Chapter 24
I practically had to staple the three caballeros in bed so I could get a few hours of sleep and then practically had to use a crowbar to get them out of bed and fed the next morning. When they found out we were walking – with our rolling luggage bags – to the Sun Stop they were pretty stunned.
“Cooperate if you want to get to Alaska. But … assuming you do cooperate … I might just have some fun stuff to do along the way. Capiche? And if you follow the rules and don’t give me a headache or freak anyone out … I might just have some mini legos for you once we get to the ship and in the cabin.”
“Alllllll Riiiight!”
Well that got them moving in the right direction. And the walk burned the excess excitement down to a small flame. What they didn’t know is that the flight was going to take a boring ten hours and fourteen minutes … plus a layover in Dallas, plus the time we had to get to the airport and make it through security all the rest of the stuff. I’d never flown so it was all new to me as well. I’d watched enough YouTubes though that I kinda new what to expect and some handy dandy tips on how to keep kids from climbing the fuselage.
The plane took off from Jacksonville International at 12:19 pm and landed at DFW (Dallas) 2:00 pm. And get this, we only had a 40-minute layover so it was like we were sprinting to get to the gate on time. Mr. Barnes, Mrs. Padfield, Junior’s mother, and a couple of other adult family members got taken there on some golf cart looking thing. Mr. Musgrove, Junior, and I booked it with the caballeros. They were calling our seats when we ran up and good thing that I had taken Junior’s passport from his mother because he was wigging about him not having it.
“Relax Junior. Give the nice lady your boarding pass and the rest.”
“I thought you said you’ve never flown.”
“I haven’t but I know how to plan ahead.”
After Junior, I ran the caballeros through like an assembly line and Mr. Musgrove was laughing and bringing up the rear like a caboose on a train.
We landed in Anchorage at 6:33 pm but it was really 10:33 pm by our body’s clocks. There’s a four-hour difference between Jacksonville and Anchorage. The caballeros were beat, and I wasn’t far from it, but there was still a ways to go.
I did get a laugh out of everyone when I shoved a trail mix bar in Junior’s mouth about the time he got the hangries. Especially when his mother said, “I may have to hire you.”
I only had a very vague idea of what the day’s itinerary was supposed to be. I knew we were supposed to take a bus provided by the cruise line to a hotel, what I hadn’t known is how long and drawn out the process was going to be. We got our luggage and then we had to wait for some other people to land who had been on different flights. There were people ahead of us as well. Then the bus from the airport to the hotel, which was called Captain Cook. We barely had time to get to the room and wash our faces when we were instructed we needed to go to the swank restaurant at the top of the hotel for an included dinner.
The place was called The Crow’s Nest, and it had a unbelievable view and that was only the start of the realization I wasn’t in Kansas (Florida) any more Toto. But some things never change … I had to set at the kids’ table while all the adults (including a slightly stoned looking Junior) sat elsewhere. About midway through the meal a depressed looking Junior shows up and asks, “How come you guys get to eat normal food?”
I look at the dozen kids ringed around the table and answered, “We’re just lucky I guess. Why?”
“Do I look like someone that wants to eat fried olives and … er … bone marrow?”
I put my napkin to my mouth to cover the laugh that wanted to come out before saying, “You’re in the adult world now. Enjoy.”
“Geez,” he muttered before wandering back the way he came.
The food was posh but not horrible. At the kids’ table we got a cheese and meat tray and Caesar salad to start. For the main there were chicken strips except for some of the kids who were given the Vegan plate, and I was surprised to get something called Duroc Pork Chops that I later found out was thanks to Mr. Musgrove who’d been a little peeved that I’d been marked down as “7” instead of “17”. I laughed it off but thanked him all the same.
The room was even more posh than the dinner, but we were all too tired to enjoy it. There were two double beds in the room, and I told them it was girls on one side and guys on the other and if anyone snored, they could take the hallway. They laughed a couple of times but were asleep in under five minutes of getting their jammies on and brushing their teeth. I had to wait my turn in the bathroom but I’d grown up having to do it and following “rules of modesty”, so nothing was a problem.
I swear if I wasn’t so excited I would have loved to have slept in but between the “oh-my-gerd-we’re-in-Alaska” and my body clock telling me it was passed breakfast, I was up well before the knock on the door letting me know it was time to take the caballeros downstairs.
Breakfast was different from dinner the night before, more like a continental sort of thing, but I didn’t have a problem with that. What I did have a problem with was all the sugary stuff on the buffet table. I managed to keep the kiddos to eating a cheese omelet and some fruit. The boys also split an oatmeal bar since they still had hollow places.
Nat was sticking close, and I asked her in a whisper if everything was okay.
“They’re being … boys.”
“Yeah, they are. Sorry to say I doubt they’ll grow out of it.”
“They aren’t going to be like Junior are they?”
“Geez, not if I have any say.”
The look on my face made her giggle and she started to relax. She loves her twin and Daniel was starting to fit in there somewhere too, but it made me remember something Mom had once said about needing to make sure the twins got age and gender appropriate activities separate from one another. That they needed to be able to stand on their on two feet. One of Dad’s grandfathers had had twin siblings. The male twin had died in a car wreck and the girl twin … without her brother protector … got involved in some bad things and died young herself. Memories of family history that I don’t want to see repeated.
At 8 am sharp we were picked up for our day tour that would then drop us off at the place where we needed to get on the cruise ship. We started at this place called Beluga Point that had spectacular views of the Cook inlet and Turnagain Arm. Everyone was going picture crazy, especially me. I had decided I would make another portfolio book for the twins and decided if I was doing one for them, I might as well do one for Daniel as well. I even took pictures of Junior and his mother together in exchange for him taking some of the twins and I together that didn’t look like selfies.
Next, we went to Bird Point which we were told was the halfway point to Portage Glacier. Those that wanted to could even take a short, twenty-minute hike. I don’t know what people enjoyed more, the views of the Chugach Mountain Range or the restrooms. Our next stops were in Portage Valley; Explorer Glacier, Middle Glacier, Byron Glacier, and then another surprise, boarding a boat to an hour-long cruise on Portage Lake to get up close and personal with several more glaciers that were doing this thing called calving. That’s where pieces of the glaciers break off and slide or fall into the water. We weren’t close enough to get sprayed with ice, but the boat did bob around like a fishing bobber and couple of times. And it was freaking cold, so I was glad I made all three caballeros bring a jacket. The insanity of snow in July was a lot to take in.
After the boat ride we went to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center where we were guided through the two-hundred-acre facility to see Alaskan land mammals in their natural habitats. We saw bears, moose, wolves, elk, deer, and eagles. Some of them looked a little sorry because they were losing their winter coat and looking scruffy but otherwise very, very cool. From there it was time to go to this ginormous tunnel that took us to the cruise port. It took forever to wait our turn and then get through the tunnel and then wait our turn to get on the ship. All things considered, the caballeros were behaving pretty well but I was a nervous wreck and trying not to show it. Somewhere along the way I’d realized I was going to have zero privacy and having all three kiddos was going to be a lot of responsibility. The twins I could have at if they needed it, but I wondered what I would do if Daniel didn’t cooperate or behave.
And once we got on the ship, I found out that somehow the twins and Daniel had been marked down as triplets. Their ages were all “8” and they had the same last name, so some assumptions were made. Only when correcting my age, the cruise line had made the mistake of changing “7” to “18.” I didn’t squeak because that made me old enough that I could “monitor” the caballeros’ location with their wrist bands and no one had to monitor mine … I didn’t need an adult in other words. The caballeros didn’t help the situation as they were all over the “triplet” thing, especially Knox who said now Daniel was allowed to protect Nat just like him. Oh brother.
I signed the “triplets” in with Camp Discovery. That is the activity group for their age and since the twins were intrigued so was Daniel. And because Nat was a bear about Knox not having anything he shouldn’t, Daniel got the same treatment. I then did my last responsibility and texted Tessa when we got on the ship, explained the time difference, and told her I probably wouldn’t have much connection, or the opportunity to use it when I did, but that I would let her know when we got off the ship at the end with the flight information and everything.
“See you do. And don’t get in trouble. This is a good opportunity for you to add to your resume in case you decide against more college. Being a nanny for an influential family could take you places.”
I repeat, oh brother.
I had everyone to pick a shelf and a bed. There were two bunks that pulled down from the wall and two twins already on the floor. Not a lot of space so that meant we needed to keep things picked up and organized. The boys wanted the upper bunks and I gave them the okay so long as they weren’t going to behave stupid.
“And trust me, you play stupid and …”
Daniel said, “We won’t. Uncle Derek already told me or else.”
“Smart man then. But you don’t wanna know what my ‘or else’ is going to be. Capiche, you monkeys?”
I made my point, but they also laughed. I had them put away their stuff neatly because I told them I wasn’t going to break my neck tripping over things and didn’t want them to either. We changed into clean clothes, hung the thicker jackets up and put on the waterproof windbreakers that I thought would be good for on ship. I wound up having to carry their hats and gloves and scarves in a string bag because it could get doggone cold outside on the decks. I also carried lip balm with their names on them in permanent marker and zinc for their noses and tops of their ears. Got that tip from a YouTube.
Dinner that night was in the buffet. I let them eat until they could have been ship anchors and then let them have ginger ale for dessert. Junior joined us looking forlorn.
“What’s up? The food is normal.”
“All they talk about is people that are dead or soon will be dead or … oh crap …” He said then stopped after getting a look at Nat’s face. “Ignore me. Just … ignore me. I’m gonna go …”
“Will you stop freaking out. You’re just loud, that’s all. Nat isn’t going to cry. Geez.” I looked at him and then pointed to some gravy on his chin. While Junior wiped it off I asked, “They’ve got an 18-20 year old social group. It looks like they have some parties and sports games and stuff. It even says they’ll have food and … er … mocktails, whatever the heck those are. You can go to a couple and see if it suits you.”
“Really?”
I handed him the flyer that a crew person from the caballeros’ group had handed me and told him to keep it and he wandered off back to his mom whom he is sharing a cabin with.
I told the caballeros, “Let’s go tell the adults goodnight then we’ll take a quick turn on the deck to see if there are any stars, and then, assuming you can hold anything, we’ll get a little ice cream and then head back to the cabin.” At their disappointed look I added, “Or are you not interested in mini-legos?”
They’d forgotten all about the surprise which suited me just fine. It told me they were behaving because it was the right thing to do, not just to get a prize. They really didn’t last long after the ice cream as the four-hour time difference had overtaken their second wind. And I wasn’t unhappy to be making a relatively “early” night because I was beat, and I knew that for the next two days I was going to be run ragged keeping them from being bored while we were on the ship.
