This morning, I browsed a travel video by SugarPearl’s Carla Renae, a contributor for Garden Spices Magazine. Her video was resplendent with vibrant images of Morocco and Abuja, Nigeria– the food, sites, and an African wedding – all punctuated by her beauty. Through browsing these images, I realized…y’all, I’m not too good at travel blogging about places and things. It’s the people who leave me reeling. What?!
Part 2
Get on the Boat!
Last we met in Part 1, my girls and I were ready to board the Grand Princess Cruise Ship. Y’all know we wheelchaired from where we boarded all the way to our cabins, tipping all the way. (An aside: You gon’ do plenty of tipping, so bring fives and ones. )I tell you, wheeling is worth it. No stops at Customs, just traveling straight through. What?!
The ship was neither the most contemporary nor the largest, but it was comfortable for this venture. My roommate, Indria, and I were pleased with our cabin. We were upgraded and had a nice balcony. We barely deposited our luggage before we hit the ship’s dining room. We were famished. In cruise style, the dining room buffet had anything your heart desired for traditional and vegetarian fare, but their vegan menu was limited, and Indria is vegan. We greeted a few of our group, but we were so tired; we filled up and were ready to pass out, especially after our night in Puerto Rico. (Read Part 1). We knew we would see the group in its entirety at dinner.
Dining, Dancing, and Declining
It’s amazing how many people I had never come across during my tenure in Chicago. Yes, Chicago is a large city, but you gotta know how we socialized as teens. We had clubs; the clubs had parties, and we were bound to run into many folks at the many gatherings.
This gathering allowed me to meet folks I missed during my teens. We discovered we all belonged to teen clubs; we all went to downtown parties and events, and we all recounted adventures from when we were wild and crazy. What?!
Funny Stories: One person was at a concert at Grant Park in Chicago with her friends, and she had a drink that must have been potent, because when she woke up, she was the only one left in Grant Park! (Some friends, huh.) Another friend knew folks driving back to California who ended up circling Washington Park for three days.
Is it something about Chi Town’s parks? What?!
Of course, I’m telling y’all the benign stories, but it was so nice to meet and dine with various attendees. Most of us were from Chicago, but we lived all over the country. We had a standing reservation at Botticelli’s and enjoyed the conversation more than the food. And we loved getting on the waiters’ nerves. “May I have soft rolls instead of hard? Do you have vanilla vegan ice cream instead of chocolate? Where’s my salad?” After dining, we convened for shows and events, both collectively and individually.
Our first show featured the amazing Terran Brooks. He could really sing and provided great entertainment. Once Eddie Kendricks in the Temptations biopic and Simba in The Lion King, Brooks truly has star quality, and we got to see it.
As a group, we also saw the Grand Princess Dancers perform a tribute to R&B. Now, I don’t want to offend anyone, but we were like, “Y’all couldn’t find one Black dancer or singer?” Let’s just say that Rollin’ on the River waters were rough. What?!
Dancing
Y’all, at least a few nights found us dancing to a DJ spinning music. We had to get him straight, too. He was playing Motown, but not the dance music. Once we put a bug in his ear, we got that floor jumping. On one song, a girl in a wheelchair was rolled by her husband down the middle of the floor jammin’! Some of us didn’t want to dance, but by the time We Are Family started, everyone was on the floor. But there was one or two of us who danced every song, but only one of the two was limping with bad knees the next morning. Guess who?
Here’s the thing. A word to the wise senior… You gotta know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. Ain’t no way I should’ve been up every single song. Lesson learned.
Stay tuned for Part III/
By the time this song played, I was tired, but still jamming. We Are Family!
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