Going home day. =( We're not looking forward to the reality of making our own meals and beds and going back to work. We sleep as long as we can, which is just after 6am and drag ourselves out of bed before 7 am to get ourselves ready. Out of the cabin just before 8am and in line for breakfast for when they open at 8:15. The first seating has almost left the restaurant and it's being prepped for us. A quick a la carte breakie and some goodbyes and we're off. Stacey had to use the washroom and the line was long, so it took us an extra 10 minutes to get going. That put us behind a large crowd of people all converging on the gangway to leave the ship. Why do we always get the slow lane? Why do people not wait in line and barge in? Some people just don't think things apply to them. Yesterday at the adult's only beach, a family showed up with 2 little kids. A staff member came over to tell them, and they responded, yes, that why the kids are just going to stay here nearby the exit to the beach area. Wow! I think they were asked to leave. The kids shouldn't have even gotten on the tram to the adults area. Anyway, where was I?

Even though we left breakfast before 9am and joined the lineup just after, it took a bit to get off the ship. By the time that we did, there was a huge line snaking around the terminal of people waiting to get to the customs agents. We had to get across that line to where our luggage was, at the far corner of the room, and bring it back through that line to the join the end of it. Wow. The line moved pretty well, I must say though. Even though there was a family or two, Spanish, I think, that butted in line just ahead of us midway. I've seen things like that a few times from Spanish speaking families. It must be a cultural thing. If you don't push ahead you don't get what you want I guess where they come from. /shrug.

There were staff members directing traffic to the customs agents quickly, though, and the line moved much faster than I expected it to. Looks like this has been done a lot. Past customs, we are directed to a cruise line bus and our luggage is loaded on and we hop on. The bus is filled with people and our luggage and the bus leaves at 10:30am. Not too bad considering. We are the second stop at the airport. Thankfully, most people get off at the first stop, so it's easier for us to get ourselves off the bus and collect our luggage. We're in the terminal at 11:30am. Nice. It takes me a few minutes to figure out where to go and how to check in at the automated check in, but it goes pretty well. No big lineups or waits. We are done by noon and heading to find where our gate is.

No problems so far, time to get us something to eat before the flight and wait it out. We're told that it's a full flight, no empty seats, and they also ask for volunteers to check their carryon's at no charge, expecting the overhead bin space to be at a premium. Stacey decides that she can do this and turns her luggage over. She has second thoughts later, thinking about some of the breakables she had inside it, but it's too late to change now. The flight goes well, if not cramped. It's a long plane, a Boeing 757-300 model, with 3 seats on each side of a center aisle. Sadly, the 3 people in front of us immediately recline their seats and keep them that way for the entire 3h15m flight. No room to move at all. What can you do? Didn't want to do that to the people behind me. Not really their fault I guess. It's everyone's fault for allowing the airlines to shrink the space between rows to add more seats to the planes to squeeze the most money out of the flights. If everyone complained about it, wouldn't they have to change? Now if you want extra room, it's either big bucks for first class or an extra charge for a "premium" seat with an inch or two more space. Quite the racket they've got going on, charging for any checked luggage now too. Some have even started charging for carry on luggage.

The flight is a little behind schedule when we land, as air traffic had slowed the plane done mid flight. The captain said that there is some issue at Chicago, and planes are being slowed by having to divert around the area. No problem for us, though, as I had purposely chosen a flight with a longer layover for just such events. I hear one father getting off the plane say that they had 8 minutes to get off the plane with a 3 year old and get to their next plane. I hope they made it.

We have time to get to the next terminal and grab some dinner before our next flight. It starts to board around 7:20pm and again are told that it's a full flight, every seat has a butt in it. We have a little more room this time. It's a smaller plane, only 2 seats on either side of the center aisle and a much shorter plane. Stacey's doing well, being a bit of a nervous flyer.

We expect to land back in Vancouver by 10pm, but it will feel like 1am to us, as we will still be feeling eastern time. I hope we can sleep alright when we finally get to bed. Stacey's parents, Ron and Heather are going to be picking us up at the airport. I just hope they bring our van rather than their Neon. We're going to need the luggage space. Lol.

……

Well, that went faster than expected. We land at 9:10pm and have our luggage and meet Heather at the airport at 9:40pm. She and Ron had just gotten there and Ron was doing a loop and the van around the airport to see if he needed to park or if we could just load up and go. Traffic wasn't bad and we were back in Maple Ridge before 11am. Much quicker than I had thought. I didn't think we'd be getting there until 1am at least. Since I was still feeling awake, we decided to drive home and sleep in our own bed. So, we didn't bother to unload the van, and just said some quick goodbyes to Ron and Heather and Amber, who was visiting with Chad. Chad had already gone to bed.

Traffic was fine and we home around 12:30am and brought the luggage inside the house and went to bed. It was 1am, but it felt like 4am to us. It feels weird to be home. In fact, it almost doesn't feel like home. So much to do, with all the unpacking, laundry, bills to pay, groceries to get, and get ready to go back to work. Dreading that. One more thing I'd been dreading…the bathroom scale. I ate way too much good food and desserts, and after a month of cruising, Stacey and I have both gained weight. More me than Stacey. Looks like I'm going to be eating salad for a loooooong time. Doh! Lol.

Thanks for reading all. Don't think we'll be taking a trip like this again. Not for a very long time. Another cruise? Stacey wants to do an Alaska cruise next year, and we're looking at the August 24th cruise from Vancouver. Anyone want to go?

WWWHY (wish we weren't home yet)

Kim =) and Stacey :)