We crossed the international date line today.  Today is 2/4 and back in Atlanta it is currently 2/3. Somehow we skipped a whole day.  This is an interesting math and engineering issue.  Yes, as I write this note it is really February 4th, 2025.  We skipped February 3rd all together.

So I want to issue a challenge for our grandchildren.  

1. Are Nana and Papa now one day younger ?
2. If your birthday was 2/3 do you skip a year and not get an older ?
3. Do we ever gain the day back when go around the world and end back in Florida ?  
4. Will we always be a day off when we return ?  Why Not ?
5. Who proposed the concept of time zones and an international date line ?
6. Why isn’t the international date line straight ?

Nana and Papa will have a surprise gift for the grandchildren that can answer all of the questions.  This is only for the older grandchildren so Mom and Dad don’t worry and you can’t help them.  We will be having another challenge for the younger grandchildren in the next part of our cruise.

For everyone else that gets this blog, see if you can answer the questions in the comment section !  While I have traveled a lot, I have never been on a ship that crossed the date line.   Every other time it has been on an airplane and then I returned the same way so I never really thought about it.  Now we keep traveling West and we never backtrack across the line so how does this really work ?

We met a couple on ship and have gotten to know them very well. We have breakfast with them most mornings. They are getting off in Sydney which makes us sad but we have valued our time togehter on this leg of the trip. Ron and Elaine picked this cruise because Ron’s birthday is on 2/4. Unfortunately the ship picked 2/3 to skip but Ron is still celbrating that he hasn’t gotten any older on his birthday. What are the odds that you take a cruise and cross the international date line on your birthday, now that would be a very ineteresting math and statistic question.

One of our neighbors next door to our room has her birthday on 2/3. So now the real question is will the crew put up balloons and happy birthday signs for her birthday even though we missed it. We will see !