STORIES #39-40
Posted by Megan on Saturday, March 30, 2013
Name: Megan Diekhoff
Description of clips: Purple, standard (originally taken on the journey); small silver (found at Grand Cayman)
The first albatross I ever saw flew above my family and me while we played foosball on the tenth deck of the Disney Magic Cruise ship. The name brand of the foosball table was "Carlando," so subsequently that's what I named that bird.
Carlando flew over the vast ocean. Have I mentioned the waves yet? Of course I haven't. After all, this is only the second paragraph. If I would have mentioned the waves in the first paragraph, one might have stopped reading. Eyes would roll and one might even think that this entire story is about water and how beautiful it is. (Which, actually, is almost accurate. I just have to pretend it's not.)
Don't get me wrong, the ocean is gorgeous! But my writing of endless paragraphs about it really wouldn't do it justice. It's something everyone should see for themselves. Really, it is. Besides, I've been warned that people often skim over details when reading stories online, thus remembering only small tidbits of information. Besides, I've been warned that people often skim over details when reading stories online, thus remembering only small tidbits of grapefruit. (If you caught that, then you're still with me and I am metaphorically smiling through your screen at you. If you have no idea about what's going on...bacon.)
Anyhow, I'll go back to the idea of grapefruit. And also just food in general. Cruise lines have pretty much the best cuisine ever, and in nearly unlimited supply. I probably ate more shrimp in one week than I'll ever eat in one year again. That may or may not be an exaggeration. But I did eat a lot of shrimp.
Here's the cool thing I want to mention about the cruise line food. For those of you that don't know, this fact may surprise you like it did me.
None of it is wasted.
That's right. None. The waiters take our food scraps that put them in this giant pulverizer. As long as the ship is at least twelve miles (give or take) from the shoreline, the little smashed particles are dumped into the sea for fish to eat. Knowing this, I'll be a lot of aquatic wildlife have learned where to swim!
Speaking of which, I did see a bunch of dolphins on the trip. I was walking around deck four in circles, daydreaming, of course, and trying to stay awake because it was early afternoon but the ocean air makes me sleepy. It also makes me forget about worrying. It's pretty hard to resist relaxation when Timon and Pumba are singing "Hakuna Matata" over the intercom. I'm going to guess that wasn't a live performance. But, imagine it if you will...ah, the funny singing warthog! :)
Back to the dolphins. They were spectacular. They jumped in and out and between waves like I expected them to, only they were very dark colored. More of a navy blue in contrast to the cerulean I half expected.
The other thing I didn't expect was the anchor. I naturally assumed the ship had one, of course, but it didn't really occur to me how marvelous it truly as. Our main anchor and our spare were both vibrantly yellow. And, if I'm not mistaken, they each weigh as much as three elephants. It isn't too surprising, really, but it's an interesting perspective, mentally shoving three oversized mammals into a hefty but not quite gargantuan piece of metal or what have you. Stunning.
My English class did a project on anchors, actually. The goal was to find what kept us personally anchored in our journey of life. Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, Friends, Family, Religion, etc. It's an interesting thing to think about, really. How anchors can keep us steady and firm but also hold us back...
Anyhow, since nearly everything on the ship had a nautical theme to it, I saw plenty of passengers with shirts displaying a dazzling array of anchors. I was going to try to keep count but since I forgot I'll just say 32, because that's my favorite number. (Even though I am certain there were far over 32 anchors displayed.)
Since one of the main figurative anchors is friendship, allow me to further delve into the new friends I met on board, keeping in mind that this story is by no means in chronological order.
The family we ate dinner with each night consisted of a husband and wife, along with a girl about my age and her younger sister who was six.
The youngest girl colored in her kids' menu while the rest of us searched our own menus. I had to laugh when I saw the assortment of crayons she had been given. Someone must've really like yellow, because there were about four of that color and one of everything else.
In between eating we chatted with their family and learned that they live not too far away from some of our family on the West Coast. (I would like to call to your attention now that I nearly made a type-o that said "West Coats"...wouldn't that have been funny?) They spoke Spanish very well, so I got to practice some of the phrases I've learned in class. In fact, we learned that their eldest daughter was celebrating her "quince," which was the whole point of the cruise. What an awesome way to celebrate!!!! It made me appreciate the culture a little more, I do believe.
Speaking of culture, what Disney vacation would be complete without that famous song, "It's a Small World"? Everyone in the dining room clapped along as the song played and all the waiters and waitresses from over 60 different countries marched around the room. Our two main servers carried flags for Trinidad and South Africa. It was quite a sight to see!
Keeping on with the topic of culture, our two ports of call were amazing experiences. Our first stop was at Grand Cayman. We went to the beach there, which was really awesome. I got to swim in the ocean, which I do not get to do very often. Unfortunately it tastes awful. It's just dreadful to get that water in the eyes, mouth, nose...ugh. But it was worth it to swim with the fish and a little bit of coral. And not to mention the beautiful weather (while it was snowing back home, I enjoyed the warmth of sunshine...yes, yes indeed....okay I'll stop bragging about the weather now because I guess I'm back in the bipolar climate of the Midwest again.)
**Note: The small silver paperclip was actually found at Grand Cayman on the ground!!! Fate!!**
The second port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. That was also very beautiful. I think my favorite part about Mexico is all the colored houses. I'm not sure if it's like that everywhere or just the coast, but it surely is gorgeous. We had a great tour guide, Alen. He took us to the Mayan ruins and then to another beach. All in all, it was a fabulous place to be.
Of course there are so many other details to this story, but perhaps I will save them for another story, eh? Meanwhile, I owe the utmost thanks and love to my parents who took my sister and me on this trip. Also thank you to all the crew and other passengers of the ship this past week. I accomplished my main goals of the trip:
*Get there
*Enjoy
*Don't get sunburned (This one I am most excited about, because usually I turn into a lobster in the sun!!)
*Come back alive
Check, check, check, and CHECK!! :)
"SEA ya' real soon!"
Description of clips: Purple, standard (originally taken on the journey); small silver (found at Grand Cayman)
The Adventures of Carlando the Albatross (or Yellow Crayons)
The first albatross I ever saw flew above my family and me while we played foosball on the tenth deck of the Disney Magic Cruise ship. The name brand of the foosball table was "Carlando," so subsequently that's what I named that bird.
Carlando flew over the vast ocean. Have I mentioned the waves yet? Of course I haven't. After all, this is only the second paragraph. If I would have mentioned the waves in the first paragraph, one might have stopped reading. Eyes would roll and one might even think that this entire story is about water and how beautiful it is. (Which, actually, is almost accurate. I just have to pretend it's not.)
Don't get me wrong, the ocean is gorgeous! But my writing of endless paragraphs about it really wouldn't do it justice. It's something everyone should see for themselves. Really, it is. Besides, I've been warned that people often skim over details when reading stories online, thus remembering only small tidbits of information. Besides, I've been warned that people often skim over details when reading stories online, thus remembering only small tidbits of grapefruit. (If you caught that, then you're still with me and I am metaphorically smiling through your screen at you. If you have no idea about what's going on...bacon.)
Anyhow, I'll go back to the idea of grapefruit. And also just food in general. Cruise lines have pretty much the best cuisine ever, and in nearly unlimited supply. I probably ate more shrimp in one week than I'll ever eat in one year again. That may or may not be an exaggeration. But I did eat a lot of shrimp.
Here's the cool thing I want to mention about the cruise line food. For those of you that don't know, this fact may surprise you like it did me.
None of it is wasted.
That's right. None. The waiters take our food scraps that put them in this giant pulverizer. As long as the ship is at least twelve miles (give or take) from the shoreline, the little smashed particles are dumped into the sea for fish to eat. Knowing this, I'll be a lot of aquatic wildlife have learned where to swim!
Speaking of which, I did see a bunch of dolphins on the trip. I was walking around deck four in circles, daydreaming, of course, and trying to stay awake because it was early afternoon but the ocean air makes me sleepy. It also makes me forget about worrying. It's pretty hard to resist relaxation when Timon and Pumba are singing "Hakuna Matata" over the intercom. I'm going to guess that wasn't a live performance. But, imagine it if you will...ah, the funny singing warthog! :)
Back to the dolphins. They were spectacular. They jumped in and out and between waves like I expected them to, only they were very dark colored. More of a navy blue in contrast to the cerulean I half expected.
The other thing I didn't expect was the anchor. I naturally assumed the ship had one, of course, but it didn't really occur to me how marvelous it truly as. Our main anchor and our spare were both vibrantly yellow. And, if I'm not mistaken, they each weigh as much as three elephants. It isn't too surprising, really, but it's an interesting perspective, mentally shoving three oversized mammals into a hefty but not quite gargantuan piece of metal or what have you. Stunning.
My English class did a project on anchors, actually. The goal was to find what kept us personally anchored in our journey of life. Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, Friends, Family, Religion, etc. It's an interesting thing to think about, really. How anchors can keep us steady and firm but also hold us back...
Anyhow, since nearly everything on the ship had a nautical theme to it, I saw plenty of passengers with shirts displaying a dazzling array of anchors. I was going to try to keep count but since I forgot I'll just say 32, because that's my favorite number. (Even though I am certain there were far over 32 anchors displayed.)
Since one of the main figurative anchors is friendship, allow me to further delve into the new friends I met on board, keeping in mind that this story is by no means in chronological order.
The family we ate dinner with each night consisted of a husband and wife, along with a girl about my age and her younger sister who was six.
The youngest girl colored in her kids' menu while the rest of us searched our own menus. I had to laugh when I saw the assortment of crayons she had been given. Someone must've really like yellow, because there were about four of that color and one of everything else.
In between eating we chatted with their family and learned that they live not too far away from some of our family on the West Coast. (I would like to call to your attention now that I nearly made a type-o that said "West Coats"...wouldn't that have been funny?) They spoke Spanish very well, so I got to practice some of the phrases I've learned in class. In fact, we learned that their eldest daughter was celebrating her "quince," which was the whole point of the cruise. What an awesome way to celebrate!!!! It made me appreciate the culture a little more, I do believe.
Speaking of culture, what Disney vacation would be complete without that famous song, "It's a Small World"? Everyone in the dining room clapped along as the song played and all the waiters and waitresses from over 60 different countries marched around the room. Our two main servers carried flags for Trinidad and South Africa. It was quite a sight to see!
Keeping on with the topic of culture, our two ports of call were amazing experiences. Our first stop was at Grand Cayman. We went to the beach there, which was really awesome. I got to swim in the ocean, which I do not get to do very often. Unfortunately it tastes awful. It's just dreadful to get that water in the eyes, mouth, nose...ugh. But it was worth it to swim with the fish and a little bit of coral. And not to mention the beautiful weather (while it was snowing back home, I enjoyed the warmth of sunshine...yes, yes indeed....okay I'll stop bragging about the weather now because I guess I'm back in the bipolar climate of the Midwest again.)
**Note: The small silver paperclip was actually found at Grand Cayman on the ground!!! Fate!!**
The second port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. That was also very beautiful. I think my favorite part about Mexico is all the colored houses. I'm not sure if it's like that everywhere or just the coast, but it surely is gorgeous. We had a great tour guide, Alen. He took us to the Mayan ruins and then to another beach. All in all, it was a fabulous place to be.
Of course there are so many other details to this story, but perhaps I will save them for another story, eh? Meanwhile, I owe the utmost thanks and love to my parents who took my sister and me on this trip. Also thank you to all the crew and other passengers of the ship this past week. I accomplished my main goals of the trip:
*Get there
*Enjoy
*Don't get sunburned (This one I am most excited about, because usually I turn into a lobster in the sun!!)
*Come back alive
Check, check, check, and CHECK!! :)
"SEA ya' real soon!"
