Jackie's Dream...

Jackie's Dream...
A well appointed envelope.
nicely scripted, exotically stamped, no zip code,
evocative of times past,
Victorian in its manner...
The soft, sensual pleasures of "snail mail",
another casualty of the electronic era.
Why write when you can text?

The above photo is to inform you that we left the road for the high seas, just in case you were wondering how the heck we drove all the way to the West Indies.  That's the Celebrity Summit, taken from the dock area.  I know its kind of trite subject matter, but I keep looking at it and thinking, what a great photo (if I do say so myself).  It must be old age and the accompanying senility, but Jackie has  coerced me into taking a few cruises now and I am getting used to it.  All that food and the shows and being waited on hand and foot by some obsequious third world servants caring for our every need and hating us for our mindless extravagance while they work their asses off to support a family in Indonesia or Bulgaria.  Come to think of it sometimes I kind of hate myself for being a "cruiser", but there are bars everywhere you turn, so it is easy to forget.  

So while we're on the subject, I may as well bore you with a few more cruise photos and get that out of the way.  The port o'calls can be quite interesting once you get beyond the mini malls they've built surrounding the dock areas to protect you from the ugly truth that beneath the patina and preconceptions of paradise, much of the Caribbean is very third world, deteriorating slums peopled by the ex-plantation slaves set free after the colonial period to fend for themselves the best way they can in the towns and buildings abandoned to the when the colonists left en mass.   But I won't bore you with that here, just a few ok pictures I managed to snap during the 3 or 4 hour mad dash through town.

The Spencer Cameron Gallery in St. Kitts where I took the above envelope photo while Jackie and I were relaxing from the rigors of cruising over iced coffee and scones served to us by the lovely British women who own the gallery.

In an effort to stay hydrated in St. Croix, had a couple of Carlsberg Elephant beers.  Had never seen one before and they can be quite potent on a hot day.  Just thought I'd report back on this unusual find.

Took more, but nothing anymore exciting than this one, so I won't bore you or myself with more.

                                                                      Pablo the cruiser