July 9, 2008 Rollin' On The River

Today we slept in, since we had nowhere we had to go. It’s a river day, with no stops anywhere. We decided to have a “luxurious” breakfast in the dining room, rather than the informal “fast food” atmosphere of the Front Porch. Instead of my usual yogurt with Cheerios and apples, I opted for a plain bagel with cream cheese. It was really good, too!

After breakfast, we went to hear Jim, our Discovery Guide, give a talk about the river. He’s a funny guy, and told jokes along with his stories of life on the river. After that it was time for BINGO! I came SO close to winning—just one number away a few times. But Laura won $40, and Gordan won $65, so we are still batting 1000 with a winner every day! We’ve all won now!

I checked the lunch buffet in the dining room. It was a picnic theme. An unhealthy picnic! Fried catfish (barf!!!), fried chicken, ribs, pork & beans, cornbread. NOTHING that I could eat. So I checked the Front Porch. Nope. Hot dogs, ham and cheese sandwiches, corned beef on rye. Not gonna happen. So…I returned to the dining room and requested a special meal. A nice turkey sandwich. I put all the meat, the lettuce and tomato, on half the bread (basically ONE slice instead of 2) and was happy as a clam.

After lunch I went up to play the calliope. It is NOT as easy as it looks! For starters, it has only 2 octaves, which limits what you can play. Also, when you press the key, there is a delay before the sound comes out. The best I could do was “Old MacDonald”! I was laughing so hard I could barely play at all! I actually got a certificate for playing, and it wasn’t even for the World’s Worst Calliope player!

Next up was the “Not So Newlywed” Game. It was such fun! There were 3 couples—married 20, 22, and 52 years. The questions were funny when the answers didn’t match from one spouse to the other! After that was the chef demo. Not all that thrilling, until he passed out recipes, including the wonderful Butternut-Apple Soup!!! I checked out the numbers, and it works out to just 221 calories per serving, with 4 grams of protein. OK, so it’s got 16 grams of fat, so I’d make it with Half and Half instead of heavy cream. So exciting!!

Naturally, I had to make my way to the gym for my daily elliptical time. I did an hour, since we didn’t do much walking today. I felt so good, and I even broke a sweat! Fortunately, I followed that with a nice hot shower. Dinner was a nice piece of swordfish, something I haven’t had in quite awhile. (I wonder why, since I really do like it) I even had berries with a bit of vanilla ice cream. Joe made Laura an amazing dessert—3 cookie and ice cream sandwiches! Each one was 2 big chocolate chip cookies, with a different kind of ice cream in each one, all topped with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, sprinkles, and cherries! It was enough for 3 people and then some! Obviously, she did NOT eat it all, but she sure made a big dent! I do believe this guy is trying to fatten up my little peanut!

We only had a short time between dinner and the show, so we sat out on a private porch to watch the river. The show was a guy who, if I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn was actually Mark Twain! He looked, dressed, and talked the part so well it was amazing. He told all sorts of stories, it was really interesting. Laura fell asleep—no surprise there! We watched our nightly movie, and got to bed a bit early for a change.