My goodness gracious, I am finding that I am quite sad and melancholy as I begin to write this my last Blog post in my Hawaiian Cruise Series.  I was pretty sad while I was packing up to leave the Star Princess as well.  It is always harder for me to pack at the end of a vacation than it is to plan the trip, organize the particulars, and pack the suitcases at the beginning of a journey.  <Sigh> Regardless of whether or not I was ready to disembark, it was almost time to do so.  The hubby and I spent the last afternoon on our last sea day packing our bags, we were ready to go…We went ahead and placed our suitcases outside of our stateroom door right after dinner that evening.

We found our ‘End of the cruise paperwork’ in our little mailbox along with our “Red 4” luggage tags that we were to put on our luggage that Princess would be transferring for us.  We had pre-arranged for Princess to transfer us from Canada Place to the Vancouver Airport, and it showed us where and what time we were to report (the Vista Lounge)…

 

While packing, I made sure to put some shampoo, and my hair gel, and other necessities in smaller disposable bottles so that I could pack up my full-size bottles.  Our daughter Christin had given both my hubby and I disposable (carry-on compliant) bottles; Christin is an organized person like her Mama and she fixed us right on up with all of these sweet little extras this past Christmas. 😉 🙂

Here is a picture of that extra bag that I had packed in my big suitcase all those many days ago, I knew I would need it for this last night; we’d carry it onto the airplane with us.  We put our dirty clothes (packed up in a medium packing cube), my makeup & toiletries, the hubby’s morning toiletries, my curling iron (I used the ‘lovely’ stateroom’s hairdryer that morning throwing in a expletive here and there while drying my hair because it took me forever), and anything else that we saw that we needed to take with us.

SO, I was as packed as I could be…We had eaten our last dinner in the Horizon, walked around the ship taking pictures, and did some last minute shopping. OH and I went to the Captain’s Circle desk and picked up a couple of “Ruby” Pins…I had lost mine along the way somewhere, they were happy to give me two more.  I had received our two Platinum pins earlier in the day accompanied by a letter welcoming us to our Platinum status…woohoo.  Here is where I put all of my pins along with a pin of the Star Princess (that’s my carry on backpack):

 We came back to our Stateroom and headed out onto the balcony because we could once again see land…

And we also got a little treat! We *finally* saw a wee bit of wildlife…These cute little (relatively speaking) Dall’s Porpoises showed up and were playing right around the ship. 🙂

They were so much fun to watch, I was like a little kid in a candy store…I was jumping up and down and clapping and squealing.  I’m sure the other passengers thought I was a loon, I didn’t care much what they thought honestly, I was just happy to see these cutie pies. 🙂  ANYway, we sat out there until dark taking in the sights and sounds of our last evening on our cruise; bittersweet thoughts along with mixed emotions were flying around in my head.  On one hand, I was ready to go home because I missed my family and my pups, but, I sure wasn’t ready for our much anticipated trip to come to a close. OH well, all good things must come to an end huh?

 

The next morning, we woke up and our “Log of the Cruise” was in our little mailbox, check out the distance traveled!! Wow Whee!!

And here is my last outfit of the day, comfy and cozy to travel home in:

We stood out on our balcony and watched while we traveled under the Lion’s Gate Bridge one last time:

And onward to Canada Place we sailed:

That is a fake smile on my face, I really wasn’t too, too thrilled in that picture…my hair was sure BIG through…LOL…Again, if a girl can’t laugh at herself, then there is something wrong…;)

We had to be out of the room by 8am, so we complied and headed to the Vista Lounge to wait to be called to disembark.  This is about how I felt about getting off of the ship…I look hateful mean…I’m really just sad…:(

ANYway, we waited for about 45 minutes, and then our number was called and off of the ship we walked, straight into Canada Place, and onto our awaiting motor coach.

<I took no pictures of this process–just wasn’t in the mood I guess>

We had an uneventful trip to the airport, we were familiar with this ride because we’ve always disembarked from Canada Place (we’ve done 4 Alaska: Voyage of the Glaciers Southbound cruises that all ended in Vancouver).  When we got to the airport, we went through US customs there…pretty painless process and then we headed to our terminal and awaited our flight to leave.

There was our first plane…

And we were headed home…Which at this point, I was pretty content to be doing, this is what I saw out of the jet’s window…apparently this is Wenatchee National Forest, Stehekin, United States (according to the time and location stamp in my Photos on my Mac)…

We had uneventful flights home and we landed safely and got back to our house at around 2am the next morning…yes, to say we were tired is an understatement…but, it was good to be home.  Here is what greeted us as we drove up our driveway and made our way into the house. 🙂 🙂 ❤

It was so good to be home!!

And it was SO good to see our pups…

Now for some final thoughts about this cruise.  As I have written these posts one after the next, I have found that I really didn’t have a lot of negative things to say and that’s because this was a wonderful trip that provided my hubby and I with many memories to tuck away and cherish for the rest of our lives.

A  note all of you out there who have been so kind with your comments, thank you so very, very, VERY much, every comment has been taken straight to my heart and I am humbly grateful for the responses that I’ve received. ❤

So, sadly, it is time for me to close this Series out now, I have greatly enjoyed sharing our adventure with you.  For now, I will go back to my crafting, decorating, and DIY projects (why I originally started this blog site…haha).  More travel blogs will appears when we debark on our next journey…most likely with Princess, hopefully, sooner than later.

So for now, I will bid you all adieu and send you my love and say once last time…

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

Much, much love,
~Arlynn ❤