Dining at its best

... watching the sea through the dining room window ...

Rebecca’s dream cruise was that we would eat dinner together.
And this is what it looked like – for fourteen nights in a row.

I have no idea how we got a table by the window – Wyona and I have never been able to swing that!

So there it was, either the Bay of Biscay or the Mediterranean, floating by us every night.

Today Mary asked me if the Johnson-Carter group got to feel the wild turbulence on the Bay of Biscay.

... and what shall we do after supper: ...

I had to tell her no – while the barf bags were taped to the banister at every landing, we did not get thrown against walls as we walked down the halls, nor did we have to lay on the floor, hoping that this part of the cruise would be over soon, as Mary and I had to do.

What is always the same seems to be the fabulous menus presented to us every night.

... The Menu -- new every night ...

I am only at a loss for the internet, for when I read something like white gazpacho soup,

I want to know immediately what is in that soup, what is making it white and what the spices are.

I want to do a search and google ten to twenty questions every day of this sort listed below – ie give me a recipe for this, a definition for that, a review on something else.

... orchids on the table, chandeliers on the ceilings ...

It was really fun to eat together all of those evenings.

The Carter-Johnsons run a lot of games. If they are going to a local British restaurant, they take a deck of cards and play for the 20 minutes while their meals are being cooked.

On the boat they would play a form of 20 questions.

 ... white gazpacho soup ...

Or more accurately, a form of “I am thinking of a word that rhymes with irresponsible, to which the other person asks back, “Does this word mean something that you are trying to establish in court, but not doing a good job,” to which the other person has to say, “No, the word is not indefensible”. And the game goes on.

We play that one so much, and we don’t have a quick way to name that game, yet. But on our variations of it, we sometimes say, name as many tunes from the musical, Wicked, as you can – and then the list starts to build up.

Another variation that Duncan thought of it, “What statue ...” and then say something about a statue an see if other people can guess which one you are thinking of.

... today's choice?  top sirloin ...

Another topic of conversation at dinner was around ... what we were going to do after dinner.

The ship always published a list of things to do at every hour – sometimes with as many as four choices.

So we would try to figure out who was going where, and who would have the most fun.

I know why we don’t do this every night.

At our house we don’t have someone buying the food, someone else, cooking it, another person serving yet, yet someone else to sweep away the crumbs before dessert is served, and then a whole clean up crew.

But that doesn’t mean we wouldn’t like to eat this way every night.

 ... soft blue cheese on top of tomatoes ...

There is nothing like having someone open a white linen serviette, drop it in your lap and then place a menu in front of you, on which are written no prices.

Yes, at the very least, I am missing our cruise mealtimes.

Arta