The stormy vacation…

           We were looking forward to our cruise from Long Beach to Catalina Island and then on to Encinada, Mexico, a repeat of our first ever cruise. This one we booked a good six months ahead of time and arranged for our son and his family to take their first cruise with us. Little did we know…

           Mid-January we had heard the weather report and knew by leaving we were going to miss a big Sierra Nevada storm, which we were happy to miss. Sunday the 17th we drove to LA on a cloudy overcast day and got a good nights rest and a pleasant dinner at Home Town Buffet with the kids. I call them kids, but they are adults and have two kids, 13 and 10. Next morning we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast before making our trek to the Carnival Lines. Now by this time it was windy (about 40 knots) and the 100 foot gangplank was a challenge in the wind and showers. By the time our other friends, Glenda and Cat came aboard, they got soaked in the pouring rain. We all got together at dinner and shared stories. It was a pleasant evening and the waiters sang and danced for us and then went to a song and dance show -Extreme Country. Then we all turned in exhausted but happy to be settled in.

          The first one to get sick was Rebecca. Then the next day Holly, followed by Joey. At lunch the next day, no one was allowed near the food and the waiters served us in the buffet line. So we knew some kind of bug was going around Joe, Maddie and I never did get sick on the boat. Miraculously on Thursday we were all well on the day we took tenders from the ship to Cabo San Lucas. Oh, I forgot to mention because of the storms coming into the Pacific they had to totally change our destination…no Catalina, no Encinda, instead a long two days at sea down to Cabo, which turned out to be a beautiful and pleasant destination. We got off at about 10 am and were told to be back on the ship by no later than 5:30 as the ship was sailing at 6 pm. We walked around the waterfront, went shopping, got serenaded by mariachis and did a lot of bonding. The Six of us had a wonderful Mexican Dinner on a patio in the plaza.

          My favorite spot on the deck was on the Lido deck, where there is open air, but you are sheltered from the winds. Friday We had to vacate our rooms by noon, so the staff could get ready for the next cruise and since we were late returning, we perched staked out a place for the family to sit and wait for hours to disembark. It was dark when we finally got off the boat. After all that it took Joey 8 hours to drive home which formerly only took 4 hours – there was snow on the Tehatchipi pass. So they got home at 3 am and Holly had to be to work at 7am.  On the other hand, Joe and I spend a night in Long Beach and I got sick at 4 in the morning. The next day (Saturday) it took Joe and I an hour to get out of Long Beach as we took a wrong road and had to make a big circle. After that it was smooth sailing and we decided to stop and spend the night at our daughters in La Grange.

          About 9 am we trekked on home, only to spend another couple of hours trying to get up the hill past PG&E, AT&T and Tree removal services. What a maze of fallen trees and downed lines. Our home looked like a war zone and Daniel and his family told us about their harrowing night of the wind and snow. One tree had snapped and took out part of our deck and then turned sideways and hit the chimney wire mesh cover and then fell into the bed of a pickup in the driveway.  It was like a miracle the roof was not damaged. We were so glad to be home until we found out the electricity had been off for 4 days… but as luck was with us it was repaired by 4 pm on Saturday and we had phones and electricity. I crawled in my electric blanket and covered my head and thanked God for all his protection and for all the little coincidences that made life bearable. I don’t look back on it as a bad vacation. It was challenging but as my husband put it best, it was a vacation we won’t soon forget.

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