We can almost smell the sea air

An early glimpse of the Gulf of Mexico from our plane. This is when Reality set in for me. I am a water baby at heart, and the thought of spending three months on the water thrills me. 90 100 sunrises...90 100 sunsets. We are really doing this!!

We're on our way!

We are at the gate awaiting our non-stop flight on Southwest. Closing up the house went smoothly this morning; we work from check lists of things to do last week, last day, final morning. Friend Martha drove us to the airport (thank you Martha!). We are maxing out the capacity of four BIG suitcases, close to 200 pounds of luggage in all. We can travel light (I spent two weeks in China with a carry on), but we had no incentive to cut back on our packing on this trip. We're allowed two checked bags each on Southwest, and we're taking full advantage of that.

We keep looking at each other saying "We made it!". It's as if getting ready for this trip has been a series of hurdles, and each one we clear puts us that much closer to our winter home.

One more sleep...

although we're too excited to sleep  And too exhausted not to.  We're packed, the suitcases have been weighed (we ended up buying a fourth one so that none are too heavy) and we've said our goodbyes (best done while the game was on and the Broncos were beating the Raiders. A quick wave and a goodbye, and that was as sentimental as it got. I don't think their eyes ever left the TV screen).   We've prepared the house, the yard, the cars to handle our absence. The refrigerator is turned off, and the pantry is bare.  Tomorrow morning we have several last minute things to do before we leave for the airport around 8am. 

We are ready to go. 

We've been planning this for 18 months. We started in April 2010 by booking eight 10-night cruises in a row.  We've since added cruises on the front end, cancelled a cruise on the back end and booked, de-booked and again booked flights (thank you Southwest!). Every day for the past 8 months I have checked cruise and air fares for price drops. We used points to book a pre-cruise hotel in Fort Lauderdale, then cancelled the reservation when a better hotel became available on Hotwire.  And that's just managing the vacation; we've also had to prepare things around the house. It's been a busy time. 

People frequently ask why we don't do a World cruise.  After all, they're not that much longer (generally just over 100 days). And we'd travel to more places and more exotic places (Vietnam, Thailand, India...)  And the reason - the main reason - is simple. World Cruises are a LOT of work. When you're visiting a place for the first and only time in your life, you want to research it thoroughly and tour it intensively.  We don't want to work that hard!  We just want to escape the cold for a few months and relax. 

We've been to all the islands we're visiting many times. We know which beach is our favorite, which snorkel site is best, how to get to the local bus station and which bus to take to get where we want to go. We know whether we like the local beer, whose brother in law has a boat we can hire for the day, and which taxi driver is our favorite. We even know some of the locals, and enjoy visiting them at their homes and taking them a little liquid libation and treats for their kids.  It's easy, it's familiar, it's comfortable. 

In fact, we've been on the Emerald Princess so many times that we say that boarding the ship on the first day is like coming home after a really long shore excursion. 

Maybe we will do a World cruise someday.  But, for now, we want warm weather and tropical islands and long stretches of sandy beaches, and a different snorkel site every day, and steel drum music played dockside as the ship pulls into a new port in the morning, and jerk chicken bought from a street vendor, and coconut water from a coconut freshly cut off a tree, and mojitos at sunset and...

No, we're not going to sleep tonight. 

:-)

Something new

When we cruise, we are assigned a ship's card that is similar to a hotel key card, and allows us to unlock our cabin door, but it also functions as a credit card for onboard charges and is scanned every time we exit/enter the ship in port. For years we've simply punched a hole in our cards and worn them on a lanyard around our necks. I never carried a purse on a cruise, except on formal nights. This year, I needed something to hold my reading glasses :-( and decided it was time for...something. This purse is small, about 5"x7", and will be perfect to hold reading and sun glasses, my iPhone and my ship's card. Lined, and with a top zipper, it's just what I need for days on the ship, and when G saw it in a local store, he insisted I buy it. It sure looks Caribbean to us!

Starting to pack

Packing for this trip has been giving me fits. Actually, it's the anticipation of packing that's been troubling me. Clothes are easy...put everything I might want to take in a suitcase. Weigh it. Take half of it out.

But the issues for me are always toiletries and shoes (that foot, don't you know?). I attacked the shoe issue earlier in the year. I bought 3 new pairs (2 of them sandals), they're all really comfortable, and they're all going with me.  Formal, casual, on the ship, off the ship, walking six miles, at the beach or in the mud...I'm all set now.

Toiletries are harder.  So much of what I use comes from Aveda, Ulta and Bath and Body Works, and there are none of those near the port in Fort Lauderdale.  So I'm taking 90 100 days worth of a lot of things, and replacing drugstore items as needed over the next three months.  I always say that I can live without most things for a week, and some things for a month.  But for three months...unless I want to return home with leathery skin and straw for hair, I need everything.

A quick aside...last night was Halloween, and we came inside from a day of yard work just in time to start greeting trick or treaters.  One of the first groups to arrive was four little ones, ranging from about 3 to 5 years old.  You know, the really cute ones.  While I was enjoying handing out candy, the littlest one looked at me and said, "Wow. You're old. You're really, really old".

Ouch.

Now, I adore kids, you know I do.  But it was all I could do to not channel my inner Soup Nazi (from Seinfeld) and say, "No candy for YOU!"

Which gets me back to the reason I need to take every moisturizer I own.  And why I really, really need this cruise!