A day at sea, a picture with the Captain

One of the best parts of cruising has to be the "day at sea" where everything is free (well, almost everything) and the dress code is about as casual as you can make it. You can see how casual I got in my picture taken with Captain Rune, from Norway. This was my second time to sail on Grandeur of the Seas under this gentleman, but my first picture. He's the guy with shoulder boards that display his rank. I'm the guy with the well filled out T-shirt. That shirt cost me $10 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and five laps around the deck (one mile). Being the overachiever, I did six, but didn't quite catch up in time to lap the field.

I took another picture (below) from deck ten overlooking the pool area and the upper deck where sunbathing is always in style. This was the day that we just hung out, and I made a run at the Art Auction on board. My prior cruise had gotten me in a fair amount of trouble, having gone a bit overboard (no pun intended) on buying art. This time, I was only allowed to bid on one artist, and only IF that artist had a piece to complement an earlier purchase. The artist is Scott Jacobs, and he is best known for drawing Harley Davidson motorcycles and wine bottles - he also draws Corvettes. I found what I wanted, and purchased that print which featured a 1963 "split window coupe" in red. Apparently, another in the audience also found that an attractive purchase, and through that shared appreciation I met a young mentalist/magician named Daniel Cullen. I had won a drawing with four free art items, several of which I already had won on a previous cruise. I was happy to arrange for this fellow Hoosier to get two of the prints I already had, and in return he did a fantastic job of showing my wife and me some amazing sleight of hand and card tricks. All in all, another memorable day on the water, with only one final stop before returning home. Stay tuned for a day at Coco Cay.