How I spent my summer vacation

It was just a moment of a delightful weekend, a few days of living the good life in the Caribbean aboard a floating city that offered food, adult beverages, entertainment, more food, a bit of gambling, more food and, well, more food.

The special moment came very early one morning just a few days ago, a slight rocking of the massive ship somewhere between Nassau and Miami, waking me from a sound sleep. I crawled over to a nearby window, pulling back the curtains in our stateroom and glanced out at the ocean -- black and deep, a bit of white froth here and there and a brilliant carpet of light reaching out to the distant horizon.

I was still in that daze of wakening, a bit befuddled but mesmerized by the dancing moonlight that glimmered magically across the water and my mind. I sat propped up on a pillow for ten, maybe fifteen minutes, watching the show.

I had taken full advantage of the day -- eating and drinking, reading and resting, even attending an energetic, if somewhat cheesy song and dance production by a group of not-yet-ready-for-prime-time entertainers. That's what I and the lovely Miss Wendy had paid for, right?

That seemed to be the case, at least according to the marketing folks at Norwegian Cruise Lines. But they were wrong and once again life had offered me something better -- a transcendent moment.

Okay, there were also towel animals, a sort of squishy looking seal -- or maybe it was a walrus! It was waiting for Miss Wendy and me on our bed, a little gift from our cabin steward that, arguably, was covered by the cost of the cruise. Nature offered up the other gift for free.

A footnote. There was also one additional gift. Miss Wendy and I had the opportunity to spend this special time with two special people -- our daughter Lauren and son-in-law Josh. So we had it all -- food, booze and entertainment, a transcendent moment and time with family -- and, yes, even one squishy, wrinkled seal thingy. Priceless!

GIFT FROM NATURE: Okay, so this isn't my photo. But if I had a camera handy and, well, a tripod and the gift for snapping perfect pictures, this (photo above) is just about exactly what I saw from my stateroom.