64 days + the journal continues...
Awake: 5:30am Overnight @ sea in the cruise ship.
The ms Amsterdam docks @ San Diego, CA about 6:00am. Our 62 day Asian
Pacific cruise has ended. I could have easily continued this surreal kind
of lifestyle for another month or so but my mate & I are both beginning to
miss our family & friends a lot. It was of course, the most enjoyable,
most adventurous, the best continuous meals served, the best almost
continuous entertainment, some of the neatest ports of call & cities
toured ever, the nicest & most people we could have ever met in two months
& the longest cruise we’d ever been on. I wouldn’t hesitate to do it all
over again but first, we plan on doing a little cruising of our own in our
home-on-wheels before getting serious about sailing the seas again.
We have our last breakfast on deck 8 of the Amsterdam with our Alaskan
companions, Jackie & Ben + Barb & Joe. Before, during & after breakfast,
we are saying “goodbyes” to some of the other people we have met & enjoyed
hanging out with these 62 days.
We are asked by our cruise director Gary over the intercom to remain in
our stateroom until our color & number are called. About 9:10am the 1st
black 1 & 2 are notified, then 3, 4 &5. Next, red 1 & 2 are alerted, then
3, 4, & 5. There were some 1375 people on this cruise liner. We are lucky,
our brown 1 & 2 were called around 9:45. Our disembarkation went smoothly.
Outside now in the huge storage facility, we easily find our suitcases, go
through U.S. customs, wait 15 min in line for a taxi & we are back in our
Campland on the Bay campground @ 10:40am. Our bus was continuously watched
by Larry & Sally since we left for our cruise & it was a natural kind of
monitoring since their camping site was nearby during those 2 months.
After walking around the outside of our bus, we bring 3 suitcases & 4
handbags into the living room & bedroom. The machine looks great &
everything seems to be working as it should. Before I do any unpacking, I
walk up to the campground office & ask reservations if we could possibly
move into another pull-thru site for 2 nights to avoid being trapped in
the site we are in by the busy weekend crowd arriving on Friday. We were
given a site to my liking for tonight & tomorrow night. Next we visit
Sally & Larry, talk for 40 min & agree on getting together later tonight
for more talk.
In the meantime, our bus is sort of trapped already by 2 motor homes, one
parked closely on the passenger side, the other parked directly in front
of us. It would require a lot of maneuvering & close watching by Kathy to
pull out from this site as we sit….but my clever wife has looked beyond
this & suggests that we simply back out because there is no one behind us
+ a clear street. “A great idea” I say. It was an obvious solution. It
took us maybe 5 min to clear out & another 5 min to park in our next
temporary site. Then we extend 2 slides & Kathy begins her unpacking while
I do further checking of the basement compartments.
Next “a shopping we will go.” Costco for starts to stock up our freezer,
then Bookstar on Rosecrans Street for a video guide for Sally….Trader
Joe’s for my organic milk & Kosher wine for Sally & Larry for tonight.
Back in the bus, I do a little unpacking while Kathy gets some healthy
snacks ready…then she gives Nick a quick call in Seattle.
Larry & Sally arrive @ 7:30. Larry brings his card reader & we look @ some
pictures from our cruise on our computer. After a little eyestrain & a few
crooked necks, I ask Larry if we might try & get these photos shown on the
big plasma TV. 15 min later, we are all sitting comfortably watching a
slideshow of our Asian Pacific travels on the big screen. Larry was a big
help in setting up this slide show tonight. This was a terrific start for
leaving our former “taste of life on the seas” & continuing our “longtime
life on the lands” we have learned to love.
Lights out: 10:55pm
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