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WARNING: VERY TL;DR
The Arduous Journey (going)
Wake up Saturday, drive to Nanaimo. We make a last minute stop at Costco before getting to the ferry terminal. Take the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver), then drive out to Abbotsford to link up with the rest of the family (my dads siblings and their families, and his parents). Spend the night in a part of town called Auguston, which looks like something out of the Stepford Wives. All the houses, while not identical, look uncannily similar.
Wake up next morning, cereal, coffee, toast, yawn. On the road again, heading for the US Border at Sumas. Wait two and a half hours before finally crossing. First thing I did on American soil was marvel at your tiny pop cans and foreign junk foods. Drive a little longer, stop for gas. My brother Corbin goes in when mom pays for gas to purchase some snack foods. He gets Funyons, which I'm sure was an impulse buy since the last movie he watched was Half Baked. We get into Seattle, and decided to go to the mall. We wander the mall until it closes at 9:30, then go to Target and wander about there until about 10:00. What happens next is easily the most skull-numbingly, mind-crushingly boring 6 1/2 hours of my life.
See, our plane to LA leaves at 6 and we had to be at the terminal by 4. We didn't want to spend money on a hotel room if we weren't going to be there that long, so we decided to sleep in our respective cars in the Target parking lot, leaving by 2:30 (which gave us time to find parking and the like). The cramped spaces made it all but impossible to sleep, so I stayed up and listened to classic rock radio the whole time. Couldn't do anything else; not my DS because I wanted a full charge for the plane, no reading or drawing because I couldn't switch the lights on. Just the music. For 6 1/2 hours.
Finally, 2:30 comes and we're on the road. We get to the airport, wait for the people to come back after parking the cars, get our plane tickets. We grab a breakfast bagel from a restaurant and then we're on the plane. I sleep for the 2 1/2 hour flight. Get off, grab luggage, get shuttle bus thing to the docks. Wait 25 minutes for the rest of the family. Around 1 we start to board the cruise ship. Another excruciatingly long waiting period, shuffling along in barely moving lines, checkpoints, etc. But finally, our wait is rewarded. We move across the gangway, and on to the Carnival Pride.
Two Days at Sea
Not a lot to say here. I explored the ship, ate the food, and slept. The food was exceptionally good. The breakfast and lunch buffets were always delicious, and dinner was a fancy gourmet style affair. I had a lot of foods I'd never had before over the course of the cruise, such as quail, duck and lobster, all of it fantastic. We developed our personal mantra for the duration of the cruise: "Eat 'till you're tired, sleep 'till you're hungry."
I also discovered the TV in our room will occasionally broadcast English programs in Spanish. Since I shared a room with my youngest brother, he had it on the Cartoon Network most of the time. I discovered here that Dragonball Z in Spanish is ******** hilarious.
First Port of Call: Puerto Vallarta
Not a lot to say. It was so stinking hot that I wasn't off the ship for more than an hour, all of which was spent waiting for my dad and some other family members to get out of Diamonds International. Pretty town, nonetheless.
Second Port of Call: Mazatlan
My favorite stop. Hot, but not overpowering. We went to the beach where sort of made a game of who could stand up to the biggest waves. I think I lost that one, but still had tremendous fun smashing into the breakers.
Third Port of Call: Cabo San Lucas
Again, went to the beach. Some of the family ended up on another part of the beach. Their advantage: all the marine life I had wanted to see. Our advantage: umbrellas, beach chairs, and drinks. It was here that I also discovered that I'm getting a taste for beer. Del Sol is actually pretty good. The waves, while not massive, were really strong. In addition to the horrendous sunburn I got on my back, I also had a number of scratches from being tossed around on the sand. Great fun anyway.
Final Day at Sea
I take in the ship one last time before I have to bid it farewell tomorrow. My dad performs as Frank Sinatra on the Carnival Legends production after dinner. Unfortunately, he doesn't get to keep the hat. I really liked the hat. D:
The Arduous Journey (coming back)
Wake up, last breakfast buffet, go to the theater to watch a comedian while we wait for the disembarkment line to shrink. We get off, and wait in the docking area until 4PM, since there isn't anything better to do. Some of us try to get back on the ship with our keycards.
We climb into the shuttle busses and make for LAX. We eat dinner at McDonalds, the first fast food we'd had in a week. Some of us don't take it well. I take it just fine, but I had the chicken, so maybe that's why. We fly from LA to San Francisco, wait another half hour, then fly from there back to Seattle. We drive back to the border, and spend the night again at my Aunts home in Auguston. Wake up at noon, cereal, coffee, toast, yawn. We're on the road again, this time for the ferry terminal. We arrive in Nanaimo around 7, drive home, get there at 10.
And now, here it is, the next morning. Still trying to adjust, and typing this up for all of you. Pics will come as soon as my dad sends them to me.
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