April 28, Competitions and Relaxation

Today was another day at sea, heading to Hawaii. The weather was warm, but there was a breeze in the air that made relaxing in the shade doable. Today is the day that we actually crossed the equator, so temperatures are destined to be warmer.

It started out like most days, us waking up and looking for breakfast around 9:00 a.m. We had breakfast at the Coastal Kitchen and we were joined by the travel agency friends of ours, Alonzo and Sheila. We had a very relaxing, enjoyable breakfast and conversation.

After breakfast, we went to our room for Patrise to get ready for the Master Chef Cooking Competition. The elimination round would start at 11:30 am in one of the large capacity auditoriums. I had urged Patrise to sign up for the competition, because I truly believe that she is an excellent cook and that she would enjoy the experience. Well, today was the day for her team’s competition. There were two teams of 5 amateur chefs, competing against one another, in order to get to the final round tomorrow, Saturday, April 29th. They were to make a steak dinner with all the fixings, for the three-judge panel, in 20 minutes.

Needless to say, Patrise’s won the competition and finished their plates of food first. She worked with the team members to get them to marinate the steak with fresh herbs and garlic; then she encouraged members to season and cook the steak in herb butter and sauté the vegetables in the meat drippings in the pan. The judges were very impressed and pleased with the food’s appearance, favor and the use of the ingredients that were provided. Their team won the competition by 7 total points. It was a close match!

Here are some pictures of Patrise and the winning team!

I am looking forward to the competition tomorrow. Whether she wins or not is not the issue. The fact that she is having a good time using her love of cooking and her organizational skills is reward to me.

After today’s competition, we had lunch in the Windjammer restaurant. Patrise’s stomach was not feeling the best, so she just had a bowl of chicken soup and a glass of lemonade. I had a full lunch with spaghetti. After lunch, we split up. Patrise went to a previously scheduled massage, and I went to our cabin to work on our blogs, prepare for class this Fall semester, and to do work on my major project, the Midtown Connector Park. It was a very productive afternoon, after I worked through being sleepy from all of that pasta.

We went to the Concierge Club at 4:30 p.m. and stayed there enjoying some light hors d’oeuvres until we left for dinner at Chic. This was the only restaurant that we had not tried on board the ship, and we wanted to experience it tonight. We enjoyed our meals. Patrise’s salmon dinner and the sauce that accompanied it were much better than the shrimp dish that I ordered. We even had decent desserts for a change. Oh, and by the way, we crossed the equator at 6:14pm this evening while at dinner. I could feel the ship stumble a bit when we crossed the line, kind of like a surface water speed bump. (JUST KIDDING!!!!)

After dinner, we retired to our suite to finish the blog for today, play some cards and settle in for the evening. Tomorrow is another day cruising at sea.