I signed off the ship last week to take a very quick trip to Portland for the funeral of of the father one of my closest friends, Linda. I’ve known here since I was 12 years old and I’m the godmother to her son (though admittedly, I’m not very godly). The reason to be there was horrible, but it was so good to see my friends in person. We do most of corresponding through email and texts, and it’s just so good to see both her and Julie, my other dear friend, in the flesh. The three of us of have traveled all over the place and done some exciting adventures together, we call ourselves the Bella’s after we spent two weeks in Italy. For me it’s so great to have these ladies in my life, they’re not performers so we never talk about improv or sketch or comedy. They’re both moms who have great kids and great husbands. I get to live my life vicariously through them and hopefully they enjoy the stories I tell them of living a vagabond’s life traveling and making people laugh.
The Bella's in Portland
We went on a snorkeling and whale watching excursion for the crew on Maui and it was pretty damn incredible. Not the snorkeling so much, we were going to go to Molokini but there was a storm blowing in so we went to an area called Coral Gardens. It did have pretty great coral but the fish were in limited supply. Though, Piero and Mike did swim with a turtle.
I’m guessing the fish were in limited supply because the whales were in abundance! I’ve never been so close to a pod of whales they were literally right next to the boat, well, the baby whale was anyway. The mother and escort were swimming right below us even the captain of the boat said he’s never been that close to a pod of whales in his 30 years of sailing. It was incredible, unfortunately, I don’t have any photos because I was just too taken aback by it all to get my camera. So, you’ll just have to trust me when I say it was amazing.
It was real low-key the rest of the week. Next week there’s lots of plans in the works. It’s my birthday on Monday which means the whole week should be an adventure.