Ann booked the trip of a lifetime for us in the late 90's. For $1200 per person, we did a fourteen day cruise that took us through Greece and into Turkey. We are at the Temple of Apollo, and a tour guide is telling us about the area and especially about the area's significance and the oracle who once was a dominant part of Greek tradition. Ann keeps taking pictures and snickering at me. I tell her to stop. People are looking at us. I give a dirty look that you see in the picture, and Ann almost has to leave the area. She is laughing silently with her hand gripped firmly on her mouth. After we return to the boat, she shows me the picture of me below Socrates. Whenever she accuses me of being sarcastic or being a smart a$$, I remind her about this little joke she played on me. I have to admit I could have been a bit more jovial if the temperature there had not been over 105 degrees.
It is funny now, but at the time, it was not humorous at all. My Annie booked that trip with a ship designed for the rich and pretentious. We would walk about the boat, and these women would walk about with these hats that at least three feet in diameter. They were like the awful looking hats in the movie Titanic. The first night at a "sit down" meal, several people asked us what we did for a living. It horrified them that teachers would be on able to participate. After that I made a point of telling everyone we met at dinner about our questionable social class. Eventually, other teachers found us. In spite of the awful snobs, the trip was magnificent. I could have done a cruise on Stone Reservoir with my Annie for two weeks and enjoyed it, but I have to admit, the cruise in the Mediterranean was incredible.
It is a place I want to take my Annie one more time.
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