Hey, that's a puffer fish...

We just got back from another nine day cruise. We ended up doing our show a day early because the juggler that was supposed to go on Sunday night had a black eye.....it also happened to be the same night as the Playoff games...hmmm. So we did our show on Sunday night.....both shows were well attended but surprisingly the late show was busier than the first show. Usually on these nine day cruises everything tends to be slanted towards earlier but this cruise had a healthy late night crowd.

We went snorkeling in Roseau, Dominica. Michael found this great little pier near the town center. So we walked there from our ship, about a mile walk and then we had a Ginger Shandy. What's a ginger shandy, you say? Well, it's gingerale mixed with beer and it's really refreshing and delicious. I made a poor choice in foot wear. I was wearing my teva's which are great in the water but terrible to walk in. I had blister all over the balls of each of my feet. Somehow, through great strength and self-discipline, I managed to climb into the water from the pier. At first we were just going to float around a bit but then Michael put on his snorkel and after about two seconds he popped up and said, "You're going to want to see this!" So we got ours on and took a peek. Underneath the pier there were hundreds of fish, they were all swirling around this big rock. They were all silvery and very pretty. All in all we saw a black angelfish with yellow fins (Larrance), a foot long cigar fish (Jen), and an orange pufferfish (Michael and Jen). The pufferfish looked like a cantaloupe with bug eyes. We also saw some very pretty little blue fish and some other stuff....like the biggest spiny urchin I've ever seen. The snorkeling was great.

As we were swimming about, a whale watching ship came in so we had to get out of the way. At first the whale watching guide stood on the pier and just stared at us, we thought he might be mad that we were there. So I did what anyone would do and said, "Hello, I'm crew on the Norweigian Pearl." He brightened up at this and proceed to give me a crash history lesson on Dominica. He also told me that next time I come back I need to swim out to this old rock (I'd seen it but not gone over there) because there was an old ship wreck over there. Then I picked his brain for whale info - good times to go, what I could expect to see. I told him about the humpback whales traveling through Maine. Then it was time to go....

In Barbados, we went to the Mount Gay Rum distillery. Michael mentioned we were crew and they let us in for free! We tried some lovely rum concoctions and then we took the tour. The tour was quick but very informative and at the end they let us try four of their rums. Then we wandered around Barbados and found another hot sauce to add to our growing collection. We also talked with another local gent who told us where to go for good Barbadian (?) food - Mauther's or the fast food place Chefette's - he also answered all my questions about the Barbadian foods I was looking at....they have ginger syrup - good in water or beer, they have marby syrup - good in water, a little bitter but good for you, some syrup I can't remember the name of that he said was better than maple syrup on pancakes (keep dreaming!), and then we talked about carambola. Carambola is a squash and it's a major ingredient in the hot sauce we bought plus it was also in a candy. I guess it's a hot-sweet item. He also chatted us about cricket which is the national sport of Barbados. I think I want to go to a cricket match, I've never been and it might be fun.

In St. Lucia, I didn't get off the ship. Instead I read my book and watched a movie. Larrance went out and he managed to procure the long sought after LLB. LLB stands for Lemon Lime and Bitters and its made by Angostura. We had it with lunch and it was delicious. I think I like Ting better but LLB is pretty good. We had our improv show that night - they went very well. Surprisingly the early show was lightly attended while the late show was packed.

In Antigua, we wandered around a bit. I found my hair braiding "friend" who yelled at me to get my hair braided until I identified myself. Then we traded hello's and I told her I would see her in two weeks. She asked if I would have my hair braided and I said no....you can't blame her....she has to ask....she's like a fox in a hen house...can you ask the fox not to nip at the hens? No, you can't. She was actually very friendly and seemed flattered that I'd been looking for her to say hello. Who knows? Maybe she'll really come to respect my no braiding policy.
Later in the day we tried some local pumpkin soup and some conch fritters. The pumpkin soup is on the "to do again" list and whereas the conch fritters are on the "done with that" list.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. We've decided to make the next nine day cruise an all snorkeling time.

This week our friends and colleagues from Chicago Comedy Company will be on board for the five days to Cozumel and Belize. We hope to get some snorkeling in and Larrance hopes to finish the 3rd movement of his String Quartet.

~Jen & Larrance