Cruise Blues

Both The Lovely Mrs. G. and I have been feeling a little verklempt as of late. Why? Well, it’s like this. One year ago today we were on a Carnival cruise ship – the MS Miracle – sailing through the sparkling blue waters of the Caribbean. Today? We’re in 18-degree dirty Iowa. Instead of the blue sea, we have the half-frozen muddy Missouri river.

See why were bumming?

Ah, but what a trip it was. At this very moment one year ago today we were in Costa Maya, Mexico, laying on the beach and enjoying one of those moments you only see in Corona commercials. The day before we’d snorkeled with stingrays in the Grand Cayman Islands. The next day? We went snorkeling at a coral reef in Cozumel, then on Friday we went cave tubing in Belize.

It was one hell of a vacation, let me tell you. Mrs. G. and I had the times of our lives – 7 wonderful nights at sea. Carnival took really good care of us, the weather held out, and everything went off without a hitch.

You really couldn’t have asked for more. Okay, maybe another 7 nights, but that’d just be greedy, wouldn’t it?

So here we are, one year later, back to reality. Nobody comes in and makes our bed twice a day for us. There’s isn’t prepared food waiting for us 24 hours a day. If we go downstairs, there’s not going to be a theater of entertainers waiting to put on a show for our amusement. (Oh, sure - the cat might barf on the carpet, but that’s not quite the same.)

You know what? Reality sucks. Gimme back my life cruising the seas, and I’ll be just fine.

Oh, well. I’d better stop my trip down memory lane. It’ll only make me bitter and depressed that I’m here and not there.

Someday we’ll go back – I can promise you that. In the meantime, I’ll look at my jar of beach sand that I brought home from Costa Maya and try to look forward to the day when cold, dank Iowa is the distant memory and a lifetime of sunshine and warm beaches is reality.

See you onboard...