doors down from us. Ken walked by and noticed a wet spot by their door and thought someone had spilled something. Then he thought it might be something else, so he went back and looked at it and the water had already gone across the hallway in just a minute, so he called Passenger Services and someone came up right away. They knocked on the door and found the passengers inside! Mr. was sitting on the balcony and Mrs. was sitting on the sofa. And not noticing the flood in their room. They moved Mr. and Mrs. to another room and put industrial fans in the room and in the hallway. During the night, apparently, the wet carpet was removed and replaced with new carpeting. And the leaking pipe was fixed, of course. They can be really efficient on the ship when they need to be. There are crew members on board with all kinds of skills - carpet-laying, plumbing, fixing elevators, etc. It really is like a little floating village.

Before dinner we went to listen to the guitarist, Cesar Paucar. He is quite talented. He plays a number of different styles, including the hard stuff like Flamenco. He has some kind of a live-looping setup that allows him to record himself while he plays and then he plays it back and plays a different melody over it. Then he plays his bass line again and then plays an improvised melody over it. I'm not actually sure whether he was saying "baseline" or "bass line," but it really isn't all about the bass. The result of the looping was amazing. Cesar plays every night, so we will keep going to hear him. He usually plays in a lounge venue, and it is too bad because there are always people talking during his show. Since they are drinking, they tend to talk in rather loud voices.

Ok, so it's a little blurry. He just wouldn't hold still for a photo.

Our dinner was really good. They are featuring a few Hawaiian-themed items on each menu. Tonight we had an appetizer called "Poke." it is raw ahi tuna, avocado, and some other things. Good. Our dessert was part of the Chocolate Journeys. It had toasted coconut in it. Yumm.

After dinner we went to see a show by Ric Steel. He is primarily a country music singer/guitar player, but he has a very wide range and he is such a good entertainer that we really enjoyed his show. Some people know how to relate to an audience, and some don't.

I ate too much today. :(

Bridge to Nowhere

At Sea
March 1, 2015

It was still rough today, and not very warm, so I did not want to do anything outdoors. After breakfast I went to play bridge with Ed from Reno and another couple. It was a lot of fun. Then Ken and I went to part of a lecture on Oahu. It was okay, but it conflicted with lunch, so we had to leave early. :)

At 1:30 I had to choose between Princess Pop Choir Rehearsal, Informal Bridge & Mah Jongg Play, and 5 Steps to Younger Looking Skin. It was a tough choice (she said ironically), but I went with bridge. I could play bridge all day long and then get up the next morning and do it again.

It's formal night tonight. People are dressed up, for the most part, and everyone looks nice. The dinner is always better on formal nights.  This year Princess is celebrating its 50th Anniversary and they have created a program called Chocolate Journeys, with special desserts to mark the occasion. I can't remember what this one was called, but it was awfully good:

The show tonight was one we had already seen and didn't particularly like, so we decided to go see the "World-Champion Pianist," Ryan Ahern. We lasted about 5 minutes. He played the first number with the band. The band was so loud you couldn't hear Ahern playing. Not that this was a bad thing. For his second number he played a boogie woogie piece. Even though I don't really care for that style of music, I would have stayed to see what he was going to play next, but they had bright flashing lights going right behind the band. The lights were pointed at the audience and especially at me (it seemed). I really don't like it when you have to hold your hand up in front of your face to keep from being blinded during a show. I was really expecting something a little more classical. So we left and watched part of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit in the room. Meh.