Flash Back... The LOVE Boat...

After reading at home with the farmer's wife & Angies Spot... I took their idea of flashing back in time.. old photos with a story.. and per Martini's for two suggestion... I decided to go back to the very beginning.. where it all started... how I ended up in Norway...
Flash back to the "Love Boat" (although the Love Boat was on Princess Cruises & we met on Royal Caribbean.... ) I was a girl right out of college...who landed her "dream" job... working on a cruise ship.. (Never mind I was a Poly Sci, & German major with a minor in International Relations) I knew I wanted to get out of Iowa/Illinois & travel... because that is really the only thing (besides being a mommy) I have ever wanted to do. I was only going for one contract... 6 months, or so I told my college sweetheart when I left. 6 months turned into a year...& next thing I knew I met this adorable Norwegian Boy who would change my life F O R E V E R...
With 6 weeks left on my contract ... I was walking through the ship on my way to work, when I spotted the new Norski who had signed on the day earlier. One look at his baby blues & I was smitten. Weird, when I think back & I can remember the first time ... the exact moment, I ever saw the future father of my children... the guy I would spend the rest of my life with. I don't know if he noticed me...
He had just signed on to what was the biggest cruise ship in the world... Monarch of the Seas & I am sure the last thing he was thinking about was meeting his future wife. We met the next night on Halloween...& although I still thought he was cute... I filed him in my drunk, Norwegian officer file. I am sure at that point he only saw the "Samantha Fox" chic.. (No, I didn't make a point of getting up & singing "Touch Me" at crew parties.. that's just what the Norwegians called me).We met again the next night in the crew bar (I know...nice... but hey, that's what you do when you are young, working on cruise ships.) He asked me out on our first real date... (Lunch at the Hilton Hotel in Ponce, Puerto Rico ) the next 6 weeks were a whirlwind Romance... spending every moment we weren't working, together... Jet skiing in Barbados, lunch in Antigua, shopping in San Juan...(so NOT the real world) until right before I was due to sign off, & we found out I had been transferred to L.A.... I think we were both thinking that this would probably be the end. I signed off right before Christmas to go to my parents home in Kansas City, devastated.... after a week at home, he flew me back to the Caribbean where we had a week together... He worked, I cruised. He had another 3 weeks on his contract but promised he would visit me in LA.. I worked.. he cruised. It was during this week he asked me if I would think about quiting our jobs & moving to Norway. Mind you, this is after spending 8 weeks together...
My being a travel loving, risk taker, said SURE... why not? Oh you should have heard the phone call I made to Bill & and Diann back home... (mom & pops) they thought I had pretty much lost my FRIGGEN MIND..... (Hubby & I, wonder what we would do if our little Princess made a call like that to us..... I would fly to wherever she was & smack some sense in her... (I am all about the double standards..)
*** TO BE CONTINUED****
(come on... you know I totally blew my parents off... I live in Norway don't I?)

The rest of the Story.. The Love Boat... Part deux... Love Boat.. THE FINAL CHAPTER...