I have tons of pictures and am having a terrible problem culling! So I thought I might do a chronological thing. But you won’t get 10 days of pics, promise.
Sasha White and I decided to add one extra day to the front and end of our trip so that we wouldn’t have to stress if a plane or boat arrived late. On the day of my flight to Newark, New Jersey, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep, so I left for the airport at 2:00 AM. I stopped in Malvern, Arkansas for breakfast at a Waffle House and joined the skater crowd of kids who all looked a little high. I was so early at the airport the airlines swapped me for an earlier flight, so I had time to kill before meeting Sasha at her gate in Newark.
We arrived at the Days Hotel in the early afternoon. The hotel was nice, but we knew we weren’t in a good part of town when we saw the tall chain link that surrounded the parking lot that was topped by strands of barbed wire. Add the armed guard in the guard shack at the entrance of the lot and you know we were glad we’d only be there one night.
Because we had so much extra time on our hands we road a shuttle from the hotel to the mall. We ended up sharing the ride with a woman who could have been the poster child for too much plastic surgery. And when she moved her hands and spoke, we realized she was probably a transgender person as well. Had to mention that because when I got back to the hotel, I passed another in the lobby, and rode the elevator with another. Must have been a convention. And you know me. I wanted so bad to ask one of them if I could see their new parts. I thought maybe they’d be like strangers you meet who are so proud of their new tattoos that they will pull up their shirts or push down the waistband of their pants and show them to you. But I refrained.
Anyway, the camera came out the following day.
It was freaking cold when we arrived at harbor. Royal Caribbean had a large heated, semi-permanent tent set up to process everyone through passports. Still the windchill was in the 20’s and I only brought a rain jacket. I was glad to finally get through this door.
Inside, I stood in line with 2800 other people waiting to process in.
