Greetings from the Gulf of Finland!

Hi Everyone!! Well, after a failed attempt to blog yesterday, I've finally got it down!! We are now on the Jewel of the Seas, heading for Talinn, Estonia. That will be our first stop tomorrow, after two extremely relaxing days at sea. We arrived in London on Wednesday afternoon; the flight was long but really not that bad. Thanks to a first class kit that Sara gave me years ago from American Airlines, I settled in after dinner and a movie with my earplugs, eyecovers and warm socks and actually managed to sleep!! We met mom and dad at their hotel and walked through Hyde Park and saw the beautiful gardens and fountains. We had dinner at a little pub near our hotel and called it a night. The next morning we met up at Westminster Cathedral and took the audio tour and spent quite a bit of time exploring this amazing graveyard to kings and poets, queens and composers. From there we went to the London Eye and got to see London from on high, riding in a glass bubble. Mom and Dad had no desire to do that so they sat and had lunch and waited for us. Then we proceded to take a walking tour of one of the neighborhoods, the Southwerk district. I had gotten the tour from our travel magazine and we really got a taste of life in London, from the marketplace to the cheese and pastry shops! We saw the Globe theatre, the Golden Hinde, one of the oldest cathedrals in London (can't remember the name right now) and ended up at the tower bridge. We were all beat by the time we got back to our hotels. Mom and Dad crashed and Ron and I took a rest and then hit the theatre district, ate dinner in a little pub, walked to Trafalgar Square, and then to Buckingham Palace to see it lit up at night. The next morning we took a tour of the Parliament building before leaving by train from Liverpool station to go to Harwich.

We arrived at the ship around 3:00 and went through the usual process of checking in. Met up with mom and dad in the cafe just before we set sail. The weather has been amazing. The North Sea was like glass the first two days we were underway. The sky was blue, however, it was pretty breezy and cool. The captain actually thanked us for bringing the California weather with us!! Woke up today with gray skies, and the seas are a bit rougher with a few whitecaps, but the sailing has been smooth!

We have just been relaxing, window shopping, reading and of course eating! The ship is huge and beautiful! There are around 3000 people on board, but you wouldn't know it. There are 54 countries represented. The Brits actually outnumber the Americans, but combined we make up less than half of the total people cruising. You hear other languages everywhere. The world gets small on a ship like this.

Last night, we stayed up until 2:00 a.m. and stood on the upper decks to watch as our ship passed under a new bridge that connects Denmark and Sweden. We just made it, and the captain explained that the new Royal Caribbean ship that is being built in Finland has a collapsable smokestack so it can fit under the bridge!

The food has been great, we have lots of options. Last night was our first formal night and we all had a nice time meeting the captain at the captains cocktail party. They also had the big midnight buffet last night, but it wasn't advertised and so we almost missed it. Mom and Dad had already gone to bed when we heard about it, so they missed it completely. The staterooms are comfortable and well kept, although we hardly spend any time there. We are really enjoying ourselves and of course think about our babies and our kids a lot. I am amazed at the number of families with small children that are on board. Last night we saw a family dressed up with a little baby in a pram who was dressed in a little tux!

Marc, we toasted you on your 30th last night at dinner and were thinking about you all day. Hope that you are having a great weekend. We love you all and hope that you are all well!
We'll try to get on tomorrow night after our day in Talinn and fill you in on our explorations!!
Love to you all!