I got a cute faux license plate and some luggage tags as gifts.
I did the charity walk for the Wounded Warrior fund and I got some more gifts for that. The big one was a t shirt:
By the way, it was originally advertised as a mile walk. There’s no way I was doing a 5k walk or run with the incentives they offered. Physically I could have probably done it, but there’s always a risk there.
The mile walk went reasonably well for me. I felt good for the most part and jogged the last half lap for the fun of it. My unofficial time was 15 minutes. It was 8 laps around a specific course on deck 12. There were a fair number of photos taken of my walk, so you might see me in a few months either in the highlight reel or the random photos that are made available after the cruise.
If you look carefully at this picture, you can see people who took this a lot more seriously than I did.
Later on we docked in Ensenada first few hours. I didn’t get off the ship.
Then, in the evening, was the Lou Gramm concert. I had been looking forward to this since he announced he was coming. I thought he did a good job and so did much of the audience. He played most of his big hits with Foreigner and a couple of solo songs. He also played some songs that weren’t such big hits for Foreigner. My favorite from Lou Gramm and Foreigner, “Down On Love”, didn’t make the cut.
The one big absence from the set list was “Waiting For a Girl Like You”. That was a very big hit back in 1981-82, but it was a ballad. I inferred from his autobiography that he wasn’t a big fan of Foreigner’s ballads and that he was a rock and roller at heart. So its absence wasn’t a complete surprise. But it raised my eyebrows. There may have been some other reason for skipping it – perhaps as simple as he’s played it a million times and didn’t want to play it that day. My guess is Foreigner will not miss playing it at next year’s Rock and Romance cruise.
BTW, most of the VJs and interviewers stopped by to introduce him. I was reminded of an old joke about light bulbs.
After the concert I had dinner and went to sleep. I had a long day ahead that would start early.
The next morning, I went to breakfast in the Jammer right at 6, as it was opening. I ate, then finished packing. There were some challenges, but I took everything I wanted to take. I started the long walk to disembark about 7:30 and made it outside by 8. I like that my pretty face keeps getting me back on shore with minimum hassle.
I ordered another Lyft and made it to LGB by 8:40. It was $48 for this ride.
That’s all that I have to say about this trip and The 80s Cruise. It was a wonderful time and I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition. I’d rather think about that than thinking about all the stuff that I have to take care of both in my personal and work life. ðĪŠ