What have we been doing? Glad you asked!

Some of you have written to say you missed my daily posting. It’s good to know my reading public is eager for news (or … actually, it’s good to know that I HAVE a reading public).

My excuse: When we got back from the dolphin encounter, we were exhausted and took a nap (of course we did), then it was getting on to mimosa time, and then it was time for dinner, followed by a show and so on. This morning I didn’t have time to post because our excursion to Atlantis left at 8:00, and we barely had time to eat breakfast before we left the ship.

Wow, it takes a lot of time and energy to relax, doesn’t it? Heh.

Anyway. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

The dolphin encounter yesterday was great! I love dolphins anyway, but to get this close to them and be able to touch them was a rare treat.

One interesting thing happened, though: We were instructed to keep our hands over our stomachs any time we weren’t petting the dolphins. Otherwise they’d get confused because their trainers tell them what to do with hand signals. But they also said to let them know how excited we were because they feed off of our energy.

Well, ok. When the dolphin we were working with (named Coral) came up, of course I started waving at her and saying, “Hey Coral! Hey!” Then she went under the water and hit the back of my leg with her pectoral fin. I think she was letting me know that the hand gesture confused her because I’m not her trainer. I almost slipped in the water, but I got the message. First time I’ve ever been reprimanded by a dolphin. After that we got along fine, because I’m a fast learner and I kept my hands over my stomach when I wasn’t petting her. Heh.

Today we went to Atlantis on Paradise Island and did the Aquaventure excursion – a day pass to the entire resort, including the pools, waterslides and beach. This was a blast! I recommend it for anyone of any age.

First thing as soon as we stowed things in the locker and staked out our beach chairs was to do the lazy river – twice. It takes about 45 minutes, and part of it has alternatives you can choose. You can go through “the rapids” or go up a conveyor belt (on your inner tube) to the top of a slide and go down either “the drop” or “the falls.” We had so much fun.

We had lunch there (complimentary as part of the ticket price), which was terrific, and then we walked around a bit more, saw the “dig” – the aquarium and ruins walk that’s built to look like the ruins of Atlantis.

We went back to the slides and were going to do the “leap of faith” – a 7-story almost vertical drop that scared me silly – but it started thundering and they closed the slides. So we lay around on the chairs for a bit then made our way back to the ship. But let the record show that I was willing to do the leap of faith.

On the way back to the ship, we visited the library – it’s a cute, tiny, octagon-shaped building that we found one year when we were here, and we make a point to go each time and sign the registration book.

Unfortunately I don’t have photos to post yet of the excursions because we took them with waterproof cameras, and we’ll have to get them developed.

Tomorrow is a day at sea on the way home, and I plan to do as little as possible. Maybe a nap or two. But I’ll be sure to find time to post if for no other reason but to tell you how many naps I’ve had.
.