Crossing the Atlantic

Rudolph and Iris go mid-Atlantic, June, 1965, aboard the Dutch ship Nieuw Amsterdam. The posh couple were accompanied by daughter Liane, and her governess, Miss Doucette. Rudolph's sudden fear of flying resulted in this adventure on the High Seas, where the Schirmer's perfected their shuffleboard and indulged in the favorite sport of deck chair napping. The crossing was blissfully uneventful, with the exception of dressing for dinner and the lifeboat drill. During this little exercise, Rudolph panicked and Liane gave in to her morbid fascination with disasters at sea.

The Continent eventually proved to be their undoing, and they sailed home late that November (narrowly missing an "incident" involving the "Rafael", sister ship to their homeward vessel, the "Michelangelo"), only to land in New York in time to enjoy "GrandMama" and subsequently, the great Blackout of '65. While Rudolph and Iris were busy catching up on a round of furious socializing, they somehow forgot to attend to Liane's education. Fortunately, for Liane at least, she got to miss two months of the Westlake School for Girls, and spent days enjoying room service and the Hall of the Middle Ages at the Met. During this period, she often lunched in the Stanhope dining room with Alla Auersperg (daughter of the late Sunny Von Bulow) who was also the victim of peripatetic parents.

Shortly after the blackout, Iris and Rudolph decided to return to sunny California, where, at least, if the lights went out, you wouldn't have to climb up and down 15 flights of stairs.
Caption: S.S. Nieuw Amsterdam, Holland America Line