Monday, January 9, 2023 – World Cruise Journey Day 20
Yesterday Jeff and I had an opportunity to take a very special, custom excursion, we went home! For a few hours. When we booked our trip, we knew that our ship, the Viking Neptune, would be stopping in Los Angeles on Jan. 8th and then Santa Barbara on the 9th. Knowing this we debated which day we’d go home to Thousand Oaks. Our Los Angeles port was San Pedro and it was on a Sunday, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get home. As it turned out, we were fortunate to have chosen Los Angeles as the day for our trip home. The stop in Santa Barbara was cancelled due to expected foul weather!
Sunday morning, we left the ship at the first opportunity, took an Uber to LAX to pick up a rental car, drove to Thousand Oaks to try to make it to church & worship with our friends. We made it! It was so good to see everyone and visit, even if for only for a few precious minutes. After church we made a mad dash home expecting our furry family to be overjoyed to see us…. well, they are being so well cared for that, while they were happy, they seemed a bit underwhelmed! We are apparently old news! Nevertheless, they received lots of love from us and will hopefully be happy to see us when we return from our epic journey!
We packed up some things we’d left (knowing we would be able to pick them up) got a few more things at the pharmacy, had an all to brief lunch, returned the rental car and got another Uber back to the ship. It was a whirlwind, but so well worth it!
It was also a special day for our ship and her crew. This is the first season for the Viking Neptune. She sailed with passengers for the first time from Europe shortly before we boarded her in Fort Lauderdale. Viking has a formal naming ceremony for all their ships, and we were going to be present for the naming and christening of ‘our’ ship. Viking is a privately held company still run by the founder and his adult children. After emerging from the pandemic years, this seemed to be a particularly special celebration for them and the employees. We are very happy they have survived to take us to see this amazing world.
They are very proud of their Norwegian heritage!
After the naming ceremony, Santa Barbara having been cancelled, we set out for six days at sea bound for Hawaii.
This morning around 7, our Captain announced that the storm hitting CA was as bad as predicted so he was changing course and heading further south, stepping on the gas and high tailing it out of Dodge! While the seas have been rough, it is nothing like it could have been! While the storm bore down on many of our family and friends, we were able to stay out of trouble. We are thankful for our Captain and crew for maneuvering us to safer waters! We just hope all of you are safe, warm and dry!
Six days at sea… What on earth do we do with all that time?!?
Well, believe it or not, we find ourselves pretty darn busy. There are so many options we have to choose what things we can do! This morning Jeff attended a 9:30 lecture learning about the History of Navigation while I attended a Bridge lesson (look out world, I’m getting the hang of this game – I think!). At 11 we went to another lecture about the story behind Jules Verne’s ‘Around the World in 80 days’ and the Golden Age of Travel. We took a break and attempted to walk the wet, wobbly, windy, heaving deck. We didn’t get too far for fear of falling and breaking body parts! After lunch we retired to our cabin while I did some work real life work and Jeff caught up on some reading. This afternoon we attended a lecture on Great Circumnavigations of the globe and later the Naturalist spoke on Whales, Dolphins & Seabirds we are likely to see between our current position and New Zealand some weeks away. We went to dinner featuring a tasting menu of California Cuisine. After dinner I attempted to figure out more of this darn blogging software. Apparently, my brain cells were full for the day because I’m not making much progress on the software side of things. I’m trying to figure out how to add a subscribe button so I can publish my blog and you’ll get an email with a link automatically. Stay tuned, I may or may not have it figured out! You should see a ‘Subscribe’ option at the top right-hand corner of the post. I’m not sure it actually works, but if you are interested, give it a try!
Stay tuned for more adventures from the high seas!