Cruisin' on the Caribbean

I’m sitting in our stateroom with the balcony door open, listening to the sound of the ocean. I feel like we’ve been in a house on the beach for the past week. I’ll definitely prefer a verandah on any future cruise!

Arne and I drove to Ft. Lauderdale, Saturday, May 15, little over a four hour drive. Along the way, we encountered lovebugs. I was reading and thought it had started to rain. Our windshield was splattered by dozens of bugs in a short distance. When we pulled off the turnpike, into a service island, I was amazed to see the fronts of all the cars with black marks all over the front and white marks on the windshields. Arne bought some bug wash and tried to get most of them off as they can really damage the paint. We’ll probably run into them again. They appear in May and September.

Saturday night, college friend and fraternity brother, Ron Pearson and Ellen, picked us up at our motel and took us to a lovely restaurant for dinner. They then took us to their lovely home for coffee and more visiting.

Sunday afternoon, Arne and I boarded the Celebrity Solstice for seven nights. Tuesday, we had a brief stop in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Arne and I walked to the remains of a couple forts which were used for 500 years. They are both now National Parks. Fortunately, I had my Eagle Pass and we got in for free. Sometimes, It just pays to be “old.”

Wednesday, the ship spent the day in St. Thomas. Arne and I decided to take the ferry to St. John, which is supposed to be the “Emerald of the Caribbean.” We took a tour of the island and I didn’t notice much difference between it and St. Thomas.

Thursday’s port was St. Marten. They built a new pier especially for Oasis of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship which holds 6000 passengers and 3000 crew. This 37 square mile island belongs to two countries, Netherlands and France. People travel freely across the two borders. Our guide, Green...I swear, that’s what he said we should call him...was very funny. We shared his van with two other couples. One of the men, John, sat in front by Green. We were taken to a nude beach. Green couldn’t wait to show us this particular beach. He continually talked about prostitution and making jokes to John. As in the Netherlands, prostitution is legal on St. Marten, as is gambling and cock fighting.

Friday and Saturday were sea days as we head back to Ft. Lauderdale. I’m not looking forward to the end of this cruise. I will miss the sound of the ocean, as well as not cooking or cleaning. I have gone to the Fitness Center every day but probably not long enough to burn calories for all the desserts I’ve been eating. :-(

(I will try to upload more pictures tomorrow night as I'm having trouble with my connection tonight.)