Home

It’s is Sunday evening… we are home…

The day started when we awoke to find the ship safely at dock in Ft Lauderdale… We rose, we dressed, we went to the last breakfast (I finally ordered eggs Benedict…)

Back to the room, mostly to waste time… then, gathering our stuff, we bid our room goodbye and went upstairs and found a table outside at the stern, and sat and read, and waited… Most of the time at the end of a cruise we are desperate to get off… on a schedule to get a flight, or drive, or something for which we need off… not today… we have a flight to catch, a flight leaving about 5:00, at an airport 15 minutes away… we are going to sit somewhere… either aboard, or at the airport… the ship is a better choice… a nicer place…

For the first time in my travels I heard the “this is the final announcement, would all disembarking passengers make their way to the gangway…” The Lovely Tina and I were being kicked off a cruise ship (in a good way)

We made our way downstairs… to the gangway… off the ship… the port staff had us work our way completely around one room… when questioned (by others) the detour was for crowd control… for a nonexistent crowd… a crowd that had long passed… but the result was we had to walk once around the room, maybe 300 feet, when if fact we could have walked from the gangway to the stairs in maybe 25 feet…

Downstairs we needed to find our bags… Lots of staff wanted to tell us where to find our bags… every 20 feet someone wanted to know our color and number so they could direct us… after the 4^th encounter we were headed for our bags… but still ran a gauntlet of staff… all wanting to tell us where to go… (in a good way… not the common and rude joke…) but by the end we wanted to tell some of them where to go…)

We claimed the bags (there were few left to chose from… we really were among the last off…) we joined the line for customs/immigration… We presented our passports and custom forms… we were waved through… emerged out on the street, in search of a cab… lined up… waited for a very short time and loaded our stuff, our luggage in the cab… for a short journey to the airport.

Strangely, the cabbie had NPR on the radio… not the expected choice… most local cabbies are from one of several Caribbean islands… most commonly Haiti… I have received some of my best information on Haiti from cabbies in South Florida… today instead I listened to NPR…

We reached the airport… we checked in… we tried to check our bags… but you can’t check bags before 4 hours before the flight… so we found seats in an overcrowded airport… Many others, like us were waiting to check their bags… We sat… Ft Lauderdale’s airport has free Wifi… I logged on, but eventually, too soon the battery in my laptop was failing… I went in search of power, a wall plug… I am wondering how they vacuum this place… there are very few plugs, most in hidden side halls…

I find one in a public area, plug in and continue… Tina watched the bags… I checked email, I uploaded the photos from Grand Turk… I read about the Carnival ship and its fire… Among cruise passengers there are stories... lots of stories about what happened to which ship... mostly fictional... but there are stories... Spam... the ship aground.. its the ship that was in port with us in Grand Turk... all fictional... but stories...

Eventually I finish the upload, then make my way back to where Tina is sitting… we check our luggage… we go to lunch… we pass through security… again we sit and wait… I find a new power source… (this isn’t easy… but I am good… this one is behind a barrier… I reach, I plug in, I have the power…)

Eventually we board… a full flight… we find places for our bags… we sit… the plane leaves… we sleep… we read… we sleep some more… finally, 6 hours later we are home… we make our way to baggage claim… we call the daughter… we wait for bags… we claim bags and go outside… the daughter arrives in the car with the dog… we load luggage… we depart… the dog sticks her tongue in my ear…

Home… Luggage unloaded… I need supplies for tomorrow… I go to the store… for supplies… I need to make soup for the volunteers… the stock is already made… made some 10 days ago, from a turkey carcass from a previous docent feed… boiled, then strained, and put away… for tomorrow… currently frozen solid at work… I buy vegetables and sausages… and beer… (beer is a reoccurring theme in my life…) Returning home I chop vegetables… onions, carrots, celery, green beans… sauté them… set them aside, chop Italian sausage… brown it… break it up… the put all of the stuff in the fridge… to go to work tomorrow to be combined with the stock, with some kidney beans, some tomatoes, maybe a bit of salt… a soup… I bought bread too… I know what I am having for lunch tomorrow… Unlike the cruise, I had to make this lunch…

Work will come too soon… really crazy get ready for Christmas work… too busy… and it will continue for a couple of weeks… it really is a season… Christmas at Ardenwood, at Patterson House is not a week in the Caribbean… it may be the opposite of a week in the Caribbean…

Soon I will be working on the next trip or trips… there are weekends in Healdsburg (aka the wine country) in Reno (a Rotary train trip) to Florida (parents… I need to spend more time with mom) and maybe Hawaii… (trains… there is a wooden passenger car…) and New Orleans in May (Rotary again) I need reservations for a Yosemite trip, a family reunion in November 2011… Somewhere among all the planned trips are likely trips to Washington DC and somewhere in the American West… the desert… maybe Yellowstone… so far undefined, but a camping trip into the wilderness, the wide open west…

Now at home… food done (for now) a beer at hand… (Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA) writing this blog post… trying to make sense of the trip, now past… working on photos… I am tired but not sleepy… home… with cat hair… Tina has too many cats…