AT SEA AGAIN, MADEIRA TOWARD SPAIN, Thursday, Mar. 22nd

We’re been at sea since 5:00 p.m. yesterday and will land only tomorrow, so today was another full day at sea. The cruise staff offers many options to keep us passengers active and entertained.

Each evening they print and distribute a bulletin with the choices for the following day. A television in each room has an international news channel, an international business channel, a few within-ship channels that inform about activity options, but they also show a couple of movies each day – in English, or dubbed in Spanish, German, or French at least. We’ve flipped through the channels to hear “Puss in Boots” in Spanish, quite appropo, of course, “Dolphin Tale” in German, “The Help” in French, etc., but we’ve also caught a couple of films in English we had not yet seen – “Moneyball” and “The Illiminati”.

Today at sea we chose to go to a health seminar and one about Diamonds. I won a door prize at the Amber seminar, Jon won one today at the Diamond one! Now we have two blue topaz stones. What to do with them??? We also choose to attend an art auction. We’d never been to one. A young American from Buffalo, NY is the art expert on board, who gives seminars on art, and conducts the auction. We appreciated seeing the fine art pieces by artists new to us -- Picot, Krasnyansky, Marcus Glenn, Dominic Pangborn, Nano Lopez. We’d never heard of them before, but we’re learning a lot of stuff on this trip. Of course we thought of our own favorite painters, daughter-in-law, Kate, and her mother, who are both very talented.

In the auction, the lowest price original work went for $65.00. Some pieces went for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. A special collection was shown of five original works by “masters” who were famous to even us – Goya, Rembrant, Picasso, Renoir and Chagall. The bid put on the floor was $24,800 but no one accepted that bid, so they weren’t sold. Interesting activity.

There are shows every evening on a large stage in the theater called “The Stardust Theater”.
We don’t always go to them, not being of our taste, but we’ll go to hear the male quarter tonight; “4Ever” is their name. They have great voices and sing several styles in English. Spanish and Italian.

The devotional thought that I chose to share today is from Sarah Young again (p20). Jesus says,

“Seek my face, and you will find all that you have longed for. The deepest yearnings of your heart are for intimacy with Me. I know, because I designed you to desire Me. Do not feel guilty about taking time to be still in My Presence. You are simply responding to the tugs of divinity within you. I made you in My image, and I hid heaven in your heart. Your yearning for Me is a form of homesickness; longing for your true home…” (Young, p. 20).

We’re off to supper at the Pacific Garden restaurant with the South African couple we met yesterday, then to the concert. Vacation continues happily!