Day 11: 1 of 5 consecutive sea days

Another day in the books. Before I start on today I must first correct an error. The ship is moving at 20 knots not "nautical mile per hour" or whatever it was I said. I don't even know where that came from. Like 10 minutes after I posted that it hit me what I wrote. I guess I'm just a little too relaxed. Anyway.

Today is our 1st day at sea of 5 straight. No land in sight & haven't even seen another ship. We are moving at 20.9 knots (27 is full speed). The high today was 77 degrees and overcast at times. We are 776 nautical miles from Madeira and 1,854 nautical miles from our next stop, St. Maarten. The sea depth is 17,100 feet- that's like 3 miles! Pretty scary huh? The best part was today sitting in the lobby of a cruise ship, sailing the Atlantic, a guy walks by with a t-shirt, "Titanic Swim Team 1912". Priceless. 

I woke up today pretty early just like every day. It's weird. Each night we're changing the time but each morning I'm still waking up at 6am. I got up today and wrote my blog, checked e-mail and got ready. I'm starting to get sick of food, so I just had a bowl of cereal in my room. Seriously it's so much food! At 10am my dad went to a lecture on cruising where he learned that the average person gains 7lbs on a cruise. God help me. The average cruise is a week- we're on for two! I feel like I've gained about 300 lbs so at this point I'd be happy with just 7lbs. 

While my dad was at that lecture my mom & I sat by the pool. It's warm out but there is a very strong, cool breeze. I sat with a towel over my legs and another around my shoulders. I was really getting into my book, so when it was time to meet my mom & dad for the next cooking demonstration, Saffron Risotto, I decided just to skip it and stay by the pool. I sat by the pool and read 5 chapters on my Kindle- love that thing! While I was there all bundled up one of the top officers walked by and apparently I looked pretty pathetic because he offered me a blanket. It's really warm, except if you're sitting in the shade & in the breeze, which I was 'cause it seemed to become overcast once I got out there. 

My parents finished up with the cooking demonstration so we all headed to get some lunch. After lunch my mom and I headed to a "tasting" while my dad headed up to the top deck forward to read for a while. My mom & I went to an oil and vinegar tasting. It was really cool. If you've ever been to a wine tasting or beer flight it was just like that just with oil and vinegar. They had three oils for us to try and three vinegars. We had bread to dip in each to try. They told us all about oil first and then vinegar. They taught on how to pick a good quality one, what not to by & when to use and not use each type. It was really cool and we got to try a really good oil- lemon olive oil. It was so good! You can buy it like that or make it yourself. Just put some lemon rind in olive oil in the refrigerator for 10 - 14 days and then remove it from the refrigerator. You don't want to cook with this, rather drizzle it over a salad or some fish. Really good. Another tidbit is to never store oil in the refrigerator just keep it on the counter.

After that they had a special guest, Paige from Extreme Makeover Home Edition. She was supposed to tell us a bunch of backstage secrets and stuff like that. It ended up being the most nauseating thing ever- and it had nothing to do with the sea conditions. She was obnoxious and needed a taste of humble pie. The whole hour all we heard was her talk about herself. The ONLY interesting fact we learned was that they actually makeover two homes at the exact same time. When Ty goes to his "secret room" he's actually flying on a plane over to the other house they're working on and filming over there. That's why many of the episodes have different designers. The homes are built in 5 days, they have 1 day to decorate and 1 day for filming. Some of the crew show up 3 weeks early, secretly, to work with the town officials to get permission, permits, close roads etc. They sometimes will choose a house but if the neighbors don't give an okay, or the town, they can't do it. The families are surprised, but with all that stuff going on their bound to know, so they're told they're one of five families and that they'll find out whether they're picked on XX day- that's why they already have microphones on. All that information is all I got from the hour long love fest- she really loves herself. Saturday she is going to do a questions and answers hour, so I think I'll go. It will be interesting to see how she turns each question back to herself.

After that I went to my room to take a nap. The rocking of the boat was really making me sleepy so I figured why fight it. I ended up sleeping on and off until it was time to get ready for the show and dinner. Tonight's show was a brand new one, Villains Tonight. It was cute. The beginning was pretty cheesy but the second half was much better. There were some pretty funny moments. My parents weren't fans, because "the villains are supposed to be bad not liked". They're really sounding old huh? I love traveling with them, but my God did they get old. Literally, no exaggerating, everything I say this entire trip I have to repeat 'cause one of the two of them (or both!) didn't hear me. You wanna talk about working on your patience... try having to say everything twice for 10 days and still not loose it. I deserve a medal! I think I'm going to buy them souvenirs for this trip - matching hearing aids. 

After the show we headed to dinner. I feel like the portions are getting bigger and bigger each night. The only thing I finished was my appetizer. I couldn't finish my salad, entree or even dessert. After dinner I was a lazy bum again and just headed to bed. I don't know what it is, but I just am so sleepy by the time I'm finished dinner. Now our dinner time is the late seating, so we go at 8:30pm and by the time we're done it's 10pm. So it's not like I'm going to bed super early but still. I feel old. Oh, God! I think I'm spending too much time with my parents- they're rubbing off on me. Next I'm going to start not being able to hear anything. Great!

Have a good night.