Cruisin' Caveman

During the March Break, the whole Fitzroy Fastball family went on a cruise for the first time. (Financed by the big money I make from the Blog, of course.) Great time had by all - a few of the highlights below, including some Caveman antics and a few tie-ins to fastball.

- Due to the price of flights, we departed from the Albany, NY airport. On the way down, we went through Croghan, NY which used to host a men's fastball tourney. (Do they still?) Anyway, it's totally unfair, but I now hate Croghan. As we entered the area, a blizzard began to fall, making the roads treacherous and slick - and for some reason according to Mrs. Fastball it was somehow my fault. Good times white knuckle driving to start the vacation. Fortunately Fitzroy Junior and Caveman were not phased and just continued playing their video games (aka "nerd boxes") in the back seat.

- Once we got there, the cruise was excellent, especially the food. The Caveman dream came true: bacon every morning for breakfast. The kid does like his cured pork products.

- We had three stops on our ship, including St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. Beautiful island - made more beautiful by the fact that on our tour there, we saw some young kids playing fastball at school.

- Caveman certainly made his presence well known on the ship. By day three, some cruise staff were greeting him by name!

- He also enjoyed himself throughly at the "Kids' Club". He was excited to meeting another boy with the same first name as him (his real first name, but let's substitute Caveman). He noted a small difference: "Daddy, there is another boy in Kids' Club named [Caveman]. And he's a brown guy - I'm [Caveman] Brown and he's Brown [Caveman]!

- The ship also featured a 'sports zone'. With Mrs. Fastball and Fitzroy Junior off snorkeling at one island stop, Caveman (who was too young for the activity) and I stayed onboard and kept ourselves busy with mini-putt golf, basketball and ping pong. Caveman really took to ping pong and by the end was pretty good. He told me that his new rankings of favourite sports was now 1. Hockey 2. Ping pong 3. Softball. Yikes!

- Cruise protocol dictates that each cabin gets the same 'steward' to clean up after you for the week. The guy assigned to us, Dexter, was a very very patient man. For some reason, the Caveman really took to him. Each day, Caveman peppered Dexter with questions and he was a good sport about answering this little maniac's queries. A summary of a few of the questions (at least the ones I can remember) is below:

"What's your name?" "Dexter"
"Where are you from?" "Nicaragua"
"What is your town called?" "Managua"
"Where do you live now?" "On Deck 1, down in the bottom of the ship"
"Do you have a wife?" "Yes"
"Does she live here too?" "No"
"How old are you?" "Guess"
"21?" "Higher"
(They go 'higher and lower' until we figure out Dexter is 35.)
"Do they pay you?" "Yes"
"How much...."(I cut that one off)
"How did you learn to make all those towel animals?" "Practice"
"Can you make one for me tonight?" "Of course"
"What sports do you play?" "I used to play baseball, now I play softball"
(I followed up, Dexter plays fastball back home in Nicaragua when he's off work.)
"Do you play hockey?" "No little man, no hockey where I'm from"
"What's your favourite colour?" "I like red"
"Can you come for lunch with us?" "How about you bring me back a steak?" "OK!"
Note - this is just a sampling of the questions. We left a pretty good tip.

- Asked Fitzroy Junior about his favourite things during the week: "Snorkelling, the hot tub, steak for supper every night." Caveman's version: "Ping pong, meeting Dexter, bacon and the kids' club."

Anyway, vacation time is over getting ready for the West Carleton Minor Softball pitching clinic next week and sorting out all registrations for our teams this season.