May 29, The Queen Mary 2 at Sea

Friday, May 29 - Day 114 - The Queen Mary 2 at Sea
Our 50^th Anniversary

Sunrise is at 4:25AM, but we are dead to the world. We after now sailed past the English coast and the Celtic Sea. Today we will be crossing over the Maxwell Fracture Zone, a large under sea mountain range forming part of the Mid Atlantic Range. Here the depths range from 1000 to 3500meters. This mountain range runs from nearly the Arctic to almost the tip of Africa with several peaks rising above sea level to form Azores and a few other ting Atlantic islands.

The wind was howling when we fell asleep last night, It has calmed down this morning as we wake about 8AM. It is hazy and in the 50's a little too cool to be out on the open decks for very long. We go to breakfast and have our usual; eggs Benedict and strawberries for Carolyn, oatmeal and salmon for Dick and receive many good wishes from people at the tables around us. This is such a nice way to start our anniversary!

There is lots on the agenda for today. At 10 AM we go to a lecture by Robert Neal Marshall on "The Three Queens" - The Royal Rendevous, farewells and new beginnings. It is a very moving story told with pictures and great video clips. At 11AM there is a lecture "How Italian Food Conquered the World by John Mariani. We stay for a while, but it is not grabbing us so we leave. He will do another one on the great Italian restaurants in New York City. We will try that one since our Italian food level is very low, Maybe we will get some ideas on where to have some good Italian.

Back in the room we listen to the noon announcement The Captain tells us we are sailing farther South than usual. The ships have to stay south of the ice limit at all times....think Titanic. The ice limit is where the floating ice is no longer a problem. It is still early and the water is still cold so the floating ice is making it farther South than normal before it melts. Dick plays his new computer game and Carolyn orders a panini for lunch while she posts the last two day’s Blogs. The RADA is doing an hour long adaption of Pride and Prejudice at 2:15 in the Royal Court Theater. Carolyn attends and claims it is delightful. At 3:30 she joins Dick in Illuminations for another delightful talk by Joshua Levine on the forgotten voices of WWII. Then Dick takes Levine’s two books Carolyn gave him yesterday for his Birthday to the book signing in the library.

Now it is 5PM and time to dress for dinner. It is another formal night so we get a portrait made for our anniversary at the station that has a plain background. It is a little early for our reservation so we adjourn to the Queens Grill Lounge for cocktails and then head to diner at Todd English to continue the anniversary celebration.

Dinner is very good and the setting is romantic. Dick has a tuna dish and rack of lamb, Carolyn has a salad and surf and turf. We both have the lobster and baby corn chowder and share a wild blueberry crumble for dessert. By the time diner is over it is time to head back to the Queens Grill Lounge for a performance of the string quartet

The day has been grey and foggy with the fog horn going off at times, but by dinner time it is raining and cold and sun set is about 8:15PM though who knew! The seas are even a bit bouncy, but The Queen takes this in her stride, of course. The gentle motion and the pleasant music combine to make us very sleepy so about 10:15 we call it a night. Fifty years ago right now we were leaving the church and heading into our new life together. Dick is right, we have had a good life together because the time has flown by!!

What a great anniversary celebration! All and all, this Golden Anniversary Celebration is a far cry from our dinner with Mogan David wine (what can I say, we were very young!) on our wedding night, Carolyn's German final on our first anniversary and the birth of our first son on our second anniversary!