CRUSING, Part 2

BULLETIN from Argentina (Thursday, November 20) - the family on the banks of the Parana River in Rosario, Argentina - where they're attending a quinceañera. They flew from Orlando to Miami to Buenos Aires on Tuesday night.

Visiting an Argentinian shoe store! (on Friday)

CRUISING - Part 2

Below is a photo essay for the Thanksgiving holiday, before I begin a new Writing & Editing series. Here is Part 2 of the Caribbean cruise the family and I took last August. 

After touring separately on St. Thomas, we were all together for a full-circle bus tour of our next port of call - St. Maarten/St. Martin - an island amicably divided since the seventeenth century into jurisdiction by the Dutch and the French. (We enjoyed the comfort of an air-conditioned full-size bus as opposed to the small open-sided lorries on St. Thomas, where it is impossible to imagine a full-size bus negotiating the roads!)

Crossing the border from St. Maarten to St. Martin

And no, there was no border guard, no stopping to show our passports.

 

To New Englanders like me, the walls just inside the French border appeared to be classic stone walls, but our driver told us they're called "slave walls" because they were constructed by slaves from the ballast stones offloaded from European ships which would be returning with their holds full of island produce.

A flat-out fake shot of St. Maarten's famous airport where airplanes skim the beach.

It really looks like this - my daughter has the videos to prove it - but I confess this is a photo of a photo passed around by our bus driver!

Naturally, while in "France," we had to visit an open-air Pâtisserie. Yum!

St. Thomas isn't the only island with amazing colors in the water.

And a fond farewell to St. Maarten as our ship pulls out of the harbor.

More ice skating on Deck 3

I actually went in the pool, but it was way too crowded. Stayed long enough for a photo!

So I went to the all-adult pool, which was just as crowded, but it had underwater bar stools, a bar, and mojitos!

Monkey on a wire!

That's my mojito front & center.

A fond farewell to our dining room - and the fabulous food - on Freedom of the Seas

Safely back at Port Canaveral

Waiting for our faithful picker-uppers, Lionel & Tim, just pulling in. (I waited on a bench, thank you very much!)

If you want to cruise on a truly great ship, try Royal Caribbean's  Freedom of the Seas. We loved it!

~ * ~

Coming soon: a new series based on my workshop, "The Wise Author's Approach to Writing a Better Book"

Thanks for stopping by,

Grace

For Grace's website, listing all books as Blair Bancroft, click here.

For a brochure for Grace's editing service, Best Foot Forward, click here.