Going ashore

Day 5 - February 26
Morning arrives early, before dawn on departure day. A loud noise awakens me at 5:30, so I get up and looked out the window. The stars were shining – but I didn’t recognize them. Galveston Island is a shining glow of lights in the near distance. An oil tanker passes so close that it appears to fly next to us. The window is cold.

Wake up girls. Wake up Bryan. Go outside on balcony to watch us enter the channel between the jetties, passing the east end, and the old Big Reef park. Once dressed, packing up the carry on bags is relatively easy. I went over to Mom’s to see if they needed any help, and came back with a warm happy baby, Laurie. Bryan & I and the girls played with her while the other families finished packing things up.
Now it's after 7 a.m. and we are supposed to be cleared from our cabins. There is a paper schedule that directs us to wait in the theater area of Deck 4 for our turn to leave, but we haven't had breakfast yet. En masse, we head to the bow of the ship and go up the elevator to Deck 9 for the Windjammer, but immediately see there is no available space anywhere, so turn back and head for Deck 4 (ah- the crowded deck where you leave) to try and get into the King & I restaurant. After a bit, we are seated (again at two tables!. For the sake of ease or just coincidence, we all order the two-egg breakfast.


Almost immediately after eating, our number is called out and it's time for us to get off the ship!

Cameron & Ashley go off arm in arm....


Our happy journey has come to a close. Cameron can't help but give the ship one last look.


We walk off and wait in a long hallway to go into the large room where all our luggage is grouped by our number/color. Here we also began filling out the mandatory customs forms.

The girls entertain Alexander by signing Christmas Carols. We get the usual odd looks and occasional smiles from passersby. After identifing all of our bags (it could have been in its own group....) we got a porter and stood in line for customs. Surprise - our porter was someone Bryan & I recognized from the old neighborhood (his parents lived several doors down) so we caught up on the news.


EZ Parking had to send a refurbished school bus to pick us all up, but very quickly we were loading our cars and saying good bye. We were actually in our own house by 9:30 a.m.

What did we do the rest of the day? Laundry, groceries and.....