As I’ve said about cruises before, I typically find that we work our way into some kind of established pattern of activity. Arise at a certain time. Eat breakfast in common place. Participate in certain activities. And, so on… the particulars vary from cruise to cruise, ship to ship, but the pattern of establishing a pattern is constant.
On this cruise, we’re starting to find that pattern. Breakfast in the Lido (usually an egg white omelette, fruit, and some pistachios for me). Walking around the deck (about 3 miles each day). Watching the ATK demonstration (“New Italian Favorites” today). Enjoying the talented LCS quintet perform (“Women in Music” today).
View sailing into Aruba…
Today, we did much of that in the morning as our ship wasn’t scheduled to dock in Aruba until after 1pm. Given that folks had been on the ship for nearly two days and likely itching to get ashore, we opted to wait until after 2pm to disembark ourselves. Plus, we didn’t have a lot more planned than simply wandering around Oranjestad (Libby and I had been here previously), which we recalled as one of the nicer ports in the Caribbean.
Libby and Emerson in Aruba
The port was largely as we remembered it; although, I thought it was a bit more upscale than it appeared on this day. It’s not that it was especially run down — just a more vacant shops and a higher concentration of touristy-tacky merchandise then I’d remembered. We did a little shopping and picked up some tennis shoes for Libby, which we’d in hindsight not-so-strategically opted to leave at home. It was a pleasant enough way the spend an afternoon, though I wasn’t “feeling Aruba” today.
Indeed, it was one of those days of travel in which I just felt “off” for no particular reason. It’s not an unknown feeling to me. The first time I really recall feeling that way was on our second visit to Vienna, though I’m sure it wasn’t novel to me then either; it’s just that I don’t was more keenly aware of it that day. I’m at a loss to explain its genesis. It’s not that anything “bad” in particular happens to me on those days. I just inexplicably find myself feeling restive and/or filled with ennui on occasion when traveling.
Oh well. Enough with the psychoanalysis.
For dinner, we returned to the ship and enjoyed a surprisingly good meal in the dining room. Emerson, who’s forsaken the kid’s menu altogether, particularly enjoyed it having discovered carne asada and consuming a delightful strawberry crisp. This was followed by the aforementioned LCS concert. After the show, Emerson had a chance to meet some of the musicians, as well as the viola player’s very kind mother (who was herself a musician and violin teacher for 38 years).