Visiting the Azores

We woke up to big family news today!  We have a new great-niece, Rachel Ann, who was born shortly after midnight to our niece, Mary Ann.  At 7 lbs 14 oz she came into the world at a very healthy weight, and from what we hear, both mom and baby are doing fine.

We arrived at Ponta Delgada, the capital city of the Azores, on schedule this morning and were already docked at the pier when we woke up. It was overcast at first, but the skies cleared so that we could see this pretty port city.  The island is famous for having as many cows as people and produces organic milk and cheese products due to the cows only feeding on grass.

Our excursion today was a bus trip to Crater Lakes. As we approached the lakes we drove into the low hanging clouds, so that when we arrived nothing was visible.  Our guide said that the weather can clear quickly, so we got out.  As we looked, it started to clear so we could first see the shoreline, then a lake, and finally the second lake!  But 5 minutes later it was shrouded in clouds once again.  Mary snapped this photo when the weather was the clearest.  The two lakes are supposed to be different colors with closest lake being green while the farther one is blue, but we could not see the color of the second lake.

Tonight for dinner we enjoyed calzones at Alfredo's, the on-board pizza restaurant.  They were good, but not up to Joey Fratelas' (Findlay, OH) standard.

We have a sea day tomorrow so after two more time zone changes (which will being us 6 hours ahead of Eastern time) we will arrive at Cherbourg, France on Tuesday.