Day 8 – At Sea 8/16

Good Morning! Today is a relaxing day at sea on our way to Stockholm, Sweden. We woke up and headed to breakfast. Our next agenda item was to decide what tours to do for Russia. Now, Steve and I typically like to explore places on our own. But, for Russia you need to get a Visa unless you do the tours with the ship, I also read that for the most part unless you speak Russian, it isn’t the easiest place to get around and its easy to be cheated. So, we’re resigned to do the tours with Celebrity. We’ve narrowed it down to The Hermitage (for sure!), and then either the subway/market tour, the Lenin tour, or walking palace and canal tour.

We also bought a $20 picture from the formal dinner (see Day 6). Man, they sure know how to gouge you… but it is a cute photo, and we ARE on vacation… so what the hell! Live a little!

Today was also day 2 of the Ryder cup. I was VERY nervous to see if I would uphold my title. We had to chip the ball up and over some chairs and then putt into the hole. I didn’t do too badly, got a 2. Steve also got a 2. Unfortunately, another girl (from Scotland, which I believe may yield an unfair advantage) got a hole in one. D’uoh! So, I have to keep it up if I want to continue to contend for the great honor of winning the Celebrity Century Ryder Cup.

We also booked our excursions for Saint Petersburg, Russia. Day 1 – we are going on the Lenin Revolution Tour. Day 2 – A full day around St. Petersburg at all the major sites and the Hermitage Museum.

Ironically, while getting ready for dinner we had on the travel channel. The host was taking a tour through Lisbon, Portugal and I thought, “Oh I want to go there!!” And only for a moment forgot what a fantastic trip we were on. Which, if anything means I caught the bug again… its been so long since I’ve traveled overseas and I miss it immensely! You hear that Silvia? I’m hooked again!

Big News – I got Steve to go scrapbooking! Lol – Not that I do that either, but we got a scrapbook pack and I’m determined to make one of our trip. (Brenda, your cool vacation album inspired me!)

We played the “battle of the sexes” trivia game again and then went back to the room to get ready for dinner. It was another superb feast. We shared a bottle of Pinot Noir, had 4 courses followed by crepes suzette for dessert.

The show was “vocal fireworks” of a British performer who sounded an awful lot like Neil Diamond. He cycled through melodies of songs from the 50’s to the 80’s. I enjoyed just about all of them, as they were reminiscent of my Dad’s music collection. Steve and I also watched the Quartet sing again, and played some blackjack in the casino. A relatively tame night as we prepared for our day in Sweden.

Our dinner table. Peggy and Bob (right), James and Helen (center).