So after my two long hikes to the store, we loaded up our (heavy) cokes and bags into yet another Town Car and head for the docks! The Rhapsody of the Seas isn't the biggest ship in RC's fleet, but it still holds around 2200 passengers, give or take. It's a curious thing, watching all these people get in line for the same long trip. You can tell the rookies from the veterans, for sure. My lovely wife took special care to see we were included in the later group, not the former. We'd pre-checked our bags rather quickly, not taking the time to stand and stare at the "big boat" like so many others. The urge to correct that misnomer was strong throughout the trip. Afterall, my wife's grandmother has a boat. It's a nice tri-toon with plenty of seating, great for a relaxing day out on Cedar Creek Lake with family. The 78,000 ton, "boat", we were taking to Alaska was a floating city with a casino, hospital, bars, dining halls, shops, theater... There's a fire department, armed security. The captain is technically mayor and minister all in one! Yes, it's a "boat" like I'm a petite, little girl.
We met some nice Canadians from Victoria while standing in line. They were excited about some drug they were taking to help them quit smoking. I've been through the pain of quitting that bad habit, I guess whatever helps ease that pain is good. But I've heard some pretty bad things about those drugs too. Scary things! We wished them the best as they got into the Diamond Club members' line. There are no special lines for Gold Club members. Thirty minutes of people watching later, we were on board! It should be noted that we did try to play the honeymooner card with the lady behind the check-in counter; it didn't work. I should have showed her some leg.
The view in Seattle is stunning, especially from the ninth deck of an ocean liner! It's magnified with the one you love beside you. She and I were able to hang out on the deck for awhile in the cool mid-60's temp while the crew prepared our room and delivered our luggage. One word of advice to any guys reading this, if your wife wants to go sign up for excursions during this waiting period which is a part of any cruise, let her. While I was letting the tension roll off me with each sea breeze (I'd been working two jobs at the time), Bevin was getting more and more nervous about the prospect of not getting some of the off shore activities we'd planned to have since March. It's not as much fun having fun when the one you love isn't having fun too. That's not a profound statement, but it's true nonetheless. They eventually got things right for us though, and once that happened, we prepared to lose track of time for the next nine days.
(to be continued...)
Summer Recap pt. 1
Wow, I didn't realize that we hadn't written about any of our goings-on in quite some time. And in that time, Bevin and I have done a lot!
We've eaten "Frozen Lucys" at Mom's on Main in Aubrey, went to a LOST finale watch party, enjoyed ourselves at a summer kickoff party at the pool, I had a second job at Babies-R-Us for a little while, lit off fireworks with friends on the 4th, Bevin's done some yoga, joined NetFlix, and we started going to a new church- not all exactly in that order though. Plus I've read some Dean Koontz books (Odd Thomas is pretty cool), we've watched all of Friends again, and Bevin bought me season one of Good Eats. It's been a full summer to say the least and I know that I'm skipping over a lot. But the best thing we've done since our last post was... our honeymoon cruise to Alaska!!
If you've never been to "The Last Frontier", go now. Think of the most beautiful thing you've seen in the most beautiful state you've been to. In Alaska, the most beautiful thing you've seen in the most beautiful state you've been to is even more beautiful than you saw it the first time. Trust me! I'm speaking from experience.
We left Dallas on June 18th for Seattle. It was a four hour trip that knocked two hours off the clock so that when we landed at 10PM, our bodies were ready for bed. There was no time for sleep though! We jumped into our waiting Lincoln Town car and sped off to one of the nicest Best Westerns I've ever seen located in Pioneer Square. Feel free to look it up, it really is a fancy hotel. The concierge at the front desk suggested a pizza joint around the corner for dinner. It was late and they delivered, so we took the advice. The name of the restaurant escapes me at the moment, but the guy on the phone who took our order had a very thick accent, Italian or possibly Greek. We dined on a piping hot, gooey delight! I swear they made their own cheese for the calzone.
Heavy dinner made for great sleep. Great sleep made us ready to tackle the process of getting on board the ship! Before we got into a second Town Car to head off to the docks, there was an issue of procuring Cokes and Dr. Pepper for the trip. Royal Caribbean allows each passenger to bring on a certain amount of personal beverages, basically a six pack of cokes apiece per passenger. And we loves the Cokes and Dr. Peppers! So again, the guy behind the lobby desk saves the day and directs me to a store two blocks up the street and around the corner. Not far, right? Bevin stayed in the lobby to watch the bags, while I made the trip to get a couple of six packs each of our fave drinks.
Along the way, I saw some of the Local Color. Seattle is a lot like Austin, only cooler weather wise. And Pioneer Square is a lot like South Austin, only you're in Seattle, so being there yields a looking glass feel to the scene. A homeless guy had parked his dolly/ruck-sack/carryall outside the store's entrance. I strolled in with my duffel bag, stepped around the guy stocking drinks in the cooler, and dropped two cans of DP on the floor, one of which began to spray all over me and the stocker. He was nice about it all, said something to me in broken Spanglish to the effect of, "It's okay, it's okay" and he cleaned up the mess. I paid the lady behind the counter fifteen bucks and made my way back to the hotel... only to be told by my lovely bride that canned drinks may or may not be allowed on the boat. Nice! Back to the store! The lady behind the counter gave a half-hearted laugh when I told her I needed to swap the cans for bottles and why. With a promise not to bust anymore cans, I made it out of the store a second time with 13 bottles of drink instead of 24 cans, and I got a buck-twenty or so in change as well.
(to be continued, hopefully with pictures too...)
We've eaten "Frozen Lucys" at Mom's on Main in Aubrey, went to a LOST finale watch party, enjoyed ourselves at a summer kickoff party at the pool, I had a second job at Babies-R-Us for a little while, lit off fireworks with friends on the 4th, Bevin's done some yoga, joined NetFlix, and we started going to a new church- not all exactly in that order though. Plus I've read some Dean Koontz books (Odd Thomas is pretty cool), we've watched all of Friends again, and Bevin bought me season one of Good Eats. It's been a full summer to say the least and I know that I'm skipping over a lot. But the best thing we've done since our last post was... our honeymoon cruise to Alaska!!
If you've never been to "The Last Frontier", go now. Think of the most beautiful thing you've seen in the most beautiful state you've been to. In Alaska, the most beautiful thing you've seen in the most beautiful state you've been to is even more beautiful than you saw it the first time. Trust me! I'm speaking from experience.
We left Dallas on June 18th for Seattle. It was a four hour trip that knocked two hours off the clock so that when we landed at 10PM, our bodies were ready for bed. There was no time for sleep though! We jumped into our waiting Lincoln Town car and sped off to one of the nicest Best Westerns I've ever seen located in Pioneer Square. Feel free to look it up, it really is a fancy hotel. The concierge at the front desk suggested a pizza joint around the corner for dinner. It was late and they delivered, so we took the advice. The name of the restaurant escapes me at the moment, but the guy on the phone who took our order had a very thick accent, Italian or possibly Greek. We dined on a piping hot, gooey delight! I swear they made their own cheese for the calzone.
Heavy dinner made for great sleep. Great sleep made us ready to tackle the process of getting on board the ship! Before we got into a second Town Car to head off to the docks, there was an issue of procuring Cokes and Dr. Pepper for the trip. Royal Caribbean allows each passenger to bring on a certain amount of personal beverages, basically a six pack of cokes apiece per passenger. And we loves the Cokes and Dr. Peppers! So again, the guy behind the lobby desk saves the day and directs me to a store two blocks up the street and around the corner. Not far, right? Bevin stayed in the lobby to watch the bags, while I made the trip to get a couple of six packs each of our fave drinks.
Along the way, I saw some of the Local Color. Seattle is a lot like Austin, only cooler weather wise. And Pioneer Square is a lot like South Austin, only you're in Seattle, so being there yields a looking glass feel to the scene. A homeless guy had parked his dolly/ruck-sack/carryall outside the store's entrance. I strolled in with my duffel bag, stepped around the guy stocking drinks in the cooler, and dropped two cans of DP on the floor, one of which began to spray all over me and the stocker. He was nice about it all, said something to me in broken Spanglish to the effect of, "It's okay, it's okay" and he cleaned up the mess. I paid the lady behind the counter fifteen bucks and made my way back to the hotel... only to be told by my lovely bride that canned drinks may or may not be allowed on the boat. Nice! Back to the store! The lady behind the counter gave a half-hearted laugh when I told her I needed to swap the cans for bottles and why. With a promise not to bust anymore cans, I made it out of the store a second time with 13 bottles of drink instead of 24 cans, and I got a buck-twenty or so in change as well.
(to be continued, hopefully with pictures too...)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
