What a great weekend!
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Thursday
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I took my time writing out post-its and getting bedding ready for our friend JP.
JP is a lifelong friend of Scott. I met JP when I was in high school on the local party animal circuit. We were both pretty wild kids back then too. It was a huge surprise many years later, to find out that JP's parents were close friends of Scott's parents. JP agreed to help us out by staying at our place and making sure the kids and dogs were alright at least til Jase got home. My mom is recovering from surgery (cosmetic, nothing alarming) but if an emergency had come up, she could be called in . JP was due to drop us at SFO around 10 pm since the flight was a red eye.
Around 6 pm, Scott asked me to get the tix so he could organize all the paper stuff. I casually glanced down at them and discovered the NEW flight (we switched boats and so had to switch destinations & flights) was taking off at 9:30 PM and not 11:55pm.
SHIT!! We scrambled to get the rest of our stuff together, locate JP , have a last supper with our kids etcetera,,,,
We were at the airport by 7:30...We waved good bye to JP who had dropped us off. We sauntered up to the ticket counter and discovered the portfolio containing all our key documents was left at home!
SHIT!
We called Jase on his cell phone, he was in the process of commuting home from his job. He was able to get home, track down the folder, hop in his car, race to the airport and hand it off to Scott!
Whew!
We checked in and dashed to security. I was bossy and rushing and barked at Scott to take his shoes off for security so he balked and asked the security officer if it was mandatory. The officer said it was "optional" and as soon as Scott walked through the metal detector, the officer hailed an airport cop over to pull him aside.
SHIT!
It's all very funny now but, I couldn't even look at him til we were on the plane.
Geez.
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Nice flight, American Airlines, better leg room and first rate movies . "Goodnight and Good Luck" on the way East and The Johnny Cash bio pic on the way West. No food. No crackers, no nuts, no pretzels on a 5 + hour flight. Geez.
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Friday
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Arrived way early, exhausted too- I can't sleep on planes.
No way could I sleep in an airport. We were to sit around for 4 or 5 hours before the cruise chartered bus would be able to take us and our luggage to the port.
After a bit of breakfast, we found a nice leather couch at the Miami airport's Starbucks. Scott got comfy, put his legs up on the suitcases and promptly conked out, I checked out the shops and the people. As the morning wore on more and more folks were wandering around in Dave Matthews tee shirts.
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At last, time to go drop off our suitcases for the cruise folks to take.
About a half hour after that, we were able to board a bus and be taken to the port.
At the port we waited in a nice lounge type room for about 40 minutes. Everyone was thrilled that we were being let on the boat about an hour earlier than expected.
We went through more security screening - metal detector & scanners for our stuff. No need to take off shoes this time!
At last, we were on board!!!!!! Glowy appeared about 5 minutes after we made it on. Great timing! Everyone was invited up to dine immediately on the Wind camera deck. We found our way up to the Wind camera (11th floor) and enjoyed a huge buffet lunch. We weren't seated for long before a guy came around with our first set of pina coladas-yum!
Things start to blur after that...We probably looked around then ambled off to our cabin (6th floor with an ocean view)..I hadn't slept in like 30 hours and crashed -or tried to-lots of knocking and announcements-for the next few hours.
At 4:30pm, right before setting to sail, bells and buzzers went off, alerting us that a "mustering" was in progress. Scott and I figured out our life preservers and proceeded to our assigned muster station. Women to the left and men to the right.
Then back to our cabin to find our suitcases were finally delivered. At last, a shower and a change of clothes..We were quite ready to get that party started!
And I'm not exactly sure (too many pina coladas later) If it was Toots and the Maytals that we were dancing to by the pool? We were having fun and had connected with Ellen, Leslie (more friends from the 2003 UK RD Tour!) and Paul. A slightly familiar looking woman (From where? I don't know) approached me and handed me a beautiful hand drawn poster of Dave Matthews- before I could explain that I'm not really a fan of his (I'm only familiar with a couple of his songs) she gave me a big smile and said something about my good vibes(!). I figured the best thing to do was to be gracious, accept her gift and thank her. I like to give stuff out too and would likely be a little upset if someone were to reject my gift. So, I will frame it and happily hang it up.
We had the later dining seating. We were lead to a table where our dining companions were 5 adorable inebriated hot young things, they shined, sparkled and smelled like candy. The first 4 told us that their names were Samantha, Miranda, Carrie and Charlotte. The 5th one who I'll just call Amber, had joined up with the other ones because her boyfriend was already passed out in the cabin. The girlies were loud, obnoxious and I loved them.
When they saw Scott they all screamed "EW! Who let a guy sit at our table!"..We discovered that "Miranda" was on the cruise to see Ratdog and that Amber was there to see Ratdog & Trey. Pretty much everyone I met said they were either there for Ratdog or were excited to check out Bobby.
Something was awry with the setting up of so many musicians- or so it seemed because updated schedules kept getting posted. We were hoping to find ALO or Samantha or GLove but ended up not finding them at their appointed venues. We did catch some Soul Live and Michael Tolcher. I really wanted to go groove to our old friend DJ Logic, but I was exhausted and decided I had to get some solid sleep. So sacrificed DJ in order to ensure that I'd be ready for nights 2 &3 of this cruise.
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Saturday
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Our cabin was I guess the standard cruise size- two twin beds pushed together. We had a good sized window, which was nice. Along one wall was the closet and a vanity with drawers, small shelves and a mirror. On the top of the vanity was a phone, an ice bucket, a few bottles of water and cans of soda (the pg rated version of a mini bar). When we arrived a plate of petit fours was also on the vanity. Now they, were tasty!
There was a small bathroom. along the other wall. Attached to the wall was a television.
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We slept soundly, I enjoyed the gentle swaying of the boat. It reminded me of my old waterbed. Do people still have waterbeds?
We met Glowy up at the Windjammer. She had already mastered the rock climbing wall! Scott had meant to meet her and give it a try, but slept in. We watched the Sovereign pull into port-to the cheers of it's passengers.
We had a nice breakfast, then got ourselves ready to head into Nassau.
On our way off the ship we quickly greeted and passed Bobby and Ratdog as they were waiting in line to go through security.
Amazing timing!
On our way into Nassau, we ran into some of the folks we knew from Dot Org & TOO board. They were able to tell us how Ratdog did the night before and showed us a setlist. We went our separate ways into Nassau.
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Nassau
Nassau felt a little familiar..a buzzing little area by the dock. We spent a couple of hours browsing through shops. I was, like every vacation, into finding schlock to bring back for friends. Scott picked out appropriate tee shirts for the kids, but persuaded me to wait til Cococay to find my "perfect souvenir". I had my eyes on a coconut sculpted into a skull but decided to wait til cococay. I did pick up a few teeny Bahama Mamas. They are so small that I don't know where I packed them and am a little sad about that. It was getting late and we were ready to get back on board and hit the Wind Jammer for yet more Pina Coladas and buffet food.
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Saturday>Saturday Night
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Met up with friends back at the Windjammer buffet. So nice to see folks all relaxed and happy.
Somewhere around then, I noticed the very cute little family sitting at a nearby table.
They had a tiny little 4monthold olive complexioned baby who was sooooooooooooo cute. I was mesmorized. The mama saw the shine of baby lust in my eyes and allowed me to hold the lil sweetie for a little bit. I'm particularly fond of olive babies because Jase and Sash were olive. Noah is my little gray eyed, freckled gringo.
The baby's parents were on board for Ratdog. Later, we found out that Bobby and the band all autographed a onesie for the baby. Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!
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Everyone was assigned a time to line up to be tendered (ferried over) to the secret location for the Dave Matthews concert. Our time was 5:30. Folks had started lining up around 3 pm. By the time we were there it looked ants marching indeed. Well, more like ants creeping. It took an hour or so before we boarded a small ferry boat. Not a bad time though when waiting with friends. A few drunken clowns gave our part of the line some laughs.
The ferry brought us straight across the bay and to the beach of Paradise Island. I assume the beach was part of the massive Atlantis resort? The Atlantis stood like a castle in the background.
I already forgot who the opening musician was for Dave, but there was live music going.
Our first mission was to buy tickets(another line) which we would then enable us to get into a beer line.
I waited and schmoozed with folks while Scott & Glowy waited, waited, waited and waited for beer. I think it was about an hour or more before they were served. Word was that they had run out of beer. Imagine making a beer run for a few thousand people!
A little while after the Dave show began, Scott and Glowy were finally out of line, beers in hand. We followed Ellen to a nice spot and enjoyed the show. I liked dancing barefoot on the warm sand. I didn't know any of the songs except one catchy one I knew from KFOG.
At first, there was a nice mist. Then, a few drops of warm rain splattered here and there, stopping and starting. Then, it flat out rained...which stopped and restarted with a vengeance. We decided to get back to the ship. Of course, the line to get back to Nassau was already started. While in line, the rain turned hard and cold- It felt like hail. The wind kicked up and the bay was looking really choppy. For a few moments it was almost biblical. I'm used to rain but not the kind that saturates everything in a heartbeat- my skirt was weighing down with water and I felt it slipping. Though it was zipped shut, my purse and all its contents were dripping wet. Even the money in my wallet got wet. We didn't have to wait to long for a ferry. The best part of the experience was that everyone was laughing through this. I'd look at a stranger and we would both start howling. Inside the ferry everyone was sopping wet but gleeful. You had to laugh.
We ran- well Scott and Glowy ran..I had to hold my skirt on and didn't trust my coordination in new wet sandals- through the rain back to our ship. To get on the ship we had to show our special cruise ID, I dug thru the wet contents of my purse and scanned in. Ship crew handed us towels and beer as we boarded.
I thought we should head to the bar dripping wet and have a commemorative shot of tequila..but we were getting cold. Back to the cabin to dry off and wonder what to wear next. I was really good about not over packing- too good, I did have one "emergency" set of clothes, so redressed, dried my hair and as soon as Scott was ready we headed back out to see what was up. We ran into friends on the 7th floor lobby and joined em to go check out Michael Doughty (I think it was Michael Doughty?) . Nice sounding kid. Kind of mellow- or perhaps it was just me- It was great to be sitting and relaxing instead of waiting in a line in the pouring rain & disturbingly strong wind. Someone who would know, hinted that we should go see if there was a line and to stand in it by 'the Chorus Line" (which was the name of the biggest venue on board). I took off like a bullet and sure enough a small lines were forming by each of the 4 entrances. I once again, found myself lining up. Rumor had it that Dave Matthews & friends were coming on board. Someone had said Bobby was sitting in...My mellow was now replaced by excitement. Announcements confirming the rumors were made. More and more folks (some in their jammies) were swarming around the doors. After over an HOUR in line, the doors were open and everyone stampeded in. I got as far as the center balcony- very nice view and excellent sound, though pretty far back from the stage (see my Bobby-Dave photos) but there was no way, I'd want to get between DM and his fans.
Anticipation was pretty high, Dave and Trey and the other friends came out to play. Dave was warm, chatty and absolutely had his fans enthralled. There were songs I didnt know and several covers and then-YAY! Bobby popped out on stage for Aiko. It was spirited-especially considering it mustve been about 3:30 AM- But hey, only 1:30 am Cali time! Only Aiko with Bobby. We stayed for the rest of Dave. Again, though, I don't really know most of his songs, he really has an intense love vibe thing going with his fans.
Setlist DM&F on The Majesty of the Seas
Get On The Boat
Good Good Times
Up On Cripple Creek
Grey Blue Eyes
Ayhee
Circles
Aiko Aiko *<- with Bobby
Too High
So Damn Lucky
Hey Bulldog
Encore:
Rocky Mountain Way
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Sunday!!
No clue when or how I /we went to bed. Some vague memories of rootin around the boat for food..too ambivilant to look into
that 24 hour room service deal.
Woke up early & in a good mood! Scott was dead to the world, so I got dressed and headed up to ye ole Wind Jammer for my oatmeal, grapefruit and coffee. It was announced that the weather/wind/waves were too choppy for us to go to Cococay. Fine with me. I had my book, my coffee and found a deck chair. Spent the next couple of hours hoarding space by the pool.
For a while, hung out with baby Maya, Liz and Mike. As the morning progressed, I was tired of feeling anchored to the chaise lounge and mosied back into the Wind Jammer where I found A bunch of familiar faces including Senor Scotto. Time for more coffee and more breakfast!
Spent the afternoon dividing time up drinking, eating, schmoozing, wandering around and finally back to poolside to soak up more sun and dance on the deck to the wonderful OZOMATLI!!!!!
Pretty sure we burned off all those pina colada calories.
More drinking.
I don't remember the last time I drank quite so much.
Finally got to a point where I became impervious to how much alchohol I took in.
Somehow, I managed to find the Pursers desk and make reservations for Mondaze bus to the airport.
Sort of remember getting back to the cabin to primp for the evening.
Then off to figure out dinner- decided against the tailgate food being offered all around- back to the buffet for an all out Jerk chickenfest.
yum!
Our little group broke up after dinner- Scott went off to watch the Superbowl. I eventually found him in TAhe big Chorus Line venue. I remember seeing some Rolling Stones then wandering to one of the big soft sofa benches in the back of the venue. Slept there til some cheering woke me up. Was told it was finally the end of the 3rd quarter. I found the guy who seemed to be in charge of things (hey, he had a clipboard!) and asked how it was gonna work with Ratdog playing right after the superbowl. The fellow promised me that he would clear out the room, so bottles and garbage could be removed. Lines would have to form outside each of the 4 entrances. I figured since there was nothing else for me to do that I would go start a line. I already knew that I wanted to be in the box/ balcony that hovered above the stage- I had scoped it out on Friday.
It was a great vantage point! It would be silly to want the rail when this was available-especially since I'd been DBC at the last 4 Ratdog/Bobby shows. Plus, I could sit or stand at my convienence.
Anyhow, I went out to stand in line. Clipboard guy came out and told me I was not standing in the right line up place and had me move 2 feet to the left (rolling eyes). I slouched there alone for awhile -my reward was getting hugged by various Ratdoggers as they slipped past me, one by one into the venue. Endearing things were said to me that almost made me cry. I love those guys like brothers. Nuff said.
All at once, folks started to congregate by the doors. Clipboard guy reappeared to hollar orders at the crowd. I gave him a cold hard stare and he organized the line to start behind me. Tapers lined up next to me (only 2 tapers from our line) . Then he and the door lady disappeared. Someone noticed the other lines (we could see them) were going in, so we marched ourselves in. AYiYi! I swiftly made my way to my box! Phew! No one had claimed it yet!
From my perch, I spied Scott in a nice spot- about 2 people deep in front of Jeff. He waved, I waved. Saw more friends down there, regretted I didnt have a camera or cam with me.
When I get the show- I'll discuss more about it. Incredible energy all through the first set! I wasnt even at the rail- but felt it up stairs and saw it all over the venue. The boat started really rocking about the middle of the first set. At one point, it seemed to distract MK enough for folks to catch him looking like he was just noticing it- which brought grins from his bandmates and a quick cheer from the crowd. I wonder if the shift in sound from those few seconds will be noticible on disk.
Again, a real fun show!
After a rousing start on Stuff, Jay just completely stopped and asked the crowd something to the effect of "How about that Super Bowl?!" Huge cheer- more for the clownin than the football game I suspect. Anytime one of those guys stop to say anything always brings a cheer. They do it so rarely.
Right before the break, a young boy was picked out by AJ and brought back stage during setbreak. The boy (about 6 yrs old-very cute) emerged from back stage with a plate of food and held up what I think was a guitar pick. The audience gave him a huge cheer.
Great show...
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MONDAY-WAH!
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Afterwards, lurked around the ship...fell into bed around 4 ..5 AM?
Noises and knocks woke us up around 7AM.
YAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWN!
Time to get it together to "Disembark"
woof!
We did our best to pack in a record amount of time. I know I left a bunch of stuff on board - havent seen my little Bahama Mamas since I got home. Missing some of the new cosmetics (I bought all new stuff at Sephora in Burlingame before the trip.
Oh well...not like they helped much in the 1st place!
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Packed and ready but first headed to one of the restaurant style venues for our off the menu breakfast.
Ate like kings & queens one last time before schlepping our luggage off the ship.
Lucky for us, American Airlines had a whole check-in unit right there on the dock! We were able to get our boarding passes and leave our suitcases there instead of dealing with all that at the airport!
We boarded a bus which brought us to the airport. Miami. I can say I've been to Miami (like NYC,NJ, Ireland, Maine, Chicago, Texas) but only saw it from the window of a bus.
mmm pina coladas!
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