NOTE: Keith wanted to thank those of you who have posted comments or written to him with suggestions for his ankle. This includes Ricki and David, Judith and Cheryl along with countless others who have given him suggestions.
NOTE: One photo of Keith’s ankle. Not the prettiest photo we’ve posted. J
We also included a picture of two of the staff who work at the Reception Desk. This includes Michah Hervada from Dallas Texas. Michah was in the same program as our son (Hospitality Services) and graduated one year after our son did from Texas Tech University and Medina Rahic from Toronto, Canada.
We included two photos from James Bradley’s presentation.
Finally, we included photos from our dinner with Crystal Society Hostess Jacque Brown and Cruise Director Rick Spath.
We had a wonderful dinner with Destination Lecturer Ken Rees and his lovely wife Lynn. One of the many nice aspects of Crystal’s Enrichment Program is that there are so many nice lecturers who sail with Crystal who on top of their great lectures make themselves very accessible to the passenger’s outside of the formal lectures. We have found Ken to be an outstanding lecturer as he does an excellent job of conveying a nice amount of information and also adding in a nice balance of humor. Ken and Lynn are also very genuine people who are very easy to talk with and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them better over dinner. We look forward to future conversations with both of them and also attending the talks given by Ken. In fact, when Keith’s ankle is better Ken and Keith will play a round of Paddle Tennis together.
In addition to the outstanding conversation we enjoyed a great meal with wonderful service. All four of us ended up ordering some type of seafood entrees. Anne Marie had Broiled Sea Scallops featured on the lighter side of the menu. Keith had Fresh Covinia, which was shown as being Pan Fried and Keith asked if it could be prepared on the lighter side and the kitchen was able to accommodate this request. This is yet another example of how flexible dining on Crystal is. We each had nice salads and enjoyed a nice bowl of berries to end this wonderful meal.
Before we went to bed last evening, we forwarded the clocks forward one hour as we continue to sail into another new time zone. We will do the next three consecutive nights (Ouch) before we arrive to Cape Town.
When we got back to the room we noticed that while the swelling of Keith’s ankle went down a little bit that his foot and toes were quite swollen. By following the Doctor’s orders, we know that this situation will turn around quickly.
Keith woke fairly early this morning and very early for most fellow passengers but not for Keith. Regardless, there would be no elliptical or treadmill for him per the doctor’s instructions. L Instead, Keith did go to the Fitness Center where he did a variety of upper body weight lifting equipment and also did sit ups and a few other exercises that did not involve anything to do with the ankle. As a sign of the times, fellow passengers John and Brian were already working out when Keith arrived along with the Executive Chef. Keith spoke with Brian later in the day and he remarked that when he arrived to the Fitness Center and Keith was not to be found he thought he had messed up on setting the correct time.
A few minutes before Keith finished, Destination Lecturer Ken Rees arrived as well. Keith is going to make the best of this situation and use it as an opportunity to strengthen the top half of his body. Hopefully, Keith’s ankle will heal sooner rather than later. As a first, Keith is also taking the elevator and not the stairs.
At around the time that Keith returned to the room with a tray containing two cups of coffee, Anne Mare was getting ready to leave the room to begin her one hour of exercise on the Treadmill. While Keith was in the Lido Café he spoke with Lido Deck Stewards Earl. Rey and Michael, and all three of them helped Keith with his coffee. Keith also spoke with fellow passengers Linda. There was only one other passenger there. We are sure that most passengers are sleeping in today.
We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in the room and also enjoyed watching the Crystal Daily Morning Program.
During Captain Glenn’s morning talk from the bridge he shared his thought of the day. “Don’t tell me how hard you work, tell me how much you get done.”
We attended both morning lectures.
The first lecture featured Destination Lecturer Ken Rees who presented “A Million Miles a Thousand Stories: Tales from a Reporter’s Notebook.”. From earthquakes to holy elephants to royal romances, award-winning broadcast journalist Ken Rees shared the highlights and the lowlights of life on the road as a foreign correspondent. Ken’s lecture was terrific. He showed footage from some of the stories that he covered, some of which we remember seeing at the time they were filmed. He shared many humorous anecdotes and as usual hit a home run with his talk.
The second morning presentation was given by Celebrity Lecturer James Bradley who presented “Doing the Impossible.” James Bradley is well known for being the author of Flags of Our Fathers, Flyboys and The Imperial Cruise. He is a son of John Bradley, who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. James is America’s best selling Pacific historian. His first book, Flags of Our Fathers, chronicles the island-hopping campaign and the battle of Iwo Jima. We first saw the movie Flags of Our Fathers on the Crystal Serenity in 2008. His presentation was inspirational not only talking about what had taken place on Iwo Jima but also how he decided to write the book and his optimism about getting it published.
In between these two lectures Keith spoke with Captain Glenn for a little while. We also spoke with Rick Spath earlier in the morning.
We went to the Lido Café for lunch and ate outdoors. Whereas it has been a little overcast the last couple of days, the sun was out today.
In the afternoon, Anne Marie took another long walk on the Promenade Deck while Keith with his gimpy ankle took it easy and did reading and writing and later in the day had a nice long conversation with some fellow passengers.
This evening we will dine at Prego to celebrate a cruising milestone along with one other passenger who is also celebrating his cruising milestone. Crystal Society Hostess Jacque Brown arranged this. Dinner. We will dine with Jacque Brown and with Cruise Director Rick Spath.
Before we went to sleep, we once again moved the clocks forward an additional hour as we sail into yet another time zone as we make our way to Cape Town, South Africa.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….
“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”
Keith and Anne Marie
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