Baltic Cruise 2019, Part 14: Coming Home

What an incredible experience!

I very much enjoyed my first cruise, and seeing parts of the world that were new to me. I wasn't quite ready to call it finished, but once we got into the bulk of the flying, I was ready to have that part of it over with and just be home with my dudes.

As we took our last bus ride of the trip, from the ship to Copenhagen airport, I got one last picture of the Regal Princess.

Our wait at Copenhagen wasn't terribly long, but they confiscated my conditioner (my expensive conditioner) from my carry-on, and the airport itself is not very comfortable. There's not a lot of available seating, no charging stations, and there was food all over the floor, as though no one had bothered to mop for a few days. Sigh.

But again, it wasn't a long wait, and soon enough, we were on our flight...for eight hours and twenty minutes.

It was uneventful, just long. I finished a book on my Kindle and watched a documentary about pandas. I tried to nap with no success.

Finally, we arrived in the USofA and just in case I was confused about this, well, first, I got to go through the "I Live Here" line in customs, and also:

Yup, we're in the US. The Trump duck made me die a little inside. Dad offered to buy me one, but I told him if he did, I'd put a Warren 2020 sticker on his car. (Warren is my current favorite.)

We had a couple of hours to sit and wait, so I did the math from my boarding pass and realized the flight time on it (factoring in the three-hour time difference) was six hours.

Me, sitting in Dulles, facing six more hours of flying. 

It ended up only being five, though.

We finally landed in Sacramento, exhausted from the extra-long day we'd had. Dad's friends were there to pick us up. Instead of staying a night at Dad's, I just grabbed my keys and some things I'd left there, loaded up Sylvie, and went straight home to my boys, my own bed, and the comforts of home. I didn't want to wait one more minute.

The boys were waiting at the door when I came in, and they seemed happy to see me--both were rubbing my hands and my legs and the purring started shortly after. There was a lot of cuddling that night as I went to sleep, and I woke to them curled up by my side.

Traveling is fun, but there is no place like home.

Archie's louder-than-loud purr was going when I took this.

Popcorn...my lap cat. 

Would I go on another cruise? Absolutely--I very much enjoyed the atmosphere on board and the ease of travel they provide. The one drawback is having such limited time in each destination--I do love going somewhere for several days and really diving into exploring it. But why not have the best of both worlds in my future travels?

I'm glad I got to keep Dad company and have such a wonderful experience. We made some great memories, and I got to see seven completely new places, taking my country tally to fifteen.

And with that, my Baltic Cruise 2019 posts are done. I've been home two weeks today, and two weeks from now is the first day of school. Here's to all the adventures--Wild and Absolutely True.