She says: The pace of our trip has suddenly COMPLETELY changed. After the frenetic energy, continent hopping and little sleep of the first week and a half, we are now on a retirement home at sea. As much as we were looking forward to all the rest, it's a big adjustment. We are now reframing our days as "holiday", and not "adventure". Consequently, our blogs will not be nearly as action packed.

Here in the Aussie time zone, it was our fourth wedding anniversary yesterday. We woke up to balloons and a sign on our door and at dinner our waiters (yes, on a cruise, your service staff is plural) sang a happy anniversary song, we publicly smooched and used teamwork to blow out a candle. On the way out, one of the waiters told Matt, "No rough seas tonight!" with a sly look. I'm pretty sure it was a dirty nautical joke.

Today, due to all the great rest in our pitch black interior cabin, I was up before sunrise for a workout. For the first time in my life, I was actually up before the gym was open. I explored the exterior decks in silence, which was awesome until the gym opened.

My fabulous Polish trainer, Marta, got me ready for the trip by preparing me with a weight training program before we left. We did chest, abs and biceps last night. The rocking and rolling of the ship adds a whole new element to the workout. I was particularly impressed by the dude who stayed in a perfect yogic headstand for ten minutes during rough seas as I pitched and stumbled around with my ten pound weights.

Last night, we were having a post-workout protein power up at the buffet and noticed the woman at the table next to us was getting excited about something out the window, we followed her pointing and watched as a humpback whale swam alongside the boat. A crowd joined and cheered at the window. I don't think that little guy knows what a thrill he gave us all. If he did, he'd surely have stuck around longer. It was pretty incredible.

I'm going to go see if I can wake up Matty in the dark tomb...Bible study starts soon.