Elizabeth Thornton (extreme left) sends email while Robin (right) reads in the ship library.
Tech note: photo merged from two separate shots using the Photo Merge command in Photoshop CS3.
It occurred to me that at some point in the future -- the year 8008 for instance -- cruise accommodations will look just like this, except it'll be the Holland Galactic m.s. Volendam (still "m.s" for Motor Steam). The Captain's voice blares from the intercom: "If you've booked a planet excursion, please meet on Deck 900 to board the launch. Be sure you have your ship card and a photo hologram with you in order to re-board the ship." Or maybe not -- I'm just saying...
Today we were docked at Curaçao all day. Robin's mother took a trolley tour. Curaçao was discovered by Alonso D' Ojeda in 1499. It's name is Portuguese for "Heart."
Robin and I stayed on board the ship, checked email, posted a blog or two. We watched a great movie at the Wajang Theater. The name escapes me, but it was a masterpiece of character development and universal themes (love, honor, betrayal), just like Shakespeare. Interesting that the cruise people were insightful enough to include this film at the same time that Shakespeare is being studied and performed on the ship. Hopefully someone besides me noticed the connection. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's smart enough to see the parallels. Oh yeah, I remember now -- it was "Mr. Bean's Holiday." Great stuff. I cried.
After the movie, Elizabeth Thornton, Robin, and I went to the 9th deck to have a drink in the Crow's Nest bar. Nice place. Great views. They stay open until 1:30 am. But if they have customers, they can stay open until 5 am. Considering the cost of drinks here, only rich people will be still drinking at 5 am.
At 6 pm I went to David Pogue's presentation about Leopard, Apple's new operating system. Very entertaining. Very informative.
We decided to pass on the Chocolate Extravaganza being offered after dinner. Just walking past the spread of chocolate desserts added 5 pounds. On a related note, one of the patrons of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival said he'd warned the Festival director that if he didn't start getting younger audiences, he'd have to start installing wider seats.
We've departed Curaçao and are headed North-West, in the direction of the Venezuela and Columbia coasts. Next stop: Panama Canal. We'll be at sea all day tomorrow (Thursday) and tomorrow night, then enter the Panama Canal at Cristobal at 5:00 am Friday.
