The next morning at breakfast, we bumped into the mom and daughter who we had chatted with all the way back to the ship on the bus the evening before. The gal said she got her red hair from her mom and her blue eyes from her dad. They were from north Ogden, Utah.
That day we were warned of choppier water and higher wind. Erika laughed about how some people were desperate to enjoy being outside, no matter how miserable they were.
Bingo was pretty lame for various reasons, but it was fun to be with everyone.
We hit the FlowRider again that afternoon.
In addition to boogie boarding, you can also try stand-up surfing on the FlowRider. I had done it once before for a few seconds several years ago, so I wasn't going to try it this time. But I decided at the last minute to give it a go.
To my great surprise, I stayed up for over a minute! I may not have had poise, but I was up!
Eventually I went down while trying to cross the "wake" in the middle on the way back.
Later we all found a lounge chair on the deck and sat and read books in the sun. Having done all of the things on the ship, and having done quite a bit in Bermuda, it was nice to feel like we weren't missing out on anything by just sitting and relaxing.
When the boys arrived back in their room, they saw that their towel had been tied into a monkey and was hanging from a coat hanger. Below it Adam's Pillow Pet of Appa, the flying bison from "Avatar, the Last Airbender".
Here's a 3-second video where Jared is excited about the connection he discovered here.
Momo is the winged lemur from Avatar, too, so when Jared said, "It's Momo and Appa!" I thought that was hilarious. I don't know if the service people were going for that or not. I hope so.
Later everyone congregated in our room again. Jared arrived with only one shoe. Apparently he was rushing to the elevator that had Kelsi & Chase on it, but didn't make it on in time, so he just randomly threw a shoe in there. (They were in his hands at the time). I wasn't sure what to tell him at this point.
People hit the ice cream machine again, and we played a couple rounds of Code Words.
While we played games, we also watched the entire movie of The Emperor's New Groove, while some of us lay on the bed or hung out on the balcony.
As we went to dinner that night, Jared was still missing his shoe. Apparently Kelsi had it at the table and was already there.
The waiter teased us about always being late for our dinner time, so we were sure to be there right on time that night.
Jared caught a glimpse of the sunset just after dinner.
That evening after dinner, we went to see the aerial show, with lots of dancing and climbing in the air, and it was really cool. The aerial couple at the end was incredible.
Since it was our last night onboard, almost everyone went to Johnny Rocket's for milkshakes.
By this time, the gal recognized me enough that I could just say, "the usual" and she would whip me up an Oreo shake.
Before our cruise, Kyle found a video on YouTube where someone reviewed all of the features of our cruise ship, The Liberty of the Seas. As the narrator was talking about one thing, he said, "It is nice, and I like it." So we kept using that phrase throughout the cruise, and I applied it to the Johnny Rocket Oreo milkshakes.
Sienna got separated from the group after the show, and a couple of doors were closed off due to wind, so it took her a while to find us, but I was able to slip her some milkshake to cheer her up. They played a game of Cover Your A$$ets.
Linette and I wandered over to listen to this guitar guy play, and he was really good. So I ordered another free virgin specialty drink and we sat and listened to him play for almost an hour.
Katelyn and Jared tried out the huge couch that evening.
New York City
Thursday morning, June 15, 2023, we awoke to a nice sunrise with some of New York and New Jersey appearing on the horizon.
Soon some of the New York skyline was reflecting the sunlight.
It was nice to be able to watch things go by from the balcony.
We saw the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge that we would be passing under to get to Port Liberty.
Here's a 90-second video showing us entering the harbor, going under the bridge, and hearing the bells on the bouys, all taken from our balcony.
Here is an old sailing ship just in front of where you can see the One World Tower (the tallest building in the skyline).
The Staten Island ferry went by as well. We have had fun riding that a couple times in the past, as a way to get a free ride around the harbor.
As we pulled into the harbor, we could see the "Tear Drop Memorial," gifted by the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the 9/11 attack.
Near the cruise terminal, there were a gazillion shipping containers stacked on the dock.
Next to those were a ship full of more of them and a bunch of cranes to move them on and off. There used to be a whole bunch of people who had to load and unload stuff from ships by hand, but the standardized shipping containers that could go to and from ships, semis and trains, made things far, far more efficient, and revolutionized commerce.
Here is the Statue of Liberty with the Empire State Building right above it, and the One World Tower over to the right.
It was interesting watching the ship make its way up against the harbor.
They take it nice and easy, because I don't think you want to crash a city-sized boat into a harbor and see who wins.
We did one last breakfast in the dining room before getting off the ship.
As we went back to our room to grab our luggage, it was interesting to see what it looked like when all of the balconies have the dividers between the rooms opened.
We walked through the dining room to get off the ship, and we sort of said good-bye to our table where we had dined every night for the week.
Kelsi and Chase were flying home from New York City that day, and Erika & Kyle went with them to go to the 9/11 museum.
Meanwhile, we took Erika & Kyle's luggage and everyone else with us in a Lyft ride to our hotel to drop bags, and then to Manhattan.
Traffic was ok but a little slow through the tunnel.
We spent a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, since several in the group had never been there before.
I had been there a few times, but there is so much to see that I found that if I just slowed down and looked at a few things in more detail, there was always so much more to see and learn. I really enjoyed looking more closely at the Egyptian artifacts and seeing things like what their farm implements and animals looked like.
I hadn't noticed this kind of stone used in Egyptian artifacts before. (This is from 1800 B.C.)
This is the Temple of Dendur, built in 10 B.C. In 1963, it was about to be covered by water from the Aswan High Dam in Egypt, and was saved and donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Egypt in gratitude for their help.
A lot of ancient drawings were painted like this back in the day.
The Met has so many cool things.
I liked this painting of Native Americans dancing in a longhouse.
This secretary desk reminded me of Grandpa Collie Bryan Wilson's secretary desk that my dad still has (and that Bob has dibsed).
Linette thought this statue was cool, as though it was escaping from the block of marble.
(It reminded me of Han Solo frozen in carbonite.)
For lunch, we went right out front and got authentic New York hot dogs, and they were great.
A guy was playing the saxophone, and I recognized one melody as the national anthem of South Korea. There was a group of Koreans eating right next to us, so I looked at them and said, "Aegukga" (애국가). They were surprised that I would know that, and more surprised when we started speaking in Korean together. A minute later, the guy played the one Korean children's song I know, "San Tokki" (산토끼, Mountain Rabbit), so when I sang along, their eyes got big again. I'm not sure why that saxophone player did so much Korean music, but it was great for our conversation.
Kelsi and Chase were kind of stuck over at the 9/11 museum, because they had their luggage with them and while the museum would store it for them, they couldn't find anywhere near the Met to store it. So Erika and Kyle hung out with them for the morning, and then came to join us when Kelsi and Chase headed for the airport.
We decided to head back into the Met for another hour or so to see a few more things while we waited for Erika and Kyle to join us. Meanwhile, Katelyn wandered around the area to take pictures.
I love the old greek pottery with the detailed drawings on them.
This window panel was cool.
Linette and I were both impressed by the color of blue that these plates used.
They were made in the 1400s in the Timur empire (centered in Iran). If you read all of the signs in there, you would be there for years.
Finally we headed to Central Park.
As we walked along, I was extremely tired, and here was this beautiful bench with nice shade. So we sat down for a bit.
Linette read her book and I took a nap. I believe we were there for an hour.
I thought this building seemed ridiculously tall and skinny, and felt like it might just fall over.
We remembered the kids playing on these rocks when our family was here 12 years ago.
(Seinna was smaller back in 2012)
It was very tasty. They also had a "fried pizza crust" pizza that was great, too.
By this time, Kelsi & Chase had flown home. We were disappointed not to get to see each other before they had to leave, but what a week!
After dinner, Erika and Kyle went to see "Wicked!"
Meanwhile, the rest of us went to see "HadesTown".
HadesTown was a fun musical about Orpheus falling in love with Eurydice and singing a beautiful song that makes everything better. It also involves Hades, the god of the underworld; and Persephone, who makes things grow but marries Hades, after which she has to spend half of her time in the underworld, which is why we have winter and stuff. Since I'm an ignoramus and don't remember my Greek mythology, I didn't know for sure how the play was going to turn out, but at the beginning they sang about how it's a sad story but they sing about it anyway, over and over, hoping that this time it might turn out different.
The songs were amazing, and we had a delightful time.
Jared, Katelyn and Sienna opted for the cheaper seats up top, but it wasn't a big theater, so you could actually see pretty well from anywhere.
Even though we all knew by the end how it was going to turn out, Adam still teared up a bit, which was cute.
The live band was right on stage during the play, which we enjoyed.
The three guys were the ones who shed a tear during the play.
Times Square is really something at night.
Here's a video of a 180-degree group selfie in Times Square.
We bought bus tickets to New Jersey, and the New York Skyline was pretty reflecting off the water.
We had to walk about a half a mile from our bus to our hotel. When we got there, Kyle started laughing for some reason and couldn't stop.
We were on the 11th floor, so we could see over the whole area when we woke up that next morning.
We were on the 5:30am shuttle to the airport, and the sun was just coming up, filtered by a bit of Canadian wildfire smoke.
We were pretty tired at the airport. Katelyn rested her head on the table.
Sienna was like, "Forget that!" and sprawled out under the table.
So sleepy on the way home.
Finally we arrived over the Rocky Mountains.
Leslie and Tyler Gates picked us up, and we treated them to lunch at Raising Cane's chicken.
When we got home, Erika fell over.
What a fun trip! I was so grateful to be able to spend time with Linette, Adam, Kelsi, Chase, Erika, Kyle, Jared, Katelyn and Sienna before Sienna begins her 18-month mission at the end of July to Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico.
It has been an amazing few months with trips to Switzerland and Bermuda, and now I'm looking forward to being home for a while.
Oh, and there's One More Thing...
The tune for a sea shanty has been a'brewin' in my head since we first booked this trip. Once we got home, and I knew what had happened on the trip, I was able to come up with lyrics and finalize the tune. I made a music video of the song, using pictures and video clips from our trip, and here is the final result. (I'd recommend going full screen on this for the full effect).
Liberty of the Seas:
