My year has gotten off to a doozy of a start! Let me backtrack to Christmas Day... we did a flying trip "home" for 24 hours. Even though our time was at a premium, I wanted to take time out to go visit my grandma, who was declining. She was 101 years old. With living out-of-state, I knew it was the last time we'd see her this side of heaven. I'm so proud of my kids for opting to go along. Also 3 of my brothers. She was dressed and sitting in her recliner -quite frankly- she looked better than I was expecting from the reports I was hearing; she even sang along with us. It was a precious goodbye visit.
A week later she declined further and was moved to a hospital bed. Hospice kept her comfortable as she made her final journey Home. She was so ready to go, but she was a strong lady and lingered until January 11.
Richard & I had booked a cruise a year ago for January 17-24. Whenever we put money on a trip in the last number of years, with a grandmother that age, I always wondered "what if a funeral interferes?" When it was clear that grandma's passing was near, I bravely stated that God knows when we are leaving and He can work it out. We had a lot of things on our calendar -including a granddaughters 7th birthday- and only a narrow window into which a funeral could be slotted. 
We shuttled to the hotel no problem, but then there was a snafu over price. The website glitched when I booked the rooms and didn't give me the member price. I called customer service who refused to work with me because the account is in Richard's name, but she did tell me we can straighten it out in person at check-in. Only to have the gentleman at the front desk refuse to honor the member price in spite of printed proof of the price and our member number. If I hadn't snagged the last 3 rooms, I would've gone across the street to their competitor. Will not use that hotel again. 🤷
As the days ticked by, my stress started amping up. God, you remember we're leaving on Friday, right? It was a long week. I wasn't sleeping well because I'd wake in the middle of the night and wonder if this would be the morning we'd get a 6am call that Grandma was in her forever Home at last. Grandma was the kind of person who would've hated inconveniencing anyone. She had wanted to pass before winter so her family wouldn't have to be freezing during a burial. By Friday I started mentally preparing for missing the funeral.
Meanwhile, the snow was also piling up; we got a foot of the white stuff. Not ideal traveling weather.
God is never early or late; He is right on time. The funeral fit into our narrow window of time we had... on the last possible day for us to still make it. For the 4th time in 2 months, we did a flying trip east. We left Wednesday morning, going straight to the church for calling hours. The weather wasn't great, but we got out ahead of the next storm. Our kids were planning to go to the funeral only, but cancelled due to the Thursday morning weather.
I'm grateful I got to be there for the funeral, the closure a memorial service gives. The grief I felt that day was not so much for losing grandma- she lived a long, full life; it was more for losing family ties. The cousins I might not see now that the matriarch of the family is gone. My dad (on the right) is the oldest of her 10 children -looking at the memory table filled with things that embody mom/grandma to us. She left us grandchildren these words of wisdom- "Walk with the Lord, children. It's a dangerous world out there."
Richard & I left directly from the funeral; we didn't stay for the burial. We drove home as quickly as we could in the snowy conditions, and started packing for the cruise. What kept me going through all the stress of that week was knowing vacation/time to relax was just ahead.
The first time we went on a cruise we asked friends who had cruised before to show us how it's done. Now that we have several trips under our belts, we're the ones paying it forward. 2 couples from church -first timers- asked us to go with them. If you've been following our travels here for any length of time, you know we rarely manage to travel without some kind of drama. Usually something or other goes sideways. On this particular trip I was booking tickets and lining things up for the whole group. I gambled on plane tickets coming down in price, but lost. We ended up on 2 different flights. Southwest's open seating is not my favorite, and the check-in time happened to be just as we were filing out of the sanctuary from the funeral so we were later boarders. At least we got seats together on the 2nd flight. Not pictured: the young man behind me who was hacking & coughing throughout the flight to FL. I could feel the germs spewing over me! 😟
We walked across the street to a Longhorn for a good steak dinner.
(I meant to take immunity building pills but forgot, so I woke up sick next morning from the guy that coughed all over me on the plane.)
Orlando is a 45 minute drive from Port Canaveral. I was not able to get the same shuttle service we used a year ago, so I booked a different one for Saturday morning. I reserved for 10-10:30 pickup time because we signed up for the 11am boarding time on the ship. I got a text that morning saying our pickup time was 10:30-11am. O-k-a-y... we waited & waited in the hotel lobby.
No communication from the shuttle driver became concerning. Richard tried to call the office several times but no one answered. Ummm... 😬 Eventually we got a text message saying they are running late and should be there in about an hour. Should and about doesn't work for us! I requested a refund, but I'm not optimistic. What else can possible go wrong?!
Titus booked an Uber ride -something we've never done ourselves. Before the driver showed up, another Uber driver pulled up and offered to take us.
6 passengers and all our luggage... is this even possible?? Where there is a will there is a way! He was a veteran Uber driver with a few tricks up his sleeve- we won't forget that ride right away. Hey, we were just happy to be on our way at last and making good time in spite of traffic.
Since you can't check into your cabin right away, you might as well let the eating begin! 😁 The Windjammer buffet is the place to be.
Till we got to the port, the first crush of passengers were already processed and we skimmed right through check-in easy peasy. This is the exact same ship we were on a year ago for Sail & Sing. Adventure of the Seas.
Leading the way
Sailing away...
We were cruise ship #4 to leave the port that afternoon.
Its 5:00 somewhere [in the main dining room]. Levi tried escargots for the first time and liked it.
I hated to miss out on the rest of them exploring the ship and eating pizza at bedtime -our nightly tradition, but I was aching all over from the flu bug (coughed on me in the plane) so I went to bed early. One of the best parts of this cruise was watching our friends discover cruise life!
To be continued...
1 comment:
You could have picked up the bug at the funeral. Some others who were there got it too soon after.
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