oompa loompa doompety doo

we woke up pretty early on debarkation day. the newsletter told us that we were expected to be out of our staterooms by 8, but all three of us were wide awake pre-7:00. and the teen and i both made a mad dash to turn our phones off of "airplane mode," since we were back in the good ol' u.s. of a. and could finally get service without being charged an arm and a leg.

she'd cracked me up when we first boarded the ship. "what do you mean, i can't use my phone all weekend?" she shrieked. but at $2.49 a minute and $20/MB of data usage, there was no way in hell either of us were going to use those phones unless it was an emergency.

"psh. what's the point of even having the stupid thing with me?" she said, and promptly tossed it in our in-room safe. pouter.

she was also slightly bummed that her entry into mexico hadn't popped the cherry on her completely stamp-free passport. oh, well.

speaking of passports, we shared some silent chuckles at a loud conversation that took place behind us on the shuttle coming back from ensenada. a female voice, shrill and slightly slurred, piped up: "if it's called baja california, why do we even have to have passports to go there? duh." and the answering male voice, amused and condescending: "well, it's kind of like how mexicans can't just cross the border and go to new mexico. see?"

[long pause]

the petulant, annoying voice again: "i don't get it."

and the teen and i just about fell off the seat.

check out the LBC, looking all heavenly and stuff:

since we'd opted to do self-assist debarkation rather than the traditional method, where you put your suitcase out the night before and then exit the ship deck by deck, with your luggage waiting to be picked up in the terminal, we managed to get outta there and back into the pri-YES by 8:30. as we waited in line to exit the parking structure, i called the hub to let him know we were safe. man, i missed him a lot.

i had two stops to make before we headed home, since we were in the area. i needed to buy ribbon in bulk for some invitation orders at fabric barn, which is usually a long trek from home but was only a couple of miles from the terminal. and the other was just for fun - taken from my friend tater's blog post about powell's sweet shoppe. now that i look back on that post, i realize that i took a lot of the same pics as she did. heh.

it was early and fabric barn wasn't open quite yet, according to the website, so we headed in that direction and found a mcdonald's conveniently located just down the street. yay! we ate in the car, listening to the radio and enjoying being back on the mainland.

sadly for me, when it was a good 8 minutes past 9:00 and we swung a u-turn to park in front of the store, it was still locked up tight. and as i stopped near the entrance, i was super bummed to note that labor day was one of the handful of holidays that they observed. shit, man. i was crushed.

i was tempted to let this put a major damper on the rest of my day and started to head home when i realized that it would likely be 2384928374 degrees inland, and that i would totally kick myself for passing up the chance to visit candyland. so instead, we headed to beautiful belmont shore, parked in a lot right near the beach, and killed some time before the candy shop opened for business.

the bean was quite skittish at first and didn't want to leave my arms, but it didn't take long before she remembered how much fun it was to play in the sand.

the teen dug in a little, too.

of course, by the time we got back in the car to meet up with willy wonka, everything else was open and parking was scarce. i managed to find a sweet spot (pun intended) just a few steps away from this:

i was so excited, i was like - well, a kid in a candy store. har har har.

the bean was quite fascinated at the sensory overload, and i totally lost the teen for a while, too.

OG and hard to find sodas!

silly first-aid supplies!

fancy schmancy gourmet chocolates!

an entire case of imported sweets!

at the rear of the store was this tribute to the candy man himself, complete with the movie on loop and old-fashioned movie theater seating. the bean climbed right up onto one of the seats and made herself comfy.

valomilks are the very best thing ever. gooey marshmallow creme surrounded by creamy milk chocolate. what's not to love? not very easy to find near home, but there was no shortage here.

i was super amused to see that "big hunk" candy bars had joined the 100-calorie craze.

and then i saw it - the little section near the register that beckoned so invitingly and damn near called me by name.

okay, gross. i like meat. i like bubble gum. but this - this does NOT appeal.

the teen had also found something very near and dear to her heart.

i kept tiptoeing back to peek at the bean to see what she was up to, and i was really surprised to find that she was still completely entranced by the movie and clutching the fluffy dog she'd found somewhere along the way.

more fun, sweet stuff.

we finally gathered up the loot we'd scooped up, checked out, and clambered back into the car to head home. i had the teen pull this out right away:

and it took about 7.93 seconds before i asked her to yank that shit down and put it right back into the plastic bag it came in. while it was a super fun novelty that totally made me laugh, that shit smelled like hot ass on a stick. it wasn't even a good bacon smell, and i didn't think that was possible. but it is. it IS. so sad.

in just about the same amount of time, i looked back and saw this:

sensory overload indeed. well, that and getting up at the ass crack of dawn.

here's what came home with us. so much fun! i can't wait to report back on it all.

you know you can't wait to read about it, either.