Le Petit Chef

**Importante! Please read the following in your best French accent. If you are unwilling or unable to do so, I urge you to just click through. I apologize profusiamente that I cannot be in all of your living rooms to do this for you. Merci.**

Do you remember that adorable chef, Alfredo Linguini, from Ratoutille? The kind hearted, bumbling maker of award winning cuisine with the help of Remy the rat? He made our dinner the other night! Well, maybe it was his French counterpart, but still! The ship has two dining choices that you might classify as under the all inclusive part of cruising - the main dining room and the Oceanview Cafe. Some Celebrity boats work differently, but this one has an additional 4-5 restaurants that you can make reservations at. We made reservations at Qsine, with Le Petit Chef. 

Le Petit Chef is a tiny, animated, French chef who makes your dinner right in front of you! Like Alfredo Linguini, he is a little comical, and encounters some setbacks along the way, and is downright fun to watch. 

Before our very eyes he grew and and harvested a garden, battled a mole, and made us burrata salads. I don't think I can get videos to load on ship wifi, so you will have to use your imagination and the stills I took. Below you can see on the left where he is under the inside fork, and a butterfly has landed on the plate. 

Course number two was bouillabaisse. The chef went fishing off our plates before briefly becoming entangled with an octopus. He cut off the tentacles of said octopus to save himself, and those tentacles were in our soup! Well, let's get real, they were in Louise's soup. Thelma obviously wasn't going to eat bouillabaisse! 

It's masterful coding and animation projected onto a white table. The coasters for beverages are rather fixed to the table, and you have to make sure your plate aligns with the projected circle. 

The "show" was so fun, but it was also amazing how much the animation matched the dish that you were given! The menu is fixed to fit the animation. You can order something else, like I did for course number two, but it's not as awesome because it doesn't fit the show you just watched. For the main course our little chef went on a submarine adventure to find a lobster. He ended up having to wrangle it like a cowboy to get it on the plate. And boy was it delicious!

For the final course, our tables turned to a snowy scene where ice cream was rolled up like snowmen, and the whipped cream was shot out of a snow plow. Little chocolate footprints were the final mark of this Little Chef. 

We hear there are other animation sequences, so we are excited to see Le Petit Chef on a future cruise! 

 Next up: Curacao! 

😁

4 x 4 Adventure in Aruba

Our second stop was in Aruba. Aruba is one of the six island countries that are part of the Dutch Caribbean, and thus under Netherlands rule. I mean, that sounds slightly more stringent than I mean. They are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, sort of like a territory or a commonwealth, with their own government, elections, and independence, but citizens still hold a Dutch passport. They call the islands the ABC islands and the SSS islands. A: Aruba, B: Bonaire, C: Curacao, S: Sint Maarten, S: Sint Eustatius, S: Saba. We had a VERY informative tour guide today, otherwise how would we come up with this stuff? ;)

We chose to go on a jeep off-road adventure! Yippee!! 

One thing you might not think about the Caribbean is the word "desert".Yeah,  I know - it's not a desert, it's an "arid climate". Whatever! You're not here! It's H-O-T, dry, and there are cactus everywhere! We piled into some "jeeps" and our guides told us we were going to the "dry side". All I was thinking was: Where are we now? Ha!

Thelma and Louise have driven some rough roads in our journeys. Lanai comes to mind. Or that road in Montana where we switched drivers because I was sure I'd high centered the car. Or the old railroad I had to back out of. The difference on this adventure was that we weren't the drivers! We lumbered through town in our rigs, and then set off on some back roads. We didn't get to sit together, so here is our selfie in two shots.

I'm not sure you can appreciate the quality of the road. The rocks were huge, and the dips were significant valleys of several feet in places. I tend to get a little car sick, and so I was so lucky to get a front seat next to the driver. I had the best view by far, but that meant that I also saw exactly what we were driving over. I shouted helpful comments that can be categorized as cheerful hysteria. Luckily, if you're laughing and smiling, sarcasm is interpreted positively. It was fun in that unhinged sort of way.

Our first stop was a natural bridge area in Arikok Natural Park. They lost a large natural bridge in 2005, but  the small one we stopped at was nice too!  It was a short walk downhill on gravel, so I skipped that part, but mom went on this short adventure!

That's Darvin, possibly one of the happiest people on Earth. He and his partner, Jason, were fabulous. Darvin drove our "jeep" and Jason did most of the talking. One of the things we learned that was fascinating was about the languages spoken in Aruba. The two official languages are  Dutch and Papiamento, a local language with Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and Creole influences. They also all speak English, and most speak at least one other language. As language learning does not come easily for me, I am in awe of those that are multilingual. 

On the way out of the park, still on some questionable roads, Darvin all of a sudden said, "SH_T". And in his hand came the gear shift. Like out of car. Loose. Free forming in the front seat with me. As we came to a stop next to the other car, he honked the horn and Jason got out of his car: "Damn!" I'm nothing if not helpful, so I added while pointing at Darvin, "He used a different word," which got me laugh. ;) They jammed that thing back in, muttered some encouragement to it, and we were on our way. A replacement "jeep" (they were not Jeeps!) met us at our next stop. 

Our last stop was at an old gold mine. Honest to goodness, Jason told us a lot of good info, but I was hot, and keeping my eye on a lizard, so I lost the finer points. But took some good photos! I shoot in black and white when I'm hot....

I will leave you with this last picture.  That's me on this chic Caribbean vacation with a giant smudge of dirt on my forehead. I found that HOURS later. Honestly Louise! 

🤣

At Sea

You know what's great about "at sea" days? There's both NOTHING to do, and EVERYTHING to do! Our cruise director, Angela, is adorbs, and has like 1,000 things to do every day. Which is great, but you also don't have to do anything! And you literally can't leave the boat, so they are nice days to just relax.

I've really leaned in to drinking coffee out of a martini glass. I mean, what's not to like? This is a cafe shakerato with coconut. We like to post up at Cafe al Bacio for a couple hours, caffeinating, reading etc. It has an art deco vibe - yellow and black, with tall wing back chairs. The other feature of this cafe is that on the opposite side of the coffee bar is the Gelateria. Mom has had cinnamon and coffee (so far!). 

Also, these little baby bear beds are somehow amazing. I am the pickiest person about sleeping, pillows, covers, temperature - everything. Maybe they are lowering the oxygen level in our cabins so I just pass out. I barely move at night, and I'm giving napping a real chance. ;) Mom has broken in the veranda with sketching, photography and the like. 

Cruise ships are like casinos, only it's a little easier to figure out if it's day or night. They are HUGE, and you can get lost easily, but they also try and make spaces seem small and intimate. Our room number is 1231, but you cannot find that on the 12th floor. I know, because we've tried! We haven't made that mistake in a couple of days! Ha! Actually, our room is right outside of the library, so we've done a pretty good job of finding our room (given that we are on the correct floor!). 

On the second day that we came back to our room, there was a cloche and two forks!

My immediate reaction was: Danger! Obviously I'm reading too many mysteries where a poisoned cucumber sandwich has been placed in the room, or a scorpion lashes out when the cloche is lifted. Mom spun around in a circle thinking we must have got ourselves in the wrong room! But, as it turns out, we were upgraded to a "concierge" class, and little afternoon apertifs are brought to our room everyday. They are so cute!

I mean, there were more, but...sometimes you're so hungry that it disappears fast! We mostly go to the Oceanview Cafe which is a glorified way of saying "buffet". The Caesar salad is amazing, I'm quite fond of the pina colada, and they have those little mini desserts like they had at Todai back in the day. Last night, in an ode to my aunt, we played cards until bedtime. 😊

🤍🤍

Arts & Crafts

 Guess what we did last night? We blew glass! Like, we made things out of glass in a studio. One of my colleagues went on a Celebrity cruise to Alaska and was telling me she made something out of glass. I couldn't have been more excited that our boat had this feature. I LOVE glass! Maybe growing up in the Chihuly era in Washington had something to do with it, or maybe I just like it! I've always been fascinated with all things glass. One of my favorite college classes was stained glass. Of course, since it's been a beat, I can't even remember what process we used (it wasn't rods and soldering), but I still have all my pieces. One of them is even good. Ha!

On the top deck here on Celebrity Equinox is a full functioning glass studio by Hollywood Glass. Does anyone watch Blown Away on Netflix? If you don't, you should!  It's a reality show about blowing glass, and from what I can tell, it's legit artists that are featured. The prize is a residency at Corning Museum of Glass, which is a big deal. Hollywood Glass is founded by season three contestant Brenna Baker. All of that means probably nothing if you haven't watched the show, but there's some fangirl background in case you have! Also, I haven't finished season 4, so SHHHHH!

There are lots of colors and projects to choose from. Mom chose a jellyfish, and I went with a penguin. Mom was up first!

Does anyone remember baby-sitting for that glass blower in Clyde Hill? His son's name was Reagan, and they lived near Chinook at the top of the hill. I wasn't "their" baby-sitter, but I subbed a lot for a friend. Anyway, the dad had blown glass everywhere (what a nightmare with a toddler) and the garage was full of color rods. Color rods have to be melted first to use, but the "frits" like you see below, can be applied directly to glass that has been heated up. 

First, glass is pulled from the Glass Melting Furnace, which is about 2100 degrees F. I mean, we signed a waiver, but still, the glass blower did this part! Mom worked with Sam and I worked with Kayla. After there is melted glass on the end of the rod, it is rolled around a little to create the initial shape, and then it's dipped in color. 

Then it goes into the furnace which at 2050 degrees is slightly cooler. Ours was running slightly cooler at 1900, and it actually made a huge difference in how malleable the glass was. During this stage the color is melting into the glass. You have to turn it evenly left and right, or else your penguin might end up with gout! (Penguin #1 ended up with that anyway, but that comes later!) 

Next, Kayla and Sam shaped the glass a little. I'm sure this is part of the experience that you can't learn in 20 minutes. :)   After the initial shaping, both my mom and I used many of these torture tools to make our pieces. 

Mom got to use some of the tools to sort of pull out the glass that would become the tentacles of the jellyfish. I used them to shape the wings and beak of the penguin. The jellyfish had layers, so they flashed it in cold water in between adding a new layer.

Of course you blow into the end to add the initial shape, hence the term, "glass blowing". The jellyfish required just a little air. The penguin, on the other hand, needed a little more! I was blowing, and the glass was sort of hardening, not to mentioned it was too hot, and she said, "full strength" or something of the sort, and I gave it my all, and the penguin sprouted a second stomach! We had a good laugh and started over. Penguin #2 is also a little pudgy, but he worked out!

Certainly this wasn't the most difficult part, but it was very satisfying to tap the pole at the end and have the creation pop cleanly off! 

And then they went into the annealer overnight, which cools the glass in a controlled environment. The penguin was pretty easy to visualize what it would look like (black and white), but the jellyfish was going to be a surprise! I mean, mom picked out the colors she liked, but you can't see them in this process. This definitely is part of the art!

This was SO FUN! I probably won't become a glass blower because it's just too dang hot, but I'd do this again in a heartbeat! Here are our finished products:

The penguin is hilarious and somehow has the expression of my cat Lanny. And the jellyfish is amazing! We can hardly believe that we made these beautiful things!