Vacation Recap, Part 3

Continued from Part 2, or start at Part 1.

Wednesday: Fun Day at Sea 2 or Run Day at Sea

Woke up feeling still a little disoriented, and late – it was like 11 am!  But, being that it was the last day, and I still hadn’t gotten up to the top deck to run, I drug my mexican buffet butt up there and ran 5 miles.  It was soooo awesome.  I didn’t want to stop but it was getting hot (I actually got a tinge of a sunburn that day just from the time running) and I had other stuff to do!  I showered and changed and grabbed just a bit of lunch (I ate about half of my trademark GIANT SALAD, and a few bites from the buffet including a really yummy piece of spicy fried chicken, can’t remember the last time I had that…), and headed to the art auction.

Zliten had met up with Stephen (work person) and his wife and 2 of their kids, and they were drinking long island ice teas (the adults, not the kids) and Stephen was being unruly and disruptive and inappropriate just like normal!  It was good fun.  We actually won 2 pieces of art in the auction (yay) and we found one we were interested in but would check out later.  We left, continued to have a few drinks, got ourselves a snack (pizza for me), and continued to enjoy the wonderful wonderful weather and our last day.

We changed for dinner (I had considered not changing because I was wearing dinner appropriate wear already but dangit I had more clothes to wear, since I had packed enough for 2 weeks), and headed down and had a really good one – delicious crab cake, asparagus vichyssoise, and an Indian vegetarian dinner which was – NUMMMY.  So have to try out some Austin Indian places.  Had the trademark baked alaska for desert, and snuck out before the singing and dancing, but not before a picture of our headwaiter and his assistant.

Since it had to be done, we went to the room and packed hastily.  It’s all going in the laundry, so we pretty much shoved everything wherever it would go, which strangely enough – we ended up with some space in the luggage.  Then we went through all the pictures they took and picked out what we wanted, and damn, those things are expensive!  22 bucks!  At least we won’t have to get a nice picture done for a while.  Then, the art auction place where we picked the two pictures we wanted from our raffle win, and actually purchased another.  Yay for more art.  Next on the list was the hot tub for one more dip, but sadly one was cold, one was full, and the other two were closed, so we packed the suits, put on real clothes and left the suitcases to be taken.

We then headed out for the casino and I turned 10 into 30 this time – except I kept playing the stupid Taxi game and it turned back into 10.  We then took the 10 and played video poker for a while.  It was actually a very fun casino night, we played for hours and hours and only lost 15 bucks!  One more late night meal – because we needed more food, of course, it had been a few hours – so we got burgers, and then headed down to the room and passed out.

Thursday: Home, home on the Range…or GET THE HELL OFF THE BOAT YOU GLUTTONS!!!

Ugh…it’s 7 am, why am I awake?  I was just falling asleep 5 hours ago…oh wait, yeah, last day of the cruise.  Boooooooo!  Actually, I am very, very, very ready to be home and in my own bed and couch, but boooo for vacation being over.  We got ready, made a last check of the room to make sure we had all our stuff, and said goodbye to the cabin and headed out (yes, I talk to things…).  Had a breakfast of a pancake, bacon, potatoes, and fruit, and wait for them to call us to get off the boat.  And waited…and waited.  At least I was really into my book.  I’m pretty proud I got halfway through it and I’m hooked, so I WILL finish the damn thing (note: haven’t touched it since I’ve been home, bah internets).

We finally get called shortly before 10, we head off the boat and into customs.  We hit the slowest fucking line imaginable, and all the other lines were pretty much EMPTY by the time we got through it.  I guess the guy was just chatty, because he was that way with us.  We got through that shortly after 11.  To his credit he did comment on my passport pic not looking like me…so it wasn’t all bad.  Then one more line for the shuttle to parking, and we were on our way home around 11:30.

The trip was both nice (we took a different route and once we got through Houston it was a straight, no trafficky road that never changed the whole way) and rough (we were both tired, I kept nodding off and Zliten said he did once too, while driving…yikes!).  I offered to drive but I needed a nap first, and he needed someone awake to help him stay awake, so he drove the whole time and I stayed MOSTLY awake.  We saw lots more barbeque, and a lot of hay (which was greeted with “hey HEY hey hey” in my delirious state).  Finally, around 3:15, we pulled into Austin, picked up some dinner (hey there, BBQ, for reals) and headed home.  We left everything in the car except the food, and pretty much vegged on the couch and napped and relaxed all day.

Awesome vacation, can’t wait for the next.  Is it time yet?