William and Kate: Part I

I suddenly find myself with a lot to say about the impending marriage of the Heir Apparent and his true love. Yes, I intend to get up at some ridiculous hour to watch on the East Coast of the US. I can't not watch.

One of my favorite memories from childhood is sitting on the living room floor with Jane, our neighbor from across the street, who had ferried airplanes to England during WWII, and watching the coronation of Elizabeth II. The coronation was filmed. While the ceremony was going on, a completed roll of film would be flown to Canada, being developed on the plane, to be rushed onto the air in North America. There would be a break in the action when that roll ended, while we waited for the next roll to come in.

Jane patiently pointed out landmarks in London as young Elizabeth travelled to Westminster Abbey, and then returned to Buckingham Palace as Her Majesty, the Queen. I was enthralled by the pomp and regalia, and spent hours with my Queen Elizabeth coloring book and paper dolls, and learned all about the orb and sceptre and crown. The image that still gives me chills is the official portrait of the newly crowned Queen in Westminster Abbey in her full regalia, with her robe draped gracefully around her.

Shortly thereafter, I got caught up in the ongoing drama of Princess Margaret and Group Captain Peter Townsend. They wanted to marry. Margaret had to ask permission of her sister and sovereign. Elizabeth, as head of the church and Defender of the Faith, could not grant permission for her sister to marry a divorced man. Eventually Townsend married a Belgian woman who looked much like Margaret. Margaret married Anthony Armstrong-Jones, and ended up divorced herself.

Just for fun, let's digress for a moment and look at other royal marriages in 20th century Britain.

First off, there's May of Teck, who was related to the royal family through one of the numerous offspring of Queen Victoria. In 1891, May was betrothed to Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert, oldest son of the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII. However, Albert died shortly thereafter. Victoria still fancied May, who had a strong sense of duty, and May married Albert's younger brother George in 1893. In 1910, on the death of Edward VII, George and May became King George V and Queen Mary.

Queen Mary took her position and her duties seriously. She was aghast when her oldest son, David, who became Edward VIII on the death of his father in 1936, abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Warfield Simpson, the woman he loved. She never understood how he could turn his back on his duty.

As an aside, it's important to remember that Edward VIII gave up the throne BEFORE he was crowned and anointed.

She supported her son Albert, who became George VI, and took special interest in his daughters, the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. It's fair to say that Queen Mary's sense of duty left a strong mark on the monarchy throughout the 20th century.

So now we have Elizabeth on the throne, and doing her duty as head of the church by withholding permission for her sister to marry a divorced man. Queen Mary, who died shortly before her granddaughter's coronation, would have approved.

I was fascinated by the wedding of Princess Margaret to the Earl of Snowdon, and thought it was particularly touching that the young bridesmaids wore copies of Margaret's first formal gown. For the record, they married in Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate will wed. Queen Mary undoubtedly spun in her grave when Margaret was divorced.

Then Elizabeth's children came of age. Anne was the first to marry, and she, too, married in Westminster Abbey. I remember watching that wedding, and was moved by her deep curtsey to her mother at the end of the ceremony. Alas, that marriage also ended in divorce.

Meanwhile, Charles was taking his time about finding a wife. We all know how that ended, but in Part II I'll talk about how we got there.

Did you ever attend Camp Eiken in Horton, Norway?

About 50-some years ago, Miss Helene Hansen ran a camp for girls in Horton, on the Drammen Road south of Oslo, in Norway. Miss Hansen recruited a group of American girls to visit Norway in the summer. We spent the first week or two at the camp, and then went home with a "Norwegian sister" for a three-week homestay. In mid-August the American girls got together again to visit some Norwegian cities before we sailed home. Yes, we went both ways by ship. We went over on the MS Oslofjord (sailed from New York on July 6) and came home on the MS Bergensfjord (got back to NY on August 30, after coming through Hurricane Alma the preceding day).

I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who was one of Miss Hansen's girls, but I'd especially like to hear from any of the girls who were in the 1962 group with me. My roommates were Brooke, Diana and Sally. Some of the other girls were Rachel and Jenny from Baltimore, and Paunchy (nickname for a very svelte Elizabeth) and Tangley (also a nickname). Our chaperones were a Mr. and Mrs. Melby.

If any of this rings any bells, please leave a comment and I'll get in touch.

Thanks!

Apres la deluge; Navy fails to right the sinking ship

My friends who saw yesterday's Navy-Notre Dame game on TV all talked about the exciting, nearly come-from-behind finish by Navy, which was down 27-7 with only 150 seconds left in the game. Sitting through it, however, was a completely different experience, one that left a lot of Navy fans frustrated.

The good: The Navy defense came to play. They shut down Notre Dame on their first two drives with an interception and a fumble recovery, and held ND to a single field goal in the first half.

The uneven: Special teams allowed a blocked punt in the first quarter that was run in for a TD, and couldn't generate kick returns. Recovering back-to-back onsides kicks, however, was pretty amazing.

The abysmal: Navy's offense just couldn't get going. The D intercepted. Navy went 3 and out. The D recovered a fumble. Navy went 3 and out, and had the punt blocked for a Notre Dame TD return. Navy made its first 1st down in the 2nd quarter -- and then went 3 and out. The D forced ND to punt. And finally Navy put together a 5-play, 58-yard drive for a TD. The D rose to the occasion and intercepted yet again. And then Kettani fumbled, and ND ended the first half with a field goal.

The second half started with Navy going 3 and out on all three possession in the 3rd quarter. Meanwhile, the D, which spent way too much time on the field, was getting worn down and allowed ND to mount nice drives that resulted in 2 more Irish TDs in the 3rd quarter, and a field goal early in the 4th. At that point a squall was ripping through the stadium, and with the score 27-7, fans on both sides (including the two nuns from a few rows behind us) figured that the game was over and headed for the exits in droves.

I remarked to Craig that this was exactly where we were two weeks ago -- down 27-7 early in the 4th. His comment: "That was Temple. This is Notre Dame."

The majority of the fans in the stands had jumped ship, but the Brigade was still there. They seemed to gain energy from the energy of the squall, and were down there in the endzone making a lot of noise. Their energy was infectious.

The D didn't give up, even when Navy (under Dobbs since 4:03 left in the 3rd) went 3 and out again after the ND field goal. The D proceeded to recover another fumble. And Navy went 3 and out yet again. And still the D didn't give up, and forced ND to turn the ball over on downs.

There are 2 minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock. The rain has mostly ended. The stands are three-quarters empty -- except the endzone section where the mids are generating as much excitement as they can. The Brigade still believed.

And Dobbs finally got into gear, putting together a drive of 4 plays for 57 yards and a TD. Navy picked up three first downs, plus a first down on penalty, on that drive, too.

Now it's 27-14. I muttered, "We only need two more TDs."

And Navy recovered the onsides kick, which everybody knew was coming. And Dobbs struck again, covering 41 yards in 3 plays for a TD/extra point which made it 27-20.

At this point a bunch of ND fans, who had headed for cover about a half-hour earlier, started to re-emerge and stood there in near disbelief and Navy made and recovered yet another onsides kick.

The clock read 1:21.

Navy picked up a first down and made it to the ND 34. Then, instead of trying to make another first down on short passes to the sideline (no timeouts left), or rushing and then spiking the ball, Navy tried to go for broke on long passes -- and they all fell incomplete.

Notre Dame took over on downs, and didn't obligingly fumble for a Navy runback. And that was all she wrote.

Final score -- Notre Dame 27 -- Navy 21.

Here's the big question from the upper deck. Coach Ken said at the Coach's Lunch on Tuesday that he wouldn't hesitate to put Dobbs in if the offense needed a spark, but he wouldn't change quarterbacks if there was a good flow. Despite the one drive in the 2nd quarter, it was apparent by halftime that the offense needed a spark, and there wasn't much the the way of flow to interrupt.

Knowing that it took Dobbs a couple of series to find the groove against Temple, we couldn't help but wonder what took Coach so long to make the change. If Dobbs had started the second half, would he have turned it into a real ballgame?

Navy managed to beat Temple with about 13 minutes of great football. Two-and-a-half minutes of great offense (and a boost from King Neptune, who generated the squall) just wasn't enough against Notre Dame.

FOR THE RECORD

Navy earned 121 of its total 242 yards of offense after Dobbs entered the game late in the 3rd quarter. They also picked up 5 of their 9 earned first downs and one of the 2 penalty first downs in that same time frame.

Lunch with Coach Ken in Annapolis

This being a holiday from work, Craig and I went to Annapolis for the Coach's Lunch at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. It was a nice place to visit on Veterans' Day, and it was an opportunity to hear what Coach Niumatalolo is thinking about how this season is going, and the Notre Dame game coming up this weekend. By the luck of the draw, we ended up sitting with Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk and Annapolis Capital sports writer Bill Wagner.

Coach Ken is a neat guy -- smart, polite, and kind of quiet, but you can sense that he's not someone to mess with. He wasn't giving away anything about Saturday's game -- "One game is just like any other game. . ." He did say that Jarod Bryant will start, and everyone is hoping that Kaipo will be back in form for Army.

He did talk a little bit about Ricky Dobbs, who apparently has really bad practices, but then goes out on the field in a game and blows everyone away. He mentioned that during the one day between Paul Johnson leaving and the announcement that Niumatalolo would be head coach, Dobbs made a point of phoning and talking to every one of the kids at the Naval Academy Prep School, and not one of them jumped ship.

When we were watching the game film, Bill Wagner remarked about how Dobbs unleashes passes with hardly more than a flick of the wrist. Coach Ken also commented on that -- that Dobbs has a very short windup, from about as far back as the ear. He can throw long, but he also has the gift of touch, so that he can thrown over the line, but drop the ball in front of the secondary.

With Navy's win over Temple 10 days ago, the team became eligible to play an ACC opponent, to be determined, in the EagleBank Bowl in DC on Dec. 20. When asked, Coach Ken admitted that he's thought about playing Georgia Tech, coached by Paul Johnson. That would be an interesting match-up, for sure.

I had an opportunity to ask Chet Gladchuk if Navy is going to stick with ACC officials. (Since Navy isn't in a conference, they contract for officials to work home games.) He said yes, that he has to respect their integrity. Those of us in the upper deck, though, have found the crews this year to be frustrating in a lot of ways. It seemed that in the Temple game, almost every other play was reviewed from upstairs. It makes it seem that the guys on the field don't quite know what they're doing, and it makes for a very long game if you're sitting in the stands. Oh, well...

So, this Saturday is Notre Dame in Baltimore. I just hope that Navy comes out on the field playing as well as they did in the fourth quarter against Temple, and that they sustain that level for the duration.

GO NAVY!

Navy 2009 Football Schedule

2009 Navy Football Schedule

Sept. 5: at Ohio State
Sept. 12: Louisiana Tech (First meeting)
Sept. 19: at Pittsburgh
Sept. 26: Western Kentucky (First meeting)
Oct. 3: Air Force
Oct. 10: at Rice
Oct. 17: at SMU
Oct. 24: Wake Forest
Oct. 31: Temple
Nov. 7: at Notre Dame
Nov. 14: Delaware
Nov. 21: at Hawaii
Dec. 12: vs. Army in Philadelphia

Navy 33 -- Temple 27

Last year a couple of friends thought I was writing too much about football -- so I stopped. And I discovered I couldn't get excited about writing, if I couldn't write about football. So...

This has been an interesting season for Navy. We started the year with Kaipo as the starting QB, and coach Ken thinking he'd use Jarod Bryant at slotback because Jarod is too good to keep on the bench. And there was a promising young backup in sophomore Ricky Dobbs.

Well, the best-laid plans gang aft agley, and they sure did for Coach Ken. Kaipo has been nursing an injured hamstring all season, and has missed more than he's played. Bryant did yeoman's duty as the new starter, but it seemed that the offense was struggling, and every week we waited to see if Kaipo was going to be back in harness.

Then, two weeks ago Ricky Dobbs came in at the end of an ugly loss to Pitt and breathed some life into the team, leading to a late score on a beautiful TD pass that didn't affect the outcome of the game (final was 42-21), but left us all thinking that there was hope on the horizon.

Last week Bryant hurt his shoulder early on against SMU, and Dobbs got the call. Navy won 34-7, albeit against a team with a lot of problems. Still, Dobbs got good game experience and showed that he's a shifty runner. BTW -- the game was played in steady rain and gusty wind, and Navy didn't even attempt a pass for the first time in a lot of years. They didn't need to.

The only concern was that Dobbs was doing most of the carrying. Kettani and Shun White weren't producing as they had been, and the explanation was that Dobbs still wasn't able to read the defenses well enough to take advantage of all the options.

Yesterday was senior day. Knowing that Bryant was ailing, Kaipo worked hard to be ready to start against Temple, and he did. Navy's first possession went for a TD. Temple answered. That took up a little more than half of the first quarter. The rest of the first half was just frustrating. Navy struggled to move the ball. The D would hold Temple or back them up on first and second down, but third down almost always turned into first down. Still, nobody scored. Navy tried a field goal as time was about to run out, but it was blocked. Halftime score: 7-7.

The third quarter was more of the same for Navy. Kaipo went out with 5 minutes left in the quarter. Dobbs came in, and still struggled. Meanwhile, Temple figured out how to score, and with only 13+ minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Temple led 27-7. It looked bad.

Then it seemed that Navy realized it was now or never. The senior parents and friends were in the stands. Navy could clinch a spot in the Eagle Bank Bowl in DC with a win, but with Notre Dame and Army coming up fast, the sixth win was looking less and less like a certainty, given the way things had been going. And they probably had seen the final that Air Force beat Army, meaning that the Commander-in-Chief's trophy will stay in Annapolis at least by default -- and default is never enough. Pride was on the line.

So, Dobbs rallied the offense, and the team scored on a nice drive capped by a pass to Thiel. It was 27-14, and there was at least a glimmer of hope.

Then the defense rose to the occasion, and started making the tackles they'd been missing for most of the game. Navy got the ball back -- and Kettani scored. But the extra point was blocked. It was 27-20 and the clock was ticking away.

Temple got the ball with a minute and something left. They made a first down. It was nail-biting time. Everybody was making noise (and as my husband, my mother, many folks who have sat near me over the years will gladly attest, I can make more than my share of it). Temple snapped the ball again. I had been yelling "DEEEFENSE" along with everyone else, but changed the yell to "FUMMMMBLE" (inspired by a man who sat behind us at Colts games years ago and whose signature yell was "Fee-fi-fo-fumble") -- and all of a sudden one of the Navy guys (Sovie, as it turned out) had the ball and ran it into the end zone. The extra point was good, and the game was tied.

Navy won the overtime toss and elected to give the ball to Temple, so that they'd have the last up, as it were. Temple elected to play in the south end of the stadium, away from the Brigade. But the Brigade rallied to the challenge and at least a battalion of mids proceeded in an orderly fashion to the south end where they could make some noise. We sit just above the Brigade, and it was an amazing sight. Their shipmates needed them, and they came through.

So Temple got the ball. They made a first down and made their way to the one, and then elected to pass (maybe thinking about that fumble?). Their receiver had it in the endzone -- and dropped the ball.

Navy got the ball, worked their way towards the goal line (the ball was practically ON the goal line for the last play), and then Dobbs took it in for the score.

Then the mids in the south end made their way back to their seats, and the Temple team, which had to be hurting, fell in behind the Navy team for the singing of "Navy Blue and Gold." That was pretty amazing to see, too.

I've watched a lot of games in my life, including some astounding comebacks by John Unitas and the Colts (including the game where Jimmy Orr went to the hospital and came back to catch the winning pass), but this one probably tops them all.

So, Navy has a week off, and plays Notre Dame at Ravens Stadium in Baltimore on 11/15. Then they play away at Northern Illinois, and have another week off before playing Army in Philadelphia. And THEN -- they'll play an as-yet-to-be-determined team from the ACC in the Eagle Bank Bowl in DC on December 20. And, yes, I ordered our tickets online about an hour after yesterday's game ended.

BTW -- Notre Dame lost to Pitt in OT yesterday, and plays BC next week before coming to B'more.

And Army lost to Air Force.

GO NAVY!

Our Introduction to the Queen Mary 2

The other night we watched a documentary on the National Geographic channel on the building of the Queen Mary 2. This was of special interest to us because we (or at least I; Craig had seen it once before and thought I'd be interested) first saw this several months ago, at which time Craig and I looked at each other and thought that we had to go for a sail on this magnificent ship. Craig thought it was totally out of our price range, but when we came upstairs, I did a quick and dirty Google for cheap cruises and discovered that it really wasn't out of reach.

Several weeks later, an opportunity came for us to get away for our first real, totally non-working vacation together in longer than either of us could remember. I did some serious looking for QM2 deals -- and found one that was too good to pass up.

Let me back up a few decades and explain why this ship appealed to us.

Both our dads were in the Navy, so we both spent some time around big ships when we were kids -- and have memories of riding the elevator from the hangar deck to the flight deck of aircraft carriers. And at the age of 8 I got stuck in the conning tower of an old fleet-type submarine. My legs weren't as long as the sailors', and I had trouble reaching the first rung of the ladder going down.

When Craig was 6 or 7, his dad was stationed in Panama. When that tour was over, the Navy sent him, his brother and his Mom to New York via ship. He had fond memories of being at sea.

When I was in high school, I spent a summer in Norway. This was in 1962, when the predominant form of transatlantic travel was by ship. I traveled as part of a group of 20 American girls from New York to Oslo on the Norwegian America Line's M/V Oslofjord. It took us 10 days to get to Oslo, with stops along the way in Bergen, Stavanger and Copenhagen. We traveled Second Class. One of the girls in our group and I shared a tiny inside cabin with two older ladies who didn't speak English. There were two sets of bunk beds (I had an upper) with a narrow walkway and small sink/vanity between them. The other facilities were down the hall.

We didn't spend a whole lot of time in our cabin. There were nice lounge areas where we hung out with other girls in our group, and a some of the guys traveling with another group. The food was way too plentiful and really good (lots of native Norwegian fare, such as brown goat cheese and reindeer steaks), with a huge "cold table" before every meal. Dinners typically included a meat course and fish course, along with appetizer, dessert, etc. And the all-Norwegian crew and staff were terrific.

The trip home was on the M/V Bergensfjord, a larger ship that held 800 passengers, versus the 600 on the Oslofjord. It was a newer ship, too (launched in 1955 v 1949). This time my first roomie and I shared a much larger (with private bath) cabin with two other girls in our group. I took an upper bunk again, the one on the outside with the porthole. Since we boarded in Copenhagen and didn't stop anywhere else, it only took us 8 days to get home. The food was as good as on the Oslofjord, and the same group of guys was on board, too. Yep -- it was pretty terrific.

So, both of us had nice memories of spending days at sea. Neither one of us was attracted to the typical island-hopping cruise with non-stop manufactured fun. And so sailing on the QM2 seemed like a good fit.

We ended up booking a five-day cruise out of New York, with two full days at sea and stops in Halifax and Boston. We left New York on the Thursday before Memorial Day, and got back the following Tuesday.

Getting ready for our trip

So, we made the decision to book the trip on the Queen Mary 2, and made it pretty quickly to take advantage of a great rate on a Britannia Club stateroom. The QM2 offers several levels of accommodation: Queen's Grille, Princess Grille, Britannia Club and Britannia. The Grille classes are at the top end, and consist of various kinds of suites, butler and concierge services, very special dining in their own dining rooms, private lounge areas, etc. The Grilles were out of our price range.

Britannia includes inside, oceanview and balcony staterooms, and includes dining at a fixed time in the grand Britannia dining room (with options to take meals in other restaurants).

Britannia Club falls somewhere in between. The stateroom is exactly like the other balcony staterooms (248 square feet), but all the Britannia Club rooms are on Deck 12, which is the bridge level at the top of the ship. There's also a small-ish, intimate Britannia Club dining room, with open seating, which means we could have dinner at any time between 6:30 and 9 p.m.

We were able to get a Britannia Club stateroom for only $100 per person more than a regular balcony room, so we went for it.

It wasn't until after we had made the booking that it sunk in that there would be a dress code for after 6, and a couple of formal evenings. And I remember thinking, "Craig is going to have a cow."

Having worked for most of his adult life as a self-employed artist (and now film-maker), he's pretty much managed to avoid the suit-and-tie look. And until early this year he owned a tux (a hand-me-down), which he wore to some formal events, and which ended up being given away in a used clothing box because it no longer fit.

Well, he did a little grumbling. We had two formal nights, and the others were "elegant casual," meaning he needed a sport coat, but no tie. Not so bad. We found a gently used tux at an upscale Goodwill store for $12.50. Except for the pants needing to be shortened, it fit. Problem solved.

It turned out that the formal wear I had stashed in the closet no longer fit me, either. And, having gotten tired of fooling with hair color, I'd gone through the pains of letting my hair grow out to a not-awful salt-and-pepper gray. I was okay with it for going to work, but when I started trying on formal dresses, I felt like Kate Smith's mother! (If you have to ask...) I found my two dresses (on a buy one-get one free deal), and acquired the proper undergarments -- and still hated the way I looked. So I bit the bullet and went to a salon recommended by a friend for a restyle -- and color. Much better!

Since we were heading north from New York, and going into the North Atlantic, we figured it would be chilly, and packed sweaters and jackets along with more summery things. Since we had decided to drive from Baltimore to the cruise terminal in Brooklyn, we didn't have to skimp on packing, and ended up with more than we needed, but now we know.

We did our passenger pre-registration on the Cunard web site. We have EZPass so we don't have to waste time at the toll booths between here and there on I-95. We printed out a map and directions to the terminal. We got our cruise documents in order. And finally it was time to go.

Setting Sail on the QM2

Our (or actually Craig's) first view of the ship was from the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. I was driving, but he was a gog about the huge white superstructure with the red stack that dominated the landscape. I finally managed a peek in the right direction, but my first real look at her after we pulled into the terminal area and were creeping towards the unloading area.

She's magnificent -- and she's huge. Our balcony is on the very top, the second one aft of the first vertical white line, just behind the "golf ball" at the very top of the ship.

When we made it to the terminal building, I hopped out. A porter unloaded the car and put our luggage on a cart, and I waited while Craig parked the car in the adjacent lot. We were about 30 minutes past our suggested check-in time by the time we got in line, but the line moved quickly. As it grew behind us, we were happy we arrived when we did. Cunard assigns check-in times by deck to help cut down on wait times, and it seems to be a good system.

At check in, we were photographed and issued our key cards, and then walked right onto the ship. Walking into the grand lobby and seeing uniformed crew assembled to welcome you aboard takes your breath away.

We boarded on deck 3, and our stateroom was on deck 12. We were directed to the best elevator bank. Someone on cruisecritic.com had pointed out that the up elevators were always packed, and suggested hopping on any elevator with space and going down first if necessary. That turned out to be excellent advice, and that's exactly what we did.

When we got to our level, we saw a pile of luggage, including one of ours, in the elevator lobby area. A steward pointed us in the right direction, and we found our room halfway down the port side corridor. The rest of our luggage was already there, and just a moment later, our steward (Joue, pronounced Joey) arrived with the final bag. And we were officially on vacation!

There was a split of bubbly and a plate of strawberries waiting for us. We checked out the balcony and settled in. There were two closets, separated by a unit of four drawers, a deep shelf and a safe (topped by the shelf with our flotation jackets). There was more than enough closet space, the drawers were adequate, and the luggaged stowed under the bed. The bathroom had enough counter and shelf space for all our stuff -- and we were settled.

The Kings Court buffet on deck 7 (the Promendade Deck) was open for lunch. It was a little bit of a cattle call, since that was the only lunch option, but we got enough to eat and found a nice little table in a kind of bay window, and we watched some folks starting on their three laps around the deck that make up a mile.

Then it was time for the flotation jacket drill in our designated assembly area, and then there was time to explore. We found the glass elevators on each side of the ship that run between decks 7 and 11, just below the wings of the bridge. They turned out to be our favorite means of conveyance, and connected the observation deck (11) with the Atlantic Room (card room), Commodore Lounge (comfy seats, big windows with great views, scale model of the QM2 behind the bar), library (more comfy seats and windows with great views, plus a huge selection of reading matter) and Promenade.

Although we were scheduled to depart at 5, the sailing was delayed until 9 p.m. so we could see the fireworks over the Brooklyn Bridge, marking its 125th anniversary. Our first dinner in Britannia Club was a little rushed so that we could make it topside, but we met our wonderful dining companions (Milla and Boris and Maureen and Ed) and knew that dinners were going to be enjoyable times.

Alas, we made it to the top of the ship at about 9:05, just in time for one last big boom. Apparently the fireworks got wet in the afternoon rain. But since we were topside, we stayed to see the ship pass under the Verrazanno Bridge. It was dark, and it was unseasonably chilly, and the ship creates its own wind. We were pretty bundled up, but it was still kind of chilly. But we joined a group of other adventuresome souls on an even higher observation platform and watched as the lights of Manhattan began to recede behind the ship. A helicopter escort went past below eye level. The Statue of Liberty stood vigil. And we held our collective breath and then cheered as the mast at the bow of the ship cleared the bridge, and then turned to watch the stack clear (by about 7 feet, close enough to divert the smoke) and cheered again.

By then we were all freezing, and headed below to warm up and settle in for the night. We opened our balcony door so we could hear the ocean sounds, and spent half the night looking at the lighthouses on Long Island as we sailed past. And that was our first day on the QM2.

See below for some additional photos.

QM2: Stateroom 12026

This was our home for five wonderful days. Note the closets and drawers on the left. And -- there's a bathroom on the right. (Sorry CCR -- couldn't resist).

There was a small sofa to my right, a desk, TV and fridge on my left, a coffee table in between, and the balcony behind me. It was 248 square feet total, and quite comfy. This is the standard balcony cabin on the QM2, no matter which deck you're on.

QM2: Manhattan skyline from our balcony

Pretty neat, huh? That's the Brooklyn Bridge on the right, celebrating its 125th birthday.