2008 June 21 - Cruise day 1

HOME SWEET HOME for the next six nights ...

06/21/2008
- getting on up and dressed, heading out to find breakfast again, we hit the hotel kitchen for some over-priced fare
- It amazes us how late the city wakens, up to 10 am some days
- load, checkout, and trudge down to the dock, our ship dwarfs one of the others in port
- we drop the bags at luggage check-in, wait (and wade, BH adds) a surprisingly short time through the security and immigration line, find ourselves in a pre-board line, and walk into the ship, where yet ANOTHER line waits for us to wade through ... this sucker is huge
- find our room, finally, settle in to a point, no luggage yet ... and head out to find food
- the buffet is the only spot open, and I get fried potatoes, salad, green beans, rice, and a pea and potatoe curry ... a fairly filling snack AND just as we sit down to eat I see my brother walk past on the opposite side, whereupon it is my duty to ruin the hearing of my close eating companions (including BH) as I scream my brother's name ... he heard ... and I get a round of hugs from my father, brother, sis-in-law, youngest cousin, and his girlfriend ... and we all got to eat together
- head to the top deck for cast-off, where my cousin pulls me aside and whispers that he is proposing to his girl, he wants us all on top to holler at her (and hold up a sign), and he confeses how very nervous he is
- It all went well, she was totally surprised, and actually agreed to take on not only him, but the entire family ... brave girl
- Grandma starts crying, so happy that she'll finally be marrying off her youngest grandchild
- the ship crew not only films the action, but brings out little mini bottles of cheap champagne from no-where and the fiances get to toast each other
- I'm holding my cousin's kid through this process and while the almost 1.5 year old is well behaved, he is an independent little wiggler
- So picture all 15 of us blocking the road, trying to figure out dinner (which includes a little bowl of mushroom soup and a plate of fruit for me ... uh oh) ... so we eat and everybody heads back to their room to crash ... they are tired
- BH and I head out to the hot tub and then back to the room for the evening