The Travel Bug Strikes Again and Here We Go!

I have always heard about how exciting the Chinese celebrate their lunar New Year - which they call Chinese New Year. in China. Every year in Canada, the media always report the world's biggest migration on earth - when Chinese people travel back to their home villages or towns to see their families during this time of the year. I have never personally experienced the lunar New Year in China therfore, I asked my husband if we could travel to China to experience Chinese New Year first hand. He agreed!

We did all our preparations, bought our tickets, packed our bags and off we went. This time instead of going to Asia via the Vancouver, Japan route, we went the other way. We chose to go through the European way and our first stop was Portugal, a country we thought of visiting recently. We left Toronto around 9p.m. and arrived Lisbon at 9 a.m. the next day. Not knowing the language or anybody in Lisbon, Portugal, we thought we would just wait for our next connecting flight at 10p.m.at the airport. But the nice man at the airport cafe told us that downtown Lisbon was only 20 minute bus ride away and that we should go there for lunch, look around and come back. With this nice man's encouragement, we listened. We locked up our lugguage at one of the lockers and off we went waiting for the bus taking us downtown.

The ride was easy and the bus fare was cheap. We were downtown in less than thirty minutes, no time at all. What a nice day it was. With the sun shinning, and soft breezes blowing on our faces, it felt wonderful, not cold at all. We walked around the downtown area, taking in the sights and sounds of this beautiful, unhurried city. Lisbon gave me the impression that it is not a very big city but is steep in history and with lots to see. The first impression we have of Lisbon was how much of the city's roads have been paved with cobbles stones and mosiac tiles. We needed to be very careful walking on these streets as they could get slippery easily.

We strolled on the huge square on the waterfront, up the winding narrow streets in the CHIADO neighborhood. The streets were alive with pedestrains and tourists but not overly crowded. There were many sidewalk cafes and restaurants, souvenior shops catering to visitors to the area. We found a not so busy street and parked ourselves at one of the sidewalk restaurants to enjoy a codfish lunch, and people watched while sipping on the coffee and watched the world go by for a little while. What a nice and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. Soon, it was time getting back to the airport. We could hardly wait to visit Portugal again for a longer time on our way back to Canada RT, Lisbon, Portugal 24012024 24012024

Celebrating Lunar New Year at Home in Canada

As an Asian Canadian, we are fortunate living in Canada. We have freedom of speech, religion, mobility and many other things. One of the things we value most is freedom of maintaining and celebrating our own cultures and traditions without being called out by our governement officialls in high places.

There are many special annual occasions and festivities in Canada which we observe and celebrate with our fellow Canadians. In addition to celebrating Canadian holidays, we also celebrate some of our more significant Asian occasions with our friends and families. The Lunar New Year is celebrated by thousands of families across North America.

This year we celebrated the Lunar New Year as usual with a big dinner and invited our other family members and closest friends to our house. It is always a joyous occasion and family event and we are glad that we are keeping the tradition going by getting together around the time of the new year! RT TORONTO

We' ve Gained So Much by Welcoming Newcomers in Our Home in Canada

We love living in Canada! Canada is one of the most culturally diverse countries on earth. Canada opens its door and each year we welcome at least 250,000.00 newcomers from the four corners of the world. This is a regular number of new immigrants the Canadian government allows to get into our country through the official immigration process. However, if there are any special situations such as natural disasters, conflicts or wars happening in the world, Canada will allow additional number of refugees of wars or victims of disasters and admit them into our land as a relief for victims.

We, as Canadian citizens, applaud our government's efforts to help refugees and victims and many of us also open our homes to welcome them. In January of 2024, we were privilaged to open our home and welcome a newcomer family to our Waterloo home. Upon our invitation, the family of six, two parents and four kids came and spent an evening with us. We treated them with some traditional Canadian food, desserts and after dinner games for the kids. We discovered that no matter what rich food we served our guests, nothing tasted as good as their own native food. Instead of chicken nuggets and french fries we thought the kids would like, the most popular dish for that evening turned out to be rice and beans and cabbage! Wow, I learned something that night about what kids like to eat.

Another evening, we received two international students from Europe in our home. One of the exchanged students from Waterloo university finished her four month term in Canada and was going back home. We received her and her friend at our home on her last night in Canada. We cooked together, shared a meal and had some great conversations. What a fantastic time we had!

Sometimes we think by giving up some of our time and effort to help other, we are sacrifing something. How wrong are we! Time and time again, we have found that by helping others and opening our homes to strangers, we gain so much joy and happiness in return. We thank God immensely for giving us the health, the mobility and the resources to do what we can and share with others! We look forward to welcoming and serving more newcomers to our homes in Ontario, Canada RT Waterloo, Canada

Goodbye to Our Virgin Cruise & Connecting with Family in Florida

This was the last day on our cruise and we were a little sad coming to the end of a wonderful cruise. Up early, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the Razzle Dazzle Restaurant. After spending five days on this Virgin cruise, we just realized that that we could have had breakfast at the ship's nice restaurants for breakfast as well as for lunch and dinner. Our family had a fantastic experience with the Virgin cruise! One thing that impressed me most was the types of activities offered to their cruise passengers allowing them to be connecting with others a little easier than the other cruises we have had experienced.

E. has had a blast on this cruise. At first he was hesitant about it but we encouraged him to choose his cruise line and he was happy with his Virgin experience. I thank God who listened to my prayers about giving him the opportunity to know more people and make new friends. It was a pleasure meeting the family of three from Florida and E. got along with the two girls well. O, God of almighty, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for your grace and mercy and the blessings you have bestowed on us on this trip. Though I only asked that you would bless E. with making at least one friend on the cruise, through your abundance of grace, you have blessed E. making with more than 1 friends. I thank you and am deeply grateful to you, God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob, for all the blessings you have bestowed on us. I trust your provision and that you already know what we ask for before we even pray for them. God, thank you again for your mercy and love! We disembarked and were at the Thrifty car rental by 11;15am But our car was not available and we waited for 1 ½ hours before we could get our rental car. It was a 3 ½ hours drive from the cruise terminal to our relative's place in Sarasota. We hadn't seen each other since the last time we visited Florida way before COVID. Lots have happened since and we looked forward to seeing him and his family again.

We texted P. not to wait for us for dinner as we know we woould not make it before 630pm for dinner. We arrived shlrtly after 7pm. There were some pizza, salad and sweets waiting for us. We met P.and his wife's big family spending time there for Christmas. We sat in front of the fireplace in the backyard and caught up with each other at their new house for about an hour. I knew it was important for E. and his most favourite cousin to see each other and be reunited after COVID again. Though it took us a few hours of driving back and forth, as a family we must make an effort to try to keep in touch and see each other whenever there is an opportunity. Since we were in Florida already, how could we not drive that extra few hours for a quick cousin reunion there? I am well aware of the fact that out of sight, out of mind. So glad that we made the drive. So good to see P., his wife and the two girls who have grown up a lot since we saw them last time. With kids, if we haven't seen them for a year or two, we really noticed their growning up. What a nice family settled down in Flroida from Canada. Happy for them indeed. We took a family picture to send to our big family and made my brother very happy. We couldn't believe how handy and efficient how P's wife has been fixing everything in the new house. Nice job, M.

We drove to Tampa for the night. E. booked a hotel for us and we spent a couple of days sightseeeing around the area before heading back home. It was thoughtful of him booking and paying for our stay in Florida while visiting there the whole time! RT, Florida 12272023

A Fantastic Day on a Bimini Beach, Bahamas - Day 5 of Our Virgin Cruise

TUESDAY - Bimini, Bahamas Our cruise ship sailed to Bimini, Bahamas, the second port on our 5th day cruise.

It appeared that there was not much to do on this island. I think the cruise ship companies together with the other resorts on this island created a Beach Club right by the ocean front especially for the enjoyment of the cruise ship passengers. The focus of our activities took place around the Club House on the beach. We were taken by a tour bus and dropped off at the waiting area by the Club House entrance. There were a few numbered cabanas with loungers in front of them as well as many loungers and chairs scattered throughout the beach area. One thing we didn’t do was reserving a cabana which could shield us from the sun. Fortunately, it was a cloudy morning.

We met D., her 2 girls, their friends and chatted for a bit. We picked a shaded area right in front of Cabana 25 and whats hap E. of the info in case he needed to find us. Having no desire to be roasted under a hot sun, We had never spent an entire day on a beach until today. It was a good day being on the beach as it was not too hot and the sun was not too strong. It was just perfect weather for lying around and enjoying the beach. We ordered some food and drinks provided by the cruise ship and enjoyed our first full beach day. While my husband was enjoying his do nothing beach day with a beer and a coconut by his side, I strolled on the shore along the ocean. Dipping my barefeet in the ocean and listening to the sounds of the waves had a soothing effect on me. I just loved the feeling of being close to a body of water!

There was an abundance of food avaialable for us. We simply lined up to order our drinks and food at the food counter and bars. Young people were playing beach ball, swimming in the water and playing games in the pool; some were soaking up the tropical sun while other were relaxing and enjoying a nice time on the beach. I was surprised at how fast time flew by when we were simply lying around on the beach! E. came and told us it was time to leave this beautiful place, how sad! We reboarded the ship around 5pm and reboarded our cruise ship.

After a light snack – I finally got to try the Scarlet Lady dessert from the bakery. I went to my first Zumba class on this trip on the terrace. I wished I had discovered this class on day 1 of this cruise. It was a beautiful place to have the exercise class. There were only about 7 - 8 participants but I enjoyed both the view from the terrace and the exercise to loosen my well fed body. While I was in the class, I saw E. running around the track below us a few times. Wow, he's taking his exercise seriously. Thank God that he has learnt to look after himself with regular exercises. We were too tired to attend other events after the beach outing. Though we made reservation and were given the time slot at 9pm, we arrived at the restaurant shortly after 7pm and we were seated before 7:30pm! A lesson learned- never be afraid to ask for an earlier time for your dinner even though the assigned time might be much later. We were able to change our dinner time every time we asked and were able to have it much earlier.

This was our last night of the 5 day Virgin cruise, we had dinner at the Test kitchen which served us a six course meal creatively prepared using different ingredients and beautifully presented with detail explanation by our server. That was the best meal, a fancy dinner with small portions, exactly what we needed after a few days of heavy meals. We went back to our cabin to pack for tomorrow's disembarkation but didn’t go to the karaoke with E. and his friends. I watched a great interview on MSNBC with Arthur Brook who co-wrote a book on The Science of Happiness which talks about the main ingredients for a happy life; and some practical things to do to start the path to a happy life 1. Faith – read something spiritual or pray everyday for at least 15 minutes 2. Family – call your loved ones and talk to them everyday 3. Friends – make real friends and in person connections, not online friends and zoom friends 4. Work - which makes you feel that you are helping and uplifting others A very good interview and an excellent book to buy for our sons for next Christmas or birthday! RT, Day 5, Virgin Cruise 12262023

Spending our first Christmas at Sea with the Virgin Cruise

Monday - Our First Merry Christmas at Sea December 25, 2023 was our first Christmas spent on a cruise ship! We thanked God for His blessing that we could spend time together as a family with our son peacefully and happily with good health. It was truly a blessing for having good health and the mobility to enjoy this cruise trip! Thank you God, for your grace and mercy! I was busy reading and sending out Christmas greetings from our cruise ship to friends and families. We got a call from Y. who called us wishing us merry Christmas. It warms our heart every time when our son remembers us on these special occasions. We talked for almost an hour and I was able to share a Christmas message with him, prasie God! After the phone call, we met E. on Deck 15 for breakfast. He didn't seem like too happy and not in a good mood at all. I wondered what went wron Then two nice ladies came by and told E. that they were looking for him. E. was wondering why these two ladies didn't return his messages since they had so much fun together at the pool party the night before. At last, He figured out that he had their phone number wrong. They had a good chat and I even met their mom. What a nice family! After this, E, was happy again as he found out the real reason why his messages were not returned.

We still had almost $200.00 bar credit so we had it transferred to E. who could use it with his friends. As a Chrsitiian family, Chrsitmas has an importnat place in our lives. We always have big celebrations with family and church friends at home. One of the traditions we have been carrying on for all these years is exchanging gifts with family members on Christmas day. We enjoy buying gifts for each other and the value of the gifts are not important, but the thoughts and love represented in these gifts are more meaninful to us. We went to the roof top terrace, sat on a swing and opened the presents together. The whole thing didn't last for too long but it was an important moment and occasion for us. However, when the gift opening was over, I kicked myself afterwards for not taking the time to pray and share a few scriptures with E. O, God, forgive me and please help me to be a better Christian parent. May the holy spirit remind me next time to grab every opportunity to share the word of God with our loved ones and with whosoever we come into contact.

We had our Christmas dinner at the Pink Agave restaurant, our first Christmas dinner ever on a cruise chip. We enjoyed the dinners on this cruise a lot! The food was quite good with polite and attentive serving staff. No complain at all. There were lots to do after dinner on the ship. There were always shows and entertainment throughout the ship's theatres and lounges. This evening, we went to

the karaoke lounge where audiences were not just listening to the songs but also active participants taking the stage and bell out their songs wiht gusto. We met up with E.'s new friends, had some drinks, talked and enjoyed other sailors' performance. A fun time. E. did an excellent job introduing newcomers to the group and getting people together. I had a good chat with M's mom too. Loved that we were able to have a good time with our son and his newly made friends together. An enjoyable evening indeed! RT, On Board the Virgin Cruise Ship 25122023

Why We Liked the Virgin Cruise Ship - Scarlet Night, Gunbae Drinking Game and No Fee Photos

Prior to our cruise holiday and while deciding on which cruise company we would choose, we were not sure if going to the Virgin cruise would be worth it as it was more expensive than the other cruise companies. However, now that we are on it, we are glad that we chose Virgin this time we have noticed that Virgin does things a little differently from its counterpart cruises. There were a few things we really like about the Virgin cruise; 1. Scarlet Night - Tonight was Scarlet Night when sailors ( passengers) were supposed to dress in red. We learned about the Scarlet night from the Virgin website and were prepared for it. We looked so nice all dressed up in red. Everyone felt happy and were excited about Scarlet Night. Our son even went and bought red glassed for all of us to wear for tonight's event. Many sailors were taking pictures with each other. We had some nice pictures taken and were very happy about that. 2. No professional photogrpahers on board - One particular thing we noticed different about the Virgin Cruise was that there were no photo booths set up on the ship where professional photogrpahers would be waiting and pouncing on passengers to have their pictures taken at an expensive fees. Instead, There was a nice place set up with a silver background and anyone could just go and have their pictures taken there with their friends or families for free. How cool was that! We did just that and took some nice pictures at the beautiful setting. Taken by us, these pictures turned out very nice and we could use them as our CHristmas pictures for our friends and families. We also could take our time at the DIY photo setting and had a lot of fun taking our pictures there.

3. Gunbae Restaurant - After our one day port visit to Puerto Plata, we looked forwward to our dinner back on the cruise ship. Our dinner reservation was at 9pm at the Gunbae Restaurnant serving Korean bbq food. Not wanting to having dinner so late in the evening, we arrived to the restaurant at 8pm. Thank goodness, we were able to get in at an earlier time! There were no indiviual seats or seats for two at this restaurant. Each table could accommodate between 6 to 8 people at a time therefore guests would be required to share the table with other diners. Seated beside two ladies of Indian decent, we had a fantastic time learning the Gunbae drinking game from our server. Gunbae means drinking to the bottom of the glass. The game started with everyone at the table with a glass of saki. Then each diner at the table would start counting. Whenever you came to the number 3 or multiple of 3 or a number containing the number 3, instead of saying the number out loud, you just clap at the number 3. Whoever made a mistake would finishing drinking his/ her glass to the last drop. Every diner partipicated in this drinking game with enthusiasm and we could hear clapping, laughing and screaming all through the restaurant. We started the game and the game went around a few times but I was the second one to be kicked out of the game while E. was the winner. Everyone had a great time as it was a very fun dinner! This was our very first interactive dinner on a cruise ever! Really enjoyed it and we had a good conversation with our fellow diners at the table. After dinner, there was a late pool party beginning at 10;45pm, too late for us. We met two of E.'s new friends and we went to our cabin and called it a day! We had tons of fun at our port excursion and at dinner and so did our son! We thank God for a super fun day! RT, On board the Vurgin Cruise 24122023

Puerto Plata - The First Shore Stop on Our 5 Day Virgin Caribbean Cruise

Day 3 We slept really well last night and were up feeling great!. The Virgin cruise ship arrived at Puerto Plata a little after 9a.m. We were able to enjoy a full breakfast on Deck 15 before debarking the ship. Orginally, we would like to do some snorkling in Puerto Plata but it was all booked up therefore we decided to do a self guided walking tour of the historical part of the city.

The cruise terminal in Puerto Plata looked mondern, clean and neat with numerous shops and restaurants. It looked like the terminal was built specifically for cruise passengers. It was funny that as soon as we walked off the prank of the cruise ship, we were recognized as being from Toronto, Canada, and greeted by a few local men warmly. We scratched our heads asking ourselves how did they know that. Then we figured out the reason. Being an avid baseball fan of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, our son was wearing the Blue Jays baseball hat today while walking around Puerto Plata which is a baseball city which loves their baseball players.

They know all the baseball teams well and their famous players playing on the Jays Team. Therefore, they know a lot about our Toronto baseball team as the citizens of Puerto Plata follow their famous players playing for the TORONTO team! We even had a gentleman coming up to us offering to buy the Blue Jays hat from our son who had quite a few good conversations with the locals. Puerto Plata has a population of around 350,000 people but the business area and downtown streets were not too busy at all except for the cruise passengers running around during the day. The police was doing a great job trying to keep the tourists safe. They stopped the traffic and waved us to cross the street safely and quickly. Whenever we stopped and hesitated about where we were going, there was always an officer or someone friendly coming up and offering to help us. We saw uniformed police officers with guns strapped around their waists. There were a few roadside stalls but the vendors did not harass us to buy any of their items. We liked that the merchants left us in peace, browsing on our own leisurely.

We visited a few places as they were all within walking distance from each other. We first arrived at the church located near the main square but just missed the 11 a.m. mass. we strolled around the square with some nice Christmas displays. Not far from the square were two interesting streets:

Pink Street - the entire street painted in pink, including windows, shutters and so on. The another street was the Umbrella Street where numerous umbrellas of different colours were hanging upside down. One place which we enjoyed visiting was the Amber Museum. We learned:

1. How amber was formed deep down in the ground 2. When there are fossils such as little bugs, insects embedded in the amber stones, they are worth much more 3. The Amber Museum's logo has a lizard embedded in a round amber stone. The movie Jurassic Park asked for permission to use their logo and replaced the lizard with a dinosaure! How about that! There was also a small cigar museum with a few displays explaining the growth and process of cigar making. We leanrt a lot about cigar planting and the making of them. The last place we visited was the amphitheatre and the fortress ruin fronting the ocean. As we walked toward the fortress, we saw a few strayed skinny dogs wandering around. One was so weak that it was lying in front of the church totally motionless. A kind hearted wheelchaired person kept pouring water on his head and body. After a few minutes, it started to move a little. Thank goodness, it was not dead!

After about 20 minutes of walking, we reached the fortress. From the outside, it looked quite nice and I knew that it has much history. But the only regret was that no admission was allowed and we couldn't get any infomration about this fortress ruin. Not sure if it would open another time or just closed on the day we visited. We walked back to the terminal and I was able to buy a nice white shirt for E. as a Christmas present. Very happy about that! It was a day filled with many new things to see and new experiences. We thank God for a super fun day! RT, On board the Vurgin Cruise 24122023

So Much to Do at Sea on the Virgin Cruise Ship - Our Second Day

E. has his own room on the Virgin cruise, being not too far from our room on the 8th floor. So far we are enjoying our cruise and loving all the activities.

However, we are disappointed with our room as our view to the ocean is completely blocked by the lifeboat hanging outside our window. Not happy at all as we didn't pay a discount price or anything to go on this cruise, very unhappy and will complain about it. We wish we could be spending more time with E. But seeing that he has his own group of sole travellers to hang out with, this makes us happy too. COVID has had a tremendous impact on the social life of the young people for the past three years. For those people working from home, the situation has been even worse for them as they are more isolated socially than ever. We encouraged our son go on this cruise with us, hopefully, there would be more opporunities for him to socialize and make some new friends. We start to see God's hand at work and trust Him to do the best for our grown children.

We only managed to have a quick breakfast with E as he left for a haircut, a run and to hang out with his new friends. May God bless him on this trip. We hanged around on deck 15, eating and checking our emails etc. Then we went to sailor services for some help on our Virgin app and put together our bookings for the next few dinners.I always find that There usually are lots to do on the cruisel We went to DECK 7 to the Dock Lounge for some Latin music and some delicious snacks. I started writing my blogging notes while being serenaded by some lively Latin music! Wonderful indeed! Evening Activities - 7pm go for a show at the Redroom - We watched a boy band called Boy Band Evolution. The band sang some nice songs from the past decades as well as some pop Christmas music. We texted E. for him to come to join us. He did only for the last few minutes.

We booked for dinner at 830 pm at the Razzle Dazzle. Remembering how dressy crusiers were from our past cruise experiences, I dressed up for dinner with my fancy shiny blue top but was surprised to find other diners causally dressed. I guess Virign targets a younger crowd who tends to be less formal. Accidnetally, all three of us ordered the steamed fish with a mild soup base. I was glad I could eat healthy and oder some non fried food on this cruise. Two thumbs up for Virgin and their chefs! After dinner, we said good bye to E. allowing him some free time with his new friends made on this cruise. We watched a documentary called Little Richard, the singer who started the rock and roll music but received little financial or public recogntion for his tremendous contribution to the music he created. We both slept well on our second night on the Virgin cruise. RT, Day 2, Virgin Cruise 23122023

In Miami for Our First Family Holiday Cruise

Wednesday - Getting to Miami for our Virgin cruise We left Toronto at 830am in a Uber n boarded a flight to Miami without incident. It was good that we have accumulated all the Aero points as the flight tickets were not cheap this time of the year. Being close to Christmas, the plane tickets were up drastically, almost $1600.00 for two of us, excluding taxes, of which we had to pay. But using the points to purchase the tickets, we saved a lot.

The plane arrived around 3pm. We took another Uber to the hotel by the water which E. booked n paid for us for 2 nites. How nice was that! We got to the hotel a little after 5 pm. The weather was cool, very windy. It got dark fast after 530pm. We went across the hotel to a Latino cafe and convenient store. They served decent sandwiches and we got a cuban sandwich n some enpanna for dinner. Up most of the previous night packing for the trip, I was very tired and went straight to sleep. 20122023 Thursday - Staying by the Beach, Miami We slept well in our king size bed in this spacious bedroom with the 60's decor. There was a balcony overlooking the beach and the ocean, and I was going to sip my coffee enjoying the view of the ocean and watch the joggers and the beachcombers. When all of a sudden, E. appeared at the door, what a nice surprise! We hugged each other tightly. He went straight to sleep.

Knowing that he flew on a red eye flight, we left our hotel room giving him some quiet time to sleep and to do his work. We went on our own to explore the beach area. The hotel, located on 41st and Collins street, is fronting the ocean. We discovered that the area close by is a Jewish neighborhood. We found a Latino Cafe and had some authentic Cuban soups and beverages. The place was busy with local people such as ambulance and city workers mostly speaking Spanish. We knew then that we were at the right local restaurant eating real food!

We planned to do some exercises and walked to the Linclon district but a trolly came around offering free ride service. We took advantage of it and hopped on for a ride. It was a nice chance to enjoy the local city scenery. We hopped off around 21st Street and walked our way back to the otel. Passing by many stores located on both sides of the street, we went into Ross and did some shopping there. Ross used to be my favourite store to shop whenever we visited the U.S. I bought a pair of running shoes, and a couple of small items. I was happy being able to do some shopping. However, I kicked myself not buying some nice white cotton shirt and pants for E. for Christmas presents.

Walking back, we did the beach route enjoying the feeling of rubbing the bottom of my feet on smooth white sand.It felt fantastic! We should really do this more often! The beach was not busy at all. we saw only a handful of people on the beach with a couple of them flying their kites, a far cry from the bustling scene in the summer. As there were a lot to see while walking, it didn't feel like a long walk at all. E. was up when we got back. He wasn't at his best as he just had his vaccine the day before he flew from NY. We were able to have dinner with him that evening. He picked a fancy place to eat as it had been recommended by his friend in Miami.

It was called Watr located right in the South Beach area in the NO. 1 Hotel, a fancy, beautiful hotel serving an upscale clientel. Watr, a beautiful restaurant decorated with modern furniture with a warm, welcoming and comfortable ambience serving a fusion of Japanese and Italian food. The food was pricy but service was excellent and the food was delicious! We ate at many over priced restaurnants and there were not too many to which we would return. But this one, though pricy and the serving size was small, was worth it. The meal came to around US250.00 with a 21% tips included. But then the server mentioned twice to us that we could tip an additional fee. Wow! how straight forward were these American workers asking for additional service tips boldly and openly! However, We were grateful that we could share a good experience with E. on this trip. This was a great beginning, thanks to God who listens to our prayers! We went back to the hotel. I needed to complete my online application form for the Cambodia mission trip but was having a lot of problems with the form sent by C. from ACEM. By the time I was done, it was almost 230am. Too tired to do any more work. Went to sleep! 21122023

Friday Checked out day from the beachside hotel and ready for boarding the cruise ship! We were ready to get everything packed and E. was even able to squeeze in a run on the beach for 30 minutes before checking out! I like his new routing of getting some exercises whenever it was possible for him. We enjoyed a simple lunch at the hotel's restaurant. Some sandwiches that came to US$ 100.00. It never ceased amazed me how much it cost to live in the States. I thought of how much we could do with the $US we spent on meals in Africa.

We arrived at the cruise terminal at around 430pm. The check in process was efficient. There was a porter meeting us at the terminal and we sent our luggage away with him. We had our picture taken and were given a bracelet each as ID and as our credit card for the rest of the cruise.

E. was impressed by the nice waiting lounge and he was snapping pictures of the things he saw. He was obviously excited as this was his first cruise. We joked that this was his virign Virgin cruise! As soon as we got to our room, we needed to prepare for the safety talk. E. went to his solo events and we didn't see each other until around 9pm. We stayed on deck and watched the ship leaving Miami and enjoyed the sunset view! God, almighty, thank you for this great opportunity for a family cruise vacation together. We pray that 1.E. and we will have to a great time on this family cruise 2. We can spend more time on meaingful conversations and get to know each other better 3. E. can at least make one friend on this cruise. God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we know you are the God of almighty. Your timimg is perfect and we trust you for your provision to our grown children for the best. In Christ name, Amen RT,Miami 22122023