Fri July 12, 2024
Hi Gang! We’re starting to get used to these sea days. Hmmmm… maybe we really can handle a 155 day World Cruise?? Lol. I guess we can just say we’re in training for that.
Similar to yesterday we slept in and had a relaxing morning. At 11 we went to the talk on the symbols of Canada. The first is maple syrup (of course), the second was the Royal Canadian Mountain Police (think Dudley Dooright!), and the last I had no clue about the history behind it and that was Winnie the Pooh.
It is all told in the book called “Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World’s Most Famous Bear”. The author’s great-grandfather, a Veterinarian from Winnipeg, Canada, was going off to help in World War I by taking care of the horses in battle. He got off at a train station stop and a hunter had just killed a mother bear and had a small bear cub for sale. So he purchased the Bear cub, called it Winnie, and planned to take it to war as the regiment’s mascot. But he soon realized that wouldn’t be practical so he took the Bear to the London zoo and donated it.
Christoper Robin, son of author A. A. Milne, came to the zoo and saw the bear cub and fell in love with it. So he came to see the bear every day and renamed his own teddy bear Winnie. Seeing his son’s devotion to the bear, Milne wrote the series of books with the character Winnie the Pooh. So that small act of love to take in that little bear cub, created a world of great stories for kids. Gotta love it!
After that, we got invited to the special Mariner’s Brunch since Kathy is “4 Star” (well LAH-TEE-DAH!). The food was really good and we met some nice people there.
We then went to the Tech Talk where they discussed various apps to help in travel planning. They all sound interesting and worth downloading. Tripit to plan and organize your trip; PackPoint for help with packing; App in the Air to organize your flights; and my favorite – Flush to find the nearest bathroom!
After that we played trivia with Sue and Stuart and our friends from Albany. The theme was Disney, and while we did OK (got 9 points while the winner got 14) we all needed our kids there to help us with the answers!
That’s all for now. I’ll do an update tonight after dinner. TGIF to all!
PS: Today’s bonus pics are of some nice flower arrangements I saw around the ship that I thought you might enjoy!
The Wandering Italian 