An Inconvenient Splendid Cruise from a 60 year old perspective

A fondue dinner in San Juan Capistrano the night before cruise.
Dave and Jessica, Gary and Becky, Jake and Emily

8 Cruisers! Jim, Jenn, Becky, Gary, Emily, Jake
Emma and Madison who are guests of honor

On board the Splendor

Evacuated from our cabins - first mornings meal fare

SS Ronald Reagan to the rescue!

Disembarking on Nov 11 in San Diego

Waiting to check in at the Hyatt, compliments of Carnival

Our guests of honor were brave and oh so good from day one forward

60th birthday dinner at the Hyatt, all expenses paid!

Two bookworms in sunny San Diego

A week to remember with our granddaughters
and looking forward to another week in the future, compliments of Carnival.

Here’s a sampling of some rather memorable phrases I’ve personally heard the last couple of weeks – ‘Alpha team, alpha team, alpha team – report to your stations!’ ‘Evacuate your cabins!’ ‘The ship has lost all power!’ ‘This cruise is terminated!’ Then this: ‘You don’t need to put on your life-jackets!’ Whew! It was a wild beginning for the Heninger Reunion Cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor. What was supposed to be a seven day vacation to Puerto Vallarta, Matzatlan, and Cabo San Lucas ended up being a totally unexpected and inconvenient adventure with trying to stay warm after a cold shower, finding something appetizing to eat after standing in line for a long, long, long time, ‘feeling’ rather than ‘seeing’ your way around your cabin and bathroom, having an ‘open door policy’ 24 hours a day to get a little light to do all of your private business, trying to sleep with the open door policy (unless you were lucky like me and could electronically disconnect from the noise), having an aircraft carrier come to the rescue, watching helicopters drop loads of food, trying to ignore the smells permeating the ship, and…..well, just read the Hutchings blog for all of the details! http://jakeandemilyhutchings.blogspot.com

Emma and Madi get a gold medal for being brave, full of adventure, happy, and delightful to have along. They explored the ship from top to bottom and bottom to top, met cousins and played with cousins, got lost and then got found, made origami with their Japanese neighbors across the hall, and couldn’t thank us enough for the ‘adventure’ when it was all over, and can hardly wait for their next cruise. Emily was the most disappointed of us all to have her dream cruise of relaxation and sun turn into more of a survival cruise and clouds, but she’s looking forward to a free cruise in the future thanks to the generosity of Carnival. We were reimbursed all of our expenses including cruise fare, travel expenses, and maybe even babysitting costs – Emily is working on that – plus given a future free cruise. My cruising spirit hasn’t been dampened at all and I will definitely be on board.

What did I learn from this adventure? I learned that order digresses to chaos very fast, cleanliness to filthiness even faster, humans can get rather uncivilized and very selfish quickly, and a flashlight would have come in right handy! I learned that it was a lot of fun to be with our granddaughters, Gary, the Hutchings, and Taskers – as if I didn’t already know that important detail.

And now for some words from Caleb that are even more memorable, to me, than the ‘alpha team, alpha team, alpha team…” – ‘You cook the best food, you are always willing to do stuff, and you always bring presents, so congratulations on being the best grandma in the world and I hope you have a happy 60^th birthday!’ And so I did – it was the BEST. Why? Well, we got off the Splendor right in the middle of my big day! Carnival put us up in a beautiful hotel in San Diego. I took a long, hot shower and I could actually see in the bathroom! There was hot food and no lines. The Sedgwicks joined us so I had lots of help blowing out the candles. I have a book of 60 memories from all of you – the PERFECT gift. I have another ‘101 Things I love about you’ from Gary, added onto 36 other such cards in past years for a running total of 3737 things that Gary has noticed and expressed appreciation for in who….me? I find it rather astonishing to say the least. It really was the BEST day and I don’t mind being 60 at all – in fact, I rather like it.

We have a new member of our family who joined us on Nov 4: Espen Peter who is just as handsome as his name sounds and came complete with a full head of black hair, tiny nose, plump, dimpled cheeks, and little mini body. How I adore these little mini bodies that come so perfect and straight from heaven. Dagmar looks wonderful and says she feels good and I believe her. She is radiant. And I know that Josh is a proud father – he deserves to be with four beautiful children.

We came home from California to Georgia in all her fall glory and I have to say it again: there is no place more beautiful than Georgia in the fall. Even the weather is perfect, as if apologizing for cooking and steaming us over the summer.

I can’t quite put my finger on November and here it is almost Thanksgiving! Taskers are going to St. George to be with Jim’s family, Jessica and Dave are in Boston but will be back barely in time to host the extended Sedgwicks at their home, we hoped to get the Crofts to drive to ATL and share the holiday with us but weren’t convincing enough, Bells have the Bells right around the corner just like the Allreds have the Allreds right around the corner and will share Thanksgiving with them, Beau and Amy will be in California watching the Sedgwick kids, Julie and Seth have been invited to Connie’s (I wish I were feasting at Connie’s), and Jake has mentioned driving to UT but I haven’t heard the final word. We will miss all of you – we really will. My heart will be full but empty too, if you know what I mean, and if you are a mom, you know what I mean. We will love having Josh, Dagmar and their children, Piet and Lina, Jordan, Amanda and Jonah, the Hutchings and Vickers, and more missionaries than you can count on one hand! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love being outside and enjoying the beauty of the fall season, I love the simplicity of the celebration with minimal materialism, decorating, and preparation. I love acknowledging my overflowing cup of blessings, and I certainly love the whole feasting idea put into practice!

I read a tribute to a woman whose life was dedicated to ‘giving away’ rather than ‘accumulating’ – seems fitting for the season, for the year, for life:

ChenShu-chu is a seller of vegetables in a stall in Taitung’s central market in Southern Taiwan. Out of her modest living, Chen, 59, has managed to donate nearly $320,000 to various causes, including a children’s fund, a library, and a local orphanage. What’s so wonderful about Chen’s achievement is not it’s extraordinariness but that it is so simple and matter of fact in its generosity. ‘Money serves its purpose only when ti is used for those who need it,’ she told a newspaper. And rather than bask in her celebrity, Chen seems to dismiss the whole thing with a wave of her hand. ‘There isn’t much to talk about, because I didn’t enter any competition and I haven’t really made any huge donations.' I doubt ChenShu of Taiwan knows it, but she is a Christian and following Him.