Traveling with Ray Owens

Well let me tell you the story of this morning and you can then decide if I managed to set a world record for the worst beginning of Valentine’s Day ever!

My lovely bride was being very kind last evening and doing laundry for us in the washer and dryer in our apartment suite at the Adina. She got to bed very late. She was sleeping so well she did not even wake up, that is until 5:00 AM. Let me add this detail to our story. We had no plans for the morning. We did not have to vacate our room until 11:00 to head to our ship. So she and I, especially the she part had planned on a nice sleep in. Well at 5:00 guess whose phone alarm began to play Good morning, Good morning from “Singing in the Rain”. No, it wasn’t Penny’s, it was mine! I had set it for the previous morning as a backup for Penny’s alarm for our trip to the airport. (No, that was not necessary because she never oversleeps. ). I had changed the time on an alarm I use at home set to repeat every day. So this morning’s alarm was yesterday’s 5:00 alarm that I silenced but did NOT turn off.

Whether or not you agree that Penny’s reaction to that unwanted alarm was justified or not is irrelevant. Penny was madder than a wet hen when that alarm kicked in. Nay, she was madder than a nest of hornets that had been poked. She was, I kid you not, madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory!

Now Penny and I are as different as can be when it comes to going back to sleep when we wake up. I can and she cannot.

I apologized three times but she was so mad the apologies did not register. She got up and took a shower and was not too worried about any noise or lights or hair dryers or anything she might do. The aim of this was to help me understand what I had done.

So now we return to the original question. Did I manage to pull off the worst Valentine’s Day morning in the history of bad morning?

Being the loving wife she is, by the time we left for the cruise ship at noon she had forgiven me, well at least she allowed me to get on the ship with her. Of this forgiveness I was very grateful.

The forgiveness may have been partly because I left the room for a couple of hours in the morning.

I went out and walked around. The hotel is across the street from some government buildings and an open green in front of the treasure building. There was a great deal of activity in the park. There was a lady just finishing a yoga class. Later there was what I thought was the weirdest sport ever. It turned out to be a team building activity. I rooted for team 4 as I walked by. They were appreciative.

Another block brought me to the Queens Wharf and the pedestrian bridge going over the Brisbane River. So I took a stroll across to the other side where the performing arts center was and also a pretty cool Ferris Wheel.

Also on my side of the river there was the Star building 23 stories above the city with a well advertised public viewing area on the roof. It was very nice. Part of it had a glass floor and there were two brave or insane people washing the windows on the outside on a narrow ledge.

We checked out and rode in a Tesla Uber to the cruise terminal and checked in. We were at the front of the line talking to the person taking our picture and over the Public Address system they called for Charles Ray Owens. I started to run for it but bucked up and identified myself. It turned out that they wanted to return my global entry card that I had dropped from the pocket in my passport.

After that it went smoothly. We ate lunch and then our room was ready but our bags did not arrive until around 3:30.

We explored the ship including our table for dinners. We met our actual waiter and she was very helpful. We are sitting by a window which is nice.

As I write this we are sitting at a show in the two-70 theater that will begin at 8:00 and then a second show at the other end of the ship at 9:15 will begin.

Bad morning, an ok walk around Brisbane and so far a good start to the cruise.