Monday – May 7
The ship hadn’t traveled far overnight. We woke up in
Seattle…the end of the cruise for us. I wasn’t ready to get off the ship after
over three weeks so I can’t imagine what a one-night cruise must feel like for
all of those folks that just boarded yesterday afternoon!
We had set our large luggage out in the hallway the night
before so all that was left to do was cram the last-minute stuff into our carry-on
bags and backpacks. We were assigned to one of the last groups for debarkation
so didn’t need to rush through breakfast. I took some photos from the promenade
deck near our cabin and intended to go out by the aft pool after we were done
eating and get more photos that included the Space Needle. But…somehow, I forgot and so have very few
photos from the city of Seattle.
The wife of one of the couples we had met playing trivia sat
with us and we had a nice visit over breakfast. We exchanged email addresses,
but the sad fact is that chances are slim we will ever meet up again.
Getting off the ship was fairly easy when our group was
called to disembark. By that point most of the luggage had been claimed and we
quickly spotted ours. It would have been easy to get a taxi to the airport, but
we had decided to take Uber. Bob had a new customer discount but even with the
discount it wasn’t drastically cheaper than a cab.
To get to where Uber could pick us up required walking out
of the terminal and quite a distance down a long sidewalk. Shuttle buses were
available, but we chose to walk. Folding chairs under a tarp canopy provided a
waiting area once we called the car. (Uber isn’t allowed to go all the way to
the terminal building.) When the car arrived they had to check in with a
security person who then called out our names.
On the way to the airport, we went by the Seattle Great
Wheel…a large Ferris wheel on the waterfront. The driver also pointed out the
headquarters for Starbucks Coffee.
Our luggage passed the weight test and we breathed a sigh of
relief as we checked in. The airport was quite busy, but we found a couple of
seats by our gate and settled in for the long wait. Our flight wasn’t scheduled
to leave until around 3:30 pm so imagine my surprise when I got a notification
on the Delta Airlines app on my phone that our luggage had been sent on a flight leaving at
11:30! I was sorry that I hadn’t at least inquired about us taking the earlier
flight.
We ate lunch at Sea-Tac and would have liked to have
grabbed something later in the evening when we had a connection in Minneapolis
but time was short and our gate was about as far away as possible. We made it
on time, but the next flight was already boarding when we got to the gate so there was no time to get anything to eat.
Flying close to some big thunderstorms, our flight was more
than just a little bumpy. Our final destination was Sioux Falls, South Dakota,
arriving around 11:30 pm. Because our luggage had taken an earlier flight, we
had to do some investigating to figure out where it was. The airport is very
small and at that late hour was pretty much deserted. A couple other travelers
were in the same predicament and we figured out that all of our luggage was
locked up…but there was no one around to retrieve it for us. Eventually we were
reunited with our bags and just in time…the hotel shuttle was waiting at the
front entrance to the airport. We crammed into the van with all of the flight
crew and pilots who were also headed to the Holiday Inn. It was going to be a
short night for the poor flight attendants. They had to be up by 3 am for their
next flight so were barely going to get any sleep.
We walked straight through the hotel lobby and out into the
parking ramp where we had left our car over three weeks earlier. I can’t
exactly explain the feeling, but it was so weird to know that when we left a
blizzard was coming and then a second big snow a few days later but yet now it
was May...summer time! Just thinking about it made it seem like we had been gone even longer!
It had been many, many hours since we had eaten the sandwich
for lunch at the Seattle airport and we were hungry. Sioux Falls isn’t all that
large so most of the places we were passing on our way home were closed. We did
find a Taco Bell where the drive through was still open…what a contrast to how
we had been eating for the past few weeks!
The storms that we had flown through were now approaching
and we had a fabulous lightning show as we made the one hour drive to get home. We
were both tired, but coming from the west coast at least our bodies thought it
was only 10 pm when in fact our clocks said 1 am.
So…another cruise is in the books. This trip was our longest
and I would have to say one of our best. I am always sad to end our travels,
but also very thankful to get home safely and not have had any problems along
the way.
The next cruise has been booked for about 8 months already so
now I am back into planning mode once again. Stay tuned to see where we are
headed!
