Inspired

Hello from the ship! We've been back home from our Caribbean adventure for almost two weeks now; but I wanted to share some of the ship-board fun and inspiring sights from our time away with you.
  
This was our cruise routing, sailing out of, and back into, Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The ship was the largest one we've ever sailed on, the capacity was somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000-- 3,500 passengers and 1,500 crew members.  With that many people on board you might think that it was impossible to be anywhere that wasn't over-crowded, that wasn't the case at all; it is a really  BIG boat! The Regal Princess is the newest addition to the fleet and in a weeks' time we explored every bit of her.

At times the corridors outside of the staterooms looked like this...
empty except for the house cleaning cart!

Mid-ship the elegant Grand Piazza dominates the public space; comprising three levels, this is where you will find all of the the on-board shopping, food venues and, at times, musical entertainment.

The Grand Piazza, another persective.

It was in this area that we discovered "Alfredo's", a wonderful Italian restaurant specializing in brick oven pizza and salads. You may think that the quilter in me was inspired by this table. You'd be right, I was.

But then, take a look at this tile wall; can't you just see a fabric version of this in similar-hued batiks?

But, wait; this was the best inspiration of all! I'm already drafting this one up... someday, someday
I'll make a quilt inspired by this wall; the color, shapes and movement appeal straight to my heart!

This was the view sailing into St. Maarten, we docked on the Dutch side. In case you're wondering where all of the ship's passengers were in the previous photos, I'll tell you. When the ship was in any port we would disembark, walk around for awhile and enjoy the local sights and tropical breezes, then get back on the ship and take advantage of the pools on the top decks without the crowds of people; it was nearly deserted at those times and extremely peaceful and relaxing!

This  photo and the one below show the pools, and view off the ship, during peak hours on a sea day.

This was taken on our last evening, at dinner; all good things must come to an end. Our post-Christmas R&R was just the thing to start off our New Year on the right foot with a great adventure and to jump-start those creative juices that were inspired by all that I saw and experienced while we were gone! Now, it's back to reality~

Life is Good!