Saturday morning, after all of the emotional stress of the day, we all slept late, until 9:00. As I type that, I realize that while it was stressful, and emotional, I was so relaxed and having such a great time that it hardly phased me. The unpleasantness of the arguments had been disappointing and to some extent traumatic, but at the same time, when it was done it was done. Moving on was incredibly easy I think we were all able to continue to have a blast -- the fights just being a short interruption.

Christine and I had a long conversation that morning, bemoaning the fact that the cruise was almost over. We decided that no matter what we had to do to be able to afford it, we had to do this again, and soon. We already have plans for the summer of 2009 (me to Kalamazoo in May and Christine and Becca to The Gathering of the Gargoyles in LA in June/July), so we concluded that we would cruise in 2010.

Then began the discussion of where. Chris put in a good bid for a fall cruise from Montreal to Boston, but I countered with one I knew would undeniably please everyone: Scandanavia.

After breakfast we went down to talk with the "Future Cruise Coordinator" (now that's a job I would do!) and he gave us some info to look at but then had to run off to a special brunch for members of the Mariner Club, the frequent buyer's club for Holland America Cruises. We had been invited to the brunch but had forgotten the time, and since we had just had breakfast decided to skip it. We promised to come back and see him in the afternoon.

So we went up to 10-Forward and checked e-mail while looking through the brochures. We decided on the Northern Strongholds cruise, with stops in Edinburgh, Oslo, Stockholm, Gdansk and Copenhagen.

After that I went down and played poker, and Christine joined the beginner's table for a while too. After the night before's loss, I went back to the game I was more comfortable with, 4/8 Limit. At 2:00, Leo the magician was performing again, and Christine and I had planned to go see him. She stood me up, however, deciding she'd rather keep playing poker!

The show was very good, focusing this time on close-in sleight of hand. Becca went to it too with her friends, but I didn't see her there. After the show I went back to 4/8 and finished up $80. They began to pack up to poker around 3:30 so when Chris busted out we went down to see the cruise planner again.

He was busy with someone else, so we hung out waiting. While we were waiting, we noticed that the bar across the hall was setting up for a mixology class and one of the drinks they were teaching was the Apricot Cosmo which had become my favorite drink. So I signed up.

We met with the planner and gave him $100 deposits. Doing it this way would let us reserve any cruise with an option to back out as late as 3 months before the cruise. So the plan is to reserve the cheapest stateroom on the 2010 Northern Strongholds cruise (which should start taking reservations by the end of the year) a year and a half in advance, and still be able to get out of it if our plans or situation change. "Normal" deposits are 25% and non-refundable.

I went straight from there to the mixology class which was much fun with lots of raunchy jokes. It also meant having to drink three martinis on an empty-since-breakfast stomach. The girls met me as it was wrapping up and I staggered off to dinner.

Which was utterly fabulous. Thai shrimp soup, Caesar salad, perfectly cooked Prime Rib (one of my absolute favorites) and a spicy sausage fettucini. That night's dessert menu didn't look very good, but on a whim I ordered a wafer and whipped cream tower. When I ordered it, I was thinking wafer as in Nilla Wafers, but what I got was a paper-thin wafer soaked in brandy and sugar. Sandwiched between the wafers was creme fraische with melon chucks mixed in. I was really good, despite the fact that I really don't care for melon.

Dinner was a little early so that we could go ashore in Victoria, BC but we decided to stay on board. We've been enough times that a few hours at night didn't really appeal to us. We lounged in 10-Forward and read. Chris wrote in her cruise journal and we were entertained by a string trio. Very soothing.

Chris quickly got sleepy, so we headed down to the room at about 9:00. We packed and she fell asleep, but I decided to stay up and make sure Becca came home at midnight. I watched one of the poker DVDs I had bought and it was very good. Becca came home a little late, but not too late.

Sleep came very quickly.