Reminiscing...

A year ago today, we were setting sail on the Carnival Pride on our first cruise, bound for the Bahamas.

Cruise Maryland terminal

It was a cloudy day in Baltimore...

...but we knew in less than 24 hours we'd be out in (hopefully) calm, open waters and the sky would be azure with no clouds, and the temperature would be at least 10 degrees warmer.

We spent most of the evening exploring the boat and getting acquainted with the cruise experience.

Quilty!

I fantasized that those 2 were Rose and Jack and thought they'd randomly start frolicking along the deck...until they started fighting and he got all confrontational.  Never let go...

Dave was relieved to be out of the car and cruise terminal and onto the boat, but anxious about all the unknowns were about to experience - the boat, the ports, the schedule, etc.  It's like we had a role reversal that week - you can tell by the big smile on my face that I wasn't even thinking about being on a big ship in the middle of the ocean, completely out of my comfort zone.  I might have been faking my easygoing-ness that week :)

We did a little gambling.  Nate lost, Bonnie won back what Nate lost, Dave performed very badly, and I never managed to have enough chips to make a bet.  Still not sure how that works - at one point I had $4 and wanted to make a $2 bet, but the guy said I needed to have $5 before I could bet $2.  Isn't that like charging me an overdraft fee when I run out of money, making me more poor than I already am?

We snapped the only picture of the 4 of us that was taken on the whole trip:

We finished the night by seeing a show by the staff dancers and singers, followed by a comedy act by Lewis Nixon - I tried to find something to link to him, but his material is surprisingly hard to find on the internets.

At the end of his set, he announced there would be an amateur comedy night later in the week and Nate's head almost exploded!   More on that later...

The decor theme of our boat seemed to be naked art.  There were nude portraits all over the place - cherubs,  rubenesque women, Michelangelo's David...you name it, it was naked and painted on a wall of our ship.

The look on my face is priceless!  

Naked lady riding a dolphin...

Naked winged figure overlooking the pools...

Statue of David in the steakhouse.  The whole restaurant has a pink glow since it's inside the trademark Carnival tail.

Aforementioned Carnival tail.

Day 2 tomorrow!