All good things must end...

The last day of the cruise gave us some cloudy weather and seas a little rougher than we had experienced so far. But that didn't matter much. The main project for the day was to get packed up and ready for disembarkation on Sunday.

We did, however, come across a rainbow after a morning shower. We could see both ends of it, but it was unfortunately too big to fit into one photo frame:

Everyone managed to fit everything back into the suitcases, and there was even enough time left over for Monica to participate in the 'On Deck for the Cure' 5K walkathon to support finding a cure for breast cancer. So far she has 2 hats from Princess and now a T-shirt from Holland America. All we need now is for one of the other lines to sponsor gym shorts or ankle socks with the Pink Ribbon logo and she'll be completely kitted out!

Dinner that evening was an international extravaganza. The menu included: Roast Duck (Mom), Baked Alaska (Renate), Pavlova (Monica) and Cheesecake (Larry), so everybody could have a favourite to round out the cruise.

Pavlova - a New Zealand dessert of meringue,
whipped cream, kiwi fruit and mango sauce

Sunday morning we left the ship in good time and with a lot less standing in line than we expected, so we were about an hour early getting to the hotel, Hyatt Pier 66. Of course, the rooms weren't ready at that time, so we opted to get our rental car and drive out to Sawgrass Mills to look around. We hadn't had much breakfast, so our first stop at the mall was the Cheesecake Factory for brunch. Larry ordered what he thought was a reasonable-sized brioche sandwich - and look what he ended up with!

We were sure that the portion sizes were larger than when we were last here, and found out that they had in fact been increasing over the past few months.

An hour or so's shopping done, and we left the mall. Instead of heading straight back to the hotel we took the ladies on a tour up to Boca Raton, drove past the old apartment and down along the A1A, through Hillsboro and all of the 'old stomping grounds'. It was a nice way to spend an hour or so, and once we got back to the hotel we could move into our rooms.

Having a drink down by the pool

We went to the 15th Street Fisheries for dinner that evening, for a lovely local South Florida way to round out the trip. Well, actually, we rounded out the trip pretty much as we started it - with a breakfast at the Harbor Cafe. The waitress even remembered Mom from when we had visited, numerous times, during our week here in February 2011!

Dessert at the 15th Street Fisheries

All in all we had a great time. A little rainy weather here and there didn't really put too much of a damper on the cruise. We hadn't cruised with Holland America for quite some time, so it was nice to see the new ship layout and experience the service and entertainment. We hope that Mom and Renate had as good and relaxing a time as we did!

So, we'll sign off for this vacation, and get ready to spend some extra time at the gym to work it off! Next up will be the African Safari at the end of January. Keep an eye out for that - it promises to be an adventure as none before...for this blog, anyway!