I should add...

We suffer through the final time change of the trip. It’s Sunday, so we’re due to go to church, and the kids leave claw marks in their mattresses as we haul them out of bed.  By the end of Mass, we’re all pretty fully awake, so we have breakfast, and everyone’s off to do their thing. After two days off, I make my victorious return to the gym. Previously, my favourite type of person at the gym is the really fit old person. My new favourites are fit people working out in ludicrous ways. Today, there’s an older dude with one leg up on a railing, almost in a full splits position, doing bicep curls. I’d mock him if not for the fact that he’s absolute brick shithouse and clearly onto something the fitness community won’t figure out for another few years.

It’s the first day in a while where I feel like I have reasonable chunks of time to myself. Do I avail myself of the ship’s services? Do I explore? Make new friends? Live life as it’s meant to be lived? No. I watch Netflix. And I am so happy to do it. So far this cruise, I’ve watched Lucy, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Eighth Grade, and Hearts Beat Loud. It was my number one leisure activity on our last cruise too, although I really intended for this one to be different. But it’s just easier to bring your own entertainment. There’s at least an hour an evening where I’m waiting in some dark room, killing time while waiting for kids to fall asleep (like right now). And when they are down, I guess I could go to a Fine Jewelry Clearance Event, or Play Name That Tune: Big Band Edition, or check out the Pre-Recorded Ballroom Dance Music at the Vortex Lounge (these are literally the options currently available to me), or I could sack out with Netflix.

Almost forgot: we ate at Chops again. Giant cuts of red meat. Delicious. Between steak and the sun, we’re all refilling our stores of iron and Vitamin D.