We woke up Sunday morning to rainy, foggy, misty weather. It really was gloomy! We didn’t have any “tied to a schedule” plans for the day other than lunch reservations, so we weren’t in a huge hurry to get off the ship. I started my day as I did every day with a trip to the International Café for some good coffee. I really enjoyed sitting down in the empty public area watching the ship wake up while I sipped my daily caffeine fix!

 

We had a light breakfast in the Horizon Court, and then went to the dining room to line up for tender tickets around 9:30. We had about a 30 minute wait, but it was quite entertaining since my brother-in-law had thought to bring a deck of cards along (and I won two rounds of Pass the Trash). I thought the tender process went very smoothly.

When we got to shore we walked around the shops a little bit before we went to lunch. If you remember, I had not felt like I was prepared when I packed for this trip, therefore I had gotten on the plane without an umbrella. No problem, I purchased one while we were in New Jersey so I was all set. Well, I would have been all set except I left the new one at my sister’s house! It wasn’t raining when we got to shore, but it was threatening so I was off in search of an umbrella. Apparently staying dry is not a priority for souvenir shop owners, but I did finally find a place that had one umbrella left so I bought it. It went in my backpack with the hopes that I wouldn’t need it, but as you will soon see my hope was in vain.

We had made a reservation at the Mooring restaurant which is right on the harbor a very short walk from the tender pier. Ordinarily I would have left lunch to chance, but since there were 8 of us and the forecast was for awful weather I decided to make a reservation. Lunch didn’t disappoint! We started with a couple bags of doughnuts, which are lobster, crab, and shrimp fritters — unique and delicious! For my entrée I had swordfish which was excellent. I don’t remember what everyone else had, but there wasn’t any food left on our plates which is always a good sign!

 

During lunch it had started raining. Hard. Really hard. Oh, and the wind was blowing. Definitely not what you want to see when you’re about to head out on a long walk, but since we couldn’t control the circumstances we pulled up Google Maps on our phones and off we went, headed to the Cliff Walk. It was a longer walk than we thought, or maybe it was the wind blowing the rain into our faces that made it seem long. Even using our umbrellas as shields there was no way to stay dry. Luckily the rain eased of about the time we reached the beginning of the Cliff Walk, so we were able to attempt to enjoy the scenery. I didn’t take a lot of pictures and they’re not great. The weather had settled into a drizzly, misty mess, and even though my camera body and lens are weather sealed I still try to protect them from the elements, so something I love was a bit of a chore.

 

We liked seeing the mansions and trying to imagine what life must have been like when they were occupied in the summer by some of the wealthiest people in America. I’ve walked the Cliff Walk and been in some of the mansions before (when the weather was better!) and it really is difficult to try to wrap my head around that kind of lifestyle. We made it as far as the Breakers before we decided to head back to the ship.

 

We made one pit stop in town, for a guys vs. girls Skee Ball tournament! It was a lot of fun, especially because the arcade was warm and dry. After the girls lost badly we headed back to the tender dock.

 

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m always amazed at people’s behavior when they don’t want to wait in a line because it’s too cold, too hot, too wet, too sunny…you get the idea. There was some line cutting and pushing/shoving/cussing that amazed me. Where did those people think they were going and why were they so special they didn’t have to wait? We’ll never know! At any rate, we got on a tender pretty quickly and headed back to the ship to repair the damage of the day. I didn’t think “Drowned Rat” would be a good look for formal night!

 

We gathered in Vines, and Jim went to the dining room to get a beeper. Much to our surprise there was no wait! Dinner was very good, and we followed it up with a trip to the theater, but for the most part we were ready for bed after our wet adventures of the day. Some even needed a nap before the show!

 

I fell asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, dreaming of a beautiful, crisp, sunny day walking the Freedom Trail in Boston the next day.

A preview of things to come…not all dreams come true!