Have I mentioned that Judi loves to dress up? There were two formal nights during the cruise. The first got off to a bad start. Judi had an appointment at the ship's salon for an up-do. We were on time, but the stylist wasn't. Can you believe they had only two stylists, on a ship with 3,000 passengers? When we arrived, Judi's stylist was drying the hair of an obese teenager. I've never seen anyone who had hair as thick as this teenager. The stylist had to dry it one small section at a time. The girl told some friends that she wanted her hair professionally washed and dried for formal night because when she did it, it never came out right. We saw her later in the cruise, and she was telling the truth. <g> Judi was irritated because the stylist running late might make us late for dinner. But eventually she got her up-do, and then came Crisis Number Two:

We had packed Judi's gowns, knowing they would get wrinkled, but we had sent them down to the ship's cleaning service to be steamed. Well, when we got back to our cabin, her gown wasn't there! Panicked calls to ship's Information and the cleaning service! Trying to talk to people who barely spoke English! Much stress! And then the gown arrived. Phew! Judi wore a gold brocade top, and a gold skirt with a gold gauze over-skirt. She looked very beautiful, and as it turned out we had a wonderful evening.

Judi in the North Cape Lounge This was the evening of the Captain's Reception, when all 3,000 of us stood in line for a two-second chance to have our picture taken with the Captain. There was a special Reception in the North Cape Lounge for people who had cruised with Norwegian before (which Judi had). When the evening was done, Judi asked me to take down her up-do. Bobbie-pins, bobbie-pins!!! I think I took something like twenty-eight bobbie-pins out of her hair! She would never have made it through an airport metal detector <g>. And hairspray!!! The stylist had used enough hairspray to hold up a modestly sized suspension bridge.

Me Looking Silly in a Tux