San Diego Airport

The cruise ship docks are about two miles from the airport.  We disembarked into a glorious sunny San Diego morning and considered.  Do we want to drag all our luggage two miles to we know not where?  Do we want to stand in  those LONG lines for a taxi?  Do we want to pay $7 per person to ride a crowded and un-air-conditioned shuttle bus that will go to every other airline before it gets to ours? Or... .  do we want to pay a bit more and have a young man with thighs of steel tow us in his pedicab through the balmy sunshine and sea-fresh air?  We went with the pedicab.  Squeeee!  It was sort of slow-going at first because there were lots of tourists wandering around with their heads up and locked and paying no attention to things going on around them.

So, I sort of let them know we were coming, and they obligingly moved aside.  "Yeee ha!  Coming through!  Woopwoopwooop! Let's go!  Yeeeee haaawww!"
When traffic thinned a bit, our driver said, "I didn't know they had the bar open this early."


We were late disembarking because the ship had so many non-American passengers (Canadians) and many of them didn't realize that even if they weren't getting off the ship, they would still have to be accounted for by US Emigration.  Everybody on the ship had to take their passport to the nice people and be verified.  An hour after we were supposed to be on shore, the cruise director was still announcing, "Will Serena Rodriguez of cabin 4198, Mr. and Mrs, Ngyn of cabin 8703, Mr. and Mrs Waldorf of Cabin 1022, Miss Waldorf and Miss Simpson of cabin 1023, and Mr. Andrew Po and Mr. William Johnson ofCabin 1028, please report to to the emigration officers on Deck 2.  No one will be allowed to leave the ship until everyone has been cleared."  If I had known any of those people, I would have chivied them down muy pronto, chop chop!  There were folks who were in danger of missing their flights.

But finally we all cleared, and DH and I wound up standing in line on the stairs, waiting to exit the gangway.  Behind us, a mom and dad were explaining to 6 ish Johnnie why he shouldn't be jumping up and down the steps and bugging everyone.  So I turned around and said, "Have you had a good trip, Johnnie?"

He was flat out flummoxed.  "How did you know my name?"  Then he suddenly went all shy and hid behind Dad.  When he peeked out again, I said, "I heard your folks telling you why you shouldn't be jumping up and down the steps.  Do you remember what they said?"

Evidently Johnnie thinks better with his finger in his nose.  Up the nostril and he could report, "It bothers everyone else."

"So let's just talk and we won't bother anyone else.  Have you heard any jokes?"
He knew most of the knock knock joke about the banana, but  he didn't know the punchline, so I had to give it to him.  Folks around us chuckled.  I told a couple of knock knock jokes.  Then another lady further up the stairs told another knock knock joke.  A grandpa down the line came up with an elephant joke.    Little Johnnie kept us all well amused by laughing uproariously at our silly old kid jokes.  When you're 6, you've probably never heard why a fireman wears red suspenders. Actually, he'd never heard of suspenders.  He didn't want to believe in them, but then one of the older gents in  line took off his cardigan and displayed his suspenders.  Johnnie was FASCINATED!  It was probably the best part of his trip.

And talk about good timing!  We get off the ship and head off for cool and rainy Portland, and the ship heads back out into the Pacific to play tag with a couple of hurricanes.  They will not be stopping at Puerto Vallarta at all, because a hurricane is due to hit the same day they were scheduled to arrive. So they will spend an extra day at sea, in hurricane stirred waters.  A second hurricane (Irving)is following close on the heels of the first, so they will miss their second port as well, spending a second extra day at sea.  Then Cabo San Lucas for a day, and back through the stormy ocean for two more days.  SO glad to miss that!

And since the connection is free here, and fast, And we have another hour to kill, I am going to catch up on all of your blogs now.  Happy trails!