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If there's such a thing as north-south jet lag, I think I have it. It's been a long day anyway. I was up at 5:00 am this morning, and I even tried to eat breakfast at 6:30 am. (I didn't do very well.)
Then came the longest part of my day, sitting around waiting to be called to go through customs. The U.S. authorities don't want everyone getting off the ship at once, so they assign colors to the baggage tags, and you sit in your assigned area and wait for your color to be called. All of our group had yellow tags.
Every time an announcement came on inviting a new color to come to the gangway and disembark, we got all excited. People reached for their jackets and carryon bags. And then we sat down again, defeated. Turquoise and lavender were called before yellow. The only color that wasn't called before yellow was lowly gray, and the grays were called the same time we were. Which means that we were the last passengers left on the ship.
Then came more waiting, in the endless lines where we had to prove we were who we were, and we had to declare what we had to declare. I declared the six T-shirts and three photographs I bought. They didn't even blink, or ask any questions other than did I have a good time. I was kind of surly going through the line, but by the time I got to the customs agent's window I was prepared to pretend to be as friendly as necessary, just to get it over with. I probably even smiled at her.
So it was 10:30 am by the time we were on the road. The rest of the day is kind of a blur (which makes it a darn good thing I wasn't driving). Somehow we got from the Port of Los Angeles to our fondly remembered home town in less than seven hours, even though we stopped for 45 minutes for lunch and other necessities. I don't know how fast we were going (as I said, I wasn't driving), but that might be a modern day record.
And so the long day ends with me wishing our beloved waiters were here to bring me food and refill my water glass and take away all the extra forks and spoons. And yet, I'm not really hungry. After sitting and eating three- and four-course meals every night from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm for seven days, I'll probably get by on a granola bar and an ice cream sandwich tonight.
I might decide to try to eat better, but I don't know how well I'll do. Even though I ate constantly on the cruise, it was all good, healthy food. (Well, except maybe for the desserts.) Soup, salad, and a modest entrée most nights. And even those desserts were small portions (although that doesn't really matter if you eat three of them). I'll go to the grocery store tomorrow to restock. We'll see what I come home with. | 
