We’ve been on the road for six days—this time the road is the ocean!

We’re doing the “crossing” a cruise from Seattle to Australia. We left Seattle last Saturday at 1:30 under scattered cloudy skies, cool temperatures, and a brisk wind.

Seattle

We’ll sail until Friday morning and dock at Honolulu where we’ll visit the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor.

 

That evening, the ship will head to Maui and stay for two days and we’ll continue our journey with the final destination Sydney, Australia.

 

 

There are many options for eating on a cruise ship. We prefer the dining room for dinner and sharing a table with four to six other diners. We meet so many interesting people. So far, we’ve eaten with Canadians who originated from Hong Kong, a couple from Florida, and another couple from England. Later this week we met Australians.

At breakfast this morning, we met a couple who lives in Portland, Oregon—just across the river from Vancouver! Jim and Mike had a great time reminiscing growing up in the northeast neighborhood of Portland. They were familiar with different families who lived in that area.

I’m finding one of the challenges on this cruise is being able to understand the people we meet at dinner. Last night there were two gentlemen who were traveling solo. Peter (he pronounced it Petah) was from Brisbane (pronounced Bris-bun). We enjoyed conversation with him, but I had to really concentrate to understand his thick Aussie accent—most likely, he struggled to understand ours too. The other gentleman, Steve, a retired California State Patrolman, was also single, cruising four months out of the year. Steve assured us after a week or so on the cruise, the food is easier to resist. We shall see…

Jim and I introduce ourselves to the people at our table. It goes like this. “How many children do you have?” they ask.

“We have eight. Plus we have seventeen grandchildren.” Most are surprised and find it hard to believe. Then we add the caveat that we’ve only been married for 34 months. Jim begins to tell our story and every time we tell them we each were widowed, yet found each other, it’s evident they like that part of our story.

“How did you meet?” they ask

“E-harmony.”

They are amazed and their faces reflect joy and happiness for us. That is the reaction each and every time we tell them. In turn we are filled with joy and bask in the wonderful-ness of our meeting. We believe God brought us together.

Every night there’s a show with very talented musicians, dancers, comedians and singers. There’s live music —wherever you choose to be on the ship.

The best part of the cruise for me is the time Jim and I get to spend with each other. Yes, it’s true, we’re still newlyweds at 34 months, and there are many couples holding hands and enjoying their mate’s company.

I hope you’ll enjoy traveling with us on the crossing. Internet is sketchy and expensive so we’ll wait for a few days before logging on. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy lack of internet, cell phones, Facebook, and text messaging. I find I barely miss them.

Until next time, Aloha!