Oy Vacation
It was the final day of our vacation. In fact, it was the final evening. We had signed up for a dinner cruise in Sydney Harbor.
Mistake. Big.
We could have been packing our luggage, enjoying the Elvis movie on our watch list, or savoring a final meal on the cruise ship. But, instead, we were slowly touring Sydney Harbor — a tour we had taken several times before and realized, too late, that this was one too many.
Finally, at ten pm, we arrived back at the dock. We could easily see our cruise ship, only 500 yards away. But there was a body of water in between where we had docked and our ship. The bus ride back to the ship would take close to half an hour.
I was in a hurry to return and was among the first passengers off the dinner boat. Soon I was leading the pack to the bus that would deliver us to the Viking Mars. Then we encountered the first problem. As we walked up to the landing we nearly crashed into a sign: “Dock closed at dusk.” Okay. It was just a sign, and I was not going to let a sign cause me to spend a chilly night on the dock. Please keep this our little secret: sometimes I ignore signs.
But I couldn’t ignore the two barriers that were strategically placed to block our path.
The first was a fence made of fish net. It was latched to the left with Velcro, so I simply opened it and pushed it aside so the other 40 or so passengers could follow me back to the bus.
The second obstacle was not so easy. I yanked hard on the handle, but it was either stuck or locked in some way. But since the second fence was only about 36 inches high, I decided to just step over it. This was not as easy for me as it might have been twenty years ago, but I made it over in one piece.
I’m happy to report that the remainder of our trip back to the ship went smoothly, which, of course, brings my story to its happy conclusion.
I believe I’ve mentioned how much the ocean swells rocked the ship on the last two days of our cruise. But Daveen and I have solved that problem in advance. Our next cruise is on the Ohio River from St. Louis to Philadelphia, where we expect calm waters.
Maybe we’ll revisit the Elvis movie on our next cruise. Meanwhile, if you really need to get somewhere – I encourage you to remove or step over any obstacle in your path.
And I won’t tell anyone if you occasionally ignore a sign.
Alan