Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Pending Posts

We dutifully put our suitcases outside our room on Saturday night, having set out clothes and toiletries we would need to get ready to go home.  Seemed risky to leave luggage out in a hallway but then I realized 'where is anyone going to go?'.  We were at sea all night.

Sunday morning dawned early and we peeked out the window to confirm we were in the San Pedro harbor - same berth we left from.  The evening before we arrived, you go pick what time you want to leave and get the corresponding colored luggage tags.  Our room steward must have been hoping we would be departing earlier 'cuz he kept checking with us - I finally told him 'we aren't leaving until 9:30AM' - and then he returned with our room charge bill shortly after and we never saw him again.

We marveled at (once again) the efficiency of the cruise operation.  They announced 'colors' throughout the morning and people proceeded in an orderly fashion to the exit on deck 7.  When it was finally our turn, the lines weren't too long and we made it through fairly easily.  Once off the ship, we had to go through customs - where the agent asked (somewhat suspiciously) 'you don't have any liquor'?  or tobacco?'  I replied 'no' to both - I saw a lady buy 15 huge bottles of booze on Saturday at the gift shop so people stock up at the 'duty free' shop.  We're not really sure what 'duty free' means 'cuz her purchase most certainly exceeded the $800 exemption allowed - but anyway.  I said 'no' because we made no purchases of those items - and all we had purchased was clearly listed on our claim form.  Souvenir stuff mostly.

J. did remind me that we did have a bottle of champagne which I'd totally forgotten about (part of our Romance Package from our anniversary!) but that had also been listed on the form so....another confirmation he was marveling that we hadn't stocked up.

I thanked God at the site of the porter with a cart who assisted us with our carry ons and the two huge suitcases.  She took us all the way back to where we boarded the ship a week earlier to hail a cab. The ride back to the hotel where our car was parked was uneventful though the cab driver had never participated in the 'stay and park' with this hotel.  He didn't understand that we weren't paying him - we did tip him - but he seemed concerned that we weren't paying the fare on his meter.  I went in to the hotel to tell them we were safely back and the cabbie seemed concerned - and they took it from there.  He got paid - just not by us.

We made it home - no car issues (thank goodness!).  We went 99 as planned - a route I've never taken from So. Cal. home - marveled out how more developed and populated it is vs. I5.  I5 has always been a barren nothing for most of the drive - vs. 99 which has tons of things to look at and towns to pass through along the way.  We made a stop for lunch just past the Grapevine and another quick stop for gas and bathroom break.  We pulled in just after 5PM which wasn't too bad.  99 takes a little longer but it was worth it for the peace of mind knowing that if we did have car issues, we had plenty of places to be towed within our 100 mile tow allowance from CSAA.

J.'s going to take the car in this week to get it checked out - hoping it's a simple tube or something since it seemed to be related to when the gas volume was low?  Who knows.  It will need to be hooked up to the diagnostic computer and see what it says.

So many posts pending and pictures to get loaded - so be ready for a 'scroll down' short post to alert to new posts about the cruise.  I just can't finalize them all tonight and tomorrow is back to work for me.  I've felt pretty awful the past couple days - still cold/congestion and just exhausted...but I will survive.  Trying to remind myself to drink more ('cuz a lot of the time, my fatigue is related to not enough to drink and that's especially true when I'm not in my normal work routine having a huge iced tea and refilling with water throughout the day).

The trip was spectacular and we are already planning our next cruise - same time next year to Eastern Caribbean from New York - 11 nights.  We've already prepaid deposits for at least 2 more cruises so..we just have to find the one(s) we want to do and book them officially - then we have until 60 days before the cruise to make the final payment.

It's a wonderful way to travel and we both think 'sea days' are tons of fun.  So relaxing to just enjoy the journey and plenty of fun activities to keep us busy (if we choose to be busy).  I think a nice cruise a year (maybe two!) will get me through retirement...though I miss Paris and we definitely have to go back there, too.

So many options and so many places to go -

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