Wuthering Heights

I have just finished reading that literary classic, Wuthering Heights, for the first time.  I always felt that my education was lacking, not having read it, so I downloaded it onto my tablet to read on vacation.  The jacket speaks to consuming passions, turbulent and tempestuous love story, and masterpiece of imaginative fiction.  What a load of hooey!  It's a terrible book, full of unlikeable characters, spoiled brats and domestic violence.  There's no love in this story.  There's obsession, manipulation, deceit, but nothing that I would recognize as love.  Cathy and Heathcliff deserved each other; too bad they ruined two families instead.  Thank heavens Emily Bronte didn't write another book.  Phooey!

Home!

Arrived home last night.  So nice to be around familiar things.  My fist reaction was, "Wow, it's cold in here!"; second was, "I didn't remember our bedroom was this big!"  Now, laundry time ....

More football

So here we are in the Seattle airport waiting for our flight to Victoria, and it seems that there is another important football game on.  Every TV in the place is tuned to a single station.  There is little talk, but loud cheering on occasion.   I think the Seattle Seahawks are playing ...  :-)

The end ...

This is the last night on board.  We had a long - very long :-)  - dinner in the Horizon Court, complete with a full bottle of wine. This was also the Captain's last broadcast message.  Don't know if we're showing our Canadian bias but, boy, this Captain is a good communicator.  He, once again, thanked those passengers who kept an eye out for  the lost crew member of the Grand Princess.

We spent the day in Ensenada, Mexico.  Just perfect weather.

Packing tonight in anticipation of an early departure in the morning.  (Hurry up and wait ... and wait ....and ...)  Good holiday, despite the tragedy of the missing crew member.  Made some good friends - again - especially George from Romania, Damir from Croatia, Tijana from Serbia, Galyna from the Ukraine, and Arvie from the Philippines. 
 
BTW, did you know that the TV series The Love Boat was filmed aboard the Pacific Princess?  The Princess cruise line broadcasts the series on their onboard TV  ... :-)

Next stop - Victoria!

Breakfast of champions

The breakfast buffet on the cruise ship is not your regular hotel buffet. There are some interesting food choices , I suppose because of the varied nationalities and preferences of the passengers and the crew.  So, I've been trying some new things, instead of the usual breakfast choices of eggs, toast, cereal, fruit, smoked salmon and cream cheese, bacon and sausage (not all at once:-) ).  My new favourite side for breakfast is fried rice.  Mmmm mmmm.  I've never been a leftover-pizza-for-breakfast kinda gal, but I certainly could add leftover fried rice to my breakfast menu.  And then there's the bread and butter pudding.  Growing up, this was one of my favourite desserts but, if you think about it, it's a reasonable breakfast option - eggs, milk, bread, butter, sugar - why, it's practically health food!

Aye! Aye!

Tom and I met the Captain this morning.  We were having breakfast in the Horizon Court when this gentleman in a white uniform stopped by our table to wish us a good morning and ask if we were enjoying our breakfast.  I did what I always do when meeting a member of the crew:  check first to see where they're from - Canada!; check second for their name - Todd McBain.  "OH!" I said, "You're the Captain!"  We had a nice chat.  Tom told him that we were from Victoria, and the Captain told us that he was originally from Edmonton, but now lived in Vancouver.  He also told us that he had been stationed in Esquimalt when he was in the navy.  He wished us a good day and proceeded to stop and converse with all the other diners on his way through the room.  Cool!

Kona

When we diverted earlier in the  cruise to assist in the search for the Grand Princess's missing crew member, we were sufficiently delayed  that we missed our stop in Maui.  So Princess Cruises changed our itinerary and worked  in a stop at Kona, back on the Big Island, as an alternative.  We've never been to Kona before, so it was great for us.  Interestingly, it is quite similar to Lahaina, Maui.  It's a tender port, with a pleasant touristy area quite close  to the dock, and dolphins and whales frequently visible.  The weather in Kona is the best it has been the whole trip, too: sunny and very warm.  Had a great time!

As an additional bonus,we found a store with the most amazing stock of Baggallinis.  Couldn't leave without buying at least one ...:-)