You probably know the drill as well as I do by now: Christmas cards in July, Christmas shopping in August, medical/dental appointments in September, pull up the garden and empty the flower pots, clean the house, winterize the mower, get broken things fixed, shop for new things, lay new deck flooring (completed just yesterday, and it looks so amazing we are given just a bit of pause about leaving home), finish the trim around a new patio door we'd just installed and caulk around it (my speciality) after dark holding a flashlight between my teeth and, finally (almost as an afterthought), pull out a suitcase.
You know, the same thing everyone does just before they leave for a cruise. ;-)
Just to clarify, it's not that we are lazy slugs around here until just before we leave in the fall. On the contrary, I had a paint brush in my hand last spring as soon as the overnight temperatures allowed exterior painting. It's simply too hot, from about June 1 to September 1, for us to do any major outside renovations. And this year, beginning about the second week in August, we were hit with a barrage of misfortune so relentless that somewhere around October 1st I actually started to stress a bit that we'd be able to leave. As I told G, despite all our organization, events outside of our control were occurring that threatened to ruin the best laid plans of mice and men. To which G replied that it was only because we are so organized that they didn't. On this note, mine is definitely the half-empty glass, and I won't totally relax until my fanny hits a plane seat.
Just to clarify, it's not that we are lazy slugs around here until just before we leave in the fall. On the contrary, I had a paint brush in my hand last spring as soon as the overnight temperatures allowed exterior painting. It's simply too hot, from about June 1 to September 1, for us to do any major outside renovations. And this year, beginning about the second week in August, we were hit with a barrage of misfortune so relentless that somewhere around October 1st I actually started to stress a bit that we'd be able to leave. As I told G, despite all our organization, events outside of our control were occurring that threatened to ruin the best laid plans of mice and men. To which G replied that it was only because we are so organized that they didn't. On this note, mine is definitely the half-empty glass, and I won't totally relax until my fanny hits a plane seat.
It's a bit ironic that just about the time we had made a science out of packing for five months of cruising in the Caribbean, we head to Tahiti, where there won't be a Walgreens on the corner by the ship and, moreover, where we will incur checked baggage charges on our flights. Air Tahiti Nui, which we'll fly from Los Angeles to Papeete, allows us each, free of charge, one checked bag plus one additional free bag if filled with scuba gear. United, which we'll fly to Los Angeles, allows us nothing for free, charging $25 each way for the first checked bag, and $35 for the second. So, we're fitting everything into three suitcases with the third one containing just scuba/snorkel gear.
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| Something old- something new. My original scuba mask and snorkel (on the left) were 16 years old. Though they were of high quality, time had taken a toll and the silicone skirt on the mask had a couple of cracks and the gasket in the snorkel had been repaired twice. I replaced them with cheaper models but stayed with the same color. After all, it's Pescado Amarillo, not Pescado Rojo or Pescado Azul. ;-) |
I won't say I went as far as backpackers do, sawing the handles off of toothbrushes to save weight, but I am leaving behind my Sonicare toothbrush (and charging cord) in favor of the old fashioned kind. And as much as I like Rick Steves' travel advice, I just can't fully embrace his philosophy that it is always possible to pack lightly. His theory is that if it can be purchased at the destination, wait and do that; if it can't be, then do like the locals and live without it. Rick Steves is obviously not allergic to nearly everything (like me), but even setting that fact aside, faced with the prospect of paying an extra $70 in United baggage fees or French Polynesia's exorbitant prices, I think baggage fees might be cheaper. I also remember all too clearly running out of antiperspirant in Brazil during those heated nights of Carnaval parades and spending way too much time searching pharmacias for more, finding only deodorants, not anti-perspirants. While I want to embrace the local culture, I'd like to not be wet with sweat when I do.
I knew even before I started putting things in my suitcase late Friday afternoon that I was going to have weight issues (the story of my life). In fact, I never even bothered packing certain items, mostly liquids, thinking I would add them in if I could. No such luck. When the scale hit 50 pounds on the suitcases's first weighing (in my defense, I have G's tux and tropical shirts in it, as well as my own clothes, toiletries and shoes), I needed to remove a few more things, just to have a little cushion. Our hand held scale is pretty accurate, but we try to limit each suitcase to 47 pounds, just to be safe.
That we had to combine two suitcases simply to eliminate our usual 4th suitcase meant leaving even more things behind. First on that list are our shower bins; I don't think they'll suction cup to the walls in the Pacific Princess showers (which, again, is not a typical Princess ship). Also staying home: the laptop (my new iPad is 100 times easier to take), half of the clothes I usually take (which is not a lot to begin with) and more than half the toiletries (which is). Luckily, though cruising out of Papeete does complicate things a bit, staying for less than four months, at least in part, simplifies them.
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| A quick nugget of knowledge: The best scuba/snorkel spit around is a drop of baby shampoo rubbed into each mask lens and rinsed well. No fogging, and this bottle has lasted for years, so it's also ultra cheap. Put it in a recycled Princess bottle and you're good to go! |
Packing problems aside, the fact that we're not gone for the entire winter has changed our normal "close up the house" routine, but not nearly as much as I might have thought. We do things like shut off the water to the house when we leave just for one night, so for five days or five months, the routine is largely the same. This year, the refrigerator was nearly empty by the end of September, and, by tonight, all that was left were a few condiments, one lone pack of Hebrew National 97% fat free hot dogs (we're showing improvement in forecasting hot dog consumption) and a generous supply of individual packs of microwavable edamame beans, purchased during a fleeting health kick at Sam's Club shortly after we returned home in April but still there in October. (Notice I have never once told you that the only item left in our refrigerator was ice cream. Or a bottle of Jose Cuervo margaritas. Ain't NEVER gonna happen.) ;-)
Unwilling to rely on an ATM at the Papeete airport for our first round of French Polynesian Francs, G got us a starter set last month through our local Chase bank. The twins were intrigued by the colorful bills and thrilled by all the 000s, and we practiced some multiplication in figuring out their US values. In reality, I just drop the last two zeros and add back 5% to 10% to convert from CFP to $US, but I wasn't going to waste such an educational opportunity with two fifth graders.
For the last month, Tuesday evenings have been spent watching the twins' basketball practices, as I will miss all of their games this fall. :-( They have decided their passion lies more with basketball than football, which was at first a blow to my heart (and I'm convinced after watching them play that basketball is every bit as dangerous as football, so there was no solace there), but I have to admit that I'll never have to watch a basketball game in bitter cold and blowing snow, and for that reason alone I was willing to adapt. We had our traditional last supper at Sweet Tomatoes this week (hold the edamame, please!).
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| The traditional Last Supper at Sweet Tomatoes a few days ago. |
We will be up very early tomorrow for our flight to LAX, and then connect to a 3:30pm Air Tahiti Nui flight (flight #1) to Papeete. There will be almost 300 passengers on the jet, and I suspect that nearly all of us will be going on the Pacific Princess. Open bar - excited cruisers- let's get this party started!