Love Boat: First Day At Sea

Our ship (Adventure of the Seas)

Dressed for Dinner

I'm a good kisser, as you can see . . .

Our first day at sea was a thirty-six hour trek from Puerto Rico to Barbados. Quite a distance. We also had plenty of time on our hands and we spent the first day getting acquainted with the ship (which was a floating city, a real whopper). Restaurants, spa, gym, swimming pools, shopping mall, casino, poop deck . . . this boat had everything. It even had a library. I pointed this out to Becky. "I guess I can sit in the library and read all day," I told her.

"Don't even think it," she said. (Later in the cruise, however, Becky actually joined me for an evening reading session in the library. We were the only losers doing this, of course.)

Once out at sea, our first order of business was participating in a "Muster" drill. I kept calling it the Mustard drill, but that's not the correct word. At the sound of the alarm, everyone on board had to get a life jacket, run down to the fourth deck, and prepare to board life boats. This is mandatory at sea, and images of Titanic and The Perfect Storm floated around my mind. I thought Becky looked very cute in her life vest and I kept wondering what she would look like after she took it off.

Later that evening, I gave Becky my first installment of my ten page love letter . . . I'd been working on it for a month prior to launch. I absolutely cannot disclose all that I wrote in this heartfelt letter to my wife (what I appreciate about her, what she means to me, memories of twenty-five + years, etc.) but I do know that she was very appreciative and she looked forward each night to future installments.