Celtic Spring Band ::

Caribbean Log/ Take 2.  I had spent several hours yesterday writing out our adventures on the cruise in the Caribbean, and in my eagerness to share the story with the family, I unplugged my laptop and did something unprecedented.  I brought my laptop to the dinner table.  Elizabeth protested, but she quickly forgot her complaint as I began reading.  My stories had me in fits of laughter, as memories were recalled.  When Sean went to reconnect my laptop to the internet, my writing disappeared forever. (If I hated computers before, imagine what I think of them now!!!)  I am now once again attempting a second telling, and of course, the second time is not the same.  I probably will never laugh quite as much when I read this second take, but hear it is.

Celtic Spring is just back from from a glorious week performing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Holland America's, Eurodam, chartered by the amazing, wonderful, and gracious Gertie Byrne, embarked from Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a multitude of Irish performers  and 2000 passengers from the US, Ireland, Canada, (we loved the New Foundlanders!), England, Scotland, and beyond for a wonderful celebration of Irish culture. 

Celtic Spring members packed their bags with costumes, fancy clothes, and beach attire and left beautiful and sunny Ojai on January 31 to take an all night flight to Florida.  We arrived in Fort Lauderdale at 5:30 morning, and being the middle of the night in California, checked into a hotel for a little more sleep.  We have learned that being well-rested at the beginning of a trip is a necessary good, though ending a trip with sleep deprivation seems to be par for the course if we are with fellow Celtic musicians.  (Deirdre informed us that the last two nights of the cruise found her in her bed for a total of four hours, and for Sean, where there is music to be played, sleep becomes optional!)

We knew we were going to like the cruise when we were greeted with "live" Irish music upon joining the fast-moving line to check in and board the ship.  We were delighted to spy  ahead of us in line, some of our favorite relations from the East Coast : Uncle Tom McCauley, my brother, and his wife, Aunt Margo, and their neice, 11 year old Julia.  (Maire was excited to have a friend on board!)  We were eagerly looking out for friends we had met at a Leahy family fiddle camp, from Texas: Betty Jo and Neil Frindell.
(We were happy to meet up with them on the ship and delighted in their company as well as Fr. Paul from Iowa, as well as fans from the Celtic Fling and Costa Mesa.)

We boarded the 12 decked ship and looked for our cabins on the 4th deck.  We quickly discovered that we had three even numbered cabins and one odd number, and the odd numbers were on the opposite side of the ship as the even numbers.  None of our children were eager to take the lone cabin so Greg and I eagerly claimed it.  We were happy to have children old enough to not need our constant scrutiny and we lived the whole week in anonymity, most of our children never even finding or looking for our room! 

We all unpacked and most willingly exchanged our St. Michael Sprinter Van for the Eurodam.  It was wonderful to be able to unpack and move into our cabins.  The ship was a sailing hotel and village with friends and relations, meals, Mass, music and dance at our fingertips. I especially liked how the captain did the "all night driving" and we would wake up to see new horizons and pristine islands with turquoise waters and white sandy beaches. 

The first event of our first day on the ship was dinner.  We were told ahead of time that there would be a dress code for the dinners: two nights would require formal attire, three nights, informal attire, and two nights, smart casual attire.  Our first challenge was understanding just what "informal" and "smart casual" meant, and then to acquire the necessary wardrobe.  I had not worn a formal gown since our wedding 25 years ago, and our boys were deficient in black suits. Elizabeth owns a plethora of gowns, though ended up favoring a black velvet cocktail dress bestowed to her by my sister, Aunt Anne.  Anne has three little children, ages 5, 3, and 2, and cannot imagine ever needing such a dress again!  Deirdre prefers a more simple wardrobe, although she likes black dress pants and formed all her outfits around three pairs of them. We learned that "informal" meant what we call "semi-formal" and "smart casual" meant what we call Sunday dress.  It was the daily printed ship schedule that would tell us what the dress of the evening would be, but to complicate matters, the restaurant posted a conflicting dress code.  We had some hasty outfit shuffles to all be donning the appropriate dress.  (Once Elizabeth showed up in her exercise pants, thinking that could work for "smart casual" while all the other diners had on very fancy attire; the evening was actually "informal!", i.e. semi-formal! She made a quick dash to her cabin and returned to the restaurant elegantly attired.)

Fortunately, we had some shows a few weeks before the cruise that put us with some free time at a very well stocked thrift store.  Most of us like hunting for treasures in such stores.  Elizabeth has a great eye for size and style and could dress us all--- Sean on the other hand, finds thrift stores distasteful.  Seven of us, (all but Sean) descended upon the shop sorting through many black suit coats and formal gowns. We all found treasures and I am now the proud owner of two gowns that I could wear at our childrens' weddings, should that happen!  I must say, when we all had on the attire to fit the evening, everyone looked very handsome.  In fact, Aidan looked like (and felt like) a prince most of the week in clean white polo shirts during the day, and a nice suits and ties by evening, and attending high teas and fancy dinners!  We were grateful that the ship did not have the usual dirt and mud piles that Aidan finds regularly in his daily play at home!)

Ship life suited us very well.  Dinners were served in a lovely dining room with tables adorned with flowers, china, and silver plate. The delicious three course meals were served by gracious waiters from the Philippines and Bali. Dinners were always followed with tea and dessert, and the waiters quickly learned to set tea for all. We are often on the road and eating in restaurants, and though we are all fond of tea and dessert, our usual practice is to share a few desserts, and only delight the old folks with tea.

 

We all enjoyed the second course of cold soups, that tasted like delicious fruit smoothies.  We heard later that the Irish would not dare to touch the cold soups.  We Californians are a bit more adventurous.  We also liked the first course of fresh fruit imbibed with liquors, and now at home we can be found eating with dinner little bowls of chopped fruit imbibed with vanilla and rosewater and topped with a mint leaf.  We got a little spoiled with all the delicious meals and the Filipino and Balinese workers who kept the ship meticulously.  Upon arriving home our house seemed especially grubby and we decided that we better adopt the workers' cheerfulness and work ethic for cleaning.  (Who wants to do housework when there is music to be played and books to be read???)  By the way, we each brought stacks of books to read on the cruise and did not touch them!
For the dinners each group had their own assigned table and waiters, and we were especially fond of Kodak and Walter, who not only were extremely gracious, but kept our little people well entertained with magic tricks, and origami, folding paper into marvelous animals and roses.  The first dinner found our whole family together, the second night we were minus one daughter, and the second and subsequent nights, we were minus two daughters.  I think we scandalized our waiters when we told them that the girls were dining with some young Irish men.  (read on to find out the explanation).....

Immediately after dinner the Wood family could be found at the Irish Set Dances.  Set Dancing is akin to Cape Breton Square Dancing  and New England Contra dancing. Four couples, one couple opposite another couple in a square, dance long and complicated figures to the reels and jigs played by "live" bands. The Irish set dancers knew their dances fantastically and were willing for us girls to join their sets.  All we had to do was be willing to be completely led (thrown) through the sets.  It was a little harder for our boys, since they had to lead, but after a day they were to be found dancing the sets as well.  We were especially impressed with Aunt Margo's niece, Julia, who had never done Irish dancing before and quickly took to the set dancing.

Our favorite set dancing band was the Lough Ree Ceili band from Ireland.  We had discovered set dancing and had met up with the Lough Ree Ceili band at the Irish weekend in the Catskills only a few months earlier.  Lough Ree is composed of (somewhat) young musicians, and our children befriended the band members, which explains why the girls abandoned us for dinner, and why sleep was not a priority.  The week was to unfold with many opportunities for our young people to play music and dance, and have great fun with button accordian player, Brendan Doyle, and Colin and Gerard Butler, as well as Brona and Roisin.  Once those friendships came about, we did not see too much of our children.

Another highlight was daily Mass.  Our first full day on board was a Sunday, and two Irish priests concelebrated Mass in the theater, which made a fine ship's church.  Fr. John Kearns was from Ireland, and Fr. Tom was from Cleveland.  They were the wonderful, holy, story-telling, witty sort of Irish priests that we often had in our home parish while we were growing up.  They informed us early on that they each had twin brothers.  The priests, they said, would retire at the dignified hour of half ten, (Irish for 10:30) and their twin brothers would be found dancing long into the wee hours of the morn.  These priests had a deep love of life and reflected true Christian joy.  They exuded holiness in their saying of Mass and then we would see them later dancing up a storm!  Beautiful hymns were sung at Mass by two sisters, Emily and Phillipa Shine and Anne Breen.  For the final Mass many of the musicians joined the singers, and the Mass was proceeded by the priests and six others performing a set dance. After the Sunday Mass I had asked Fr. Tom where the daily Mass would be said.  I had pictured attending daily Mass in a ship cabin with a few hardy souls.  Fr. told me that daily Mass would be held in the theater and that the time would be listed in the daily printed ship program.  We were delighted to find the theater full for daily Mass!!!  At the end of the week, the host of all the shows, Tony Jackson, said, "If heaven is anything like this, I want to be there.. but no rush, please!"

Of course, the cruise traveled to islands in the Caribbean and we would wake up each day in different ports.  Our first stop was the Turk and Caicos island of Grand Turk.  I had expected the islands to be very developed and resort-like, and we were happy to discover otherwise.  We were later to discover that the regular visit of hurricanes probably kept development at bay.  We had arranged for a catamaran sail and snorkeling at Grand Turk.  Upon disembarking we were surprised to find the weather windy, cool, and cloudy.  (I have a distaste for relying on computers for weather and traffic updates, [California weather is always the same and LA traffic is constantly bad,]but for this trip, I had trusted my computer and we were not exactly prepared for cooler weather.)  Our last boat expedition in inclement weather was in Costa Rica, and we ended up nearly capsizing under the force of extremely large waves.  I expected that we would be told that the sail would be canceled.  Instead, we were informed that the wind was just what was needed! (It was, after all, a sailboat).  We sailed to an area off the island called the Library, one of the top snorkeling spots in the world.  The Library provides coral reefs next to a 7000 ft. drop off.  We were outfitted with snorkels, fins, and masks, but upon anchoring out at sea in windy, rough weather, wondered whether it was safe to go in the sea.  I imagined Aidan, Maire, and Julia being carried out to sea in the wind and current.  One of the boat's crew jumped in and informed us that the water was warm and fine for swimming.  One by one we jumped overboard  to behold crystal clear water teeming with colorful fish.  We could not believe we were at last snorkeling in the Caribbean!  We even could see the vast chasm where the sea suddenly dropped off into an abyss.  From there we were sailed to a deserted beach--- the boat anchored a little off shore and we swam again in the gorgeous, warm water.  We happily found beautiful conch shells on the beach, having always admired my sister's conch shell that she brought back from sailing in the Caribbean.

Later that day Greg and I wanted to find the town on Grand Turk, so we made the three mile trek toward Cockburn Town.  We had no map and did not even know the name of the town.  We ended up in a rural area sprinkled with rustic houses.  We could not find any sign of a commercial district.  We came across a young man and inquired of him the way to the town.  He invited us to follow him and he led us winding through small roads and along a sea wall to a picturesque little lane along the sea where we found old colonial architecture with a church, library, and museum. I think he was from Jamaica and spoke a mixture of French and English. We did glean that Hurricane Ike had brought havoc to the island earlier this year and had taken many trees down and had destroyed many buildings. We never did find any stores so we walked the three miles back to the ship.  Though it was not bright and sunny, I am still suffering from a sunburn I acquired on Grand Turk.

The next morning had us in port at old town San Juan in Puerto Rico.  We loved old San Juan with its narrow shop-lined, blue-brick cobblestoned streets, wall and forts to fortify the city against invaders of old, churches, and hills that afforded the city with views of island and sea. Greg and I felt very at home as old San Juan reminded us very much of our favorite part of Rome, Trastevere.  The boys were exploring on their own and walked the whole length of the walled city and explored both forts. They even climbed up the ramparts of the fort into the back door of one of them.

Aidan had a taste of Puerto Rican thoughtfulness as he was exploring with us.  Throughout the cruise he had carried with him a small, plastic toy crocodile.  We had no idea how much this little creature meant to Aidan until it dropped out of his hands and fell down three feet into the murky water of an old, grate- covered storm drain on a busy corner of San Juan.  Aidan was inconsolable.  I tried to comfort him with some very bad geography, "Just think.  Some little child in China will find your crocodile washed ashore on a beach."  (How would it swim from the Caribbean to the Pacific?)  All of a sudden, a big strong local man reached down and lifted up the heavy grating, Greg laid down on his stomach and reached down and fished out the crocodile, all seconds before a car turned the corner over the grating.  A second later, a woman from the corner jewelry store came out and invited Greg into her store to  wash his slimy hand and crocodile in the bathroom.  We were grateful and Aidan was very happy!

We returned to the ship for a few hours of set dance instruction taught by Gerard Butler.  Gerard had just joined the cruise by flying from Ireland to Philadelphia to Puerto Rico, and had been sitting next to Mick McAuley, our Irish cousin from the band Solas, on the Ireland leg.  Then we returned to the city streets to join Uncle Tom and Aunt Margo for Pina Coladas  in a little restaurant that had invented the delicious drinks. Greg and I then explored the city by night and loved rambling through the old narrow cafe-lined streets.  We could look into the old restaurants and houses and see beautiful tiled floors, and high ceilings with large, dark, wooden beams, inner courtyards, and big stucco walls.

Our next port was San Croix in the Virgin Islands.  We had consulted a map and found a remote beach called Rainbow Beach.  We walked about two miles to find it and again swam in clear, turquoise colored, warm water.  We had heard that there was a rainforest on the island and thought that maybe we could walk to it.  We were always eager to find creatures and exotic sights for our animal loving Aidan.  Upon inquiring as to the length of the walk, I was asked to show my hands.  The local said to me,"Remove your rings and get a big stick before walking up the road to the forest."  I was not looking for that kind of adventure, so we inquired as the cost of a taxi for our large group.  The price was affordable so we had a wonderful local guide take us up to the forest.  As we were driven we were told that the locals were self-sufficient being able to grow tropical fruits year round, and raise meat animals, mostly goat and pig.  The life sounded quite idyllic until we were told of all the hurricanes by name and year that had hit the island in the last twenty years.  Our ride ended in the forest at a local rustic bar where there were beer drinking pigs, which, for a small sum, we could view.  I had no interest in supporting the intoxication of some poor bovines, but we were assured that the beer was non-alcoholic.  We paid our dues and watched two enormous pigs jump and grab cans of beer, bite into them, guzzle the beer, and spit out the cans.  We were more impressed with the beautiful forests.

We were dropped off at the town of Frederiksted where we ran into the boys who had found a great beach to do more snorkeling.  Frederiksted was another small sleepy town, but the beach there was exquisite.  Aidan, Greg, and I donned masks and snorkels and explored the reefs again seeing hundreds of beautiful, colorful fish.  Greg and I were impressed with Aidan's ability to swim like a fish.  He was eagerly pointing out all kinds of fish to me as we were snorkeling, including some creatures on the bottom that he said were cat sharks. As we were wiping the sand off our feet on a little cement floored seating area before heading back out to the ship, all of a sudden, something appeared from nowhere and dashed between Greg and me: I cannot remember being so scared as at that moment. When we collected our wits we saw the source of our terror--- a large, (about three feet long from tip to tail) spike covered, bearded, grayish-green iguana, who had joined two of his large spiky friends.  Even the locals were afraid of them.  One local through a large crate at them and was saying, "poisonous!"  Another local was defending them, stating that they were vegetarians. (Like our family).  Once I knew what had scared us I found them quite awesome and fascinating in their primitiveness.  By that time, it was time to return to the ship.  We hurried along, noticed our girls and Brendan Doyle behind us, and wanted to wait for them to catch up with us so we could hear of their adventures.  They seemed to be taking their time so we kept going, knowing we would hear their stories later.  Upon entering the ship, we heard a voice over the loud speaker calling, "Would Elizabeth Wood, Deirdre Wood, and Brendan Doyle please call the ship's office?"  I think they received a reprimand for being late so we were glad we had not stopped for them.  I heard that they had gone jet skiing with the Irish lads and had great fun, so I will let them report their own adventures.

 

 

The final island stop was Half Moon Cay, a gorgeous Bahamian island owned by Holland America.  The day was cool and cloudy, but the water was still warm and beautiful.  I did feel a little sad for the Irish who were longing for the sun.  We have far too much sun where we live.  We took a glass boat ride in a salt water lagoon and learned of the flora and fauna of the island from two beautiful young girls who were native to the Bahamas.  (Half Moon Cay itself was not inhabited.)  The girls seemed so happy and full of joy and I was very impressed by them.  They showed us the local craft of plaiting palm fronds to make baskets--- they told us that all children learned how to do this when they were young, and that they could make a beautiful basket in 20 minutes.  They also told us all the tropical fruit that grew on their islands. They pulled creatures out of the lagoon to show us: sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, sponges, coral.  Our older girls had not come on the glass boat ride, and we learned later that they were on the island, set dancing with the Irish lads to one of the Irish bands.

Another fine event of the evenings on the ship were performances in the theater, and bands playing in every nook and cranny of the ship.  The young people discovered the Crow's Nest, a dance lounge on the 12th deck, where they swing danced and jived into the wee hours.  Greg and I found our way up there one late night for a dance.  We would often go to the theater for the the shows and hear the many Irish showbands. Several of the bands were composed of family members, often parents and grown children.  We decided Gertie Byrne invited us sight unseen because she knew we were a family and she trusted George Casey, a wonderful Irish comedian's, recommendation. We are more immersed in and familiar with traditional music, but it was great to discover another genre of Irish entertainment, and all the performers were wonderful.

We performed on the second to the last night of the cruise.  Before we performed, we walked around the ship in relative obscurity.
We did have some fans and friends and relations who had come on the cruise because of us, and people were getting to know the children from the set dancing.  But by in large, we were able to live ship life pretty much undiscovered.  That changed after we performed.  And we are truly grateful for all the kinds words bestowed by new fans. Aidan was a star and he could not go anywhere without getting stopped. We are hoping that this exposure to a big Irish audience will help us return to Ireland to perform.  Our audiences loved us and we received spontaneous standing ovations.  We were sad we could not do an encore, because each night there were three acts and two shows, and time was at a premium.   We shared the night with lovely Annette Griffin and Phil Coulter.  Annette impressed all of us by kneeling down and saying a prayer before her show.  Phil Coulter is a beloved musical icon in Ireland, having written one of our favorite songs, 'The Town I Loved So Well.'  It was a pleasure meeting and listening to him.

The theater was in the front of the ship, and while we were getting ready in our dressing backstage, we could hear waves crashing in the bow of the boat.  It seemed to be a particularly rough night at sea. Sean was wondering how they would ever dance.  Greg and I prayed that all would go well and that we would have no falls.  The children said it was like dancing on a trampoline.  You would go up and sometimes the floor would be there when they came down and sometimes it wouldn't be.  Sometimes it would be there prematurely.  But they all did quite well!  In the second show, both older girls took turns falling as they were walking on stage.  Sean announced, "Two down, four to go."  But luckily, the other four never had their turn, and no one fell during the dancing.  We learned later from the captain's log that there had been gale force winds that night.  The show must go on, and the children have learned to adapt to all situations: hot, cold, wet, dry, windy, and now, a rather unpredictable floor that was more of a moving target.

The night of our performance was Aunt Margo's birthday, and we met in her stateroom for a late night party after our performances.  We had a cake delivered to her room and told all the children to join us there at 12:30 a.m.  We were very happy to be joined by Brendan and also two sisters from Belfast, June and Allison.  Uncle Tom's idea of a party is to sing Irish songs and play music, so we had our own session far into the night.  Even Aidan took out his fiddle and he was delighted to have Brendan join on his button accordian.  Watching our young people playing tunes with Brendan filled me with happiness.  I am used to seeing our children play music, and that always makes me happy, but I was particularly compelled to remember back when I was 19.  I was visiting our relatives in Ireland and every gathering seemed to include songs and tunes.  I had always wanted to play the fiddle growing up, but with a house with two pianos and guitars, and no violins, I did not have the heart to ask for another instrument.  After spending time in Ireland, I said to myself that if I ever have children, I will learn the fiddle with them.  I still have a long way to go, they have all long- surpassed me, including Aidan.  My life has been very full these last 25 years raising musical children and homeschooling, but I vow to take up the fiddle again in the last third of my life.  In the mean time I am deeply happy that our children can fiddle Irish tunes long into the night, night after night.  In fact, that cruise has been an enormous source of inspiration--- since we have been home Deirdre is playing tunes that Brendan taught her, Sean is sitting at the piano trying to sing and play like Phil Coulter, music from Brendan's i-pod is playing all the time, and thank you Brendan for your love of traditional music!!!  I feel like we have come full circle--- we started out with Irish fiddle, then Scottish, then Cape Breton, then Bluegrass, then New Grass... then back to the Irish.

Well we are all back home, at least for a few weeks.  We all love cruise life and would like to do more cruises.  We have had a re-falling in love with Irish culture and hope we return to Ireland soon.  The girls are scheming to get to Spain in June for a set dance festival with Brendan, Colin, Gerard, and the Lough Ree Ceili Band.  I told them that if we get invited to perform in Dubai, which is pending for this summer, we could stop in Ireland and Spain on the way.  I am always up for more travels and adventures!  In the mean time, thank you, Gertie Byrne, for inviting us on your wonderful cruise.  May we all meet up again soon!  God Bless.

Love,

Mary and family

 

P.S. The cruise was one of the most enjoyable weeks of our lives!

If anyone is interested in spending an incredible week on a cruise ship, please visit Gertie Byrne's website. Be forewarned however; you may get very little sleep if you enjoy Celtic music.