This morning we all had to be up early to get off the ship. When I woke up we were still moving, but then I drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour, and by the time I got up we were in the port in Vancouver. We had one last breakfast buffet in the windjammer cafe, took some last cruise ship pictures, and headed off the ship. I nearly forgot my ulu knife, but luckily mom remembered. I had gotten myself one on the ship earlier in the week, and then I got a free one at one of the stops. So we collected those and headed off to customs. We filled out our declaration, which I find absolutely ridiculous. Remember those college days when we could just pop on over the border no problemo to drink-er- I mean go out to eat? Now you have to have papers, and a passport, such a hassle.Mom was all taking pictures in customs, and even after they told her to stop, she'd do it when their backs were turned. She's such a rebel. Never following the rules, that one. I didn't want to get in trouble, so I refrained. Plus, she's just going to make me put all her pictures on snapfish, so I'll have them all anyway. Oh, you should start your guesses now on how many pictures we all took as a whole. Clint took over 600, and I'm confident that was the least out of any family. I'm going to say 3000. I'll try and tally them up and see how close I am. Yup, we're a family of picture takers. Between my dad and the Ainsworths, it's just in our blood. Oh yea, and mom annoyed the lady at customs with requesting her passport to be signed, which I thought was funny. She was going into Canada just to get back home, not really even doing anything there, but she wanted it stamped, and so she got it... with the lady saying 'well, usually we don't stamp them'
We all got off the ship in waves, unfortunately between my family, and my mom getting off the ship there was some big delay in luggage and we had to wait forever for Clint, Jess, Cort and Holly, so the boys wandered over to the gift shop. Calib wanted to get a Canada hat, Peyton decided to hold off on any Canada stuff since next weekend we'll be in Niagara Falls- Calib will be with his dad by then. Check me out, I'm a world traveler. Or, at least a US traveler.Aunt Patty and Uncle Emmett met us at the port, they were well prepared. Uncle Emmett brought his truck to fit all the luggage-- because boy was there alot. Aunt Patty also had the mini van stocked with a picnic lunch, snacks and drinks. Aunt Patty is always prepared. She's like super organized lady, it's pretty awesome. We dropped Clint and Jess off at their hotel, because they were smart enough to have the foresight that 12 days together would be enough and bail out early. The rest of us silly people thought all this time together would be a great idea, and now we're stuck with each other for two more days. (I'm kidding- or maybe only mostly kidding).
We headed over the boarder going through customs again, which as annoying as it is, was pretty painless, even though mom tried to tell the guy we were bringing a dolphin back into the country and Aunt Patty defended her picnic by commenting she had no citrus, and even looked up on the internet to check out what was allowed (even though she was taking things out of the country for like an hour or two to pick us up). It did cross my mind that I had all that drama for this like couple of hours in Canada, which got me annoyed at the thing all over again (I know, I know, let it go, it's over)
Then the resident Washingtonians (is that why they're called? Spell check didn't flag it so I guess so)took us to Deception Pass State Park. We had a picnic and the kids could actually run around on grass, which after being at sea for so long, was quite the novelty. We also got to check out the tide pools. We saw lots of mussels, and sea anemones, plus tons of crabs, snails, and a couple of fish. Peyton was in LOVE with this part of the trip. Which made me even a little sadder we missed the ones in Alaska, but these were great too, and an excellent stop along with the picnic lunch was really nice. Peyton could have stayed there all day just looking in the tide pools.
We also made a stop at Deception Pass. I apparently had been there before (when I was approximately two), but I didn't remember it. Obviously, because, well, I was two. The boys made a little nervous around there, but they did a good job of following directions, holding hands, and staying with the group. Then we headed off on the nap portion of our trip. We traded Peyton for Gwen after our lunch stop, so it was Calib in the way back between Hayden and Gwen, and they all fell asleep on one another. It made for a cute picture. I woke them up when we went on the ferry. I haven't been on a Ferry forever. I feel, however, the boys didn't think it was as awesome as I did when I was a kid.. But then that's probably got something to do with the fact that they had just spent 7 nights on a boat.When we got to Aunt Pattys the kids played for awhile, and we had hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner. Pro's of Aunt Pattys over the cruise ship: More space for the kids to move around in, and free alcohol. Con's: We were not allowed to take Everton off the ship with us, and there were no towel animals on any of the beds. Aunt Patty and Uncle Emmett are pretty good tour guides though. First it was land tour director Matt, then it was cruise ship director Keith, and now it's tour guide Aunt Patty.
Deciding sleeping situations when like this: let Holly pick, she's had a rough go of it. Asa and I are currently out in the RV with Hayden and Peyton. It's kind of fun out here, one more random place I've been on this hugely long vacation. To give you some perspective- tomorrow, in the afternoon I'll hit my half way point. HALF WAY! Can you believe I have just as much to go as I've already been through. At dinner Holly was talking about staying up later after the kids go to bed, and I said I needed to sleep. They're in the home stretch of it, getting those last drops out of vacation.. Me? I'm just getting my second wind.
I will say I still feel like I'm on a boat. While standing in Aunt Patty's kitchen, I was convinced that it was moving, I'm wondering how long that feeling will last. Hopefully not much longer, I don't want to have to take Dramamine on land. It seems like not living a boat will take some getting used to.
I feel so overloaded with the internet at the moment. I'm uploading pictures, writing a blog, posting some others, checking facebook, and can't wait to finish it all to go on hulu. I feel like I've been so disconnected. However, my cell phone will take some getting used to again. While I've missed having internet and some tv while I've been gone, I have not missed my cell phone at all. I'm terrible about answering it, keeping it on my person, and getting text messages responded to in a timely manner. This will not help at all.
As I begin another leg of my trip, lets take a look at our current transportation count.
Airplanes: 2
Boats: 5
Trains: 1
Cars/Vans: 9
Motor coaches: 2
RVs: 1 (does it count if it isn't moving?)
Piggy Back Rides: Too many to count
Next Up: All the fun touristy stuff in Seattle. Think fish market and space needle.
No comments:
Post a Comment