Winter stayed in Rochester late this year: cold and snow. In late March the East Coast experienced four
northeasters in as many weeks. While
mostly the moisture didn’t reach inland as far as Rochester, it was cold. It was a winter cold made all the harder to
take given that it was spring!
Fortunately, we had a trip to Florida scheduled since last Fall and we
glad to get away and leave our “spring” weather behind.
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| It wasn't exactly spring weather in Charlotte either. |
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| Note ball in stick |
Originally
we had planned on driving to Florida together but the situation changed when
Marilyn’s 100 year old Mom was hospitalized with pneumonia in late
December. She came home after a week and
is doing extremely well but continues to need oxygen pretty much all the
time. With aides, Marilyn, her sister
and brother have been providing 24/7 presence to make sure everything goes
well. It turned out that Marilyn needed
to stay through Friday March 23. Bill
decided to drive down leaving on the original date of March 22, stopping in
Charlotte overnight with Liam and his family, and then pick up Marilyn on
Friday at the Charlotte airport. That
all worked great and Bill got a chance to see grandson, Liam Jacob, play a high
school lacrosse game. He is a captain
and looking forward to playing for the United States Merchant MarineAcademy. We are very proud of his
decision to attend one of our service academies. He received both senatorial and congressional
nominations and has received his formal appointment.
It was my first lacrosse game and I have a lot to learn
about it before I can begin to get some shots that show how well he
played. However, I think this one isn’t
bad; at least I got the ball in his stick!
He plays as a middie with an emphasis on defense although I did get a
little confused since players come in and go out constantly. Click here to view more photos of his lacrosse game.
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| Ishrat and Musheer Hussain |
After
I picked up Marilyn at the Orlando airport, we joined some friends from
Rochester who moved to Orlando a couple of years ago, Ishrat and Musheer
Hussain. Marilyn became quite close
friends with Ishrat when they worked together at Boces 2. Musheer practiced as a general surgeon in
Brockport. We spent two nights with
them. Their hospitality was so warm and
gracious that we felt we had already boarded a cruise ship! We enjoyed several delicious meals including
a lunch with some other friends, Craig and Susan Larson, who bi-locate
seasonally. Ishrat and Musheer have an extensively
decorated home which radiates a calmness and peacefulness that accords with their personalities and warm styles.
After going to Palm Sunday Mass at the National Shrine of
Mary Queen of the Universe and another delicious meal, we left for
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| Dressing for dinner! |
Port
Canaveral to board our cruise ship, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas. We spent the afternoon settling in and then
had a delicious dinner. As you can see,
this year we decided to step up our game and try to follow the dress code. The next two days were spent cruising to our first
stop: St. Martin. We enjoyed a full performance of Cats as well
as an outstanding show that combined swimming, diving and acrobatics. A comedy show topped off the two days. The next day we will begin our shore
excursions.
One of things we like most about a cruise is the chance to
meet and interact with the staff, typically those serving us food. Since our first two days were at sea without
any ports of call, we were able to meet several: Denzil from India, Harry from Indonesia,
Chrisarah and Rod from the Phillipines, and Danilo from Montenegro. Each of them
were engaging and were happy to share their stories with us. We were particularly taken with
Chrisarah.
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| Chrisarah Dorado |
She has an eight-year-old son
back in the Philippines with her parents.
As a single parent she is focused on providing the best possible future
for her son. She was in the first months
of the standard eight-month contract and was clearly struggling with
homesickness. She had never flown before
she boarded a plan in Manilla transferred in Abudabi to flight to New York and
then to Orlando. And then on a ship with
more than 5,000 passengers and an international crew of 1,500. Rod, also from the Philippines, had a similar
story with a five-year-old son back in the Philippines.
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