Day 8: Arriving in Tampa/going home

Day 8: Arriving in Tampa :(

Day 8 began less pleasantly by the other days because we jolted back to the reality that our cruise wouldn't actually last forever. Dang it! (see Claire's farewell video at the very bottom - it accurately expresses how we all felt having to say goodbye for the final time)

We went to our sit-down breakfast one last time with Sariyono (LOVED him). Then we waited for our group to be called. We were one of the first ones off the boat b/c we were trying to catch an earlier flight. .

We took a quick taxi to the airport. There was zero traffic and zero wait at the airport. We were off the boat and at our gate in no more than 20 minutes NO KIDDING. Then, to continue our magical experience, not only did we make the flight but we were in first class. YAY!.

We returned to Atlanta and it didn't feel too cold, but there was snow on the ground! It was the first white Christmas since the 1800's (Claire was sad to miss it). Justin had to scrape our car before he could drive it back to get me (he parks in the employee lot when we travel so we don't pay for parking).

Here's a picture of the parental's house: Now, for Georgia, this snow is really exciting so you Northerners are not allowed to bash it!

Got home, took a nap, unpacked, etc... We've been drinking our juice out of wine goblets and wearing tropical colors ever since. It's been a hard adjustment back :(

Things we loved the most: chocolates and animal towels EVERY night (always SO fun to plan for the next day's activities on a freshly turned down bed), taking showers every day that were the PERFECT temperature and the PERFECT pressure, fresh towels once a day, having the bed made twice a day and turned down each night, not having to make dinner or clean up after it, just showing up and eating as much as we wanted (which was usually a LOT - we basically paid for our dinner - the room/entertainment/etc... was all free!), soaking up the warm Caribbean sun, having zero responsibility besides getting to the next meal on time :), it was so romantic!!!, and lastly and most importantly, we had so much free time to just spend together - so much time to bask in our love. SO MUCH FUN.

We're seriously trying to plan our next cruise and are 95% committed to the week of Thanksgiving 2011.

One other bit of happy news: Justin is on his way home from work right this very minute via the Original Mattress Factory to purchase our BRAND NEW BED!!!!! Yes, that's right ladies and gents, we finally saved up enough in our savings fund that we are allowing ourselves to get a bed! The bedroom furniture is right behind it - we'll get that hopefully by the end of the month. The bed should get delivered on Saturday and our lives will be changed forever. YAY!