My wife, the artist

As I've written in several blogs over the past 7 weeks, sea days are an opportunity to try something different, maybe something you've always wanted to try or perhaps even something you thought you'd never want to try. You've literally got nothing to lose.

My wife is a painter, has been most of her life. But her medium is oil's. They're very forgiving but require massive dry time and massive setup and cleanup. And you have to like the smell of paint thinner. So she's been wanting to try another medium that gives her more of what she likes and less of what she doesn't. Thank G-d she doesn't feel the same about marriage......yet 😉.

The ship offers free art classes including the materials, so there's no reason not to try something..... anything! The painting classes are watercolors which seems appropriate since we're surrounded by water. The techniques are a bit different but she took to them quickly and she REALLY enjoys it. They have other art projects as well, like making masks for Mardi Gras, cards for valentines day, upscale note cards, jewelry and even a fancy bookmark with braided paper. If you enjoy doing art, you'll enjoy all the classes.

So without further ado, here are her art pieces so far.

Every sea day, there's a class from 10-11:30, a great way to pass the morning.

Speaking of mornings, my morning was work 5-10 am, earlier than normal, because I wanted to workout before lunch. After lunch we had plans to play a card game called Hand & Foot with a nice couple we met. We played for 2 hours while we talked about our kids and life. Like us, they're still doing that thing called "work" and also like us, winding down to full retirement.

Speaking of work, I just received the oddest comment this morning as I write this blog on my phone, before setting up my laptops in my usual spot. A friendly waiter stopped and said, "It's so nice to see you enjoying your cruise and not working". Why are those mutually exclusive? In a world where many of the bedrocks of society are being questioned, examined, rewritten and redefined (not trying to get political), can we add "work" to the list? Why is "work" treated like a necessary evil where employees pine for the day they can say, " Take this job and ...."? From 21-65, you spend 1/2 your waking hours at work, maybe more; it should be rewarding and exciting, like you're contributing to something bigger than what you could do on your own. I've been blessed, in my 35+ years of work, I've only had 2 nightmare bosses, both of which were short-lived (that sounds ominous, I'm referring to the roles). I applied for a role change each time and it was granted. I've been blessed with 3 bosses I'd work for again in a heartbeat. If you were a boss of mine and you're reading this, you were one of them. I didn't send the blog link to any of the other bosses. My point is, as a society, as humans, I hope "work" comes under the same scrutiny as other aspects of life so that it can be honorable, respected and valued again, not just a necessary evil. Off my soapbox. Sorry, this blog isn't supposed to be a soapbox.

After cards, I got dressed up for dinner and went to the explorers lounge for hordourves and drinks. It was an excellent way to spend an hour before our 4th specialty dining experience, this time at Sabatini's. The menu changed this segment and we were excited to try it. It was good but to be candid, the other menu was a bit better. In complete transparency, after 2 vodka tonics and 2 glasses of wine, I wasn't good about taking pics of the dishes before enjoying them, so hopefully you can still get an idea of the feast. We both started with an orange, fennel and arugula salad, followed by calamari and shrimp fritti and a Buffalo mozzarella and tomato salad with a balsamic reduction. The pasta course was Tagliatelle with a beef Ragu and seafood pasta. The main course for both of us was osso buco, a lamb shank simmered to tender perfection. Oddly, I heard they offered the same dish in the main diningroom making it seem not quite as special, but by the time we were on our last course, my stomach was about to go on strike anyway.

I'm still a fan of specialty dining but we'll probably spend our remaining credits at the Bayou steakhouse.

As you can imagine, with full bellies, the show was out of the question. We headed to our stateroom and recapped the day as we like to do, since we don't spend much time together during the day. I'll discuss he rules of cruising as a couple in another blog 😉