Logistics, logistics

Today, logistics dominated the agenda. That's not necessarily a bad thing but the more prepared you are, the better. Firstly, we arrived in LA to drop off the Panama canal cruiser and to pick up the rest of the world cruisers. We are now officially 1933 passengers with the top 4 countries represented as follows:

Australia 12

British 27

Canadians 312

US 1484

The entire ship needed to be cleared out for a customs inspection. That turned into 4 incredibly unproductive hours. We would have done an excursion had we known, or at least planned differently. It would have been a great work opportunity for me, especially, being in the US and getting good wifi tethering off my phone. My first complaint (per se) of the cruise is they could have communicated expectations better.

Nonetheless, I was able to get off the boat and walk over to the uss Iowa, where I logged a geocache find and got a lesson on the history of the uss Iowa from one of the volunteers. It was interesting, though I didn't do the official tour.

I did some consulting work once back on the boat followed by my daily workout, 5.4 miles, 1hr at a 20 resistance on the elliptical. My total miles are 75 for the cruise thus far and my weight is down about a pound. Then 30 minutes in the sauna where I spoke with a gentleman now from California, but originally from NY, and part of my tribe (Jewish). I knew it and he knew it practically before either spoke.

I raced to dinner after a quick change of clothes where we sat with all new people. It's nice meeting new people and hearing their stories. Dinner was salmon and scallops for me, salmon for my lovely wife. We both had an appetizer of seafood pasta. Pics below

The show was a new comedian and he was good. I stayed awake for 25 minutes, practically a record. The time changes are impacting me, not in a bad way, just something to be aware of. I really didn't give it much thought before the cruise. 3 changes in 4 days is like 3 DLS (daylight savings) (fall back) except that because were moving, the time of sunrise and sunset stays consistent. Suffice it to say, I've never experienced it before and it's a bigger deal than I would have expected.

My wife went off to see Dan the man while I made a small contribution to the casino. It's OK. Kevin sat at the table and so far, he's my favorite person to gamble with. Such an amiable guy, a bit younger (55, which is REALLY young for this cruise), but he makes the table fun. Lots of banter with the fellow gamblers and the dealer. Lose or win, he stays upbeat. Gotta love that.

4 sea days till we get to Hawaii, so if you think the port blogs are more imPORTant than the sea blogs, feel free to take a few days off. I've been saving a few topics for such consecutive sea days, like ship highlights, technology at sea and the daily patter (the ships daily list of all events). Stay tuned. Hasta manana.