Home & Away - Day 1

Philip and I thoroughly enjoyed the break we were blessed to have this last week. We just finished a 7 day cruise on the eastern Med. We flew home from Rome to London today. Philip flew from London to Germany for his eye surgery on Tuesday (please keep him in your prayers! not only the surgery but the stress of the logistics involved in the surgery has been very difficult!!!) We of course want to share with you our trip. I was hoping to be able to whilst we were away, however the internet was about $.50 per minute so that obviously DIDN'T happen. I'm going to post our travel journal entries and some pictures one day at a time for you this week.

DAY 1

After a very stressful 24 hours prior to the start of vacation (realizing we had missed online check in and learning that it was actually over an hour from the airport to the pier where we needed to board the ship . . . among other things), we were finally off on our way. Joni Fishback was a dear and brought us to Stansted Saturday morning. We left the house at 6 (well, more like 6:15).

We flew from London to Rome and then paid more for a taxi ride to the pier than we had for our tickets to fly to Rome (180 euro – OUCH! Not a real fun way to start the trip, but what can you do?)

We checked in and boarded the ship. It felt glorious to BE on the long anticipated vacation. We had some lunch and spent time exploring the ship. That evening at dinner we were seated with a young couple from Newfoundland who was on their honeymoon. Philip, of course, did a beautiful job with the art of using open questions to stimulate meaningful conversation.

Philip decided that in order to combat the vacation pounds that we would not allow ourselves to use the elevators (there are 14 floors in the ship mind you). About half way through the afternoon he wanted to abandon that idea but I refused to let him.

Following an after-dinner show we took a late-night dip in the hot tub.

It is interesting watching Philip explain “what he does” when people ask. I asked him at what point does he decide if it’s wise to tell someone in the military. He explained to me that if they are asking only one tier questions (i.e. “What do you do?”) he tells them that he works for the government. If they ask what he does, he then usually feels okay to explain that he’s in the military.

right: Philip acquainted himself with the frozen yogurt machienes early in the trip. Luckily he had personal trainer Joy to force him to use the stairs (all week we used the elevator 3 or 4 times total - not too bad for 14 flights and 7 days!)