Miami, Florida.

This week, Ann-Christine asks us to look into the future. She writes in her post on Leya, quoting Frank Herbert, “The future remains uncertain and so it should, for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas.” You can read her entire challenge post here.

And so it is. We can only hope and plan for the future which may or may not come in the manner that we expect. This week, I am writing this on a cruise ship that’s docked in Cozumel, Mexico. I hope to get the post done before the day is out. I have a future excursion starting in a short couple of hours. The photo above, though, takes me back to February 8, just a few days ago when the Carnival Conquest left the dock at the Port of Miami.

Docked nearby was a vision of what could be our future in but a couple of months now. The Norwegian Escape, awaiting her own departure, will soon depart toward Italy. We’ve already purchased our plane tickets to Rome and plan to board the Escape at the port nearest Rome for a cruise along Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal, and finally dock in Southhampton, England. It will be Lynn and my first trip to Europe. That is in our future, we hope, but we will never know until we actually set foot onboard.

That glass building, framed in red, is also for the future. It’s new construction that will become Norwegian Cruise Line’s new arrival and departure center. Judging from the amount of building materials we noticed as we passed by on the other side of the structure, they’ve got a few months to go before that building will be in any customer’s future.

My final image for this challenge features a small airplane towing a banner. It wasn’t yet Valentine’s Day but Terry and Lori are on board our ship. Coincidentally, the couple was standing near us on deck when the banner came by leaving a stunned Lori in surprise. I suspect Lori and Terry have a special Valentine’s Day in store on the ship tomorrow as we head back to Miami and home.

John Steiner