Down Under - Day Twenty, Tuesday, February 25, 2014, Geelong, Australia

Dear Mom and Dad and other Readers,

Please forgive the delayed blog posts.  The wifi system on this boat does not work well.  Sometimes it takes an hour to download one photo.  Frequently, the internet just cuts me off in the middle of a blog and I loose everything.   It took two days to complete yesterday's post.  Hopefully it won't take that long for today's post because, frankly, there is not much to report.  

Geelong is one of these ports that makes me go ... really???  Why are we here??  It's the second largest city in Victoria, but there is really not much here.  There are two car factories that are closing down soon because the wages are so high, they've priced themselves out of the market.  When those two plants shut down, I'm not sure what will be left.  However, I will say that the folks who greeted us when we came ashore are some of the nicest, kindest and informative people we've met.  They handed out canvas bags with all sorts of brochures inside and happily offered directions to various places in town.  I went for a 6 1/2 mile walk along the beach and through the gorgeous Botanical Gardens.  

Painted Pilings line the beach area.

Local artists have decorated pilings along the shore by painting them to look like people.  Quite cute.  They also have a huge swimming area that is surrounded with a wall of steel bars that reach down into the water all the way to the sand to keep sharks at bay.  

Swimming Area has a diving platform and floating islands.

They don't advise swimming in an area that is unprotected.    The beach was lively, colorful, spotless and filled with people enjoying a beautiful summer day.  

After trying to walk off some of the food I've had to eat lately, I returned to the ship, ironically for lunch.

Tonight is the last formal affair on board and Stevie and I were invited to have dinner with the head of the Odyssey's Hotel Division, Hubert Buedhart.  

Ellen and Bob join us at the Observation Lounge

Before dinner, we met Bob and Ellen for cocktails in our favorite spot, the Odyssey Observation Lounge.  You remember Ellen and Bob?  She's the one who paid $50,000 to find her husband.  As it turns out, I've really come to like Bob and Ellen.  But for 50 grand, I would have held out for a Becket kind of guy.  

Heather and Meredith

Annabelle our dance instructor.

We had a lovely dinner and then went to the Main Salon for the evening's show.  The kids on this ship are adorable and very talented.  The show was great.  

I finally got to wear the dress that was so heavy I had to take it out of my bag to lighten the suitcase in order to get it below the weight limit so it could be checked for our flight to Auckland.     

Holding the Walls to get back to the room.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we're back in the Tasman Sea and it's rockin' and rollin' again.  We held on to the walls to get back to our staterooms.  

We turned in early preparing for our last day at sea before landing in Sydney on Thursday morning.