We are almost on our way! Next week we take off for Honolulu! I’m thrilled that we’re going to spend a day in Hawaii. I might be so tired after the flight that I just go to sleep until the ship leaves the dock though!

Fortunately, things with the new restaurant seem to be going along well. We do have a good team of folks taking care of things, but I worry anyhow. Bob tells me I try to be everyone’s mother! He thinks I do too much for our staff sometimes (as if he doesn’t!).

Okay, I plead guilty as charged! I have to confess - I bought a whole new wardrobe for the trip! Well, it’s like I told Bob, a woman needs to have at least one nice gown on these long cruises because there is at least one formal night. And since this cruise is 12 nights, I thought I should have two gowns, because we might have two formal nights (I can get away with this since Bob leaves it to me to read the literature we get before the cruise). Bob is just bringing his usual suit. I call it his “cruise suit” since it’s the one he almost always brings on cruises for formal nights! I’m sure they’ll have a tux rental place, but Bob only does that once in a blue moon.

I’m going to try to be super good about meals, but I have a couple of larger sized outfits I can wear, just in case! Cruises always have so many meals! They make up names for them just so you can have a chance to eat again! I’m trying to schedule in some time for the fitness center.

I read that lots of people on these long cruises don’t even get off the ship! I guess that’s tempting, but I want to see the islands! I love the Caribbean islands, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what the South Pacific ones are like. I even want to go do something in Hawaii. Bob says we’ll only be there for one day, so there’s not much point, but I think I want to do SOMETHING, even if it’s just something really short. Since I love seeing plants and animals so much, I’m thinking we might visit the botanical gardens there. We almost have two days, after all, since the Tahitian Princess doesn’t sail until 9 pm the night after we arrive. So I’m planning to rest the first day, sleep, and then take a little tour of the gardens the next day.

I wish we were bringing at least one of the grandkids with us. Gosh, they grow up so fast! Now the baby’s almost two and a half, my oldest grandson is actually looking at colleges (!) and the other two are now seven and nine! Pretty soon they’ll be married, and we’ll have great grandkids! Everyone laughs when I say that, but it really seems like yesterday when my own children were small!

I think we will do a lot of sightseeing on our trip and not too many planned activities. Bora Bora has a Land Rover tour that sounds fantastic – I really want to do that! There are lots of available diving excursions but as I said before, I am not really a diving person. That’s more my son’s territory (he did a lot of diving in high school when he lived in Florida).

Fortunately, everything is going well at home and with the business. I have to admit I called all the kids and made sure no one was sick, or going in for surgery, or going through any huge upheavals soon. I checked with all of our managers at the restaurants, and things are going well with them too. No major emergencies, and they’re handling all of the minor emergencies like the pros they are. I tell myself that, though I have to admit I STILL want to drive in every time there is a problem with the books or a chef gets fired! I’m awful that way.