not such a bad way to start the year

Jan 1: Jamaica
I worked after-hours yesterday for New Years, it was a bit odd. Christine kept me company and we talked while the kids played video games. We did get them to do the 15-second countdown with us though, that was kind of fun; the kids immediately went back to their games as soon as it was officially the New Year. They stayed until around 1, and I got down to my room around 1:15 with the intention of changing and going out to find my friends and join in on the celebrations. It was not meant to be though, I got back to my room and discovered that my key had been deactivated. I called Christine and got the number to call for someone to let me in. When I called, they said they’d be waiting at the door (the nearest phone was upstairs), but when I got down to the room no one was there; I waited 30 minutes for someone to come and by that time had realized that there was no way I could go out now, I’d have to change and then go, but then when I was ready to come back to the room, I’d have to call them to let me in again.

Anyway, I woke up this morning, had some breakfast and got ready to go out with Christine. We weren’t really sure what to do, so wandered in the terminal for a bit before looking into the hop-on-hop-off bus tour, which we then discovered was too expensive, especially compared to the $5 taxi ride into town (it turns out that everything on the hop-on-hop-off tour is within walking distance of town). We decided to go to the beach, and stayed there for a few hours before we walked around town a bit, did some souvenir shopping and headed back to the ship. We were back early, and I ended up taking a nap instead of doing anything productive.

It was Camp Night for my tweens. Not a very good theme for this group, they wouldn’t focus on anything for long. It was frustrating, and by the time they finally finished up making up their own camps, we didn’t have time for any of the other activities.

After work, I needed air, so I changed and went up to the bow. As expected, it was empty (everyone was still recovering from the New Years party). It was a perfect night to stargaze! There was practically no wind, it was somewhat warm and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I saw 5 shooting stars in the hour I was laying out on one of the picnic tables. A very good way to end the day! 