After a couple of weeks of working out to dance music in my gym, and a planned dance lesson that had to be canceled because of the downtown crowds for Game 7, I finally walked back into the ballroom for a dance lesson. This is the first time I have been back since October 3rd, two days before my stenosed spine decided to finally compress my sciatic nerve so severely that I felt like I was one of the baddies in an episode of 24 with high voltage shocks going down my right leg. So its been 8 and a half months with no dancing - almost as bad as physical torture for an addict like me.
But now I have mentally switched from thinking rehabilitation to thinking "GI Jane training" and though I am not working on weapon or demolition skills, nor for that matter getting exhausted, water-logged, starving, or resisting torture, I do have a multi-faceted program that keeps me plenty busy.
The nutritional plan-low carb eating seems to be working despite the fact that I have occasionally - well quite a few times actually - been busted eating fries and breads. And then of course there is wine. But still I have managed to drop half the 15 pounds I gained during my 5 month forced couch-potato existence.
Right now I try to get to the gym or walk for a cardio workout at least 4 to 5 days a week. Cale, my usually Satanic trainer has been relatively cherub-like as he gradually eased me back into a weight training and general fitness regime after the surgery. But he is now starting to channel Viggo Mortensen's Master Chief role as my workouts with him are getting more intense.
It is working because I am managing to hold core exercises like bridges that I thought I would never have the strength to do again. So when I hear "10 seconds more" and I think "can't do it", I just breathe and think of my muscles getting longer and stronger - and I hear "done!" Whew.
After a busy day and the very satisfying but filling lobster lunch at the Fish House Grill in Bar Harbor I felt as if I would not want to eat again for a year.
But we were asked to gather for group pictures before dinner, so there I was at dinner time with the gang in the lobby, watching Wendy try to marshal her staff for the pictures of the hosts for this cruise.
Wendy was trying to get everyone together while Honey was adjusting Chris's cummerbund and Bruce was giving advice in the background.
Imogen and I took advantage of the moment to get a photo too.
Bar Harbor, Maine - day three of the Autumn Escape East Coast ballroom dancing cruise.
Our stop in Bar Harbor was memorable for two things- the tour of Acadia National Park with stunning views out over Frenchman Bay; and the buttery, lobster lunch that left us messy and smelling of shellfish but smiling in total gastronomic happiness.
The Queen Mary 2 dropped anchor out in the bay beyond the sandbar from which Bar Harbor gets it's name, and we were tendered into the port. Bar Harbor is known for being "cottage country" for the ultra rich and famous in the mid-19th century. Although the cottages were in fact palatial mansions. Most were destroyed by a massive fire in 1947. Now it is a summer resort dominated by inns, motels and bed and breakfasts, with a tiny permanent population of around 4800 people.
There is a very picturesque harbor with a tourist centre advertising the wide range of water-activities available. Some of these activities include whale watching aboard jet powered Australian designed catamarans that take you 20 miles south of Bar Harbor where the larger whales feed. They often see harbor porpoises, sharks, seals, pods of pilot whales, dolphins and often humpbacks, Minkes and finback whales. You can sign up for a lobster fishing and seal watching boat tour or even head into Acadia national park and take a rock climbing course.
However my organized roomie, Carol had booked us on Oli's Trolley Sightseeing tour, a one hour sightseeing ride that includes a 15 minute stop at the summit of Cadillac Mountain, and a stop at Thunder Hole. It was a good choice.
We disembarked from the tender and made our way up to the landing. As we rounded the corner of the building we were entranced by the fragrant scent of freshly baking, and there in the window we saw a tray of freshly made blueberry muffins.
We promptly turned round and headed into the bakery/cafe where I bought a delicious blueberry muffin and Carol acquired blueberry scones. Great marketing technique. They say olfactory stimuli are among the most powerful sensory inputs and it certainly worked on us.
Autumn in New York - Eight days and nights in the city that never sleeps
Sunday
I love New York - just like it says on the T-shirts they hawk everywhere around Times Square. Well perhaps I should qualify that statement by saying that I love spending a week or so in New York in the early fall, seeing theatre, trying out fine restaurants and dancing. Last year I was here at approximately the same time (New York New York ) and saw some outstanding shows including A Steady Rain with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, and Burn the Floor, which so blew me away that I saw it again, and then again for the show at the Vogue in Vancouver.
Fortunately my friend Carol is a great organizer because left to me, I would probably not see much of the various ports at which we call. Remember for me its the journey! But thanks to Carol we had a itinerary planned for this first destination in Boston.
We decided to have an early breakfast in the King's Court buffet, where we met up with Dorothy and Bruce, and enjoyed a good chat. I was scheduled to have a lesson with Honey at 9:30 so I headed down to G32 where we worked on styling and following. Its those arm movements that get me every time. I think I have to just get less self-conscious and just let my arms move naturally.
After the lesson I found Carol waiting in the cabin and we headed ashore. We had booked a Boston Duck Tour and needed to get to the Tour start center at the Prudential Building.We got there a little early and wandered through the shopping center before returning to wait for our tour.
As our dance pro Robert kept emphasizing to get me moving across the floor, " it's not the destination, it's the journey" - and although he was referring to dance movement, it sums up perfectly my attitude about my newly acquired passion for cruising.
Of course it is interesting to visit new places, but honestly, the reason why I have taken these recent cruises to Asia, the South Pacific, the west and east coasts of N. America, and the Caribbean, is not for the destinations, but for the opportunity to ballroom dance each night along the journey.
INDEX to Autumn East Coast Dance Cruise New York to Quebec on QM2
This is a nine night cruise out of Brooklyn, along the US East Coast calling at Newport, Boston, Bar Harbor, up to Halifax, and then along the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City before returning to Brooklyn. Our group will enjoy ballroom dancing each night with dance workshops on sea days - meeting up with old friends and making new ones. As well this is a tour through the culinary offerings aboard the Queen Mary 2 on this voyage - although obviously reflecting my food favorites.
(Each story posts to the home page in reverse chronological order. The link to each story will appear in the index as it is posted until the travelblogue is complete at which timeit will be reordered so that it may be read in the correct time sequence.)
I am sitting in the Air Canada lounge at YVR waiting to board the direct Vancouver- Newark flight. It is a very convenient flight for New York travel . Seven days a week it leaves around 2 from Vancouver and gets in to Newark, New Jersey, 5 hours later at around 10 PM New York time. Then the return flight leaves early - I believe around 7 AM, takes about 6 hours and gets in to Vancouver around 10 AM so I have all day to get my groceries, do my laundry and generally settle in at home.
Since I changed my newspaper subscription from paper to digital I somehow don't spend much time reading the newspapers any more - and I don't check out the horoscope. Pity because maybe I would have been prepared for the "little" glitches that keep popping up. Like Hurricane Earl terrorizing the East Coast of the US - along which I will hopefully be cruising tomorrow.
Like a water leak happening from the penthouse suite down through many floors and possibly into my son's apartment where I am planning to sleep tonight - on an aero bed on the floor!
Burn The Floor: FloorPlay
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jason Gilkison
Vogue Theatre
Remaining shows Apr 17, 2 and 8 pm, April 18.
Vancouver, BC: Last night at the Vogue Theatre I saw Burn the Floor for the third time in eight months . The show has lost none of its impact from the first two times I saw it in New York and the dancing- and the singing - is as fantastic as before. They got several standing ovations and deservedly so. Anyone who loves dance should see this show and there are only three performances left before they head off to Toronto.
We were a group of 8 people with very mixed experience in dance, that met to go and see the Friday night performance. All of us, from the 5 who are simply enthusiastic observers of dance shows, to me - a very late starter in ballroom dance, and my two teachers, who are ex-competitive dancers, were wild about the show.
Earlier this week I had enjoyed the opportunity to chat to some of the dancers and to Preview the cast dancing in three of the numbers up close, but the energy they generated in the dance studio was nothing compared to that in the theatre, when magnified by the strong percussive music. You could power a city with the force of their energy.
Unfortunately I had a very large, tall man in the seat in front of me with a big head that really blocked my view of the overall stage, except for two numbers when he sat a little lower in his seat. If it was the first time I saw the show I would have been really upset.
But as it was, looking around his head, I found myself focusing less on the spectacle and more objectively on the individual dancing- the various steps that I could identify and the awesome precision of the footwork.
Forget about your superheroes. Forget about "swifter, higher, stronger". The fittest athletes not to compete in an Olympic Games are performing in Vancouver this week. It's the cast of Burn The Floor, the dance spectacular that reinvents International Ballroom and Latin Dance in a show that is absolutely riveting.
They are fresh off their Broadway run - where I loved it so much that I saw it twice in two weeks - see Burn The Floor - New York Theatre.
And guess what, I already have my ticket for the Vancouver show.
So what's so special about this show? The music will rock you to the core and the percussion rhythms of Georgio Rojas with vocalists Ricky Rojas and Rebecca Tapia will make you want to get up and dance.
After a couple of weeks of working out to dance music in my gym, and a planned dance lesson that had to be canceled because of the downtown crowds for Game 7, I finally walked back into the ballroom for a dance lesson. This is the first time I have been back since October 3rd, two days before my stenosed spine decided to finally compress my sciatic nerve so severely that I felt like I was one of the baddies in an episode of 24 with high voltage shocks going down my right leg. So its been 8 and a half months with no dancing - almost as bad as physical torture for an addict like me.
The nutritional plan-low carb eating seems to be working despite the fact that I have occasionally - well quite a few times actually - been busted eating fries and breads. And then of course there is wine. But still I have managed to drop half the 15 pounds I gained during my 5 month forced couch-potato existence.
After a busy day and the very satisfying but filling lobster lunch at the 
Bar Harbor, Maine - day three of the Autumn Escape East Coast ballroom dancing cruise.
However my organized roomie, Carol had booked us on Oli's Trolley Sightseeing tour, a one hour sightseeing ride that includes a 15 minute stop at the summit of Cadillac Mountain, and a stop at Thunder Hole. It was a good choice.
We disembarked from the tender and made our way up to the landing. As we rounded the corner of the building we were entranced by the fragrant scent of freshly baking, and there in the window we saw a tray of freshly made blueberry muffins. 
Autumn in New York - Eight days and nights in the city that never sleeps
Fortunately my friend Carol is a great organizer because left to me, I would probably not see much of the various ports at which we call. Remember for me its the journey! But thanks to Carol we had a itinerary planned for this first destination in Boston.
After the lesson I found Carol waiting in the cabin and we headed ashore. We had booked a Boston Duck Tour and needed to get to the Tour start center at the Prudential Building.We got there a little early and wandered through the shopping center before returning to wait for our tour.
As our dance pro Robert kept emphasizing to get me moving across the floor, " it's not the destination, it's the journey" - and although he was referring to dance movement, it sums up perfectly my attitude about my newly acquired passion for cruising. 
INDEX to Autumn East Coast Dance Cruise New York to Quebec on QM2
I am sitting in the Air Canada lounge at YVR waiting to board the direct Vancouver- Newark flight. It is a very convenient flight for New York travel . Seven days a week it leaves around 2 from Vancouver and gets in to Newark, New Jersey, 5 hours later at around 10 PM New York time. Then the return flight leaves early - I believe around 7 AM, takes about 6 hours and gets in to Vancouver around 10 AM so I have all day to get my groceries, do my laundry and generally settle in at home.
Burn The Floor: FloorPlay
Earlier this week I had enjoyed the opportunity to chat to some of the dancers and to 
Forget about your superheroes. Forget about "swifter, higher, stronger". The fittest athletes not to compete in an Olympic Games are performing in Vancouver this week. It's the cast of Burn The Floor, the dance spectacular that reinvents International Ballroom and Latin Dance in a show that is absolutely riveting.
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