Last Day!

Well, I said I wouldn't be back to blog unless something exciting happened or we had a win at bingo. Here it is folks - wait for it - Holly won the jackpot of $2200 in the last game of bingo today. Unfortunately she had to share it with 2 other people who also won. She came away with $733. It was exciting to win the jackpot even if it meant sharing. Also, Larry won a piece of art at the last art auction. It's a print but can't remember who it's by.

Something else exciting that happened was we were in another gale force storm this morning. The winds were blowing very strong from the northwest (we were traveling southwest). We were listing to the port side a lot. The captain came on the loud speaker to explain what was going on. He kept saying they were trying to get the ship upright and it would help if everyone would move to the starboard side. He was joking. I said a little prayer and about 2 hrs later, the ship finally uprighted itself. Seas were pretty rough but we didn't feel it much.

We went to Explorer's Lounge tonight to hear Indigo for the last time. They are a great band, not well known yet. 4 Bulgarian men and a beautiful Irish girl as the lead singer. Holly was able to get one of the band members to sell her a CD, even though they are not allowed to sell them on board yet.

At dinner tonight we were reminiscing about our trip and we all agreed we had a great time, even though there were a couple of disappointments. Talking about doing an Asian cruise next.

BOR-R-R-R-R-ING!

That's what I have to say about our excursion in Bergen. I"m all about nature and beautiful scenery; not about tours around a busy city looking at and hearing about businesses, universities, hospitals, industry, etc. The only decent part about the day was the ride in the funicular to the top of a mountain to look at this busy city from way up high. I'm just glad that the tour was only 3 hrs long. We got back to the ship at lunch time, ate our requisite hamburger and started packing to go home. This afternoon and all day tomorrow we will be at sea. Three more chances to win at bingo! We will have a VERY early morning on Sunday so we can travel 2 hrs by bus to London to catch the plane at 12:55. So if you don't hear from me again, that means we didn't win at bingo and nothing significant happened at sea. (I hear we are in for more rough seas crossing over back to England! Yikes!

Flaam, Norway

God really did an amazing job creating the country of Norway! We had a 7 hr excursion today that covered just about 20 or 30 miles of some of the most beautiful scenery we've scene. I can't decide which port is my favorite, Geiranger or Flaam. We left on a bus this morning towards Voss and made a couple of photo stops to take pictures of these beautiful mountains and waterfalls. We also stopped for coffee and pastry at a hotel along the way. When we left the hotel, we travelled down some of the most curvy, tight hairpin turns on a road to get off the mountain top. But we were being mesmerized by the waterfalls at each turn that we didn't have time to worry about the overhangs. When we got to Voss, we had lunch at another hotel. It was a typical Norweigan lunch buffet with lots of fish, chicken and meat. Following lunch we had an opportunity to walk around the town for a little bit until it started raining - and I mean a lot. We had managed to make it to the railway station before the rain started. We boarded a train to Myrdal, about half way down the mountain. We were able to take a little snooze before we had to transfer to the Flaamsbana train that would take us back to Flaam. Now this was a scenic ride! Part way down we had a photo stop at probably the biggest waterfall we've seen yet. It was a 5 minute stop (really you couldn't take much more than that b/c we were so close to the falls we were getting very wet. While there, music started playing and fairy maidens would appear on the rocks in the waterfall to dance. It was a neat site. One of the pictures Larry took, when you zoom it in you can tell it's a guy dressed up in a girls costume. We got back to the ship at 4pm and we are exhausted. We're having our coke and cookie break before we get ready for dinner at 6. Tomorrow is our last port of call - Bergen. Then we will head for South Hampton.

Tromso and day at sea

Yesterday we were in Tromso. We had a beautiful day of sunshine with the temp in the mid 60's. Our excursion was in the afternoon in which we took a tour of the city, went up to the top of the mountain on a cable car, visited the Arctic Cathedral and the Tromso museum. Over all, it was not a great excursion. The cable car ride line was very long and from beginning to end it took a couple of hours. The cable car ride was only 4 minutes up and 4 min. down. It was a beautiful view, though. I can't describe how beautiful this country is with all its fjords and mountains and waterfalls. Since it took so long to go up the mountain, we only had about 15 minutes for the cathedral; but once we got to the door, a sign indicated it was closed for a concert which would end in 10 minutes. We only had 5 minutes to look at the church then back on the bus. We also had to cut our stay at the museum short. We did get to see the exhibit on the Sami people (Lapplanders). That was interesting. We were a little late getting back to the ship and thought we were going to be setting sail about 10 minutes after we got there. But once we were on our balcony waiting for sailaway, we noticed an ambulance pulling up to the ship. They had to disembark a lady who was sick and her daughter. They took her to the hospital. Fortunately, Princess has agents on shore at each port to help with this sort of thing. I'm confident that these two ladies were well taken care of.

On the ship there's a very good band that plays in the clubs and lounges. We have enjoyed listening to them and do so every night.

Today was a day at sea. We played bingo twice and came very close, but did not win. We're waiting for the last day at sea where we will win all the big bucks! Larry and Stan went to another art auction while Holly and Lana went to an English country song seminar where we learned two little English ditties. If we had gone to the first seminar then we could be in the "performance" on the last day. I told Lana we could go and just sort of lip sync the songs we didn't know.

I spent a little time before the art auction watching Michael Goddard demonstrate his painting. I think I have found a new artist that I like. He's know as the Rock Star of the Art World. He looks like a hard looking individual but has a great personality and is very funny.

Tonight was formal night again and the Captain's Circle Member reception. We went to that then to dinner. Later we listened to and English quartet play the flute, cello, violin, guitar, drums and cymbals. They were very good.

Tomorrow we will be in Flaam and are looking forward to a wonderful excursion on the railway and by bus to see more waterfalls and having a Norweigan lunch in Voss (the city where Knute Rockney is from).

Will update you after Flaam.

Who'da thunk!

That being in the Arctic Ocean, not far from the North Pole, it would be the warmest day of our trip! Even the locals said this day was quite unusual. We tendered into Honningsvag this morning for a 3 hr tour around the island seeing lot's of neat sites and fishing villages. In one of them we saw a herd of reindeer. That was a pleasant site. However, I will say that this was the most disappointing stop so far. The Christmas store that Lana and I were looking so forward to seeing was a tiny little building with lots of ordinary Christmas things. I decided to buy an ornament and their antiquated credit card gadget would not emboss my credit card and I had no Norweigan cash. Then when we returned to the pier, I found another souvenier store and tried to purchase something for our yet to be born grandchild. Their more modern credit card machine rejected my one and only credit card that they would accept. Again, no cash! We stood in line, in the bright sun and heat for a long time to get back on the tender boats to go to the ship. For some stupid reason, these tender boats would bring passengers from the ship to shore, then leave, EMPTY, and return to the ship. They did this 3 times before they finally took us "home". We ate lunch, Lana and I did laundry, then rested. Back when we bought the pieces of art by Beheren, we were given a complimentary bottle of champagne. This morning I ordered hors dourves and we just had a pleasant sailaway on our balconies. We are waiting to pass the North Cape to take pictures before we go to dinner. Oh, last night, we were up most of the night b/c of the midnight sun. It actually did not set at all. Larry got some neat pictures of it. However, 5:30, gettin' up time, came awfully quick.
Well, we are nearly upon the Cape, so let me go take some pictures. Hope all is well at home with the cats, dogs, grandchickens, kids and grandkids!

Land of the Midnight Sun!

We have had 2 very good days. Today was at sea. Very calm seas and actually a little warmer than the other days. Amazing since we are in the Arctic Ocean! We are expecting to be in Honningsvag tomorrow in the area of the North Cape which is the northern most point in Europe. The sun will not set while we are up here. Amazing. We've actually only had about 2 to 3 hrs of darkness at night in the last few days. Today we kept busy with information on the North Cape, bingo, lunch, art auction, bingo, dinner and the theater. Tomorrow we will go to a Christmas store, tour the area, hopefully see some reindeer. Then we head back south. It was good to read Stephanies's blog about Major. Glad he's doing well. Hopefully the biopsy results will be good.

Gotta go see how dark I can make this room. It's 9:48 and it looks like about 2:48pm!

Bingo!

Well, we had two winners at Bingo tonight. Stan won $100 and Larry won $400! Woo Hoo! Lana and Holly are shopping til we drop tomorrow!

Trondheim, Norway

The Captain welcomed us to Trondheim this a.m. by announcing it was a very dreary, dismal day to be had! As he pulled up along the pier, he announced, " Sorry it's taking so long to pull up to this rinky dinky pier with it's rinky dinky gangplank"! He's rather humorous at times. We spent 3 hrs this morning touring the city on a bus, visiting a Cathedral where St. Olav is buried (he brought Christianity to Norway), and visiting an open air folk museum (a small village back in the day as Rachel Rae would say). We got drizzled upon most of the time, but the clouds cleared out by the time we got back to the ship at 12:30. We've just been lazy this afternoon. Resting up for bingo at 9:30pm! Tomorrow is our second day at sea. WE'll probably play bingo twice tomorrow.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

But before I blog about how cold it is, let me go back to yesterday. Larry and I received an invitation to go to the Art Gallery to meet Howard Beheren's, the artist of the painting we bought. We went after dinner and me him, his wife, son and daughter. We were asked to have dinner with him and several other well know artists that are on board this cruise. We had to decline b/c we had just eaten dinner. Anyway, we got a picture made with the artist and the painting we bought. We will hopefully get it autographed. Rob, do you like anything by Michael Goddard? Look him up. Every time we see his work on board, we think you would like his stuff. He's on board as well.

Back to today. It really was a cold day, but a beautiful, cloudy, misty, rainy day. I say beautiful, b/c this are is just gorgeous. Even clouds and rain can't mess this up. We arrived at Hellesylt this morning at about 8 and let off a few passengers who were go on a tour and would meet us in Geiranger later in the day. Then we slowly cruised through the Geiranger Fjord and saw many, many beautiful waterfalls and mountains. Our excursion was up the mountain, hairpin curves, stopping along the way to take pictures of the village, fjord and our ship. After 3000 ft up, we stopped for dessert and coffee. Then on up 2000 more ft., twisty turny curves. I guess - b/c it was so foggy that only the bus driver knew where the road was. Maybe it was a good thing that we couldn't see the cliffs on the side of the bus. All in all, it was a wonderful day. And very educational! WE learned that Norway has only 2 seasons. White winter and green winter. That's very true. It was very cold today. We learned that the kindergarten has 13 students and the rest of the school has 35. We learned that the nursing center has 2 inhabitants - a 96 yr old man and an 82 yr old man. It has 2 employees - a 75 yr old woman and a 62 yr old woman. Supposedly all they do all day is make biscuits and give them away. Yeah, right!! We learned that snow skiing is done in the summer months only b/c it's impossible to get to the slopes the rest of the year. AND, there are no ski lifts. It's a 2 to 2 1/2 hr hike up the mountain and a 5 minute ski down. Do this twice and the day is spent! WE learned that the population of Geiranger is 420, but when one cruise ship is in port, it's about 3420. Sometimes there are 5 cruise ships in port at once!

We watched our return trip out of the fjords - waterfalls are beautiful here - then we went to dinner. Turning in early tonight - 10pm so we can be up and out of here for a visit to Trondheim tomorrow.

Hope all is well at home!

We're here, We're safe, We're having fun!

Made it to London safely. Stan & Lana made it on the plane in Dallas by the skin of their teeth. I believe we started backing out from the gate by the time they got buckled in!
Arrived at Heathrow a little early. Got our luggage and made it to the bus for transport in good time. 2 hr ride to South Hampton, in the rain.) Got checked in quickly and was on the ship in time to run up to Horizon for some lunch. Yesterday was a day at sea - and a very rough day it was. Stan was sure my dream of a Tsunami was going to come true! It was actually the roughest day I've ever been at sea. No one got sick, though. Went to an art auction. Larry and I bought an original Beheren and an embellished lithograph by Beheren. He is abt 75 yrs old. When he passes on, his status will be compared to Monet in the art world. Very good artist. We are now Beheren collectors!

Arrived at Stavanger this a.m. Nice calm waters. Took a boat excursion to the fjords. What a beautiful place the Lord has made! Looking forward to the rest of the cruise if it's anything like today. In rained most of the morning on us, but we were in the inside of the cruise boat. Temperature in the low 60's. Very nice!

Will post again tomorrow, maybe.

Day at sea and Oslo, Norway

Yesterday was a day at sea. We did our usual - played cards, read and played bingo - and ate, of course. Didn't win at bingo, but will have one last chance to win $2000 this afternoon. We also were part of the audience that watched the live taping of the Wakey Wakey show which runs from 6am to 11am every day. I even got my name mentioned because I knew the answer to the daily question. Yesterday's question was how many nautical miles did we sail from Ft. Lauderdale to Rotterdam. If you are wondering it was 4902.5! At noon we went to a weightloss by hypnotism for about and hour. I was so hungry by he time it was over, the first thing I said was, "Now, let's go eat!"

Today we went on a bus tour around the city of Oslo and out in the beautiful country to Hageland where there is a glass blowing factory. We watched a demonstration and bought souveniers and gifts. Then we headed back to Oslo where we visted the Viking Museum. It was very interesting. We got back on the ship at 1:30 and set sail for Copenhagen at 2:00. We spent the afternoon packing since our luggage has to be outside our room by 6pm (before dinner). But first we will play bingo at 4:30!

Tomorrow we will dock at 5am at Copenhagen where we will disembark to the airport at 8:30am. Our flight is not until 3:35pm. I just love sitting in airports all day! We will arrive at DFW at 10:34pm!

I will say that this has seemed like a long trip, mainly because of the number of sea days (10). We had one extra day at sea b/c we couldn't dock in Dover, England. We have enjoyed our ports of call, meeting SOME of the passengers (some I could live a lifetime without ever having met!), all the activities on board and the entertainment.

All in all, we had a good time. But I can't wait to see my kids, grandkids, dog, cat and kittens (in that order, Amy:)

Rotterdam

We opted to stay on board the ship while in port today. We've been to Amsterdam a few times before and there wasn't much to do in Rotterdam except shop in their expensive shops and pay 20% sales tax! We played gin ALL DAY - just the two of us. We would play a while in one lounge then go somewhere else and play there. That way we could do more people watching. We also played trivia with one of the crew staff and other passengers who opted to stay on board. We had a relaxing day. BTW - Holly beat the pants off Larry playing gin! We set sail from the port at 7pm and will be at sea all day tomorrow arriving in Oslo Norway Friday morning.

At sea yesterday and Belgium today

Yesterday was a rather boring day, although I must say that the cruise director and his staff did an amazing job of coming up with things to do. We had to toodle around the English Channel all day and were able to get the Belgium Port pilot on board about 20 miles out. He safely guided us into port where we docked about 8:30 last night. Before I tell you about Belgium, let me just say that it is amazing to me how safe they build these huge floating hotels. We were in 60-80mph gales and the water was very rough, but we hardly noticed at all. They have the stablizer things that go out from the ship under the water that keeps it stable as we move along. I am more convinced now that sailing is safer than flying and driving on the highways! Another aside - we weren't able to play bingo yesterday b/c England has this regulation that you cannot gamble while you are in their channel! Prudes!

This morning we took a tour bus to Bruges Belgium. Another surprise. A small old village that has canals running all throughout it. VEry picturesque. We walked the cobblestone streets for about 4 hours, watched a chocolate making demonstration, and Belgium chocolates - yummy!, and shopped. Can't wait to share pictures. When we got back to the ship at 1:30, we had a sandwich down in the International Cafe and rested up for dinner and the "I've Got Music" show in the theater. A lovely evening. We've been out on the balcony watching the other ships go by and we even saw an oil platform way out there.

Don't know what we'll do tomorrow since we did not book a tour. Will let you know.

Girls, how are my animals?

I hope we get to play bingo!

Well, it looks like we might have at least 2 more days at sea. Our port today was to be Dover, England (we were going to Canterbury). However, the seas are rough and winds are expected to get up to gale force (60 - 70 mph). Yikes! Our next port of call is Brussells Belgium and the port authority there said they will not allow their pilots to board our ship to lead us in there. So right now, we are circling the English Channel with no wear to go! That's why I hope we aleast get to play bingo! Will report more later.

Normandy

Well, we are ready to go home. We've seen what we came to see and the rest will be gravy. Normandy is a beautiful part of France. We traveled quaint country roads to get to the beaches.
And once we were there, we were in awe of it all. We saw Pont deHoc beach where the soldiers ad to scale a 100+ foot muddy cliff to attack the Germans. However, the Germans saw them coming and many were killed. We saw bomb craters and bunkers. We then went to the American Cemetary. Just standing in the midst of all those marble crosses (and stars of David) was a sobering time. I still get chills thinking of it. Next we went to Omaha Beach where we were able to walk on the beach and look at the monuments that were erected as a memorial. We had lunch on a farm - it was great. Then we went to a little village called Combano ( I hope I spelled that correctly). We visit the war museum and took many pictures of the remains of the artificial water breaks and bridge pieces. The entire event was just so minding numbing. This is something we have wanted to do for a long time and we are so happy we came here. We will return some day! The negative about the whole day was that our bus broke down while we were in Combano and we all had to find empty seats on one of the other 3 buses. Then when we started out there was an auto accident on the freeway so our bus driver decided to go a different way. Well - every Frenchman in France must have taken a holiday to this area b/c they were on their way home and jammed up the little country roads. We were late getting back to the ship, but luckily the captain decided to wait on us! How nice!

Our next stop is Dover England tomorrow. We get to set our clocks back an hour tonight! I'm telling ya, my body doesn't know what to do with all the time changing!

Another night at sea

The seas have calmed down significantly! It's about time! Tonight after our formal dinner we went to the Princess Theater. The show was The Backbeat Beatles, a group that did all Beatles numbers. They were awesome. Took us back quite a few years, though! I had to laugh at the fact that after it got started several of the "older" couples got up and left. I told Larry that the parents of old were still the parents of old. All us "younger" generation were standing, clapping and singing!

Another day at sea!

We left Vigo Spain yesterday around 6ish and immediately hit "rough"waters. It was the worst yet. They whole ship was swaying and creeking loudly. However, we weren't worried. All the crew and passengers say it would take something catostrophic to turn a ship over. We wre still able to walk about the ship, but we all looked like we were on a 7 day drunk! Today was about the same but fortunately we got used to it. It's not so bad. We didn't do much today. Went to an English Country Fair on the ship. It was lot's of fun. We played cards, went to an art auction, played bingo and now it is time to get ready for formal night. We will be in France tomorrow.

Day something or another!

Gee, I wish I had a calendar! I am totally lost. Anyway, I just found out it is May 8th. Today we toured the wine country near Vigo Spain. It is quite unlike Napa or Sonoma. A winery will have a few acres of vines, but most people have their entire (small) back yards full of vines. The wineries will buy their grapes from these "farmers" to make the table wines, but will use their own for the more expensive wines. We had a wine tasting and I must say I was less than impressed. Then we went to a small hotel in Combanos, Spain and had Tapas, which are small bites of this and that (mostly sweets). We returned to Vigo and to our ship around 4pm and went immediately to the pizza parlor to eat something we were familiar with! Then we went down to the International deli and had some straight-from-the-oven peanut butter cookies. We will skip dinner tonight to say the least. We sail at 6:00 and will have another wonderful day at sea. I hope we don't have to lose another hour. I think we are now 7 hrs ahead of home.

A half day in Lisbon

We arrived at Lisbon at noon today and went on a 3 1/2 hr tour around the city. We toured the new parts of the city as well as the old parts. It's amazing how hilly and narrow the streets are in the old part. Wish I could show you pictures of what we saw. One of these days I'll learn how to do that. We visited the maritime museum and Jeronimo's Monestary, the monument to Henry the Navigator who never navigated anything. He did form the school for navigation though. We saw the monument to the Discoveries and the 25th of April Bridge. Weird name, but it was built by Salizar, the dictator and when he was ousted, they changed the name of the bridge to commemorate the Revolution of the Red Carnations (which happened on April 25, 1974). All sounds so interesting, doesn't it?

We were back on board the ship in time for dinner. I must say that I haven't been all that impressed with the dinner menus this cruise. However, last night I had my best meal so far.
We set sail at 6pm for Vigo, Spain.

I've lost track!

We've been at sea for so long that I have completely lost track of time, days and dates. My watch can't even keep up with the date! Today is another sea day. Yipee, more water! It's been a rather lazy day. We got up early and went up to the buffet area where it was real quiet and did our BSF lessons. We get up there before anyone else gets out of bed! Larry took a couple of computer courses this morning, then we played bingo before lunch. Didn't win anything. We watched a movie and red this afternoon until it was time to go to dinner. Each night we get to sit with different people and tonight we sat with a couple that we've sat with before. They are a lovely Norwegian couple in their 80's. They live most of the year in Florida and have two homes in Oslo Norway where they spend about 5 months out of the year. They take this transition cruise every year and get off the ship when we get to Oslo. They are such a sweet couple and she was very informative about Norway, mostly Oslo. Their names are Tovie (her) and Arvid (him). Don't know their last names.



We played bingo again tonight to win a 7 day cruise but didn't win. Came close, though!

Tomorrow we will dock in Lisbon Portugal at noonish. We will go on an excursion that covers the highlights of Lisbon. Will blog more about that tomorrow.



Sure am missing home but looking forward to the rest of the cruise.

Land, Ho!

We finally made it across the pond and planted our feet on solid ground today. Of course, you wouldn't know we were on solid ground the way we were swaying to and fro when we got on shore. It was funny! We toured the island ,went to the top of the mountain to the big volcano crater that is the home of the Green and Blue lakes. It was a beautiful ride with lots of lush green scenery. Hills and valleys, farmland divided by low stone walls, lots of cattle. (Sara, they were black and white!). At the end of the 4 hr tour we had a wine and cheese tasting at a hotel across the street from the ship. Good thing we didn't have far to walk. Of course, we could always use the excuse that we were swaying from being on the ship so long.

Tomorrow is another day at sea! Yea! More bingo!

Day 4

Man - this ship is rocking this morning! I believe we could call this rough seas. I wore a patch behind my ear for the 1st 3 days, but I'm not wearing one now. May have to put one on today. I find they make my mouth dry and I'm thirsty all the time. That's why I don't want to wear one.

I know Sara knows this and probably Amy, but thought the rest would like to know - WE HAVE KITTENS. Sassy had 4 kittens, 2 yellow and 2 dark colored. Sara and Matt said Sassy is being a good mamma. Thanks Sara for taking care of them.

Well, since we changed the clock last night, I'm running a bit late. Must get ready to go to bingo! I can miss b'fst, but not bingo!

Day 3 continued

No luck at bingo today. Will try again tomorrow. Dinner mates tonight were the worst yet. 2 very strong type A personalities (women) trying to outdo each other in where they've been and who they know. One of them even had the audacity to tell me (b/c my dinner came with 2 filet mignons and I only ate one) that next time I need to find out how many come on the plate and tell the waiter I only want one! Do you know how hard it is to smile while gritting your teeth! Will try to avoid them in the future.

Day 3

I forgot to say that as of noon yesterday we had safely navigated across the Bermuda Triangle. I didn't even know that we were going to do that. I might have otherwise not gone on this trip! Not really. We keep having to advance our clocks as we make this trip. I think we are now 3 hrs ahead of you. We advance again tonight, then somewhere along the way we go back 1 hr, then ahead 1 hr. I'll be so confused by the time we get home.

Day 2 continued

We had a very relaxing day at sea. Nothing really exciting happened - EXCEPT Larry won $100 at Bingo this morning. Can't think of a better way to spend our time at sea. The food is great and so is the entertainment. Wish you all were here!

Day 2

Another beautiful morning at sea! We got up at 6am; went to the Horizon Cafe for coffee. Larry read a book while Holly worked on her BSF lesson. When the buffet opened we ate b'fst. At 10 we will go to a Bridge lecture- Bridge the card game, that is; not the bridge where the navigation takes place. At 11:15 Holly will try to win more money at Bingo.

BTW we are 2 hrs ahead of you now, but we have to set our clocks ahead tonight.

bingo

WooHooooo! Holly won another Bingo game for $400. That makes a total of $600 in one day. If I can keep it up for the next 4 days at sea, our trip will be paid for!!!

Cruising

We are having a very relaxing and yummy cruise thus far. We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale at noon on Wednesday and were on the ship eating lunch by 1:30pm. Once we got our luggage and unpacked them, it was time to tour this enormous ship, The Emerald Princess. There are plenty of things to keep us busy on these first 5 days sailing across the Atlantic to Portugal. This morning ( Thursday) we slept until 10ish. Haven't done that in years. At 11:15 we played Bingo and Holly won $200 in the second round. Both Larry and Holly were one number away from winning $400 in the last round. But we are not feignt of heart! We will try again this afternoon at 4:30. Tonight is formal night. We will have a champagne waterfall at 6:00 then off to dinner in the elegant dining room. Will blog more later