Wednesday, December 17, 2014
We crossed a time zone in the night, and arrived at San Juan a little before 1:00 p.m. Since we have been at a port out of the United States jurisdiction, there was a little time spent with customs and “clearance” before they opened the gangway. It was a warm day, and I spent much of the morning with the lady whose husband died last night making arrangements for his body to be removed from the ship by a San Juan Funeral Home. She will remain on board until tomorrow as flights from St Thomas are more convenient to her home than from San Juan. This will also allow time for her children to get to the family home from their homes in Canada. I called her Pastor, and alerted him. He was very grateful and seemed to know this couple well. The deacon and his wife from Our Lady of Good Council Parish in Farmington, MI have been a great help with comforting this woman. Once everything was settled for her, Deacon Vince and his wife Jodi joined me exploring more of San Juan that I had I not explored the last time I was here. I also wanted to figure out what and how to explore next month when I’m back with my sister and her friend Judy Filler. Last year the Cathedral was closed when we were here, but today it was wide open, and we spent some time looking around. Since it was fairly hot today, we needed refreshment after walking up the hill to the Cathedral. Sangria was the perfect order of the day on a delightful terrace near the Cathedral Square.
I have not paid much attention to the movies being shown on this cruise, but today’s film is Guardians of the Galaxy caught my attention, but I didn’t have time to go. However, there is 10:00 pm showing, and I might make it if I don’t watch the ship sailing out of this beautiful harbor. With Mass at 8:00 this morning, I was forced to miss another attempt to attend the “FAB ABS” class. After making ribbon napkin rings yesterday, they made ribbon roses today. Don’t expect me to bring any home. There was an “Anit-Aging Solutions” program that I thought about, but by the time I made up my mind, I forgot what I was going to do.
Last night because of the death on board, I was not able to attend Hanukkah, but tonight I came back to the ship to be present, and I’m glad I did. The stage show tonight was called: “Recycled Percussion”. They handed out pots and pans, sticks and spoons as well as EAR PLUGS to people at the door. I took one look at that participation entertainment event and headed the other way. You could hear the banging all over the ship and half the way through San Juan. Ridiculous. Much more fun was Karaoke up in the Crows nest. I laughed till tears ran down my face at some of the people who can’t wait to get a microphone in their hands; and then there were a couple of people who ought to be on “America’s got talent”. More tomorrow from St Thomas, V.I Here is a look at the Walls of San Juan and the old gate into the city.
