Submarines and Mahi-Mahi Sandwiches: March 3, 2009

When we woke up we looked out the door of our cabin to see we had reached St. Thomas, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. I hadn't been here in 38 years. The place had changed. We took a taxi to Morningstar Beach. it was a perfect day and we watched some kids frolic in the water. After an hour or so, we got aboard another taxi that took us to the main touristy area, where we secured tickets to a submarine trip through the corral reef at Turtle Bay. We then took a quick walk (one guy told us 15 minutes, another 45 we speedwalked it in 25). The main town of Charlotte Amelie is a charming little town with old buildings painted in pastel colors, like the Quarter in New Orleans. It’s filled with jewelry stores and perfume places. The winding narrow streets and delightful narrow arcades make it an interesting walk. There were 5 cruise ships in port, so it was a little crowded for our taste. We ended up at Gladys' Restaurant where we ate grilled Mahi Mahi sandwiches. Best meal of the trip so far.

We took a small boat out for a 20-minute ride on the choppy water to the point where you rendezvous with the submarine. We sat there for a while out on the front of the boat and a light blue area of the water formed and a submarine popped up out of the water. The people got out and we got on, The sub held 30 and we were 14, so there was plenty of room. They told us we could move from side to side, but not front to rear, so that we didn’t upset the sub’s balance and buoyancy mechanisms.

We saw tons of snapper fish, a 6' reef shark, a stingray, a blowfish, lots of coral and the part sof a ship that sank out there ten years earlier. Pretty cool. The tour guide described why everything looked a little washed out. He told us that because saltwater is denser than air, it filters out different colors as you go deeper, eventually filtering out all color where the water is dark. We went just under 80 feet deep on this excursion and the water had filtered out the red color of my KC Chiefs hat. Yes, I wore a Chiefs hat. I was worried I would blend in with the locals and people would not recognize me as a tourist, so I dressed the part. So they turned on the inside lights of the sub and my hat went from purple to red. Kind of a cool trick. Try it the next time you're hosting a party in a tourist submarine.

The excursion was unlike anything I have ever done before.

We rushed back to the boat for a bite before the John Hiatt show. John had a four-piece band, the Ageless Beauties, a funny name because all three of the other members were 20-years John’s junior. We learned later that John had a little flu and that explained why his show was a tad lackluster. He forgot a few words and missed a cue or two. He was still outstanding, though, the highlights being Feels Like Rain, Memphis in the Meantime, and a keyboard-free Have a Little Faith in Me. After dinner we rushed to catch the last half of Joe Ely’s set that he played with Joel Guzman on accordion. He played El Gallo del Cielo, a terribly sad song that makes you care about cockfighting. We headed to the atrium to see Katie Herzig, whose music was a little different from the rest of the artists, but fit in wonderfully. Her songs gave me goose bumps. At some point we also saw Aslyn, who played some great music. After hearing her sing and play piano, I thought she must like Ben Folds because some of her songs had his percussive piano and turns of rhythmic phrases. She played a great song called Wally. I really wished I could have seen more of her set.

I decided to check out Mindy Smith again, even though her previous performance had some cringe-inducing moments. I’m glad I did. She was fantastic. Highlights here were Come to Jesus, One Moment More, and Raggedy Ann. I got to meet her and get a snapshot.

By 12:30 I was wiped, but I had to go see Glenn Phillips, the former lead singer for Toad the Wet Sprocket. As I walked up the stairs to the Spinnaker Lounge, I saw another couple just barely able to make the trek. I told them, “You have to do it. This is why we’re here. Come on, we can do this.” They laughed. I lasted for an hour or so of Glenn’s great set with his violin player. Glenn is an old pro at the interstitial banter. He revealed that he had never been on vacation with his wife and not the kids in 13 years. He said being on stage was not for our benefit. Actually, he was trying to get laid. He said his performance was not for all of us, but for one of us. Quite funny. i saw him the next day with his wife, but did not have the guts to ask them if his plan worked.
Asleep by 1:45 AM.

Cacao, Sophie's Choice, and Ze Vails: March 2, 2009

Woke up early, had another room service breakfast. I went out to get our Internet access up and running. While returning, a woman stopped me in the hallway. She said, "Have you seen ze vails?" I said, "What?" and she repeated, "Have you seen ze vails!? Svimming alongside ze ship zere are vails!"

Apparently a couple of humpbacks were swimming alongside the ship. Sadly, I never got to see ze vails. I never saw that woman again, nor did I ever hear a German accent again on the whole trip. Perhaps I had seen Ze Vision of the Disembodied Fraulein of Ze Norvegian Dawn!

We dropped anchor in Samana Bay that morning and got off the ship earlier than expected. As you get off of the ship, people surround you with little books of pictures that show the different tours available or diagrams showing the kinds of whales you might see on a whale-watching excursion. We had to be back on the boat in time to see Lyle Lovett, so we were not able to go whale watching. Finally a nice fellow named Samuel took us back ot his little office and showed us pictures of a waterfall, a beach, and a bay view. Forty-five bucks for the day. A guy named Taylor from Alabama joined us. Samuel drove us to a place by the side of the road where several cars and motorcycle taxis had parked. Then Taylor and I bought Presidente beers and we began the slippery walk to see a waterfall.

As we walked, Domingo, one of the owners of the land we crossed pointed out the various flora and fauna around us. We saw mango trees, banana trees, cacao trees, coffee bean trees, pea trees, pineapple trees, and coconut trees. The waterfall was beautiful. Domingo told us 7 or 8 people who’d received the land from their parents owned the land that the waterfall was on.

At this point we split from Taylor, whom I'm pretty sure left with Samuel to buy pot. We then went to a touristy place for lunch. Polly had red snapper in a coconut red sauce. I had shrimp Dominican style, which involved a red sauce. We also tried a little ceviche. Sitting at the table next to us was Tift Merritt, a great singer-songwriter on the cruise, and her partner Zeke. They were as nice as could be. I complained that they had never played Kansas City. They mentioned they had just played Aspen in a crazy snowstorm, and that it made it sweeter to be there, having beers looking out over the beautiful sunny bay in Samana.

We walked down to the beach and lay down on a few chairs. After half an hour some fellow came up and told us we owed him $5 to sit on the chairs. I paid, Polly refused. We gave ourselves a 50% discount.

Walking back to where we were supposed to meet Angel, Samuel's friend and driver, we passed Kathleen Edwards and her husband (sitting on a beach towel, which I assume is free). We ran into our friends from New Orleans, Rebecca and Lee. We determined we were accidentally stalking each other. We really hit it off with these girls and we laughed a lot. They have the same sense of humor as we do. Polly and I bought some rum and vodka to smuggle back onto the boat. Angel helped us pour it into a water bottle and then he placed the Absolut bottle behind a tree. That's when we noticed the piles of trash everywhere. They have no problem tossing litter out the window, or even using the land in front of their house as a dump. Bags of trash piled up on every corner. Samana is a dirty city. Angel took us on a short tour where we got to see a wonderful view of the city from the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant.

A little jaunt in a shuttle boat and we were back aboard the Norwegian Dawn. We grabbed a quick burger and headed to see Lyle Lovett. During Lyle’s show the ship pulled up its anchors, which made for a loud environment for the show. Glenn Phillips’ fiddle player, Luke Bulla (he and Lyle's mandolin player who used to play for Ricky Skaggs) sat in on a few songs and played some cool solos. Lyle's set was great, with a few obscure tunes thrown in. John Hiatt came out to join him on "My Baby Don't Tolerate," which featured a great section where Hiatt and Lyle's guitarist played dueling solos.

They closed it out with "If I Had a Boat," the perfect end to a great concert on a ship.

As I walked up the stairs I saw Taylor, the guy who had been with us for a while in Samana. He looked quite serene. “How are you doing, Taylor?” I asked. “I’m doing awesome!” He definitely went to get pot.

We then went to see Shawn Mullins. The Accidental Stalking continued when we ran into Lee and Rebecca and watched some of the set with them. He played "Beautiful Wreck." It was a great song. As his set progressed, we started getting a little depressed. The subject matter of his songs was really sad, three in a row, so we all left. We wondered if we could watch “Sophie’s Choice” or talk about 9/11 to cheer up.

We had a few beers at the Pearly Gates, and then Polly headed off to bed. Rebeca, Leigh, and I went to see Oakhurst, a fantastic guitar, bass, banjo, and drum combo. We danced and laughed. I performed a perfectly choreographed dance to an Uncle Tupelo cover of Acuff-Rose. These guys are a great dancing band. Go see them if you ever get the chance. I went to bed at 2:45 AM!!

Mini Corn Dogs and the Outfield: March 1, 2009

After a room service breakfast and a light workout (note to self: don't try to do step-ups with 35 pound dumbells in each hand during moderate waves), we went poolside to hear Brandi Carlile and the Indigo Girls. It was a great show. They have written a few songs together, and Brandi's voice fit in perfectly with the Indigo Girls' harmonies. It was so windy that a slice of cheese blew off of my chicken sandwich. That's windy, people.

We then saw Web Wilder, with a few members of the Flaming Groovies: fun party music with rocking guitars. We walked around, got a little sun, and vowed to go hang out in the Fore hot tub before the trip was done.

After some room service pizza and a shower, it was time for our first ticketed show, the Indigo Girls.

The show was really fun, with Brandi joining them for three or four songs. Mindy Smith came out to sing Come to Jesus (one of my favorite songs). She was quite nervous, but sang beautifully, accompanying herself on the guitar. A somewhat frantic woman named Danielle Howle sang a song with the Indigo girls also. She has written lots of songs for the performers on this ship. She has a really nice voice.


By the pool we listened to Zac Brown Band. Zac has an amazing voice, a great band, thoughtful lyrics, and a big fat bushy beard. His father was on the cruise with him, which was nice. We got to see half of Kathleen Edwards’ set again, because we knew we would not be able to see her last performance due to another ticketed show at the same time. She played some of the same songs. She also told a great story about how someone had told her that he saw her husband, Colin Cripps, sitting in the kids area of the ship’s buffet restaurant. He said, “The tables were a little small, but I thought that’s where people sit.” It was hilarious. He didn’t notice the tiny corndogs or the grilled cheese in the really short buffet there. She forgot a verse to one song and her husband pointed that out to her. Perhaps he wanted to get back at her for telling the story of the kids buffet. She closed the set with “Your Love” by the Outfield. Unbelievably funny. Her husband was playing the solo and she said, “Do your own. That cheesy eighties crap is the worst.” A really fun performer. Make sure you don’t miss her if she ever comes to your town.

It was off to the Atrium to catch more Vienna Teng. She really is unbelievable.Here she is doing The Last Snowfall from her upcoming album. Hopefully her voice transcends the crappy audio and video. She is looping her breath as the percussion track, and then builds her vocal harmonies with each pass. It's really slick.





On the last song of her set the keyboard started making terrible noises. People refused to leave and so she moved down to the lobby to play on the piano there, but it was locked. Who locks a piano? Like some drunken cruiser is going to get on there and start playing it? Maybe so on this trip, but it would be GOOD because chances are, the person could really play. At any rate, she just had Alex play acoustic guitar and everyone sang along. I really got the impression that she had as much fun as we did. It was a great moment. She even exclaimed at one moment, “This is so awesome!”

In the bathroom I met a guy from Chicago who told a story similar to mine: he’d heard Vienna Teng’s voice and it stopped him in his tracks. At this point I’ve had so many cool moments I am starting to worry I will forget them, or they will lose their intensity. Not all of these moments happened in the bathroom. I was really referring to the performances.

Polly headed down to the room and I went to see Mindy Smith. Her set was a mess. She was under the impression that she needed to fill the time between songs with lots of banter. She tried, but she was so nervous, it came off like a train wreck. The Indigo Girls were there heckling her to “Just play!” She forgot the lyrics to three songs and stopped in the middle. Some people left from the front sections. She said, "Are you leaving? Are you mad at me?" It was endearing, but still a little hard to watch. Went to bed around 12:30.

Of Bubbly, Hand Sanitizer, and the Pearly Gates: February 28, 2009

We walked out of our hotel to look for a taxi and immediately got whisked into a shuttle and taken to the Port of Miami. There we checked in and signed a paper that said we had not had diarrhea or thrown up in the past 24 hours. They took my word for it. They handed us our tickets for the ticketed shows, our cruise cards (for swiping when you want to buy something). Then, we were aboard the Norwegian Dawn.

When we got on board they gave us a hand sanitizer spray and a glass of champagne. Nothing like free sanitizer and bubbly to make you feel like you're really on vacation.

We got the lay of the land and walked around the ship. The extra-special restaurants (the ones that charge on top of your cruise ticket) had samplers out. I tried some Nigiri sake salmon. It was pretty good, but not worth an extra ten spot. We grabbed a bite at the buffet, where the spinach leaves were hard to reach, and even harder to grasp with the awkward tongs provided.

At 2:30 we got to check into our stateroom. We have some room, since it's just the two of us. John, the ship's cruise director is from Australia. We have been on the boat just two hours and he's already said "crackerjack" four times over the P.A.

At 3:30 it was time for a mandatory lifeboat drill. We carried our lifejackets to the Stardust theater and heard a talk about how to wear our lifejackets, and how there is more capacity on the lifeboats than passengers on board. Good to hear. John Hiatt was right next to me as we put on our lifejackets. I told him I was looking forward to his shows this week. He shook my hand and asked where I was from. He was awfully nice.

As Miami faded into the hazy horizon we headed out to sea. We got to hear Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars, a zydeco band from Lafayette, LA. They played some originals and some zydeco standards, like Buckwheat Zydeco and Professor Longhair. Roddie referred to Eric Adcock, the band's piano player as "Professor Lawn Chair,” a first-time moniker, we learned later at a bar where we met them. Prof. Lawn Chair played a few songs on the piano in the bar. It was a blast.


All over the ship there are stations where you can get hand sanitizer. They also have a staffer at each restaurant entrance with a spray bottle, ready to spray your hands before you eat. It’s a preventative measure, so we don't all get sick. Well, the whole business upset the woman who sat down at the table next to us at dinner She went into full-scale freak out mode. "Have you ever been to a restaurant where they sprayed your hands with hand sanitizer? I am terrified. I'll go without eating. I am afraid of eating ANYTHING on this ship." Her dining companion was trying to calm her down, but ultimately didn't succeed. They left to go someplace else, probably to cower in their stateroom.

In the Spinnaker Lounge we saw Kathleen Edwards play an hour set, which is frankly way too short for my taste. She played a quiet set for the most part, accompanied by her husband. They both played guitar, acoustic and electric, depending on the arrangement. At one point Kathleen paused after trying out a few chords on her electric guitar and said, "I know you're on vacation, but I still have to tune." Then she tuned her guitar. It was a nice moment.

She also said, "I like Bushmills Ten Year if you happen to be going to the bar." After a few more songs no one had bought the poor woman a drink so she said, "Thanks for the whisky, by the way." We all laughed and by the time the next song was done she had three Bushmills, one of which Polly delivered to her husband. She thanked us after the show when we chatted her up.

We saw Marc Broussard play in the evening. He played acoustic, as did his father, who accompanied him. We love his show. He writes country-tinged tunes about family and stuff. It was a nice intimate set. We befriended two funny women from New Orleans, Lee and Rebecca.

As we walked across the atrium on our way to the Pearly Gates (our name for the Pearly Kings, a pub on board) we stopped to hear the band playing in the atrium. My jaw was completely agape as I listened to this woman's voice. Her name was Vienna Teng, and she was remarkable. She had an unbelievably perfect voice. She sounded like a cross between Allison Krauss and Sarah McLachlin. Her accompanist, Alex Wong, played the drums, piano, and the bells. The latter he played while playing the drums at the same time. During one song, "The Last Snowfall," I had tears in my eyes it was so beautiful. It was an incredible performance. I hope to catch her again at one of her other shows.

We could not stay up for Shawn Mullins. We'll catch him on another show, hopefully.

People like to perpetuate the myth that you can’t feel the waves on a big cruise ship. I am here to say you can feel the motion of the ocean. In the middle of the night we woke up to a very creaky room. The wind and the waves had gotten higher in the night. There's a channel on the TV where you can track the location of the ship, the temperature of the pools, and the size of the waves. They were moderate, around 4-7 feet high. Drifting off to sleep, we wondered how big that rogue wave was that capsized the S.S. Poseidon.

Cayamo 2009

Hey guys,

As you may or may not know, I am on a cruise. It's our last day of the best trip I've ever been on. Sorry Mom and Dad, I loved Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood in 1976, but this was amazing.

i will post some backdated travel notes as soon as I get home. Internet access on the boat is like dial-up, c. 1996.

Peace out, y'all.