Friday – Cruising the North Pacific (day five)

Every day is long since we we have passed through a time zone every day since leaving Alaska. So every night we turn the clock back one hour and get an extra hour sleep. The seas remain pretty calm and the weather remains pretty good. There was rain during the night but mostly hazy sun today.

I mixed it up a bit at breakfast. An omelet instead of scrambled eggs. And papaya instead of honeydew melon or watermelon. Always bacon though! And cranberry juice.

At 11 am we attended a one-hour lecture on the History of Japan. Needless to say, it was condensed. There were emperors and shoguns and samurai. There was the Meiji Restoration. There was the arrival of the western powers. There was conquest and expansion. Pearl Harbor. Atomic bombs. And the current democracy that was put into place after WWII. You can read LOTS more if you so choose. Go here.

Lots more reading this morning too. And I started a crossword puzzle. Lunch was in the World Cafe. The food is simply amazing. Today I had some bacon wrapped meatloaf with BBQ onion on top and some Mongolian beef stew with delicious corn and green beans. Elaine had something similar.

I napped. Elaine attended another lecture. I worked on the blog and read some more. Days at sea are pretty tranquil.

Nothing really to report. Here’s a picture of the grand staircase in the Atrium on deck one. The display at the top changes continuously. The second photo is taken from halfway up the staircase looking down. It was taken at 5 pm. You can Lilliya and Tatsiana entertaining the guests with their music (which is lovely). On the right you can the Living Room Bar where we are about to have our nightly libations. If you look really closely, you can Elaine.

We had a leisurely dinner in the World Cafe. Here are pictures of me and my food. Is that a smile or a leer in the first picture? My plate consists of roast lamb with mint jelly, rice with lamb gravy, pasta, and a grilled piece of bell pepper.