(15 Weeks)
While summer vacations meant road trips during my childhood, winter vacations were for getaways to someplace warm. St. Thomas, USVI was my first winter destination. Then winter cruises became a tradition for many years. I sailed aboard the QE2 and a few other Cunard and Italian Line ships. Probably six or seven cruises in total.
Even at young age I recognized that the food was way better on the Italian Line. But regardless, these adventures were filled with wonderful memories. But like their summer counterparts, these winter vacations were probably a little different as viewed from my perspective as a child.
We decided to take our first winter vacation as parents in late 2004 when our daughter was 4 and a half. It was scheduled last minute after I secured a new job with a significant pay increase that I’d be starting at the beginning of January. We booked the last two cabins on the ship about a week before it was scheduled to set sail from New York City. Yes, two cabins because in a moment of delusional euphoria, we invited Chris’ mom.
Eleven-days that included Christmas, Chris’ birthday, and six ports of call.
Being the last cabins they were tiny, inside cabins. No windows. Not even a porthole. Daughter and grandma in one, us in the other. All started well. Embarking from New York Harbor, sailing under the Verrazzano and passing the Statue of Liberty was reminiscent of the cruises I took as a child.
By morning we were in very rough seas off Cape Hatteras, and it would be two days before we would be docking in St Thomas. Everyone – including the crew – was seasick. The girl and I spent the day huddled under blankets out on the deck in cold fresh air trying to keep our eyes on the horizon as the ship rocked and rouge waves splashed over the deck. It would be another 36 hours or so before everyone was feeling better and we had reached calmer waters.
All good, then, right? No. Then the real problems began. The girl had enough of grandma and was insisting on staying with us in our room. Chris got in a fight with his mother at Christmas Eve dinner, about what I don’t recall. We all went our separate ways on Christmas Day. The girl and I wound up spending the day on a beach excursion, grandma stayed on the ship, and Chris, in an effort to score himself some ganja, spent Christmas afternoon with a family in Grenada.
Back on the ship, there was a lot of time spent trying to avoid Grandma, and maybe some speculation about whether it was possible to throw someone overboard and get away with it.
The second to last night at sea was Chris’ birthday. His 40th – an irony since he had spent his 20th birthday at sea while in the Navy. Unhappy with the gift his mother gave him, he declared that cruises sucked, and he had “better liberty in the Navy.”
So okay, no more cruises. No more vacations with grandma. The following winter we found ourselves on a road trip to Nova Scotia. Yes, in February. We drove to Nova Scotia. What could possibly go wrong?
To be continued…
Did you really think this wasn’t going to include a fundraiser? It’s me. Of course it is! Over the course of these 60 weeks, I am hoping to raise $6000 for the children of Mercy Home for Boys & Girls (that’s just $100 a week!). To learn more about Mercy Home and my why, please visit my fundraising page. Thank you.
