We woke up this morning, the first day of spring break, to see the ground covered with snow. Utah weather is a fickle beast and April showers usually are of the white and flaky variety. But for once I'm not joining in the mournful whining - I'm actually laughing. In 36 short hours we are going to be setting sail from Long Beach, California and heading out into the open waters. It's supposed to be in the 90's in Cabo next week. I couldn't be happier.
I told my mom that we were aiming to leave by 9 this morning, and by "aiming" I meant it the way a four year old boy "aims" when he goes to the bathroom, which is to say, not very accurately. We eventually shoved off by 10, and that's about as good as I expected.
We took two cars which made for a fairly quiet, uneventful drive. My parents took Brad and Noah, who they said were "invisible" and Ryan and I had Zack and Darcey, who were also well-behaved. Somehow, though, had all of these well-behaved kids been in one car, they would have riled each other up until we were ready to ditch them in Beaver.
The four "invisible" kids reappeared when we got to the hotel room and discovered that the tv didn't have Nickelodeon or Disney Channel. Zack and Darcey bounced around the room like it was padded (and I was ready for a padded room after just a few minutes). This is the part of a vacation that I always forget about when I'm in the wishful-dreaming-about-vacationing stage: being stuck in a cramped room with kids who were just freed from an even more cramped car while they bang around like balls in a lotto drawing. (There are lots of other things I forget when I'm fantasizing, and they all come rushing back once I'm too far from home to pull the plug on the trip. I really ought to re-read my past travel blogs - it's all in there. Memory is the best reviser of history.)
So tomorrow we'll "aim" to leave by nine, most likely leaving by ten for reals, and drive to Long Beach. We can board the ship, the Carnival Splendor, at noon(ish) and then the ship sets sail at 4:30. Can you say "sets sail" if said ship is completely lacking in sails? With all the engines on board, maybe "drives away" is more accurate. Oh, speaking of engines, this is the same ship that had the engine fire last November and had to be towed back to California. Brad is hoping for a similar catastrophe on our trip - not only would we get an adventure, but we'd get another cruise out of it, for free! I love optimism as much as the next guy, but that's pushing it. Although, it'd sure liven up the blog...
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