Day 17 La Havre, France

Deja Vu.  Ok that's French, right? Thought I'd toss around some of my extensive French vocabulary before we left the country. You know Betty, Cara and I took French lessons? Oh, yes. Very fluent, aren't we ladies? LOL. But back to the Vu in my Deja Vu, today was a repeat of yesterday. We ate breakfast, then took a three mile walk around the shops outside of the port. We saw them yesterday when we were on the bus coming back from the city center. Inside it looks like it once was an old warehouse facility on the dock. It was actually a pretty cool way to use the building. It had some nice shops, H&M is everywhere over here and of course this mini mall was no exception. The town was also flooded with pink. As we were walking toward the shopping area a 5K must have just gotten over because there were ladies all in pink with numbers pinned to them. We also saw the occasional guy with a pink wig or something funny. After we got to the end of the mall and turned around to walk back there was an absolute sea of pink coming in and walking towards us. So it must have been quite the race. I couldn't read the shirts (it was all in French) but being pink and having a ribbon on it we are assuming breast cancer, but can't confirm. Is the pink ribbon universal for breast cancer? That would be interesting to know. And...had I known about the race I would have joined them! I wouldn't have had anyone to talk to, but hey, it would have been a cool experience! I'm not sure how they number people for the race but we saw numbers in the low 100s up to 25,000s. I can't imagine there were over 20,000 runners/walkers, but they had one heck of a turn out.


It seemed like we had walked a long way to get to the shopping area so I set my GPS for the way back and it was a solid 1.5 miles. That wasn't that far, but when you aren't sure where you are going it seems longer. Before getting back on the ship we popped into the little shopping area/Internet cafe at the port to buy something for our dads that we had seen earlier. Yep! The dads have scored a gift. Pretty unusual to begin with, but as far as shopping goes...it's been pretty slim pickins, so the dads are at least getting something. And no, the Internet wasn't any faster because I tried uploading pictures with no luck. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I've given up trying and stopped worrying about it. My blog readers will just have to wait and check back one last time after I get home to see the pics. Not nearly as much fun, I know. I'm bummed, too.


Back on the ship we grabbed some lunch from the buffet just before it shut down and Ileana was there. She hugged Guy and we chatted for a bit, but we needed to get some food before they closed up. After lunch we found this really big hammock and jumped in. We stayed in there for 3 hours! Napping, surfing, reading...it was awesome. There were curtains on three sides and the fourth side looked out at the port. It was awesome. Before heading back to the room I asked Guy to get me a chocolate chip cookie. He did, but he came back with FOUR on his plate. Ugh...I ate two and so did he. "Don't ruin your dinner" I hear my mom saying. Too late. He said the guy at the counter said "How many would you like...5, 6? We have lots of cookies on the boat".  Ha ha. Back at the room we sat outside on the balcony for a bit to enjoy the cool breeze. Suddenly a racket was going on next door on the balcony of the Russians. I had seen what happened, but Guy didn't and he was like "what the what is going on?" It was a seagull that swooped into their balcony and couldn't get out. Guy said "It's going to beat itself to death on that glass, are you going to be ok with that?" Well, just as I was thinking about calling for our room steward to see if he could do something the door slid open and someone from the Russian family grabbed it and tossed it into the air. It lived to see another day, but Guy said they'd left food out on the balcony. Note to self...keep bread inside.


Well, time for dinner so I took a long hot shower and started getting ready. Since the movie Brooklyn is "on demand" in the room, I just fast forwarded it to my favorite part and have watched it two nights in a row while getting ready. :) It keeps me entertained and my mind off how many times I've put my face on and off on this trip. Seems like I get ready twice a day. That's the only bad thing about the cruises. But you know....small price to pay!! :)


Dinner was pretty good. I ordered the spinach and artichoke dip and Guy got shrimp cocktail. Again. Ileana warned me that the other passengers were just so/so on liking the appetizer I ordered, but I told her I'd give it a go. The problem was it tasted fine, but wasn't made the way we are used to it with all the cream cheese and garlic. So once you got past that, it was fine. For dinner I got chicken Coq au Vin and Guy had steak. He liked mine better so I shared with him as neither one of us were starving. (Yes mom...no cookies before dinner). I had a white chocolate pastry for dessert with coffee. Glad my skirt has an elastic waist. I've got some serious work to do when I get home. But it has been worth it.


That's it for today. We've headed out back into the sea and tomorrow is Dover, England with a little side trip to Canterbury. Guy has spied out a Starbucks for me to get a mug, so the only country I have missed on this trip is Wales. Not to shabby and of all the places we've been, Wales would be my #1 place to return to. So I have a feeling I'll see a Wales mug some day. That makes it even more fun. :)