Panama Cruise, day 2 and 3

Day 2 was a “sea day” meaning that there were no ports to visit or excursions to enjoy. That doesn’t mean it was boring, on the contrary, I loved sea days. There were lots of activities to do or you could just find a nice place to sit in the solarium and get caught up on your reading. Day 2 started out just like I had planned. I got up at 5:30 a.m. and went to the gym. I walked for half an hour and then lifted weights for another half an hour. By the time I got back to the stateroom, Beth was up and had already been to the coffee shop onboard (Latte-tudes. Cute, huh?). She noticed in the Compass (the daily activities list, etc.) that there was an art auction that afternoon with complimentary champagne. Now there are two words that should never be used in the same sentence! Free AND champagne?! What were they thinking? Add that to “art auction” and watch out, now you’re messing with nitroglycerine. (Come to think of it, I guess that WAS what they were thinking.) We did our share of free champagne, and theirs, and theirs, and oh yeah, theirs. And we even bought a little art for the house. Beth had the good sense to stop there with the alcohol. I, on the other hand, have never been known for my sense, good or otherwise. I keep telling myself, “live and learn”, but I keep livin’ without learning a damn thing. I switched to wine at dinner, then on to the Cuba Libre’s (that’s rum and coke to you land lubbers) after dinner. Well that takes us up to 8pm and that’s all I can tell you about day 2.
My head still hurts thinking about day 3. Day 3 was our first Port-of-call: Labadee, Haiti. A private section of the island owned exclusively by Royal Caribbean Intl. We had a kayaking trip scheduled, but I wasn’t up for it. In fact, I never made it off the boat when we got there. Beth did her kayaking and shopping and graciously came back to check on me (have I said how much I LOVE this woman?). I hadn’t moved. I was frozen in time with only one leg in my pants and both fists still wrapped around the waistband and slumped sadly to one side. She convinced me to get up and showered and to at least try to see some of Haiti. The shower did make me feel better and by the time we ate a little breakfast and caught the tender over, I was ready. She had talked to the kayak people and they had agreed to move my trip to the 1 o’clock trip so I wouldn’t miss out. We saw a couple of shows and did a little shopping and wading in the ocean and then it was my turn to kayak. Normally I like kayaking but I got my payback this day. The kayaks they use are tandems meaning 2-seaters. If only one person uses it, they have to sit in the back and since it’s built for 2, they are very unstable. The offered to seat someone with me but I had been kayaking before and figured I could handle it. It never occurred to me that I had never been in a tandem kayak, let alone by myself. When one person sits in the back of a tandem kayak, the front end sticks up in the air and acts somewhat like a sail. I spent the next 2 hours fighting the currents, winds, and aggravation. Yep, I’d say I got mine back in spades that day. We did a little snorkeling and then caught the last tender back to the ship. No wine with dinner that night and we were back in the room and in our pj’s by 8:30. We were both exhausted but I’m glad I didn’t miss out. Day 4 was another sea day and man was I glad. So much for getting up and hitting the gym every morning.