First Caribbean Cruise: Getting There

Our first Caribbean cruise! It's been so much fun sharing the eager anticipation with our fellow travelers (my brother Galen, his wife Carol, my niece Venisa and her husband Anthony). The texts and calls have been flying back and forth the past few days. Today is the day we fly to Houston, and tomorrow, finally, the cruise ship!

We arrived at the Portland Airport more than 2 hours early to check our bags, only to learn that our 2:45 p.m. flight was delayed until 4:15, which meant we would miss our connecting flight in Denver. The next flight with room for us would put us into Houston at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. WHAT!?! Not happening! Please keep trying! This poor agent. She tried. There was no way to get all six of us on the same flight and get there in time. She searched and finally found 3 different flights to split us up and get there, but one disappeared before she could book it. I'll spare you a lot of very boring details....Two hours later, the other 4 members of our party were all booked together on a completely different airline to arrive in Houston tonight (for a tidy fee unfortunately). "Will" (he is so cool) and I are were still on the original delayed flight to Denver, getting the last 2 seats connecting to Miami, then arriving in Houston at 9:15 tomorrow morning.

(Hmmm. Yesterday I thought it was odd when I sent a text to "Will" (he is so cool) and it said "Will" (he who must be obeyed). When it happened the second time, I realized I had been pranked, because I catch on really quick. Last night he kindly offered to fix it. I'm so glad he did. That "Will" (he is so cool)!)

So anyway, can you believe our great luck! We get to go to Miami! We don't even have to pay for a hotel since we get to be on a plane to sleep from midnight to 5 a.m.! And when I think of getting to travel all these extra miles for the same price we paid for our original trip, well it just amazes me. I'm going to figure out our rate per mile, I'm sure we probably doubled it! What a deal!

The rest of our party departed about an hour before we did. Surprisingly, our flight was delayed another 50 minutes. They kept bringing young men in wheel chairs off the plane, wearing sweatshirts that said "Harlequin". Gonna have to look that up too!

Eventually we got to our front row seats on the plane. A pleasant, nicely dressed man was seated on my left. Before long I thought wow, this is going to be a long flight, he has the worst onion breath ever. Then I got out the chicken salad I had bought at the airport to eat on the plane. It was in a plastic container in a paper bag, inside my huge purse/bag. Oh no. The paper bag was wet and smelled strongly of onions. I apologized to my seat mate for thinking he had onion breath and for the odor. I think he was pretty thrilled to be sitting next to me. But now the salad is eaten, the trash is thrown away, and the moisture wiped out of the bag and the affected items therein. There wasn't a lot of liquid (maybe some type of onion dressing?), just enough to spread the aroma and probably make the bag pretty odiferous for the rest of the trip. I think "Will" (he is so cool) was pretty proud to be traveling with me at that moment as well.

 So here we are in Denver, waiting to catch a flight to Miami at midnight. Our fellow travelers made it safely to Pheonix and have just arrived in Houston. LUCKY! We couldn't ask for better traveling companions! Such great attitudes! No one freaked out or complained, we're just all happy to be healthy and on track to get to the ship on time tomorrow afternoon!

I learned some traveling lessons today.
1. It definitely pays to be early. If we wouldn't have been at the front of the checkout line, we might not have been able to get flights as they were very full today.

2. Frontier Airlines may have great prices, but they have a limited number of flights and few other carriers with ticketing agreements, so if you're on a deadline your options are limited.

It doesn't matter how far in advance you carefully plan a vacation, you just never know what "Will" (he is so cool) happen when airlines are involved. I can't wait to see my traveling companions at their hotel in Houston tomorrow morning! I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to shower or change clothes before I embark on the cruise? Doesn't really matter, I'm still so excited to go on a cruise!
I wonder how soon my phone "Will" (he is so cool)  be unpranked after someone reads this? It's the one and only time I've used my iPad for a blog - on the laptop this delightful bonus would not have been included. And yes, I know how to get rid of it when I'm typing, but it's too much fun to keep sharing with you all how cool "Will" (he is so cool) is.

Birthdays

January always begins with two very special reasons to celebrate: my sister Linda's birthday on Jan. 8 followed by my husband's birthday a few days later. About 12 of us gathered at Ping's last week to celebrate Linda's birthday. It was a delight to have a great-niece and great-nephew there as well. Jenna always livens up an event and multiplies the cuteness quotient. (That literally makes no sense but I like the way it sounds.)

Linda's beaming smile lit up our corner as well.

She enjoyed opening gifts and took very seriously her candle-blowing role.

Due to uncertain work schedules, we decided to have Will's birthday dinner on Sunday, but I invited a few people to "surprise" him and drop by for cake and ice cream on Friday night.

We gathered in the living room, and as I welcomed them, I was struck with a brilliant inspiration. On the momentous occasion of his 60th birthday, it should be all about Will, so I invited them to tell their favorite memories or stories about Will. (Amazing how original I can be sometimes!) The weird things is, they agreed they really like hearing Will tell stories. Somehow the topic of frightening situations came up, and Will obligingly shared some stories about some of the most frightening times of his life.

Good times.

Very fun presents to the soon-to-be grandpa.

Christina is very creative! The little onesie was tucked in the pocket of the shirt. Can't wait to see them wearing their coordinating shirts!

I've never served a flaming birthday cake in the living room before. It was kind of exciting. Will is holding up a very cute framed ultrasound picture.

And our photographer apparently just couldn't resist this final self-portrait.

 I don't know, maybe he's a little jealous of how old Will is or that he was getting all the attention.

Kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld episode with woman who had man hands. Wow.  This picture was taken on New Year's Eve, not his birthday. See the bald eagle hanging behind us? Weird, huh? My dad got that on a trip to Alaska, and I chose to inherit it after he passed away. I keep it with my Christmas decorations and always display it somewhere during the holiday. 

60 years lived, half of them with me. What a fortunate pair. Here's to 30 more!

A Great Lady

Laura Lee Clum rose to Glory on December 29. How's that for a beautiful opening line on an obituary?   Laura Lee and her husband Elmer were an integral part of the South Albany Community Church family when we started attending there in 1982, and I have so many wonderful memories of them. My favorite memory immediately came to mind when I heard of her passing.

She went to Glory just two days after her 90th birthday. So I do the math. How old was she 22 years ago, in May 1991? At the time, I thought she was pretty old. But if I've got the math right,  Laura Lee was 67 years old (which doesn't seem old at all to me nowadays!) that Sunday afternoon in May 1991, when she and Elmer stopped by to visit us at the home we had just moved into. I was great with child. (Nick would be born 6 weeks later.) Moving is hard work any time, but when you are great with child and have two more busy little boys…wow. I was feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and discouraged, and was resting in bed, trying to store up some energy for the dreaded task of a final thorough cleaning of our previous house the next day. I got out of bed when I heard them come in. I was happy to see them, but I suspect I didn't look so good. They wanted to know how they could help us. Laura Lee declared she would come with me to clean the house the next day. She worked so hard, and that house was spick and span in no time. I think what I appreciated most was that she cleaned the bathtub. Do you know how difficult and awkward it is to clean the bathtub when your belly is enormous?! I was humbled and somewhat embarrassed that such an old lady would get down on her knees to scrub my bathtub (which to my shame had been somewhat neglected due to aforesaid huge belly), but she insisted! I was so amazed and grateful that she would do this for us! And even better than having the previous house cleaned, I was no longer overwhelmed and discouraged about the magnitude of settling into a new home before the new baby arrived!

Anyone who knew this couple would not be surprised by this. It's typical of their serving hearts. Laura Lee and Elmer were two of the most inspiring examples of serving others in love that I have ever known. Definitely pillars of the church, and so much fun to be around besides! She always had gifts for our boys at Christmas. I have a set of three Christmas balls with bells inside that she gave them one year. (My little nephew Jamie nearly drove us nuts with all the noise he made with them a few weeks ago!) I wish I hadn't already put them away so I could include a picture with this. I also still have one little plate that remains from a set of baby dishes she gave Nick, and my grandbaby will use it some day!

I wish I was more like Laura Lee. She was not just a talker, she was a doer. She did much more for me that day than simply cleaning house.

I look forward to seeing her in Glory.