This day was our 5th wedding anniversary. Five years ago on this day, we were married in San Diego at the County Administration building on the waterfront in downtown San Diego. We have been together more than 26 years although we were only married in 2013. We got no cake from the ship…..what a shame!

This was our second sea day of three between Dutch Harbor and Petropavlovsk, Russia. Jorge’s morning show featured Comedian/Magician Bodane Hatten. Spencer taught us how to make an easy creamy parmesan polenta and potato gnocchi with a gorgonzola cream sauce. Michael Hick lectured on Russia and how all countries have their own personalities. The personalities can change like people from time to time, but they all have personalities. He discussed prominent figures in Russian history like Ivan the Terrible who killed his own son and Catherine the Great who had her own husband locked up and executed. For a long time, Russia has been obsessed with its land mass being larger than any other in the world.

Canadian Thanksgiving is celebrated on October 9th but since we will be crossing the international date line on the 9th, we celebrated the holiday on the 8th. For dinner we invited Spencer, the chef from America’s Test Kitchen, to join us. Spencer is from Long Island, New York, and quite accomplished for his 27 years. He is well educated, has had wonderful work experiences and loves what he does. This is his second year working on ships and he loves the lifestyle, people and his job onboard. He has a gentle manner about him and loves to interact with the guests onboard. He is working on some new cooking shows to present during our cruise.

The entertainment was a show performed by the Amsterdam singers and dancers titled That’s Life. It was an eclectic mix of songs from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. as might have been performed in a jazz club.