Embarkation

I started packing the night before we left, but it went pretty smoothly. I had to send my mom out to Sport Chalet at 9 that night to get a duffel bag, but that was the only hiccup. I had a good amount of space left in my second bag, so indulged with my speakers and sub-woofer. After all, they say that music soothes even the savage beast.

I watched Kevin’s football scrimmage Saturday morning, in which he completely obliterated anyone that dared to stand in his way. He is going to be extremely scary when he is a senior. After that we drove down to San Diego, where my parents got to check out the ship for a couple of hours.

When I woke up Sunday morning it really hit for the first time that I was leaving the country for a long time. I remember looking out the balcony thinking “I really like this place.” I don’t have any idea of Asia or the Middle East is like. For all I know those places might not even exist. It is amazing to think that I am getting on a ship and going straight out into the ocean, and in a couple weeks will land in a place completely foreign to me. It is still hard to get a grip on what I am doing, and I don’t think I will really understand it all until long after I return. Completely awesome.

So after my last breakfast with my family for a while, we went down to the parking lot and I hopped on the shuttle down to Ensenada. It wasn’t the sob-fest I imagined it would be. There is something a little bit anti-climactic about getting on a bus instead of waving goodbye from a ship setting sail. Missing Kev’s football season really does bum me out though.

The drive down to Ensenada was pretty uneventful. We had a few hours in port before we set sail, so I headed to MK Taco for some fine dining. I was super stoked on my tacos and apple soda lunch, but my stomach was not so stoked. I felt pretty gross when I got back to the ship and then passed out. When I woke up we were out in the ocean with no land in sight. I guess they had some bag-pipes playing when the ship set sail and a couple random people were on the dock waving goodbye, but it doesn’t sound like I missed much.

The ship is pretty amazing. Not a bad place to spend the next three months. I’ll post some pictures a little later.