Mindworks of Whimsicality

Alooooha! I’m now back home safe and sound… maybe not so sound, as the washing machine’s been non-stop for the past day and a half with ALL THE LAUNDRY to go through! (We packed enough clothes so we’d never have to use the on-board laundromat). Speaking of the laundromats, there were rumors about people getting kicked off the ship in Rarotonga. Apparently someone had left their clothes to dry in a dryer in the laundromat and took off in the meantime to do something more productive than watch the spin cycle. However, when they were gone, along came another passenger, who whinged (”winj”– Aussie talk for “complain”) about that dryer being occupied, so what do they do? They take out all that other person’s drying laundry and throw in their own. Original laundry person comes back, sees clothes on floor, is not pleased, etc etc– a fight or two broke out over this matter (one among women, one amongst guys, and I didn’t know guys ever did laundry). Crazy shenanigans on board the Sun Princess!

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The cruise has been really fun so far! After visiting Dravuni Island, we hit Samoa, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia. There are five sea days between Bora Bora and Hawaii, during which we’ll cross the equator– which involves a ceremony, going from pollywogs to shellbacks– and that ceremony involves passengers, so I’ve signed up. Apparently it’s pretty messy (meringue, Jell-O, spaghetti sauce…..) so we’ll see if my name gets drawn out of the hat for that Then we’ll be doing some scenic cruising by Christmas Island, during which we’ll sing Christmas carols and possibly decorate makeshift Christmas trees. It’s the end of July, and we’re on the equator– what better time to celebrate Christmas??
And before I get to the details of my latest adventures, I’ll start a list of interesting foods encountered on the ship.
- Lemon chicken soup :: Now they say there was chicken, or perhaps chicken broth in this, but upon further inspection those slivers floating around in the broth were actually shreds of lemon. Two words I found summed up this serving quite nicely: DISH SOAP. The lemon-smelling kind.
- Glop and rice and glop :: Seeing this glop (my greatest apologies for forgetting the actual name) at the buffet, it had the 50/50 appeal: 50% chance it could be excellent, 50% chance it could be disgusting. Though it didn’t necessarily taste bad, the essence of it was too weird to go back for seconds. Two words that sum up its taste: BABY POWDER.
And why they’re serving us dish soap and baby powder on this ship is beyond me. Maybe it’s because they’ve got some two thousand passengers to feed and are getting desperate to find food sources, that or else the chefs are being creative. They’re also out of green tea and haven’t restocked! Tsk tsk tsk; overall, though, the meals have been pretty good.
And at night, at sea, it’s really something to go to the unlit front of the ship and look at the gajillions of stars out there!
Let’s get onto some adventures!

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Hey everyone! Been a while since I’ve blogged, so it’s time to give you the first set of cruise updates (and photos!) from my 28-day cruise from Sydney, Australia up to San Francisco, California! The ship’s been entertaining so far– most of the passengers are Aussies, and it’s really strange being the “foreign” guest!

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Well, I guess this is “toodles” for about a month– I’ll be flying out to Australia over the course of approximately 22 hours as of tomorrow night, from which point I’ll hop on a cruise ship and sail my way up to San Francisco over the course of 28 days
Time zones are going to be interesting: the 21st happens twice on the trip
And yes, I’m bringing a sketchbook and plenty of art materials (and pencils, which hopefully the customs people won’t declare as ’sharp, pointy dangerous weapons’). We’ll be visiting Auckland (NZ), Fiji, Samoa, Rarotonga (Cook Islands), have a few stops in French Polynesia, and a few stops in Hawaii. YAY! Going to be a fuuuuun trip I’ll blog whenever I can of whatever adventures happen and whatever art happens to seep into my sketchbook Speaking of which… read on for a bunch of new drawings

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In less than a week, I’m leaving on a 28-day-long cruise that starts in Australia and ends up in San Francisco. With all that time away, one certainly must pack appropriately. And with all the air travel, you really don’t want to mess up and grab someone else’s luggage, where you may end up with someone’s life-long cherished coin collection when what you were really after was some shampoo.
In order to prevent such horrors (and also as an extra measure that the luggage NOT be lost), I painted up my suitcases like no one else’s. Meticulous detail and hours of laborious work follow….. AND PLEASE!!!! If you see me running around with one (or two, or three or all four, given I sprout a few extra arms) SAY HELLO! Never know who you’ll run into at the airport!

Suction-Footed Tweep

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Cruise and Islands
Helicopter Ride

Alooooo-HA!

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Been a while since I’ve done an update on the cruise so far, so I’ll wrap up all the islandy adventures now– we’re on day 13 of the cruise, meaning in 3 days we’ll be disembarking.
Last you heard was of the awesome helicopter ride in Kauai! That was day 3 of the islands– day 4 was in Honolulu, with tremendously tall hotels and really fancy stores (Burbury, Fendi, etc.) The biggest goal that day was to get to Waikiki Beach and float around in the water. But… the water was cold! Laying on the beach and walking around was what I resorted to– and the weather did get nice and toasty around 4 or so. So a minimal tan has been achieved on this trip
Stop 5 was Maui– saw the banyan tree, walked all the way up and down Front Street, visited quite a few art galleries (really nice ones too– and fell in love with Todd White’s work), then saw the old guy on the street yelling all sorts of stuff to passersby, his Bible quite saggy and his guitar leaning against a fire hydrant (last year I couldn’t figure out where he kept it, now I know). No huge purchases were made, it was a day for browsing… and on Front Street, the store system goes like so: jewelry shop, ABC store, jewelry shop, art gallery, jewelry shop, Whaler store, jewelry shop, clothes, clothes, jewelry, ABC, jewelry, art, jewelry . . . and so on and so forth. Even with all the repetition, it was a nice stop to tie up the islands with.
The entertainment has been pretty good so far– the dancers are amazing, and the performers that they bring on have been really well (singers, even the famous ventriloquist Willie, with Lester). Last night’s show was the crew talent show, which was kicked off in an interesting way….
Walking to a seat in the theatre can be a bit of a challenge because sometimes you’ll come across a person or two who have fallen alseep in their seats and won’t move to let you pass. Last night, however, the social staff threw balloons into the crowd, then passed around empty balloons for everyone to blow up– and soon the air was filled with colorful orbs flying every which way! (elderly-friendly fun) There was a guy who hogged all the balloons and then tied them together (not as much fun as watching 5 bazillion balloons float about independently of each other), and then there was the grinch with the sharp pencil that popped all the balloons that came near him. And that was better than the actual show

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Today’s stop was at Nawiliwili, Kauai. The last time I was here, the visual that was most memorable was that of… what I think was a defunked cannery. As I stepped off the boat and onto the dock, I finally recognized my surroundings: a large parking lot with a few slots for trolleys, tour buses and shopping shuttles to file into to pick up passengers. The joke about this stop is that not only were there the shuttles to Hilo Hattie’s and Wal*Mart, but a bonus as well: K-Mart! (Imagine, coming over two thouand miles just to go to Wal*Mart, etc…. which isn’t to say that those shuttles are avoided; everyone takes the trips anyway. Who can resist)? Anyway, we already had our fill of shopping at Hilo and didn’t feel much like hitting the stores; we were interested in visiting the Fern Grotto, and upon asking a taxi driver we found that it would cost $21 just to get to someplace nearby the Grotto, and that it might not even be open– but if it was, it would maybe cost $15 to get in (and then another $21 to drive back). Didn’t sound like the best deal, so we headed back toward the ship.
Then we saw a new bus in one of the bus slots: Air Kauai.
Air? Like flying in say…. a heeeeellllliiicopptterrrr??!
Snatching up a brochure from the driver, we immediately called to make reservations. After a few calls to really make sure our voice was heard, they let us have a couple of slots!!!

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Well I’m on the fourth day of my Hawaiian cruise, and so far we’ve seen nothing of Hawaii– but give us a couple more days and we’ll land there!

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