Friday, September 19

Ah! On board at last! In my cabin surrounded by suitcases not yet unpacked. But the life boat drill is over and there’s nothing to do for the next 9 days but relax and get used to the ship while we cross the Pacific to Hakodate, Japan.

My flight from Virginia went smoothly as did the transfer from the airport to the hotel. The Fairmont Olympic is an historic hotel in downtown Seattle with a great deal of Georgian architecture and ornamentation. My room was quite comfortable and spacious.

Yesterday evening I had dinner with my cousin, Hunter, and his wife, Patricia, who live here. They took me to a great Italian restaurant where they often dine. The owner greeted all three of us with great glee and Italian effusiveness. Hunter and Patricia have just returned from three weeks in Italy, including several places recommended by the restaurant owner, so there was a good deal of talk about those places as they caught him up on their travels. We had a truly delicious dinner and a lovely visit. As always, other people’s children and now grandchildren tend to grow up on me when I’m not looking. Hunter’s first grandchild, Evan, is suddenly ten years old! Not only that, but his brother Nathaniel (Nate) is five, and I’d never even heard about him! (Note to self: keep in better touch!)

This morning I met a member of my Haiku Special Interest Group (SIG) for breakfast at the hotel. Mike Leake has been a member for quite a while, and has coordinated most of our recent Rengas-by-Mail. He lives in Issaquah and works in downtown Seattle. We ate in the hotel’s gorgeous Georgian dinning room...very high, wide, and handsome...must have been a ballroom at one time. Our enjoyable conversation ranged from haiku to history along with a dozen or two other topics. An auspicious start to boarding day!

The boarding process went very smoothly. As our cabins were not yet ready, I headed up to the Lido deck and found Jill just where I thought she would be. We had lunch and chatted until almost 2:00 p.m. when we strolled off to find our cabins. We are each on the port side of Lower Promenade deck, not too far apart. What I have seen so far of the ms Amsterdam is conveniently laid out and beautifully decorated as are all the Holland America ships. It’s quite familiar as it is the sister ship of the ms Maasdam on which I sailed last November.

After reading through assorted information on shore tours, I took myself off to the Shore Excursion Office to consult about both the ones I had already booked and several others I wanted to book. I wound up cancelling an all-day tour in Bangkok which included a lunch where you have to sit on the floor Japanese style. I have no intention of voluntarily putting my body at floor or ground level again in this life, so nix on that tour. I also cancelled a pedi-cab tour in Da Nang, Viet Nam when it was explained that one has to be able to hoist oneself pretty high off the ground to get into the thing...also not in my physical lexicon any more. Lastly, I have cancelled the land tour to Xi’an and Beijing due to the extreme amount of walking involved. The young man who was helping me said that he was exhausted after doing that tour last year...ooookay, fine! I did book a fistful of other tours which you will hear about as I take them.

Now to do a bit of unpacking before dinner. Later, y’all.

Saturday, September 20

I spent the majority of the day unpacking and recovering from jet lag (aka “sleeping”). Thus I missed the first bexcitement of the trip. Ship’s rumor reports that a woman who was traveling alone was discovered in her cabin paralyzed on one side (sounds like a stroke to me). Anyway, the ship turned around and headed back toward North America until it could rendevous with a plane from the Canadian Coast Guard which circled us until a CCG rescue helicopter could arrive. A paramedic and basket were then lowered to the front deck then hoisted back up with the woman aboard. After that we turned around and again headed for Hakodate.

According to what I can see on the display of the ship’s position, we are nnot going anywhere near the Aleutian Islands. Ship’s rumor also has it that the reason that we are not going to Petropavlosk in Russia is that the last Holland America ship that stopped there was not cleared by Russian Customs for people to go ashore until six hours after arrival. When you only have nine or ten in port, cutting six off is a definite no-go...especially when they still had to pay the tour operators on shore.

Sunday, September 21

The Pacific Ocean has been living up to its name...pacific...smooth as glass! Outside weather is chilly and mostly cloudy although the sun breaks through on occasion.

This morning I signed up for Watercolor Instruction every sea day at 1:00 p.m. Should be interesting and fun. Later I joined a Trivia Team which also meets on sea days...also fun.

This evening is the first formal night. Maybe our “missing” tablemates will turn up. Jill and I are at a table for eight, but have only met three others so far: Mary from Seattle, Phyllis from Phoenix, and Josie from Edmonton, Alberta. It’s going to be a good group, even if no one else shows up. Harvey and some of his family of pookahs may board in Japan to fill the empty seats...we’ll see.

I’ve also just discovered that I can access the ship’s wireless network from my cabin. This is excellent since I won’t have to haul my laptop up to one of the public areas to do e-mail and the blog.