We were scheduled to visit Royal Caribbean’s private island. Unfortunately, winds were high and the water choppy. This is a stop where they have to shuttle us on small boats. The weather didn’t permit safe operation. Instead of 2 days at see, we will have 3. The stock of books on my Kindle is limited, and I can read only so much a day. I decided to pay an outrageous price for a day of Internet.

Fortunately, our cruise became much less weird. Many people stayed on the ship in Miami. Royal Caribbean tours are expensive. Some find the abundance of hawking, loud environment, and crowded port area overwhelming. Fortunately for me, I am married to Danita. She found a free trolly that would take us from the port to the Vizcaya Museum. Even though we already knew about the trolly, getting to it was not trivial. My phone with a pre-loaded Miami map and GPS capability helped us get through the tourist traps. We found the trolly stop, and met two port employees who was planning to take the trolly. All this wasn’t quite enough. They changed the trolly route. The sign for the old stop hadn’t been taken down. Even some trolly drivers were confused. We just missed a trolly that stopped at the old (incorrect) stop. We finally got everything figured out and found ourselves on the way to our destination.

The Vizcaya Museum is one of the houses built by the ultra rich during the guilded age just as WW I was starting in Europe. The owner was the principle of Harvester International, at the time the 4th largest company in the US. Following the practice of the day, he built a house where each room was decorated in a different period, frequently using genuine artifacts. One room was fashioned after an Italian villa built in the designated period. By this I mean the found a villa they liked and purchased a room. They took down all the wall coverings, moldings, doors, etc. They cut them up into pieces and shipped them to the US. The room stayed in storage until the house was built, with one room exactly matching the dimensions of the villa room. Then they reassembled everything in the new room. Another example is in the Renesassance room. They built an enclosure to hide the pipes of an organ, with two doors for access in case of maintenance. To decorate the doors, they bought a genuine Renessance painting, cut it in half, and used each half of the painting to cover one of the doors. All this for one of the owner’s 4 houses, which were each used 3 months a year. We had a delightful time.

The next (and last) stop was in Nassau. The tourist hawking is unbelievable. Fortunately, our experience in Miami helped us stay strong. The rule is, don’t make eye contact with anybody within a half mile of the port. Danita and I walked around a little bit, then went back to the ship for lunch. I went out in the afternoon to try my hand at snorkeling. This was my first experience snorkeling, so I chose one of the trips available through Royal Caribbean. I figured that an operator that allowed their insane guests to get injured wouldn’t be associated with Royal Caribbean very long. I was more right than I knew. We started with a ride on a catamaran. When we arrived at our reef, they asked if anybody had had heart problems, no matter how long ago. I was the only one. Before long I found myself below decks, answering questions and signing waivers.And I was informed that wearing a floatation vest was not an option.

I wasn’t the only person with no experience snorkeling. One gentleman went down the ladder, immediately came back up, and threw himself on the deck as if he had escaped death by the narrowest of options. A healthy young lady immediately swallowed some sea water and got sick. An athletic young man with his own gear quickly gave up because his mask leaked. It took me 3 tries to get going. The first time I slipped off the ladder before I was ready and had to pull myself back up. The second time one of my flippers came off after one kick. I was offered smaller flippers but decided to free swim (without flippers). Third time was the charm. I swam around looking at fish, coral, and underwater fins. The wind picked up, the water became choppy, and I took on a little sea water. I surfaced, looked around, and was amazed at how far I was from the ship. I decided I had done really well for my first snorkeling and headed back to the boat. I had to surface frequently and adjust my direction. I was out for 10 minutes or so out of a 1-hour swim. But I felt satisfied and successful.

We have 3 at-sea days to return to take a 2-day tip back to Baltimore. But their berth in Baltimore is for Saturday, so we won’t be home early. The crew has been great. It’s not possible to offer more food, and the options for offering more entertainment are limited, but they’re doing what they can to make our extra sea day pleasant.

I hope this finds everybody doing well. I’ll be checking Email tomorrow morning. We’ll be home Saturday.