Well, guys, I guess it's time I came out of hiding and told you all about this amazing business. Actually, I haven't been hiding--just trying to get over terrible jet-lag after flying from Singapore-Paris-Miami-Atlanta-Jacksonville last Fridday-Saturday. We got home at 10 p.m. Friday night which I guess was Saturday Singapore time.Anyway, we've been so swept away by all this publicity that I just haven't had time to post. I told Olivia I didn't know how to do it on the Spirit but truly the real reason was it took so long to navigate on the computer that I was just eating up my minutes staring at a blank screen! So I just checked for email, etc. But this media frenzy is unreal. The Osprey folks have just been the best-they planned this huge affair for us last Wednesday night with the press present (great blaring lights in the parking lot with that big antenna up in the air!) and all the residents here dressed up like pirates. You saw some of them on that great video (how do you guys know how to do these things???). Then a truck came slowly into the parking lot towing a huge float looking just like a pirate ship; ablaze with lights and loaded with very realistic (movie-types, not Somalian types!)looking pirates shooting off fireworks and throwing gold coins and Mardi Gras beads at us. Joanna if you ever went to the Shrimp Festival here at Fernandina you know what I mean. They do this every May at the Festival. Amelia's schools are called Pirates and the whole island has a history of pirate attacks hence the pirate float, etc. Anyway it was a night to remember. The interviews were nerve-wracking and I look 100 years old not to mention fat-- I gained 8 lbs on that cruise! But as someone here said, "how could you not, eating in a 6 star restaurant for 47 days". Indeed. The news got it half right about Canada. We did book the "freebie" 7 day cruise they offered us from Gloucester, Mass. to Quebec and back next October. I mean they offered everyone on that segment of the cruise 7 free days anywhere you wanted to go and good for two years. Not bad, hey? But I think we are sticking closer to home. MUSH was mentioned but the media didn't pick up on that. We also have booked a 7 day cruise on the, get this, St. John's River next March! Joanna, only you would know how funny that is. But a lot of our friends here are doing it on that small American Cruise line (all inclusive, guys) so it should be fun. Well, enough so far. I'll give you my lowdown on Seabourn soon. I know I'll bring down the wrath of the CC Seabourn diehards if I say too much so maybe I'll hold up until MUSH!! Thanks so much for your concern. It was a scary time, believe me.
