January 19,Thursday in port at Ford Lauderdale, Florida

January 19,Thursday in port at Ford Lauderdale, Florida.

Up early to send a couple of text messages to my brother and sister to pass on the ship’s location in port. Sandra and I disembarked at 0930. Walked through the terminal and met Philip & Linda and my sister, Diana as they drove up to the building. We proceeded to the main event of the day, shopping at the Sawgrass Mills Outlet Stores. This is a semi-high end shopping mall in south Florida. However, our first stops were at Walmart, Marshalls and Kohls to pick up all the stuff that had been forgotten in our rush to pack at home. 
Lunch was outside on the patio overlooking a pond at a wonderful restaurant at the mall. Everyone had a great meal. After lunch, we drove to another local mall for some more shopping. After a full day in the stores, we drove back to the ship at 1600 and boarded with no problems.

While Sandra dressed for dinner, I went up to the Back Deck for a beer at the Sail Away Party. At 1800, we had dinner at the Britannia Restaurant. The after dinner show in the Royal Court Theatre was Goronwy Thom, a comedian, juggler and unicycle rider. It was only after he had gotten to the unicycle that we realized that we had seen him ten years ago on the QE2.

January 20 and 21, Friday and Saturday at sea heading for Curacao.
Friday, we listened to a Insight Lecture by Dr. Peter Quartermaine, “Selling the Sea” about the posters and advertisements for ocean cruising from the early days to the present. Before dinner, we attended a Captain’s Cocktail Party and Introduction of the Senior Staff in the Queens Room.

Saturday, we attended two lectures. The first by Dr. Peter Quartermaine, “History of the Panama Canal”. The second lecture by Lord Robert Winston on “The dark side of Genetics - Is the evolution of the superhuman close?” This was the “best” lecture at sea that we have ever attended. Lord Winston led the effort that culminated in “The First Test Tube Baby”.
For a change of pace, we attended a beer tasting event in the afternoon in the Golden Lion Pub. Eight beers, eight food pairings, good conversation with the couple sitting next to us.
The evening show was “Tenors Un Limited”, a singing group. Another very good group.

Pete & Brian