You would think with 5 sea days that HAL would have additional activities, but not really... They had a few more lectures - but weird topics and B & I are not much for lectures anyways. We played a little pickle ball, scattergories, trivia for me and slots for B. Gambling was a major activity - between lcr, poker and blackjack, I actually brought home money this trip and B had a few winning jackpots, so the casino was fun... Met some interesting folks at the poker table - if you think we travel, you should talk to Jack and Leslie! They don't even own a home - they ONLY travel! Not sure I could do that...
Additionally, someone infected B and he infected me, so we are both fighting the cough/cold thing Again! I went to the Dr. since we've been home, got a shot and another z-pac. We are both recuperating, but don't want pneumonia.
My trivia team this cruise kicked ass! If we didn't win, we tied or came in 2nd most days. 5 Aussies and me in the day and 2 other Americans and Migan & Allan (the Aussies) at night. Oh one of the Aussies was Phil, the guest lecturer on the ship. The question was some obscure date, movie item or geography and his response was "pha, that's easy"..lol! I was a great verifier and scribe.
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| Daytime trivia team - guess we didn't win today, Phil, Migan & Allen look mad Ian & Margaret, to my left, were delightful... |
Meals were fine but our replacement dinner companions did not live up to the previous couple. Nice enough people but Canadians, eh?(j/k) No one wanted to sit by him, so we kinda fought and jostled around - appreciate Marty taking one for the team 3 nights...lol! We offered to buy him a drink on the last night but after the show the bars were all closed...
We did play Balderdash with our dinner gang on the last day - B kicked ass! I regretted not encouraging a daily game time, cause it was so much fun. We could have made our own activities...lol
Our cabin this time was 709 and on the 7th floor, all the way to the front. Still an inside cabin, no port hole, but a decent size. We often slept till 10amish, because we had no outside light. B bought me the BEST gift tho for Christmas - 2 tiny motion-light LED lights. Worked super well for peeing in the middle of the night & when B got dressed without waking me. Shower was not as nice because it was small and had a sticky shower curtain...
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| from Amazon |
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| the 7th is the laptop carryon - not pictured |
then had to wait over an hour for a taxi! Come to find out 3 ships have all just arrived AND there is a marathon race downtown that has blocked all access to the port! Finally got a van taxi (Uber does not operate in Vancouver) and got to the hotel 15 minutes away. We stay at the YWCA Hotel in Vancouver and I highly recommend it. It is reasonably priced, beds are comfy and the location is great. B and I walked around & ate a snack. We joined our friends Ginny & Chris for dinner at 7pm. They live in Kamloops and drove over just to meet-up with us. But they almost didn't because traffic was horrendous and a 3 hour drive turned into a 5 hour ride! Dinner was amazing appetizers - B had a burger and we all shared calamari, chicken wings, sushi, & lettuce wraps. Damn it that I forgot to take a photo of the food and us enjoying GREAT company... I need training from my friend Cat - lol!
The next morning we awoke early to catch Amtrak to Seattle. Unfortunately it was the Amtrak bus, not the train and when you cross the Canadian/USA border, you have to schlep your own luggage: out of the bus, thru passport check, into the scanner & back on the bus. Can you imagine how much fun that was with all our bags? Thank goodness the bus driver helped a bit... The bus ride itself was pleasant enough and we arrived in Seattle around 1pm. More about that and our journeys end tomorrow...
Sounds like this was more a conveyance than a cruise! Hope you both start feeling better. And soon. Thanks for the travelogue. (my Nancy loved the pictures of you both with the elephants)
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