Willemstad – We started with room service for breakfast this morning since we had an early meeting for our excursion with Irie Tours. We were escorted to our fully air conditioned bus for the day, with Eddie being our guide (I forgot the driver’s name). Eddie is 71 (if he is to be believed) and full of life and love for his island. He proudly took us from beach to beach (sometimes down roads he said were giving us a chair massage, translated to mean very bumpy) where we could soak in the sun, take a dip in the beautiful (and cold!) water or, at one location, swim with the turtles. One of our stops was the National Park Shete Boka where there are volcanic caves. Beautiful spot that really reminded me of some spots in Hawaii. Totally not a part of Curacao we’ve seen before.

It was 4:00 by the time we got back to the ship and the first game (Rams/Saints) started at 4:00. We hauled everything to the top deck where the big TV is and quickly found a spot to plant, taking turns going back to the room and showering. The place filled up quickly and wouldn’t ya know it, we had to sit next to a couple of obnoxious Patriots fans – I know I know, there isn’t any other kind of Patriot fan is there? Sigh. Other than the Saints being robbed of going to the Super Bowl (bad bad bad call that will go down in history) it was really nice being up there on the back of the ship in the fresh air watching with other fans.

More people showed up for the second game (Patriots/Chiefs) and more people were getting creative with seating – dragging sofas and chairs from other areas. There really isn’t enough seating out there for an event like that. It was such a good game right up to the last second, going into overtime. So sad and frustrating when the Patriots won yet again and are going to the Super Bowl. Yet again. If I thought Brady and Bellicheck would retire if they won this year, hell I’d even root for them. Not bloody likely. It was after 11pm by the time the game was over. Deflated we went by Al Bacio to get a tea and dessert to soak up our tears. (I know, drama queen.)

The lunar eclipse was supposed to start at 10:36 so we were told. Um, they were an hour off. You could start to see it a wee little bit by 11:36 ish. By midnight-ish it was almost half way across the moon. As much as I wanted to stay up and watch it, it had been a really long day and we were both just done. So we didn’t stay up to see the entire thing. Those zzzzzzzs were calling us.

Bonaire tomorrow.