This was the the day I promised to catch up on all the blogs and submit them for your review. Nope. First, we needed to get up early, say 7. Instead, we both woke up at 10am. I needed the morning to load pictures, check grammar and send out the blogs for 3 days. We were going on a kitchen tour at 10:30am. None of this happened. All night the ship was rocking and rolling. This morning is no exception. Our captain blames El Niño. The weather is cloudy, cool and windy. No one is out on deck. Many are hiding out in their staterooms. Karen isn't doing well with this movement either. She's moving slow and we barely get to breakfast. Because of the late hour, the main breakfast area is now closed but, since we usually have cereal, fruit, mush and coffee, we're in luck since all that stuff stays out longer.

We leave breakfast and Karen passes on a trip to the library where I do my best work and she reads magazines. Instead, Mom grabs a few barf bags strategically placed throughout the ship today and, by the time we reach our cabin, has filled one with her recent meal. Yuk. The constant heaving action of the ship has now caused a heaving action of her gastrointestinal system. She lies down for a while but the sea shows no sign of relenting. I hear from other passengers having traveled this route before that the first two days are often like this and many other guests are spending the day in their stateroom too, choosing to hide out in privacy, napping or watching TV. We hang in the cabin and at 2pm I ready myself for the 3pm Meet & Greet upstairs. This is the big one, 140 people and I prepare to face them alone, passing out the name tags myself. Karen is not going to make it.

While she rests, I do my duty and meet with our Cruise Critic friends and distribute my really cool badges. I exit early, missing the "Happy Hour" opportunity, to check on Karen. Still resting, I con her into getting dressed for the fancy dinner. She obliges but suggests we visit the buffet as she's not that hungry. At dinner, I have the swordfish while she has tea, soup and a couple more bags. Good idea. She also buys some wrist bands to help with seasickness for $12.

We go to the John Denver concert early to get a good seat but 10 minutes before show time, out comes the bag and we clear all the seats around us in the theater, then follow with a quick exit. The theater is located in the bow of the ship and more susceptible to wave action. Later we find some secluded seating off to the side where she can listen to the performance while discreetly utilizing her bags. The evening ends with a few additional puke bags in inventory.
 
Back to the room and Mom goes to bed. So, here am, in bed, writing today's blog. At least we get an extra hour of sleep since the ship clock is set back an hour tonight.