Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Ruby!
Just to catch things up… we spent an extra day on Independence of the Seas because the Port of Miami was closed due to Hurricane Milton. We canceled our post cruise plans because they included Orlando… which was also “closed”. So, Saturday, we flew to Houston. I spent the night… got on a plane Sunday making my way back to Tahoe. Landed at midnight, couldn’t get a shuttle because it was too late. Took a taxi to get my car. Drove home, arriving at 2:30am. Got up in the morning to pick up the girls and head to San Francisco… now the fun begins…
Again, I will back up a bit to give context to the events about to unfold… having recently lost my Dad, my Mom decided she wasn’t ready to join us on the “girl’s cruise”. It was too late for a refund, so she gifted the cruise to a friend of mine. Recently retired from a career in teaching, Laural had one week’s notice to join the cruise. She immediately bought tickets from Houston to San Francisco. Keep in mind, I am on another cruise while these arrangements were being made. This was a first cruise, first trip to California for Laural. I was trying to do my best (from afar) to provide necessary info on how to prepare and what to expect.
Monday morning. Eight hours after arriving from Houston. My suitcases were reorganized, door decorations packed, google doc in hand with all of the confirmation information and it was time to pick up Lori and Jessica! Roxanne drove separately to deliver a car to her son.
Needing coffee, we stopped in Auburn for gas and Starbucks. While the gas was pumping, I received a txt from Roxanne informing us the Freeway was closed. She had been sitting for a very long time! We used Waze to find an alternate route… back on track, we headed for the city.
Then came the txt from Laural that put this in the classification of “Travel Nightmares”…
Without a passport, a government ID (driver’s license} and original or certified copy of the birth certificate is required. Note the time… 2:46pm. We are slated to check out of our hotel and board the ship in nineteen hours. Imagine flying all the way from Houston and realizing you don’t have proper documentation to go on the cruise! My first thought was finding a way to overnight the document. With the time difference, it was almost five o’clock in Houston. While all of this is going on, Jeremy txts me about something else… and I mention that we were in the midst of a dilemma… and here is his response…
Without missing a beat, Jeremy’s first thought is to jump on a plane and fly it to San Francisco. Mind you, by the time this conversation took place, it was already four in the afternoon west coast time. Jeremy looked up flights and realized that he needed time to secure the birth certificate from Laural’s daughter, Ashley. This made it impossible for him to make a 6pm flight but he could catch the next one which was at 7:50pm. He would arrive in San Francisco at 11pm. Needing to get Ezra to school the next morning, he would have to jump on the red-eye flight back to Houston as soon as he dropped off the document.
Finally arriving at the hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf, we took our luggage to Jess and Lori’s room until Roxanne arrived! With hours to wait for Jeremy to arrive, we hung out for a bit to wait for our second room. It was reserved under Roxanne’s name…
The view was nice… Coit Tower to the right and the Ferris wheel at Fisherman’s Wharf to the left. We were fortunate to have clear and relatively warm weather. By the way, the Waze app took us through some odd areas but we were able to go around the freeway closures without losing too much time.
FINALLY! We are all together! After months of waiting… our time away was finally upon us! Of course, we still had the thought of Jeremy flying, Uber pick ups, etc … but for the next few hours, there was nothing we could do but eat!
Worth noting… we saw our first Waymo! The blue swirling lights on the roof caught our attention. I had just heard about Waymo from Jeremy, so when I saw it on the car, I knew it was a driverless vehicle! They are all over the place. It’s a little strange to see one pull over to pick up a passenger with no human behind the wheel…
We picked a spot close to our hotel. All we wanted was a little seafood and a cocktail to start off the trip! Seated at a table with a nice view, we got down to the business of ordering!
Like me, Jess has a very restricted diet. We both had the sea bass. Lemon butter and garlic sauce gave it a lot of flavor. It was perfect for me! Laural had a sandwich with the meat shaped like a crab! Lori was the winner… although I could not eat this… if I could, it would have been my choice! A seafood pasta. Holy cow, it looked amazing!
Lori actually got a bib… and a pile of napkins! Things were about to get serious for this one!!!
Just can’t help myself… I’m a picture taker. It’s only been a matter of hours. The girls didn’t realize I was tired on the drive down so I forgot to take any but from here on out, they will get sick of me!!! Photos will make it easier for when I lose my mind (more than already) and want to remember what I did in my life haha!
Back in our room… by this time, I’m a hot mess! Minimal sleep, lots of travel and still have to meet up with Jeremy! We hung out in the room for awhile. At 9:30pm, Roxanne joined me for the Uber ride to San Francisco airport. We made it about 20 minutes before Jeremy’s scheduled arrival. He had sent me a txt from the airplane to let me know he would be in terminal 3. I looked up his flight and found that his gate would be E2, so we found the door to Baggage Claim closest to his arrival gate. That made it pretty easy since he was on a tight schedule. I can’t believe i didn’t take a single photo of this exchange! Like clockwork, he met us at the airport exit. Giving him a GIANT hug, for a giant kid… we laughed a bit about the situation. He got big praise for calmly coming up with a solution… admittedly, I was in a bit of a panic with the time restraint and the time difference between the two cities! It was a “no-brainer” for Jeremy… first thing that popped into his head. It never even crossed my mind… so, with document in hand, we said our good-byes. Jeremy went back through security. Roxanne and I jumped back into an Uber…. crisis averted!!! Thanks, JMac!!!
