Family Ties

Me, Kelly, Dan, Nicole and Craig.

Last night we celebrated the end of our voyage with the Alumni Ball.  The entire shipboard community got all dolled up and I got to have a special fancy dinner with 800 of my closest friends.

There was good food with good friends and lots of pictures.  Throughout the evening we celebrated the amazing experience we have all been through over the past 100 plus days.  We sought out friends to take pictures and by the end of the night my face was sore from smiling. 

Us with Larkin and Arpan

One of Kelly and I’s top priority pictures was getting pictures of our kids.  That’s right we have children.  Surprise Mom.  We have six of them in fact.  Amazing since we’ve only been gone for four months and they are all college students.   In fact they are part of our “extended family”, a group of students who we were assigned to get to know on a more personal level. 

Us and Felix

Our group was four girls and two boys and they all ended up being lovely kids.  We had dinner with them and just chatted with them throughout the voyage.  Some required more one on one attention, some liked dining with the group.  Either way our conversations were always interesting and it was great to hear their stories about traveling in port and learning their backgrounds. 

It was a little weird to hear someone yell “Dad” across the room and realize they were referring to me.  It also produced a funny moment was when we ran into one of our kids actual parents in Cape Town.  “Dad meet my Dad.”

In reality it felt like the entire ship was one big family and I'm going to miss so many people when we depart tomorrow.  There will be lots of hugs and even a few tears I'm sure.  What a beautiful experience it has been.  

US and Elizabeth

Us and Monique

Us and Taylor