travelogue: on the ship

... after our bus tour, we were dropped off directly at the cruise ship. our luggage had been sent ahead of us, so we weren't lugging anything (ok, so my husband and i each had a small backpack, plus one diaper bag, plus the stroller, plus john ... but compared to the mountains of luggage we brought with us that's NOTHING!)

day 1

the first afternoon on the ship was mostly just settling in and exploring. we did have a "muster drill," which is the ship version of a fire drill where you go to the place you would group up for life boats, etc. you're supposed to quietly listen to instructions from the muster crew, but of course john was singing and babbling nonstop. fortunately the crewmembers and fellow cruisers were very understanding. (i did have the thought, god forbid something happens and someone doesn't know what to do because they were too busy listening to john ... but thank god there was no such karma in the air!)

one of john's quick favorites was sitting with me in the deep windowsill in our stateroom. in amazement, he looked at me and said "ocean RIGHT THERE! mama, ocean!"

once we'd unpacked and settled a little, we headed back up to the top deck to watch us pull away from the dock in vancouver. 

if you didn't know, that's grammie!

we feasted on our first dining room dinner that night, and began the ridiculous food-orgy that would continue for the entire trip. and afterwards, we bundled up for a walk, and then crashed ... hard.

day 2

day two was a cruising day, as we headed to our first port. it was a day filled with amazing scenery:

this is what we saw pretty much all day, every
day, as we cruised along. it was amazing.
like being in national geographic
every minute of your life.

and maybe a wee bit of poker (though i am a poker observer - never have cared to play!):

clockwise from left: cousin d, my husband, my bro,
my bro's girl, and uncle d

but the highlight of day two was no doubt the formal night. you know, of john's-mom-dress-hunting fame. but guess what? john stole the show:

the name is john. john bond.

though i guess we were a pretty good-looking crew overall:

and that's probably a good place to mention everyone who was on the trip. from left in that picture above is grammie (my mom); cousin s (my uncle's step-daughter but there's not much "step" about their family or ours); aunt m; uncle d (behind); gigi (my mom's mom); great-grandpa (mom's dad); john; me; cousin "other-one-n" (behind; he's uncle's step-son, who shares the same name as my brother. so my brother was uncle n, and this is other-one-n); uncle l (which is what john termed my brother's very female and very beautiful fiancee!); cousin d; uncle n (my brother); and my husband. really a pretty awesome group to hang with.

a few more all-dolled-up pics:

love love love these last two of john with his gigi. someone from the cruise has similar shots with great-grandpa, but not on my camera.

days 3,4,5,6: in ports

more on that later

day 6 (night)

another formal night!

this is one of my fave pics from the cruise.
or maybe from ever. so much love!!!!!

top left: john and mommy being silly. top right: uncle n right after he proposed to "uncle" l! bottom left: john stopped and said, "i tired. night night on stairs." bottom right: our room steward made towel "creatures" for john several times, and arranged them with john's stuffed animals. every time we entered the room, john would say, "creature?"