Monday 8 August 2016

A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL DAY ONE

A LONG AND SUCCESSFUL DAY ONE

Here it is, Day Three and I'm writing my first blog entry - we've been busy, busy, busy.

Day One started at 4:00 a.m. Drove to Akira's and Blue's home where Akira drove us to the airport. Thank heavens for family that are willing to get up in the wee small hours to do this.  Because of our plethora of luggage, we had to leave Blue at home.  We had to be at the airport for 5:00 where we used the machines to print our boarding passes and luggage tags with the help of a friendly and patient WestJet agent. It was the whole "hurry up and wait" scenario as we had an hour's wait to board the plane. The flight was over 5 hours and we found the seats uncomfortable despite being in premium economy so only managed the occasional catnap. We were the first off the plane and at the luggage carousel, were met by my sister-in-law, Irene, and her daughter, Susan. We crammed our luggage into her car and left for Irene's condo. On the way, Susan took us past 2050 West 43rd, my father's childhood home and where we spent many summer vacations as children. Needless to say, the old craftsman-style house had been torn down and a modern "McMansion" was in its place.
Irene lives in a beautiful area, False Creek, steps from the water, and across from downtown Vancouver with its towering glass skyscraper million-dollar condos. We left our luggage and after a light snack, proceeded to walk along the waterfront enjoying the sunshine and the chance to stretch our legs while catching up with Irene. Irene treated us to lunch which we ate on the restaurant's patio. We walked in a different direction along the sea wall enjoying the view. Too soon, we had to leave for the ship to complete the embarkation process.
Once on board we headed for the library to pick up some reading material and to the computer room to set up the IPad for Internet access. That done, we retired to our cabin to wait for our luggage so we could unpack.
This room is small compared to our spacious quarters on Regent but we managed to find a place for all of our things. Norma calls it "Glamping" as the room size reminds her of a tent.
Crystal makes up for the room size with the delicious food offerings. The food is superb and we enjoyed our dinner. We met two of our table companions - a woman from California and a man from Florida. The others were two gentlemen from the clutch and the art teacher on board with her sister. We got to bed around midnight.

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