More of final days

        Since we have more pictures to show, I will continue to post more pictures.  You may or may not choose to view them.  You may have had your fill of our journey's account by now.

 Jim and Cheryl also look nice in their formal wear.  We had three formal dinners, two semi-formal which required neckties and jackets, and two elegant casual nights which required a jacket for men but no tie.  No shorts or jeans were ever allowed in the Brittainia Restaurant.  A LARGE stylized painting of the QM2 at its launch filled one end of the restaurant.

Sharon went on a galley tour which showed how the meals were prepared and all that is required to provide 16,000 meals per day.

Jules and Monica were a couple from Canada who really liked to play Mexican train dominos with us.  Monica, an opera singer, was the grand champion on our final game.  Jules is a Catholic school chief administrator.  Don, the fellow in between, was a friend of theirs who had been upgraded to the exclusive Queen's Suite and had a special dining area of their own but came with his wife Nan to eat lunch with us.  They had made multiple voyages on the QM2 and QE2 as had many people we met on board.  Many use the ship as a means to travel between the USA and Europe because they don't like to fly.

         Is this Queen Mary?  No, it is actually Queen Sharon in her elegant chair!

Sharon liked to take pictures every time we set down to eat, so here are our dinner companions Jim and Cheryl Carlton of Atlanta, GA
who accompanied us on a trip for the tenth time.   This is an elegant casual night for our last dinner aboard.

It was a rather foggy early morning as we entered New York harbor and viewed the Statue of Liberty in the distance.   Some had risen at 4:00 AM to view the entry under the Narrows Bridge, but we preferred two more hours of sleep since it was so dark and foggy at that time.  The fog finally lifted about 9:00 AM as we had finished breakfast and were ready to disembark.

We  soon had to say goodbye to people we had met at lunches, breakfasts, and dinners.  This British couple had moved from Yorkshire to France five years ago and live there in their retirement years.  They had twice participated on our quiz team in trivia contests.  We did not win any of the competition; the questions were very difficult and somewhat biased towards the Brits.
Anyway, we had fun.





Another view of a very foggy New York skyline as we waited for time to disembark.

 The Queen Mary 2 is a huge, huge ship which cannot be viewed in its entirety close up.   Here we have disembarked and are waiting to board the bus to take us to La Guardia Airport for our flight to Chicago

A tree grows in Brooklyn...........  A view from the bus as we head to LaGuardia Airport.

We had a very smooth ride back from New York to Chicago on the airplane.  Our ride from the airport downtown was not so great however.  We thought the Airport Express van would be easier & quicker than a combination of train and taxi to downtown.  WRONG!  Our ride on a very slow Interstate took 2 and a half hours before we were
dropped off at Sarah's.

We reclaimed our car and headed for Pekin.  We did make a stop in Dwight at the 50's Diner since we were not served anything on the airline or by the drive of the slow van.

We arrived home at 10:43 PM last night.  Today is involved with laundry and clearing things away.  Sharon is very busy while I am blogging!

This was the end of a trip of a lifetime.  This Titanic was an unsinkable ship!

Final Days on QM2

     My apologies to those who have been trying to follow our blog.  It has been very frustrating for me that the QM2 internet service was so bad that I could not get pictures downloaded.  I finally canceled the service and demanded my money back when I spent 60 minutes one day at 40 cents per minute and was only able to download one picture.  On the next day, I spent 25 minutes and wasn't even able to access my blog.  That's when I blew my top...........
        Anyway, we are home now and our service should enable me to post more pictures.  Other than the internet service, everything about the Queen Mary 2 was wonderful, exceeding our hopes and expectations.

   This young boy was being cared for by his slightly older sister in the Golden Lion Pub while we listened to a singer/piano player.  We never saw the parents.  There were over 300 children on board.

Patrick Patton was my favorite entertainer on board; we listened to him three times in the Golden Lion Pub.  He played and sang songs like "The City of New Orleans", "I Got My Kicks on Route 66", "Country Roads" and other American favorites with lyrics we could understand.  We don't understand why he wasn't used in the larger venues.






This is the interior of the Brittainia Restaurant where we took most of our meals.  The size of the room cannot be comprehended in this photo.  Seating was arranged on multiple levels in the two deck high space.

Another picture of the Brittainia, a bit   brighter than the other.  Our seating at dinner was at a table for six, but two never showed up for the entire cruise.  Perhaps they were honeymooners who took all meals in their cabin or simply ate in less formal restaurants.   Although I didn't like the idea of formal dressing before we went, it was enjoyable to see everyone dressed in splendid

wear at the formal dinners.  The whole dining experience in this elegant restaurant measured up to the garments required for admission with four course dinners standard.  One night, I ordered a vegetarian menu by mistake, and they were quick to replace it with a more palatable choice with no hesitation.  There was always a choice offered of five or six desserts.  Of course, ice cream was my favorite.

Adrian from the Phillipines was our congenial, always smiling host who soon learned our preferences.  We had the same table assignments for dinner each evening, but there was open seating for breakfast and lunch, so we had a variety of interesting table companions from Germany, Denmark, England, France, Austrailia, and various states of the USA.





Sharon dragged me to this dance performance which I did not expect to like, but it was excellent.  I thought I had my money's worth (it was included in tour price so it was free of extra charge.) on the first dance.  There were 20 or so dances, each in new elaborate costumes.
I don't know how they were able to change so quickly.   I am a very hard grader for performers, but all of the acts earned an A or B+ from me.