AT SEA: The Celebrity Eclipse

                          Anchors Aweigh

COMFY CABIN

SATISFYING VIEWS

 

As you can see, even though I got an 85% discount on my cruise, Celebrity really set me up with an amazingly spacious cabin with a view right off the bow of the ship. Even the bathroom is roomy.

My Cabin – Front – Center Row – On Right

I am officially ready for my 15-day shipboard adventure replete with copious cookies, pastries, gelato, and other tasty comestibles. As it turns out, not being a drinker or a gambler, I decided to sign up for the Ultimate Package of specialty restaurants aboard ship to thoroughly indulge my gastronomic sensibilities.

Murano Restaurant – My Favorite Place Aboard Ship

The specialty restaurants are amazing with Murano offering table side preparation, and a mouth watering repertoire of food with a French flair. The service is impeccable, and I will be dining there nine of my evenings while on board. They were even kind enough to offer to prepare a special dish not on the menu later on in my voyage.

Loin Of Venison – Medium Rare Of Course

 

                               Formal Night Show

TOPPER – A predictable, mildly saccharine Cirque du Soleil clone involving a creepy Johnny Depp “Charlie in the Chocolate Factory-like” guy in a top hat keeping a bunch of talented people locked up in a giant Topper because he was afraid of being alone. It was all very colorful and acrobatic, but to be really compelling one would have to indulge in some sort of hallucinogen. I doubt alcohol alone would do the trick. Then again I am just totally burned out on the Cirque du Soleil genre. Vegas had about seven of their shows running at the same time. You can’t swing a mime around by his ankles without hitting a Cirque du Soleil show anymore in Vegas.

 

Then this beguiling creature popped out of the top of the hat and belted out “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics and really put the thing on track. In fact, they could have tossed out all of the filler, and just had her sing for an hour and a half. She really had a set of pipes. My wish actually came true since they added a show with her as the headliner.

ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY AT SEA

My father grew up in Corning, and his father worked for forty years as the head of the Pyrex division of Corning Glass.

 

GLASS BLOWING SHOW – Completing a decorative vase.

SURF & TURF – Real Grass

 

MY DOWNFALL

CLAIR VINKENSTEIJN – This lady could really sing and play the piano. She was on Holland’s Got Talent, and now she travels the world with her husband and three-year-old daughter. She has a new album with some serious collaborators who have produced material that has been very successful. She certainly has the talent and deserves to hit the big time with this future effort. I wish her the best of luck.

Claire after the show. Super nice lass from Yorkshire, and from a family of performers entertaining audiences for over 400 years.

Mariko MORI – Tea Ceremony – 1995

Mariko Mori is an expert in acting out exotic roles in front of the camera, using herself to create captivatingly surreal images. In Tea Ceremony, Mori re-enacts a traditional Japanese tea ceremony in the decontextualized space of a crowded urban street, becoming an exotic alien creature in an everyday scene.

One of many cool pieces on display throughout the ship.

The red lipstick and nails really pop.

Goat Cheese Soufflé – Yum!

Cruise Director Sue – Emcee par excellence. Rumor has it that there is a whole deck dedicated to storing her shoes. Having been in show business since childhood, she worked with many of the shining lights of the Sixties like Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Seekers.

JAMIE ALLEN – Magician, Illusionist, Sleight of Hand Artist

EN ROUTE TO BOSTON

 

 

                                            Boston

FANUEL HALL

QUINCY MARKET

RUSTY SWING BRIDGE – Out Of Commission

THE BARKING CRAB

My Bright And Beautiful Nieces – Felicia, Rebecca, and Jessica @ Legal Seafoods Harborside. We all enjoyed a delicious lunch. Can you believe the twins are almost thirty?

My Posse – Brother Buell, Felicia, Rebecca, Yelena, Joe, and Jessica.

I want to thank everyone for joining me for the afternoon in Boston. It was such a delight to see family and friends. I have had more than an abundant supply of adventures, but a dearth of contact with familiar people so these experiences are so important to me as I continue my five-year journey. Hopefully, when I am on my second European Tour in 2017 I can make another stop in England and New England to visit you all once again.

On our way to Paul for dessert

Bond Bar

 

The Bros – Me and my brother Buell outside Paul, the authentic French pastry franchise just across the street from Joe & Yelena’s.

Rebecca and Jessica

Felicia, Me, Rebecca, Jessica

Yelena & Joe’s Big City Adventure

While I have been orbiting the Earth, Joe & Yelena have started their own adventure by making the move from the Burbs to the big city and this plush apartment building. Pictured is their stylish lobby and the towering shiny building in the photo below.

 

A Last Taste Of Fall – Not so fast, Central Park is on my NYC itinerary!

 

Backing out of Boston

NICOLA WARD – The lady who popped out of the top hat.

A little jazz after dinner and a show.

JIM KENNEDY – Former Director of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral – Just hanging out before lunch talking about space trivia and the glory of the former astronauts who made history in our lifetimes. I had picked up a Yuri Gagarin pin in Kiev in August and presented it to Jim and later received a NASA pin in return.

Gagarin was the first man in space. Space exploration is a great uniter. Even though there was a space race on we all shared in the conquests of early space flight at the end of the twentieth century. In fact, there is a statue of Colonel Gagarin at NASA’s original spaceflight center in Houston. I would go so far as to say that he is the spark that lit the fuse that culminated in Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon in July of 1969. Of course, JFK’s vision, inspiration, and motivational speech to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade supplied the fuel. Now we have fifteen countries cooperating on the International Space Station.

Jim has given a series of lectures on board throughout the cruise which will culminate in a visit to the Kennedy Space Center. I am really excited to be going, and seeing some of the hardware I saw launched on TV when I was a kid. Seriously, what young boy growing up during the early sixties didn’t want to be an astronaut.

In 1957 at the dawn of space exploration, six months before the launch of the first satellite Sputnik, I was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I have always felt a great affinity for the space program, the hardware, and its participants. Now with my visit to the Kennedy Space Center just four days off, I feel like a child who is going to Disneyland for the first time. I have never been to Disneyland, and I don’t think it would be my cup of tea in my advanced years, but I am sure that the Space Center will be amazing.

YURI GAGARIN – Before his legendary spaceflight on April 12, 1961

 

 

BAD NEWS – 11/13/15

JE SUIS PARIS – I am absolutely fed up with these fanatical savages! This is an outrage. Do not mess with my favorite city and its citizens. Paris is one of the loves of my life. This whole thing doesn’t even register. It’s so surreal.

 

                                     GOOD NEWS – 11/14/15

I won the Bingo Snowball Jackpot! $1,100 Yeah Baby, Yeah! Winning!!!

Day At Sea – Get to da Choppa!

A Beautiful Day – People play lawn games on real turf.

People sun themselves and relax while Paris is reeling and numb from yesterday’s horror. One hour after taking this photo I won $1,100. Life is strange.