Jason pulled through and woke me up for sunrise. I'd set my alarm for 6:15 which I'd thought would be early enough, but he got me up at about 5:50 which was early enough to really see the full sunrise. There was just a hint of color in the sky when I got up to the staffulty. I've named Jason the Ambassador of the Morning. He's been the wake up man all semester long, but it took me until the last day to come up with this name for him.
I've never seen deck 7 forward this packed, the morning we came into South Africa was the next most crowded it has been when John told everyone to wake up for an amazing sunrise, but that doesn't even come close to how packed it was this morning. I doubt most of them ever went to sleep. There was even coming into California music playing on an iPod with speakers.
I ended up calling several RDs because I didn't want them to miss possibly the most magnificent sunrise we've had the entire voyage (I really wouldn't be a good judge of that though because I didn't wake up for many of our sunrises at sea. Breakfast opened early this morning, so we went to breakfast around 6:45 and then just waited and waited and waited some more for the ship to come into port. I finished packing up my bags, and then when I thought I heard the familiar ship noises of coming into port I went to Molly's room to look out the window and see if they'd made any announcements. They had announced that we'd been asked to slow down because I guess they weren't ready for us in port yet. I remember both Kat and I getting in earlier than projected on our previous voyages, so I'd warned Dad and Kat to get to the port plenty early, but now we weren't getting in until at least 8:45.
Molly still had quite a bit of packing to do, so it's a good thing she's not in one of the first groups to get off the ship. I tried to call Kat and I got a message in Spanish. I guess since San Diego is so close to Mexico, we were still far enough out to be picking up Mexico's cell lines. I'm glad my phone didn't actually work. When we started to get closer, Kat and I called each other at just about the same time, I stood up on the deck and she directed me to where the ship was coming in and they were all standing and waiting. There wasn't a place to stand near the railing on the starboard side which was the side that was puling up to the dock, but Molly, Corey, Collin, Leigh, and I stood at the front railing on the port side for awhile and spotted Kat holding up a huge yellow sign welcoming us back. The next 30 min. to an hour was pretty crazy with everyone running around trying to spot their loved ones. There was pretty much no respect for rules and the crew only areas. Students ran to the very front part of the deck and then I went back to the side deck where the basketball court is and stuck my arm through the net to wave and then found and area to hang over and wave. Then students got out of control and started going up to the upper decks and even climbing to the top of the smoke stack. I did climb up to deck 8 forward so I was pretty much right next to where Kat, Dad, and Gail were so we could see them better. Molly and I got Leigh to yell Wa-ta-ha-ta-ho with us, and Kat, Dad, and Gail responded. I felt like the most loved person on the ship. Kat had more signs for me than anyone else had. My favorite was the one that said "My sister went on SAS and all I got was a 5:30 a.m. wake up." She also had ones that said "Amy and Molly, are you here yet?", "Amy Andrews look over here" with a big arrow pointing to her, and more.
The disembarking procedure was much longer in San Diego than Miami or Ft. Lauderdale because they had to take EVERYONE's luggage off the ship before they could start disembarking passengers. The waiting around was a long procedure. They finally called the people who declared more than $800 to come up to the Purser's desk and get our customs forms. Because of my Indian carpet and extravagant shopping and spending habits, I'd shot well beyond $800 to $2300. None of us who declared more had to pay any duty. I think it was a combination between the countries we'd gone to being exempt from duty, and it being more hassle than it's worth to deal with duty on the amounts we'd declared.
It got to be 11:30 and there was still no word of when we'd be able to start disembarking. Kat and Dad decided to go out to lunch since it looked like it would be at least another hour and Byron and I headed to lunch. As soon as we got to the Garden Lounge, they announced that the Aegean sea could start disembarking. I had to run down to Molly's room to get my phone which was charging and quickly call Kat so she didn't miss me getting off the ship. Mom wanted a picture of me walking down the gangway, so I had to make sure she was there. I ran back up to 6 and ate a quick lunch and then went down to get my 5 bags and made my way up to Purser's square.
You'd think that with the number of bags everyone was taking off they'd make sure the gangway was on 2 for safety, but no, we had the scary, steep, narrow, deck 5 gangway. Dean John had been right when he told us to make sure we said our goodbyes before the 7th because there wouldn't be a chance. Well, I tried to hug a few people goodbye, but it was hard with everyone waiting in line to get off the ship and everyone had a lot of bags. I had to take mine off and wait for the line to die down because I had way too much and it was heavy. I had all of my computer equipment and other stuff in a backpack on my front, I had all of my fragile souvenirs in a large backpack on my back, my computer bag was around my shoulder, so was my camera bag, and I had my South African chair in one hand and my Indian artwork in the the other. I barely fit down the gangway. I think I was the last Vitamin Sea member to walk off the ship, at least the last one waiting in this line. Byron was right in front of me, he had a lot too, 2 rolling duffles. A few steps down the gangway the handle taped to my chair broke off and I was afraid everything was going to go crashing down the stairs. I froze and JP had to come down from the top to help pick up the pieces and Woody ran up from the bottom and helped carry my chair over to the luggage area. Once there I had to find my 8 other bags and carry them over across a yellow line at which point the stevedores could come with their big carts and wheel my stuff out to the area where all the parents were waiting.
Kat, Dad, and Gail greeted me with hugs and we wheeled my stuff over to dad's car. It was very tight, but all of my stuff fit in his car. We went back to say goodbye to a few people and I quickly introduced them to Rico and Jason, and Byron and Jason. I didn't really want to hang around for another few hours waiting for Molly, so the 3 of us squeezed into the front of dad's car and drove over to where Kat's car was parked. We then all drove over to Betany's mom's house in Coronado where we were staying.
We decompressed for about and hour and a half, and I burned a photo DVD for Molly before heading back to the ship to watch her get off. Our timing was perfect. We got back to the viewing area just as Corey was heading down the gangway and then was able to take several pics of Molly coming down. I think she was the most photographed person walking out of the luggage area and greeting her mom. Dad, Kat, and I all had cameras at different angles and their first hug was very well documented. Molly wasn't able to find one of her bags and I had to give Gail my ID so she could sneak back into the luggage area with Molly to help her find the bag. After all that Molly still forgot one bag that was sent to UPS and will be shipped to her COD.
We should have probably unloaded Dad's car and driven that back to the port, but we brought Kat's and used that to load all of Corey, Collin, Susan, Leigh, and Molly's luggage and shuttle it down to the Holiday Inn. Kat's car got a little beat up which really sucks because it's her brand new car. We unloaded all of the bags into Gail's room, and then Kat, Dad, and I drove and the others walked about a mile to a mexican restaurant where we had a 5:15 reservation for dinner. I probably wouldn't have chosen Mexican for my first meal back, but how could you not eat Mexican when you're in San Diego. The appetizers were excellent, the entrées were good, but not as good as the appetizers. After dinner we walked across the street to Ghirradelli chocolate and I got some ice cream and chocolate squares to eat later.
Finally got around to catching up on my journal today. My last 2+ weeks will be a little bare on the details (maybe a good thing), but I hope I remember enough of my impressions and experiences well enough to record them. I remember feeling incredibly inspired in Japan and I wanted to write about every detail, but that didn't happen then and the Pacific crossing was so full of end of voyage details that it's not happening until almost 1 week after I get back to the contiguous U.S.
Ever since I got back, I've just felt like I need alone time, so today I packed up a backpack with my computer, a tarp, sheet, sleeping bag, and a few other necessary supplies and I walked down the beach past the path leading up to the Seascape Resort and found a good log to lean up against while I write. It was hard getting out of the house. Dad kept asking where I was going and felt left out of an adventure when he saw me leaving with a big backpack. I fully expect him to go on a run later today and find me. I had better get started because I figure I have less than 5 hours of battery, which sadly enough will actually probably take me up to sunset.
Unfortunately my wonderful stint on the beach had to end around after only about 3 1/2 hours because I had to go to the bathroom. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.