Fantastic Dalmatian Coast Cruise with Friends

Ken, Cathi, John & Bonny Midby in Dubrovnik

Ken and I just returned from a fantastic cruise from Athens to Venice aboard the Seabourn Odyssey with 20 friends.  The ship was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the people, the food and the service.  Included in the ports of call was Dubrovnik that we had previously visited on a cruise, but there were also several ports that neither Ken or I had visited before including Corfu and Pylos, Greece;  Kotor, Montenegro; Zadar, Croatia and Revanna, Italy.

Bruce Milne & Walter Schoenfeld



On our first full cruise day, our group participated in the ZINO Society "First Annual Invitational Golf Putting Competition" on the nine-hole putting course aboard ship.  In the men's division, the three who tied for first place were Bruce Milne, Walter Schoenfeld and Mark Pellegrino with a score of 17 and after a sudden death competition, Mark Pellegrino was declared the winner.  I was the women's division winner with a score of 20.



MoneyMan & BagMan, Kyle Johnson

My favorite stop was Zadar, an amazingly clean, charming small city where Judith Kindler, Kyle Johnson, Bruce Milne and I went shopping for prizes for our Dalmation Cruise Awards Reception.  Kyle served as the "money man" exchanging our Euros for Kunas and the "bagman" carrying our purchases, while Bruce, Judith and I poured through the potential awards.  You really had to be there for any of the prizes to make sense but our purchases included a sheep puzzle for Ken, a Croatia spoon appropriate for caviar for Esther Schoenfeld, a wine opener for Lenny Giannola, bubbles for Debi Giannola, a captain's hat for Charlie Hogan, a Native American(??) dreamcatcher for Nancy & Mark Pellegrino, a tattoo collection for Bonny Midby, a race car for Denny Dochnahl and assorted balls for Joe Sasenick.

Cathi, Judith Kindler, Denny Dochnald, Scrabble Addicts

Another highlight of the trip was our afternoon Scrabble games and the one day that it rained, we played in the morning as well.  Rebecka & Bruce Milne and Judith Kindler were already Scrabble aficionados and they converted Denny Dochnahl and me as well.  On one of my first games with Rebecka's help, I got 239 points for the word "ACQUIRED" which I was able to play off an "r" that was already on the board.  It used all my letters and it included two triple word point tiles.  Now I will always be looking to duplicate that score.  Scrabble anyone?