The Cruise--Sep09

We went cruisin’! We went on a family outing with all the brothers and sisters and Grandpa and Grandma Monson with the exception of Ryan and Doris who couldn’t go. We boarded the Celebrity Mercury in Seattle on Friday September 25th.

The Mercury

We started feeding immediately upon arrival

Conrad and Debbie practicing for the movie, "Titanic"

That night we saw a show with dancing, amazing gymnasts and a magician.

The next day the ship docked in Victoria, British Columbia. Kim/Cary, Sean/Jana and I rented bikes and rode them along the “Galloping Goose” trail. We had a wonderful time. The rest of the crew went to the Buchart Gardens where they raved about the great floral arrangements. Here are some pictures of it:





People returned from the shore excursions and slept, relaxed, ate, ate, ate, read, etc. until dinner. One memorable activity was that Debbie sat in the hot tub with a borrowed swimsuit. It was too big for her and the bubbles from the hot tub filled up the swimsuit to give Debbie the perfect Dolly Parton body! Conrad, unfortunately, was eating and didn’t witness the transformation.

That night we dressed up and made it a formal dinner. We had a lot of fun dining, even though the “cruise gurus” said that the food was not all that good. But, here are some pictures of the formal diners, including Cary who dressed up in a tux to fulfill his lifelong dream of being a waiter.








Later that night we saw another show with dancing and the gymnasts performing. It was great. Afterwards we gathered round and listened as Norm told about his Father's life which was really interesting. The subject then changed to our growing up in New Jersey and how Conrad was exploited by his parents who unfairly gave the girls preferential treatment. We all agreed and felt that this is the explanation for Conrad’s major psychological problems. We all agreed not to tell Mom for fear she would spend the rest of her life worrying about it.

The next day we had a short church meeting. Karla gave a spiritual thought about King Lamoni’s wife in the Book of Mormon and then we had a good discussion on Isiaih 55:8-9: “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways”. Here’s a picture of church:

A most spiritual group


Following church we boarded little boats called “tenders” (sounds just like the Wendy’s chicken ten….) and went to Nanaimo. We saw a reenactment of cannon firing and wandered along the shore. Nanaimo is a beautiful little place. Here are some pictures of Nanaimo:

Don't they make a lovely couple?

After the shore excursion we went back to the ship and read, relaxed and ate, ate, ate. That evening we had dinner and then some went to the show and others played spoons. The highlight of the game was when the waiter started to remove spoons that Sean had set on the floor as the game progressed. Sean gave him a look that could kill and the waiter retreated.

The next morning we got off the ship and went to the Seattle Aquarium. The highlight of the aquarium is when they fed the sea otters. The otters laid on their backs and the keepers tossed fish and shrimp to them. The otters would catch the food and eat it in a most human-like manner. After the aquarium we flew home. A most delightful time was had by all!