Home at Last

Since Savannah, yesterday, it has rained – sometimes lightly, mostly quite heavily. When we left Pittsburg this morning, the temperature was 5C. About half an hour before we crossed the border the rain stopped. As we crossed into Canada we could see some blue sky ahead and the temperature started to climb.

By the time we reached home, the sun was shining and the temperature was 12C – welcome home. Funnily enough, the customs agent at the border welcomed us home.

Tomorrow morning we get the dogs – have we ever missed them! Graham is also off until Monday, so, I’ll have some help with all of the things that need to be done before it is back to work time.

Lost in Pittsburg

On the road this morning heading for Pittsburg. We should have realized that the day was not going to go well when I was unable to find the address of our hotel in the GPS. Having had more experience with a GPS (right!!), Graham took the GPS and handed it back to me with an address programmed in and off we headed.

We had decided that we were going to find a Friendly’s restaurant for luch – at least for a sundae. The first Friendly’s that the GPS found no longer existed – we found the building, but Friendly’s was gone. The second one, took us about 6 miles off the Interstate, which was fine with us – we wanted ice cream – Friendly’s Family Restaurant, no ice cream!! We ended up eating at a little restaurant called The Copper Pot where lunch cost us a whole $10.00, but no ice cream. One of the owners came up while we were finishing up and drinking our coffee – he pulled up a chair and started to talk with us. Small towns are fascinating!

We continued on to Pittsburg. At about 9:30 we left the Interstate for our hotel as programmed in to the GPS by Graham. After about an hour, we ended up in the middle of no where close to a village called Valencia – no hotel anywhere to be seen! So, Graham called the hotel to get directions – the poor young lady had never heard of Valencia and had no idea where it was. Interestinly, when Graham called information for the phone number, information informed him that the hotel was in Uniontown, not Unionville. With that information, I was able to program the GPS with the correct address and away we went – through rural Pennsylvania for 1 ½ hours. It was almost 12:30 when we finally found the hotel.

While I was responsible for misnaming the town Unionville instead of Uniontown, I also suggested, before we left the street where our hotel was in Savannah that we should go back and recheck the address before we headed off when I couldn’t find it. Hopefully lesson learned by all!!!

On Our Way Home

This morning was a comedy of errors. Graham had been down to the Purser’s Desk a couple of times to find out what the plans were for disembarking wheelchair clients today and was reassured both times that there would be an announcement made. Usually, the clients in wheelchairs disembark from the casino, however, the casino has been closed for 3 days and is unavailable.

When Graham attempted to call the Purser’s Desk this morning the phone would ring once and then quit??? So, down he went, again and was finally told that we needed to be in the Art Gallery. Now, the Art Gallery is right beside the Purser’s Desk and while we were waiting for assistance, I discovered why Graham wasn’t able to get through earlier – the phones have already been taken out. Advise to all cruisers – to NOT go on a cruise when the ship is going into dry-dock at the end of the cruise.

We did get off (boo hoo) and were able to find our way to our shuttle and back to the hotel where our car had been for the past 2 weeks – unfortunately, Graham parked it under a tree. We don’t know exactly what kind of tree, pu it is a very messy tree and part of it’s mess is extremely sticky!!! We couldn’t wait to find a car wash.

As we were getting ready to leave the hotel having loaded all of our luggage into the car, we both looked up a realized that we had a hitchhiker. A little lizard was staring at us from the hood of the car! A very kind gentleman gently removed our passenger and we were off to Savannah, Georgia.

It was about 9:00 by the time we reached our hotel in Savannah. Ordered some pizza and headed for bed – tomorrow will be a very long day!

Princess Cays

Although we have never been to Princess Cays before, we chose to remain on board today. Princess Cays is a tender port and the last time that we were here, the sea conditions were not appropriate for tendering in. Today there were two reasons for us choosing to remain on board. The first reason is that we really are not “beach” people and there really isn’t a lot else on this island. The second reason, of course is the difficulty of both tendering and being on a beach with a wheelchair.

After doing most of our packing, we lounged around reading for the early afternoon until my scheduled hot stone massage – pure delight!!!!

We made arrangements earlier in the day to have dinner with Karin and Bill again. On our way to dinner, in the elevator, I recognized some familiar people. Pat and John Looper (our friend Peter Valiquet’s sister and brother-in-law). Apparently we had been on a couple of shore excursions with Pat & John and Pat had recognized me, however was afraid to say anything in case she was wrong! I felt really badly that I hadn’t even noticed them until then.

After our dinned with Karin and Bill, we again finished the evening off in the Wheelhouse Bar. We had become friendly with the group that played in that bar – they were a lot of fun and we wanted the opportunity to say goodbye.

Graham particularly liked a song that the piano player sang (usually at Graham’s request) called The Cow Song. If you really want a laugh, check the song out on You Tube – it’s there.

Our Final Day at Sea

Our final day at sea was a quiet day. We spent the day just lounging around and enjoying the sun.

Tonight we went to the Sterling Steakhouse for dinner. This is one of the specialty restaurants on board. The specialty being steaks. We invited our new friends, Karin and Bill to join us and we had a wonderful meal with excellent company.

When we were finished dinner (actually when we decided that the staff at the restaurant really wanted us to leave so that they could close down for the night), we went to the Wheelhouse Bar to finish the evening. This is a friendship that we hope we can maintain. Karin and Bill are a wonderful couple with whom we seem to have a lot in common, including a love of cruising!

When we returned to our cabin this evening there was mail in our mailbox and Graham quickly told me not to open it – he thought that it was our onboard bill. To me, it did not look like our previous bills and it also seemed a little early, so despite Graham’s protests, I opened it. It was our Princess platinum package – we are now Captain’s Circle Platinum members – a lot of perks for our next Princess cruise.

Savannah, Georgia

The cruise is over and we are on our way home. I realize that I owe everyone 2 days worth of blog entries and pictures and you will get them – once we are home. Too tired to finish up before then. So….. look for the rest of the blog later this week.