Rock the Boat, don’t tip the boat over

If I had to describe with a color the way I felt today it’d be green.  Blech. We’re in pretty rocky seas it seems and boy oh boy my stomach was not happy. Turns out though, a couple pretzel rolls and some coffee ice cream and I’m just fine.  I do wonder if it was the beer, mixed drink or the wine from yesterday that helped me with my “green” ness. 

Today we’re at sea.  I get bored usually the days we’re at sea.  Today has been different. We got up and did breakfast, then I went off to job.  The jogging track was half closed due to high winds.  And it seems quite challenging to jog when the boat is rocking.  So I went instead to the gym and tried the treadmill.  Not so successful there either. The treadmill looks out onto the ocean and that rocking sensation almost did me in.  Not being defeated I spent 20 minutes on the elliptical and called it a day.  I’m getting enough walking in lately I don’t feel like I need to overly exercise…yet.

Yesterday we boarded the boat around 1 and found our rooms quickly.  I had arranged to surprise the girls with sparkling wine, cheese and chocolate covered strawberries. The wine was here but not the rest. I had to call down to room service three times to get the cheese delivered and by then it was almost dinner so we opted to save the strawberries for today.  I’ll be having a conversation with the front desk about their “ready and waiting in your room” guarantee.

We spent most the afternoon familiarizing ourselves with the ship. It’s laid out a lot like all the other ships I’ve been on.  We’re on the 11^th floor though so we spend a lot of time taking the stairs. The main café is one floor above (cafeteria style dining) and the rest of just about everything we want to do is on the 6^th and 7^th floor.  So even without a workout I’m trying to take the stairs. It’s hard though when the ships rocking so much. I look like a drunken sailor.

Backing up slightly, Tuesday in NY we opted to do the Hop-on and Hop-off bus tour. It was overcast, cold and raining.  Good times. Being from Seattle though I couldn’t let something little like rain get in my way. I found a seat on the top deck and I stayed put. Unfortunately I couldn’t take too many photos, but I had seen most of that before so I wasn’t too worried. 

In the afternoon it let up some, finally. We hopped off at Time Square and spent some time wondering around there. We found, almost immediately, a Starbucks and we all got something warm in us. While there I noticed they had a fun little camera app that we then spent a couple of minutes taking some fun photos.

 

We walked around some more in search of SL SIL’s scarf guy. We knew we needed scarves now for the rest of the trip, it was just that chilly.  Found him then decided we were ready for lunch. We asked his buddy Bubba (that’s not really his name but that’s what I’m calling him) and he directed us to Virgiles BBQ just down the street. We walked over there and stumbled onto an Irish Pub called O’Donoghue’s just next store, so we chose that instead.

After filling ourselves up we need to get to 42^nd and 8^th to hop back on the bus and do the Central Park loop. On our way, Miss Sacramento saw a restaurant from Guy Fieri and stopped to take a photo for her friends. Leaning into the window she noticed that Guy Fieri himself was in the restaurant.  She bolted in, followed by mom, SL SIL and I.  Guy was nice enough to let us take some  photos with him.  We all wished we knew that restaurant was there before we ate lunch.  Next time.

We found ourselves on the Central Park loop and the rain/mist let up mostly. It was still chilly on the top deck, but I suffered through. Central Park really is something amazing. In the middle of all that concrete – a park.

By the time we finished with that we needed to book back to the hotel as the other two travelers made it to the hotel and were waiting for us.  We warmed up, cleaned up and hopped into a taxi to meet the Nephew and his GF for dinner in Little Italy (Little Italy is getting smaller and smaller these days. It’s barely two blocks. By the time I get to NY again it’ll be gone no doubt and Chinatown will have taken over).

Dinner was at Angelo’s and as expected it was delicious. I had the Fusilli Bolognese – of course the Bolognese.  It was very tasty that I even asked if the chef was single. Sadly no, which is probably better. I’d weigh a ton if he cooked for me.

After Angelo’s I swore I ‘d never eat again, and yet…the Nephew took us to Ferrara’s who have the best cannoli in the world I think. Yum.  And no calories because I am on vacation.

There, so that gets you caught up to where we are now. Tomorrow we’re in Halifax Nova Scotia. I’ve signed up for a Shutterbug’s dream excursion – as has the MomUnit.  No telling what the weather’s going to be like, but let’s hope for the best. It’s sunny and beautiful out there right now.