Day 2 - A Little Exploration

 Oh, the places you'll go...~ Dr. Seuss

Viking sent us tickets for a 4 hour bus ride around Los Angeles. I'm sure it would have been a fascinating excursion, but we were just allowed out of our voluntary isolation this morning at 9AM. And frankly, we're feeling the miles it took to get here and the fretting about whether or not we'd pass through the testing gauntlet unscathed. We'd worked so hard to get here, we didn't want to get off the ship. Especially since we are required to wear these little contact tracer things on a lanyard around our necks. (We can put them in a pocket if we want or I saw one lady who used hers for a belt!) Anyway, it's obvious Big Brother (or maybe Uncle Torstein) really is watching us. If we are within 6 ft. of someone who tests positive for a specified period of time, we can be put back into preventive isolation. A 4 hour bus ride wasn't enough to tempt me off the ship. 

"Our Tribe"

So we politely declined the complimentary excursion and set about exploring the Viking Star today.  We started with breakfast on the fantail with Kristy and Dave. I love being able to sit outside without masks and visit with our friends. 

We started on Deck 9, noting the putt-putt golf, bocce ball, and obligatory shuffle board. We also picked out a couple of really nice places with double wide loungers that will be excellent for star gazing when we get out where the sky is dark enough for stars to show through. LA is bright at night. 

We circumnavigated Deck 8, but were stopped when we reached the Explorers Lounge and Dave declared he'd passed too many bars without ordering anything! So we stopped for liquid sustenance. (Don't worry, Mom. I just had a Diet Coke.)

By then it was about 10:30, and I wanted to take a tour of the Liv Nordic Thermal Suite when they opened at 11. The stone loungers have been calling me. These sources of delight and cessation of lower back pain are something we've looked forward to for some years. We have to book a time to use the thermal suite and it's limited to 6 people at a time in the entire large space.

2 Hot Dogs in the Freezer!

We regrouped and met back at 2 pm. The thalassotherapy pool and hot tub were closed, but the snow grotto and steam room were open. So while Kristy and I relaxed on the stone loungers, the guys got more adventurous. The steam room was roughly Amazonian in temperature and humidity, and the snow grotto like Trondheim in January. But our guys were undeterred. (It's amazing what men will endure to impress each other! Can't wait for the ice bucket they can pour over their heads to become operational!) 

After that, we had a leisurely couple of hours to get ready for supper. We met Kristy and Dave in the Atrium during the Munch Moments, when a pianist was playing Norwegian music as Munch paintings were shown in all their pixelated glory on the big screen. It's a daily occurrence so I'll try to snap some pictures another day of the work of this most famous Norwegian artist.

Originally, we'd made reservations at The Chef's Table for our first night aboard and for Manfredi's (the other specialty restaurant on board) for this night. But our altered boarding protocol and semi-quarantine meant all reservations had been cancelled, so we went to the main dining room, which is called simply The Restaurant. Everything was delicious and the  company the best! It's so wonderful to renew our friendship with Kristy and Dave. We also have seen another couple we knew on the Pacific Princess--Russ and Laura, the intrepid couple who at 90 climbed the harbor bridge in Sydney!  

I forgot to take pictures of the plates, but here's the menu. It all looked so good, but we'll have plenty of time to try everything. In 2018, Princess rotated their menus each segment so we could count on favorites returning and opportunities to see what we missed. I didn't get the dessert offerings in the photo, but I had a sugar free chocolate souffle with Bailey's cream.

What would you have chosen from this menu? 

Our 9:00 evening show was Matt and Lainie, Legends of Guitar. It was a tribute to several famous guitarists over the years in rock, blues, jazz and Spanish guitar traditions. The Viking band was fantastic back up and had only had the music since 6:30pm that evening. Matt was an accomplished guitarist, playing Santana, Clapton and a host of other artists I was unfamiliar with. (Self-confessed musical snob here. As soon as I met opera, I pretty much gave up on pop culture, but even I recognized and enjoyed Hotel California and Stairway to Heaven.)  

Occasionally, the guitar's pitch was a little too boozy for my taste. Not quite flat, but on the bottom half of the bubble, if you know what I mean. However, I don't know enough about blues guitar to know if this is a feature of the genre and even with those few fingernails-on-chalkboard moments (probably only for me) there was plenty to like in this show. This talented duo will be back later this week and we'll look forward to them. (Side note to my mom & dad: The volume level was loud enough to be true to the rock genre, but not loud enough to be painful. Our recent cruise on Norwegian left us with a ringing in our ears every time we visited the theater.)

Amazingly enough, we were still awake at 11 PM--unheard of for us. Hopefully, it'll mean we can acclimate to this time zone and not wake up at oh:dark-thirty!