“Oops! The calendar says we must be at the gym at 8:30 am!!”
My, oh, my! It’s more like doing the Chubby Checker dance once we get to the gym, but perhaps this morning, it might be different. Nope, we went through our daily routine of toting the barge and lifting the bails.
After the workout, with the last ounce of energy we could muster, we went down three doors to Ralph’s Market and came out with $400 in groceries (which was easy!). I was shocked that a one-quart bottle of olive oil was $30! Oh my, the prices have gone crazy.
We had ten bags, making the haul $40/bag! We spend 45 minutes hauling it into the house and finding places to put everything.
Our cleaning crew arrived at 1:30, so we took off and headed to Benji’s for an afternoon lupper (halfway between lunch and supper). At the end of our meal, the waitress just happened to turn on the popcorn machine, and you know what happened! Mary floated toward the machine and gathered a bag of popcorn, but it nearly didn’t make it back to the table because someone was munching!
Munch, munch, munch!
We did not have dinner tonight, but we did go into the hot tub and sit for two cycles or about forty minutes; it felt good.
We then went to the TV room and, on a lark, I selected “Gone With The Wind,” a four-hour movie. Neither of us remembered many of the details, and we made it to 3 1/2 hours before stopping the movie and heading to bed.
The themes from “Gone With the Wind” that remain relevant today include the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity, the struggle for survival and adaptation in changing times, the impact of war and its aftermath, the complexities of love and relationships, and the power of personal determination.
We will watch the remaining 30 minutes in the morning!
Scout and I checked the backyard for elephants before we joined Mary.
Today’s adventure started with a flyer from the ship noting that “due to local sensitivities, we were kindly asked not to wear any UK memorabilia if we were leaving the ship. After a quick wardrobe check, it is safe to say I was properly dressed in my favorite color- BLACK (red, white and blue to be found). We tendered to the shore and Maggie scouted out the nearest shopping area to our tour pick-up location. There were trinket stores galore and then we turned the corner and there it was, no – not Starbucks but a Hard Rock Cafe at the end of the world!. The store was very small and there were at least 6 ships in the dock, so finding a t-shirt was a challenge but I did manage to find one I think will fit Bob who has collected these T-Shirts from many locations around the world, he has traveled to. Success!. From there we went to the tour location that Maggie had arranged and we jumped on the shuttle and was taken to the Tierra Del Fuego National Park or Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego train station for a guided tour/ride through the park.
At the train station, we were checked in and greeted by personnel who were dressed in prision inmate and police costumes. Outside the train station there was some kind of commotion going on. We soon discovered those dressed in the costumes were taking photo ops in set-up crime scenes and having the tourists join them in the action for the photo fun. We had no clue what they were doing, so we just jumped in to the picture and instead of acting like we were “catching the bad guys”, we were laughing (yes, we bought the photo!). Once that was over, we boarded a train (similar to the train at Knotts Berry Farm), that had been used to take prisioners to a prision that was located in the forest/park. We had a narrator tell us over pre-recorded audio, the prision was shut down and removed years ago due to various reasons. We stopped at a few locations in the park, one of which was a beautiful waterfall that had a brick fountain built around it.
After the train ride, we got back in the van from the tour company and they drove us through the forest, pointing out various things and providing us with more history of the early civilization that lived there – claiming they were the earliest people in recorded history, dating back to the cave man era. One of the stops on this part of the tour was to “the end of the world post office” where Maggie and I took several pictures and then on to the end of the road where the road actually ends at Route 3 in the Tierra Del Fuego forrest (got pictures of that as well). The sign read 17,848 kilometers to Alaska *by waterway* obviously not by road as there isn’t one!
We made it back to the ship at 7PM. Maggie is posted all the day trips on her Facebook if you want a preview of the photos. She also adds in a little more of the high-end information.
Love to all,
Robin
