Friday 13 January 2017

Pasty Canadians

First leg of our journey complete. Air Canada was wonderful; a huge thank you to the Underwood family for getting us here. We were at the gate just in time to be summoned and loaded first on the plane. They did okay when we got to Fort Lauderdale too, although I think the company responsible for that kind of thing had at least eight people helping out. Too many hands!

It's weird getting off the plane and not having to go through customs; I guess we did that at Pearson - we're still wrapping our heads around it. We left the baggage claim to go find a taxi and I am sure we passed by the area where the shooting was last week. Lots of demolition and a fork lift of new drywall going in at 7pm. I'm so sad for all the families involved.  Our taxi driver in Toronto had a lot to say about it; he thought that all guns should be destroyed and the world would be a better place. If only it were that easy.

We walked out to a wosh of humidity  (23 degrees). It didn't take long to find an accessible taxi, no longer than if we had wanted a regular one. I chuckle when my chair gets all strapped and cranked into the back of the van. Because that's it - just my chair gets strapped in, not me! I don't wear a seatbelt in my chair so I'm not actually attached to the van! The driver in Fort Lauderdale was pretty quiet. But boy was he fast! We asked him to come back tomorrow and take us to the ship. Transport problem solved.

We laughed on the plane. For a moment we thought we were having a "no drive" week. To us, a no drive day means that we don't drive either of our cars. We pat ourselves on the back when it happens  (usually only because our road is closed in winter) as it is our contribution to reducing the global carbon footprint. We realized what a joke it was to think we'd be reducing! Look at the tens of thousands of pounds of carbon our flight and cruise ship will be spewing into the air!

The hotel we are staying at tonight has an outdoor pool  (of course, it's Florida) and it has a lift! So guess what this pasty white Canadian girl is going to do tomorrow? Yup, swim. The kids were in tonight and claimed that it was cold...so I won't last long. But I'm going in. We lifted the cover to see how it worked and it seemed to not be plugged in. Not seeing an obvious answer we went to the front desk to ask. The response: No joke, "what lift"? The maintenance man knew what I was talking about but he didn't have a clue either (although he took a serious look at it). He said that the Chief Engineer would be in first thing and would have it working for me. "What time would you like to swim?" So nice, these Americans.

This will likely be it for posting until we get home, we opted not to pay $12 per day for Internet. And I apologize for my lack of proof reading; this was all done on my phone!

Anchors away  (as they say). We're set and I dare say that I think I am feeling better. Even after a long day of travel I am not a basket case and it's 10pm!

2 comments:

  1. Glad you experienced some good service. Enjoy your time away! But, "Y'all come back now, y'hear?"! :)

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  2. Loved your "non-driving" day comment. You should ask your crew about the environmental nature of the cruise ship. Al went on the tour on ours this Christmas and it's incredible what they have to do to meet certain environmental standards. For example: Port Everglades is a 0 landfill port - so the cruise ship has to recycle, burn or otherwise reuse everything. The cruise ship actually runs on it's own waste. Oh and have you researched where your water comes from on a cruise ship? Thank god for chemistry!

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