End of my Adventures. PART SIX

Saturday morning I was up early to meet Dad to run. I did an easy 18 laps. Dad did most of them with me. I like running with Dad. It certainly makes it easier to do it. And its more fun to sprint that last half lap when I have an impressible audience. Whoo-hoo for sticking to my running routine!

We had breakfast early. We wanted to try the nice restaurant for breakfast and hadn’t yet done so. It was pretty much the same offerings as the buffet, but you got to order it and they brought it to you. It was quieter though and a nice change. Except Mom was feeling seasick and left after one bite of her cinnamon raison French toast.

At 9:30 we gathered for a Bruce Porter Seminar. I took notes and learned good stuff. I'll post it later. So, Bruce Porter spoke and had such fascinating things to say. I felt like Dave Barry’s description of an ant on a tire- I know I’m standing on something huge, but I have no clue what, past the tiny portion that I can see!

We also had debarking (that word made me laugh.) instructions and everyone got a token drawing prize. I got a little jug of Mexican vanilla. I was happy with that. I had a little time before lunch, and thought about a nap, but I got distracted with reading. That worked well, because Dad called and said Steve wanted to download all our pictures. I went up there and Steve got all our pictures onto his laptop so he could cut disks later for us.

Oh, the reason we didn’t do lunch right after Bruce Porter was they were having a “Chocoholic Buffet” at 2pm and Dad wanted to go hungry. Let me just say “WOW!” A million people were there, but there was sufficient for all. They herded us through pretty quickly too. It was beautiful; there were huge ice sculptures, and then a lot of chocolate sculptures (I recall the dragon and griffin, but there were a lot more.) as well. All the cakes and confections were attractive as well as tasty, with sugar decorations on top and other interesting things. It was beyond impressive. There were 4 very long buffet tables filled with these sculptures and chocolate confections. So cool! We piled our plates high and gorged on tastiness (chocolate covered brownie, mile high mousse dome, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse pie, brownie pudding-like stuff, ice cream…. I passed on the chocolate sushi.) till we wanted to puke, and waddled out of there.

Bruce Porter agreed to one additional lecture at 3pm, but I bailed. My brain was so full and my tummy too, and I was sleepy. So I did go take a little nap, while Mom and Dad were edified some more. When they finished there, Dad called me and we went all over the ship taking pictures. That was so much fun! We did silly poses with everything we could think of. I also did a bunch of “missionary shots” by myself. One of the things we took a picture of was the hand sanitizer. Everywhere you go, they have these automatic hand sanitizers, especially at the restaurants (an when you board the ship!). So we took a few minutes for me to pose and get a shot with it. The funny thing is that after we took the picture, about 3 people around us laughed and said that they either had photographed that too, or had wanted to. We also got pictures of the sun setting. So we had a very good time.

We got Mom and headed up to dinner around 6:30. All that chocolate for lunch hadn’t done any of us any good! We enjoyed dinner though and still got dessert! We took a few more pictures and called it a night. Well, I meant to, but the lure of the internet was too strong. I caved, and spent the $15 to use the internet. I can’t believe I went an entire week without reading email or logging on!

It was the last night, and I had done everything I had wanted to! I had to pack my bags though- remembering to leave out all the clothes and things I would need for Sunday morning. Then I had to put the colored (green) tag on my bags and leave them outside the door. The magic luggage fairy comes in the middle of the night and removes them so they are all organized when you get off the ship in waves, according to your luggage tag color. So I took care of that. Sandra was out till midnight again and I can’t sleep till its all dark and quiet, but it was kind of nice to have an excuse to not go to bed! But I slept pretty well till 5am, when I realized we were docking. I was well awake at 6:30, so I went to the library room to read. I met Mom and Dad for breakfast at 8am and we hung out in their room till 9:30, when our color was called.

It was pretty quick work to get off the ship and find our bags. Then we had to line up and wait for customs. I was very sad I didn’t get any stamps in my passport, so the nice customs man gave me a US stamp. Not as good as one from Honduras or Guatemala, or Belize or Mexico, but at least my passport isn’t totally empty! Mom called our ride and we waited on the curb for 10 minutes. He drove us to the car, which had been bumped while we were gone. A lovely smudged bumper, but most of the mark will buff out, probably. We loaded the car and were on our way! 4 hours later we arrived at Andy and Kera’s, a little after 2pm. I opened the door and Delaney was playing on the steps and she just looked at me. The most suspicious look I’d ever seen. She just stared at me as I picked her up and then she was happy.

We stayed the night there and Monday morning Mom drove Delaney and me to the airport and we flew home- no problems.