My plane from SFO to Anchorage touched down late at night on Sunday, July 23.  I checked into the Hotel Captain Cook.  It was after 11 and all the food outlets in the hotel were closed.  Bummer.  I was famished.  I had eaten everything they had given me on the plane, but it wasn’t much.  The desk clerk told me there was a Russian dumpling shop across the street that was open until midnight, so I dropped my bags in my room and out I went, as fast as I could.

Like everything Russian, it wasn’t very well lit. So, while I was walking along, where I thought might be across the street from it, and squinting at a sign, I tripped and went down – splat.  I landed on my left teat, knee, and pinky finger.  I knew enough to throw myself left after last year’s fall had me on crutches for a day.  I must not fall on my much reconstructed right knee.  I digress, but you should know this.  The Mohs surgery I had on my nose last year left a scar because, instead of taking proper care of it post-op, I was waiting in emerg to have my knee X-Rayed, since I couldn’t walk.  The doc on duty at 10:00 pm, gave up on trying to read it.  There were so many lines going every which way on it, thanks to the comminuted supracondylar and intercondylar fracture of the right distal femur that I suffered at age 23, and had repaired, twice.  The knee wasn’t broken.  I figured that out for myself when it started getting better in the evening.

Anyway, this was a good fall.  The person manning the dumpling shop helped pick me up, fed me and all was well.  I had a fabulous night’s sleep. 

On Monday, July 24, I was glad I had come in early, it gave me time to work in peace.  My supplies had arrived, and the hotel had a business center, where printing was even free.  I had no trouble making up my Welcome Packets and, because this was a cruise tour, I included an invitation to join me for a drink on the night before it started, July 25.

I broke my fast at 4:00 pm in Fletcher’s, the Hotel Bar, with a very good clam chowder.  Then I went for a long walk and back there later for a pizza and a piece of mud pie. 

Once I had cleared my email on Tuesday, July 25,  and delivered my welcome packets safely into the hands of the Princess representatives in the hotel, I was free to tour Anchorage.  The Princess people were happy to have more goodies to deliver to their guests.  I chose the trolley ride for my orientation.  It featured a live guide, who was delightful.  She told us Alaska is actually one-fifth the size of the whole continental USA and has more coastline.  But it only has 300,000 inhabitants.  It was discovered in 1776 by Captain James Cook and changed hands a number of times before the Russians sold it to the United States in 1867.  They figured they had taken everything of value that it had – mostly furs.  It would have made more sense if Canada had bought it, but we were a tad late there, probably busy becoming a country. 

Our guide’s patter was fascinating and I learned a lot, which you’ll need to visit yourselves to find out, or read a book, because that’s not what this blog does.  It does get personal, though, and I am pleased to report that our female guide caught a 123-lb halibut last year.  It took three people to bring it aboard.  The reason she was so proud of that is because it was a major factor in how well she and her boyfriend ate last winter. 

Alaska has its share of wildfires, over a million acres burned last year, and earthquakes, too, lots of them.  A big one hit a suburb of Anchorage, where they made a human chain and saved all but three people. It had happened at 5:30PM on Good Friday, when everybody was at home. They don’t have a lot of roads, so pretty much every family has at least one plane.  The average age of a private plane is 51.  They build them from kits and just keep fixing them.  Most people have pilot’s licenses.  Some just fly without them.  The stories about all the alcohol available during prohibition, and the working girls, are mostly true. There’s only a 90-day growing season, but it’s light for almost 24 hours.  They grow some huge veggies under those conditions and moose love pumpkins. 

I puttered around the shops for an hour or so.  Andrea Fairchild, my roommate from Magog, in the Eastern Townships southeast of Montreal, arrived late afternoon and mustered for our happy hour in the Crow’s Nest of the Captain Cook at five pm.  We were joined by one of our family groups, six people, three generations. They were delightful.  Then Andrea and I had dinner in the adjacent restaurant and it was lovely, fresh and fishy.

The real adventure began on Wednesday, July 26Anchorage to McKinley.  We boarded one coach and Owen Johnson, patriarch for a group of eleven, was sitting in the front seat with his wife, Joyce.  Our bus driver was a real wag and brought “Mr. Johnson” into his commentary on a very regular basis.  If I had not had his name on my manifest, I might have thought the bus driver had invented him.  Besides the eleven people in the Johnson family, and the other family of six, there are just three independent couples.  We got to meet most of them but we weren’t really doing anything together except riding a bus, with a very good driver guide.  We checked into the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge around lunchtime and had the afternoon to enjoy the place.  I didn’t see how to plan anything, when everyone had different tours, or not, and most of the tours went right through cocktail hour.  It was awkward.  So we went out drinking and eating and chatted with whomever we met.  No one needed us. 

Thursday, July 27 was another day like the last one, only McKinley to Denali.  More scenery from a bus.  Pleasant enough.  We are getting to know our people as we ride along with them.  It’s clear that there are family dynamics at play and they are fun ones.  The lodges at both ends were very nice. We have two nights at Denali.  I had thought we would be able to make a group dinner out of the voucher for Fannie Q’s Saloon but that didn’t happen either as people had different tours booked and different diner times.  We did circulate through the Saloon and had nice little chats with a number of people, and all was going well. 

Friday, July 28, was our big day in Denali.  We all had our separate breakfasts at King Salmon Restaurant and they were outstanding.  The Lodges really do breakfast well, so well I break my fast to have them.  These were blueberry pancakes – yum.  Well stuffed, we piled onto our bus for Jeff King’s Husky Homestead and our Distinctive Voyages Tour.  It was probably the best DV tour I have ever had to offer in a dozen years of hosting. 

Jeff King himself, the four time Ititarod champion, was there to talk to us along with Amanda Otto who’s still young and looking for her first win.  They explained and demonstrated how they train the dogs and talked about the hardships they endure in this grueling 1100-mile race across the frozen tundra.

The big hits, of course, were the puppies, which we were all encouraged to pick up and cuddle, as part of their socialization training.  We didn’t need to be coaxed.  They were adorable:

I have a lot of puppy pictures.  I also bought Jeff King’s book about his experiences.  It’s a very good read.

Husky Homestead is very close to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, so it was back there for a quick lunch and back on the road for our Tundra Wilderness Tour.  This was another one with an engaging tour guide who had a lot of stories about how they live in Alaska among the moose, ptarmigan, dall sheep, ground squirrels, spruce grouse and golden eagles, all of which we saw.  We didn’t see a bear, but we were sure there were some out there.  It was a very good day.

On Saturday, July 29 it was time for our all-day train ride through the wilderness to Denali to Whittier, where we would board our ship, the Majestic Princess.  We had to have our bags out by 6:00 am and breakfast over by 7:30 am, so I skipped it.  The train departs Denali National Park at 8:15 am and arrives in Whittier at 6:00 pm for an 8:30 pm sailaway.  Of course, it’s still light out in Alaska at that time in July. 

Our train car steward and barman were a lot of fun and had a lot of interesting information to impart, along with the delicious libations, which you had to pay for.  I bought everyone a drink on the train, to make up for the lack of a DV cocktail party.  We only had 23 pax in the group (plus 2 kids) and Princess would have wanted 32 to give us that.  Never mind, the train was as close to a party as we were going to get.  We did have a lot of fun chatting with the group, though.  The scenery was stunning, and the time passed easily. 

When we got to Whittier, it was a short walk to the ship for the easiest embark, ever.  Princess had checked us in on the train and given us our medallions, which opened our doors and bought us anything our little hearts could desire. 

Everyone was just exhausted after a whole day on the train, so we had ourselves a nice dinner in Allegro, one of the three main dining rooms, and turned in.

We slept in until nine or so on Sunday, July 30 and got up slowly.  We were cruising Hubbard Glacier with Ranger commentary.  The ship is enormous, she takes about 3,500 passengers and has three dining rooms, as well as eight other places to eat and ten bars. We had ourselves a little look around and I emailed the group, so we would all be able to communicate.

Andrea and I went to the singles party, which is every night on this sailing but either all the great guys got snapped up last night or there was only one.  He was nice enough but he was an Australian farmer.  None of us saw any future in that.  We had dinner in Concerto and liked it a little better than Allegro, but not much is different, except the color scheme.  Andrea and I are eating alone and are beginning to wonder if that’s such a great idea.  Luckily we get along well.

Only two ships a day are allowed to enter Glacier Bay, administered by the National Park Service and Monday, July 31 was our day.  It was a nice clear day so there was plenty to see.  As usual, I had a lot to do, so I didn’t give it my full attention, but we did leave the commentary playing in the room and I went out when it got most interesting.  Andrea saw a good bit more. 

I managed to write and deliver a letter to my people and at 5:30 pm, we were in the Crown Grill Bar, as advertised, and we were there alone.  We had dinner in Symphony, the third dining room and now know we like Concerto best.  The comedian, after dinner was Steve Moris and he was good.

Finally, on Tuesday, August 1, we docked in Icy Strait Point.  The Princess nightly missive warned us that we would be sharing a berth with another ship, which meant that we would be docked until noon, stranded ashore from noon to 1:00 pm, while the ship relocated to a mooring, and tendering in the afternoon.  Andrea and I figured we could see the place in an hour and be back on board by noon, and we were.  Methinks Alaska is getting a tad crowded, though, given what it is. 

We ate at Concerto again and took in the production show, Sweet Soul Music, which was better than the first.

On Wednesday, August 2, Andrea and I went out and enjoyed Juneau.  We shopped a little and walked up and down the streets, poking our noses into a museum at one point.  It’s not a big town.  Here it is from our own verandah. 

I started sending out the puppy pictures, from Husky Homestead in the afternoon.  When 5:30 rolled around, we went to the Crown Grill Bar, but nobody came.  We had dinner in Concerto again and the comedian was Michael Joiner, whom I also liked.

On Thursday, August 3, in Ketchikan, Alaska, we were sharing a berth again, so I worked in the morning when we were tendering and went out in the afternoon, once we were docked.  Early in the day I finished sending out the puppy pictures. 

Then we went out in Ketchican where I can highly recommend a little museum up a hill, The Tongass Historical Museum, where I took this interesting picture:

The featured artist, Ray Troll, and an archaeologist, Kirk Johnson, took a multi year trip in a van, discovering all kinds of fossils and depicting them with his whimsical art.  It’s fabulous.  I bought his book and gave it away, so I had to go looking for his name.  You’ll find more of this fun art at Ray Troll Art Home | Art, Science, Music, News, T-shirts, Books, and more  

Especially 2010-Recent – Troll Art

Then Andrea and I went to Harmony for the Chinese dinner I was kind of glad no one joined us for.  It wasn’t all that authentic.  The next day, Friday, August 4, was a sea day and I did have an office hour.  I has offered boarding passes from my computer and that got a couple of takers, one of which would have to be postponed to Happy Hour because the flight was at 4pm tomorrow. 

In the afternoon, I got a very cool email from one of the passengers with this sweet picture:  

Later in Crown Grill Bar, there were three couples at happy hour, and I was busy making boarding passes for one of them, so I was happy to have a co-host.   We learned why I hadn’t seen hardly anyone after we boarded.  A lot of my big family group had been sick with various illnesses.  So sad.  Knowing them, they still managed to have some fun, though.  Andrea and I ate alone again and took in the last production show, which was very good. 

On Saturday, August 5, we docked in Vancouver, B.C., bade our fond farewells and disembarked.  Pat Harrold picked me up in the terminal parking lot and I was off on the last phase of this adventure.   

2023 – Go West Old Gal – 4.1 Sonoma

On Wednesday morning, July 19, I bade the Mendelsons a fond farewell and pointed the Beemer towards Sonoma, with some other cruise line’s on-hold music in my ear.  My last California residence had been Fountaingrove Lodge in Santa Rosa.  There I had made a wonderful new friend, who had become my date for all the live entertainment we both liked and supported.  Pat Finot was a choreographer with a PhD in Dance, who taught it at the University level.  She had great insights as well as being a seriously amusing companion.  When she left us, last year, she willed me her pearls, for something to treasure.  In the package, her brother, Bill Remick, enclosed an invitation to come occupy their guest house, when next I came to visit Fountaingrove Lodge.  Bill is an architect, who has built a large number of high-end homes in his time, including his own, in Glen Ellen.  The first one went up in smoke in 2017, along with a fabulous art collection, I’m told by my FGL friends, who were lucky enough to be there when Pat took a group on tour. 

It has risen from the ashes and my little housie for four days was wonderful, as was its view. 

I would be very happy there, but I could not tarry, as I was expected at Fountaingrove Lodge by 4:00pm.  I just had time for a tour of the main house, which is fab, before I had to go.  I spent some time at Wine Wednesday, with a bunch of my old Lodge friends.  It was always our favorite day of the week there.  Around 5:00pm I drove Pat and Mike and Pat and Toby to Paradise Ridge Winery, which had also risen from its ashes and now hosted Wednesday sunsets, with live bands and a Mexican food truck.  We joined their new friends, Richard, Daniel, Rob and Nancy at a choice table between the band and the spectacular view.  It was yet another birthday celebration for Mike:

I begged off of everything the next day to catch up on my work and blog, now that I had a little house all to myself.  I’m very social, but even I need a bit of quiet time to recharge and get stuff done.  Like this blog.  I had made a couple of small orders on Prime Day, like the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro for $100 less, training wheels for hearing aids.  I didn’t have time to try them, and I found out why they were so cheap.  The manual was in Polish and a couple of other Cyrillic languages, all of which defeated me.  I went online, of course, which told me how to get the app, and I did that, too, but I didn’t take the time to do much with it.  I’ll get there.

It was another gastronomically delightful dinner.  I walked over to the main house to have a glass of wine with Bill and Sue and, because there’s road work on highway 12, Bill drove us over the backroads to Healdsburg.  It was a beautiful drive, but I was just as glad Bill was doing it rather than moi.  Local knowledge is a great thing on windy canyon roads.  Canyon may be an exaggeration, but it was abundantly hilly, for sure.  Our chosen restaurant was Barndiva, not quite Single Thread, which wanted me to pay three times as much, and up front, with no refunds within 48 hours.  Barndiva was more reasonable and pay as you eat, which is as it should be.  We ate in the garden, which has lights and heaters and is decked out like a leprechaun’s home, as I would imagine it.  Here are the appies:

The mains:

 And the amazing Paris Brest, with its gold-covered hazelnuts:

And, no, I didn’t do anything intelligent like get a picture of the people.  Five years from now, they’ll be a lot more important to me than the food, but not that night, while I was eating it.  I just spent twenty minutes trying to find a great picture of Bill’s sister, Pat Finot, with John Kennedy, Bill Baird and me, at Miner Winery, on one of our jazz excursions to Napa.  I thought I had a great picture filing system.  Well, I don’t.  Sorry, Bill.  If I ever come across it…..

The next day was Friday, July 21, and I went to Fountaingrove Lodge for a birthday lunch which was all very nice and reminded me what good friends I had made there.  I followed that with a nice massage from Jeff Rooney, who used to get to beat me up at least once a month.  He’s good.  The Lodge is lucky.  Early evening found me with Pat and Mike at Salt & Stone in Kenwood, having dinner with Mike Nash and Cliff Wildeman, more Lodge alumni and special friends of ours.  We ate outside on a perfect night and I don’t have any bloody pictures of them, either.  I truly do need to smarten up, but we were having such a good time…

It got even better the next day, and earlier.  Pat, Mike and I went on Safari, ten minutes from the Lodge.  The place is called Safari West and it’s a wonderful outing.  It can even be an overnight, they have Safari tents and all that stuff.   There are 1100 animals, over a hundred species and God knows how many birds.  Most of them are rescues from zoos, illegal keepers of exotic pets, you-name-it.  The owners are very devoted.  The guy sent his wife home the night of our fires, with the office computers and records, while he single-handedly fought the fire, dousing every burning bush that landed on any of the buildings.  It was written up in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. I remember reading it.  You’d never know it now.  The place looks better than ever and I guess the animals are as happy as can be, given that they are not home in Africa.  At least they’re safe, well fed and have a lot of space to relax in.  I like the ostrich:

He’s so impossible looking.  And the zebras are beautiful:

We also saw oryx, gemsboks, wildebeest, impalas, cape buffalo, waterbucks, giraffes and a bunch I didn’t write down.  But this is the little guy we came to see, Otto, the baby Rhino, born here a little over a month ago, with his mother Eusha.  Yes, he’s a 200 lb. baby.:

They keep his dad in a separate enclosure for fear of domestic violence, I guess.

It was a very nice day.  Pat took Mike back for a nap and I went to Glen Ellen to pack up, because I would be leaving straight from brunch the next day.  Dinner was at the Lodge with Pat & Mike, Leona & Norm, and John Mullen, still too dumb to take pictures. 

Sunday at FGL means Brunch and on the Lanai at FGL if possible.  Look at this setting:

Tricia Harrold came up from Silicon Valley Tom Slade was in from Canada, Mike Donigan and Kit Kurtz  came back, too, and I brought Bill and Sue from Glen Ellen.  There were a bunch more friends inside, too.  I miss that place, and its good people.  Too soon, I had to leave – North to Alaska.

How fitting that my last post featured Joan Westgate.  I was dying to get to Alaska to meet an old acquaintance of hers.  You’ll read about that when I get to July 28.  I am way behind.  The sad news is that Joanie died on July 24.  She suffered a massive stroke the day before and left elegantly, with dispatch, with her loving family around, like the class act she has always been.  She will be sorely missed and always loved.  She would have celebrated her 90^th birthday on August 27.  Elise Currey sent me this photo to treasure.  It  was taken on July 11.

On Saturday, July 15, I got into the car and drove to San Francisco.  It’s a beautiful drive through Carneros and over the Golden Gate bridge.  I spent the entire time on the phone working with Flights by Celebrity, only to hang up with the job unfinished for reasons with which I won’t bore you. I just want you to know, I do earn my money.  But, I have to admit, the working conditions ain’t bad. 

Google maps delivered me to a lane beside the Laskers’ building called “Fern”.  I called in and Dave waved to me from the balcony and came down with Caroline to take my bags up to my next billet.  On to The Towers, San Francisco’s ritziest assisted living.  It took me three tries to park the car in the guest space, so I wouldn’t have to look for another skinny friend to back it out.  That accomplished, I made my way up the elevator to a washroom and the front desk, where I had to create a nametag for myself at a little workstation.  Small price to pay for good, safe parking in San Francisco.  Chris had arranged it, because there was none available in Laskers’ building, and The Towers was only a block away.  I couldn’t leave the car on the street or even in a public garage, because it is a new BMW with Florida plates.  That screams “rich tourist” and makes it a target for break-in, you see.  I don’t know about the “rich tourist” part, but it would have been mightily inconvenient to lose my computer at this point. 

Chris Silver came down to meet me and take me up to their apartment, where Larry and her friend, Karin Irvin, were waiting.  We had a nice little chat, called a taxi and went down to meet it.  It was taking us to the Orpheum to see Les Misérables.  Karen and I had both seen it soon after it came out in 1985.  It’s now the longest running musical in London’s West End, which is where I saw it around 1990, with my mother, on one of her “last trips”.  There were quite a few of them, and I paid for all of them but, as Karen pointed out, I did inherit the money she saved.  As for this iteration, I liked it just fine but Chris found there was just too much of it.  When you think about it, she has a point, but I was happy. 

We took an UBER back to The Towers, where we had wine and cheese appetizers and dinner in the dining room.  Like everybody else, they are short-staffed after COVID, but have found a very modern solution.  Our meals were carried out to the dining room by robots, so the servers could just stay there and, well, serve.  Yes, I was too dumb to take a picture, again. 

It was still light after dinner, so Karen and Chris walked me the block over to Laskers’ condo apartment.  Val and Dave were just finishing dinner, so I had a glass of wine with them and turned in to my luxurious digs.  I love staying with good friends and am very grateful that they are willing to have me.  I was sorry this was my last night with them.  Check out the view, subtract the fog with your minds and think about these lucky dogs.

The day after was Sunday, the 16^th and my next hosts, Melinda and Ralph Mendelson, were picking me up at noon to go see “Dear San Francisco” a circus show playing at Club Fugazi.  It’s a show born in Montreal, from Les 7 Doigts de la Main, using mostly performers with Bay Area connections.  It was obvious they loved their jobs.

After the show, we walked around North Beach for a bit, stopping into Lawrence Ferlingetti’s bookstore “City Lights”, killing time before our dinner reservation. 

I have gone and forgotten the name of the restaurant, but it’s an old local favorite from back when Melinda and Ralph lived in the City and it’s always packed.  It’s high quality local seafood, Italian cuisine, complete with attitude and no nonsense.  It was delicious.  Ralph had seafood pasta and Melinda and I had sole, nicely washed down with a crisp white wine.  Then they took me back to my car in The Towers, and I picked up my luggage at Laskers and kept Melinda with me, as a guide to their Point Richmond place, which I had not been to before. 

I have seen quite a few nice Mendelson houses, starting with Pedregal in St. Helena.  They have all been lovely and all have been home to outstanding glass art as evidenced by this photo:

Yes, that’s a real Chihuly in the foreground.  It spread out over an area twice this size in St. Helena, as there are many smaller pieces inside the three big ones.  They bought it in the 1980’s, and it just may be their very best performing investment.  At one point, their St. Helena cleaning lady broke a piece, and you can imagine how she felt.  She need not have worried.  Ralph called up Dale Chihuly himself and asked what the one piece was worth.  Chihuly said $25,000.  Ralph reported this to their insurance company, and they cut him a check.  Then Ralph and Melinda took that check shopping for more glass art from up-and-coming artists.  They have never missed the missing piece that was worth more than they paid for the whole thing in the first place.  I just love this story.

They have a pretty spectacular view, too, if it weren’t for the fog.  On a good day, you can see the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate bridge.  I could have had a whole apartment on the lower floor, but my ankle was acting up and I didn’t feature the stairs, so I took the ground floor guest room, which was very comfortable.  One morning I got up, took the door from my room to the courtyard, and out the front gate for a picture of this spectacular bougainvillea:

I worked the first morning, until I heard chopping noises coming from the kitchen.  I knew that was my cue to go up there and help as we were having the Women’s Technical Wine Group the next day.  This particular tasting had been postponed from the winter and its menu included a hearty soup, made from scratch.  I went up to the kitchen to fulfill my promise to be Melinda’s sous-chef.  So I chopped or diced two onions, three zucchinis, one kohlrabi bulb, a big yellow pepper, three big potatoes, and a pile of green beans on the diagonal.  Melinda had sliced the carrots before I got there.

We went out to dinner that night, right in Point Richmond, at the Hotel MAC, just reopened four days ago.  There were still balloons all over the place.  The ambience was old country hotel lovely and the food was good.  The wait staff lacked training, though, so we did our best to supply it.  We made it an early night because we had big doings in the morning, hosting the Women’s Technical Wine Group. 

This was a very unique tasting and a full departure from six bottles same varietal, same year general rule.  We have often broken it before but never like this.  We were trying the wines of Georgia, the country, not the state.  Here’s Melinda trying to explain:

Take a look at the wines, for starters, two whites, one of them sparkling and cloudy, two reds, and two oranges.  The Georgians have been making wine for 8,000 years and they are very happy with what they produce.  We didn’t find any keepers, but to each his own.  They ferment, age and store the wine in huge earthenware vessels called “kvevris”.  They use particular clay and coat the insides of the kvevris with wax.  We found a lot of off flavors, that might just be attributable to the wax.  Georgia won’t be replacing Napa wines any time soon, but, to each his own and we learned a lot.  So, thanks, Melinda.

And more thanks for dinner at the very famous Chez Panisse Café, in Berkeley, where the wait staff are trained to perfection and they turn the tables smartly, without making you feel rushed.  Alice waters wouldn’t have it any other way.  It’s tough to succeed in the restaurant business but this 50 year old restaurant makes it look easy.  I wish I could remember what I ate.  It was wonderful as was the apricot galette it finished with, and my hosts Ralph and Melinda. 

2023 – Go West Old Gal – 2.3 – Napa

On Wednesday, July 12^th, I finally found time to do some errands that had been hanging on to my “To Do” list for too long.  I now have an address at Chase Bank that should work for my US online shopping.  That has been hit and miss for a long time and when it hit Open Table I had to act.  I also wanted to get Chase to stop presenting me with phone numbers to text security codes to – numbers that I had not been near in dog’s years.  The friendly banker, who saw me immediately, wasn’t very technical, nor much help.  I just have to pray I never lose the one and only phone number that works. 

I didn’t get the best service at T-Mobile, either, or maybe I did.  The guy didn’t want to sell me a new phone.  Huh?  Mine is four years old, but nope.  “If it’s running well, why change it?”  He didn’t have the Samsung Pro2 Earbuds I wanted either, in any color other than black and agreed that white would be much better with my hair.  OK I bought them from Amazon for $100 less.  So far so good. 

Chico’s didn’t have navy blue leggings, but Target did and YoBelle made a good breakfast for me around 3:30 pm.  Then I called Elise Currey and had her meet me at Joan Westgate’s retirement home, Watermark.  Joan has a lovely apartment overlooking her garden plot full of roses, and Justin Sienna High School’s football field.  That all works.  She also has Cyrus, a big old white cat with the longest, softest, fluffiest fur you can imagine and a personality to match.  Check them out.

A little after five her phone rang, she was being picked up to go to what sounded like a very interesting lecture.  So our little confab broke up and I was on to my next adventure. 

Gail Silvestri had invited me for dinner at the Silverado Grill.  Merci, Gail.  We, too had much to talk about over a fried chicken sandwich, decadent desserts and my third bottle of Stephen Goldberg’s Harvey & Harriett.  I had given the second to the Laskers to enjoy, while I was having dinner with Terry and France.  Good stuff doesn’t last long.  Gail was pleased to discover it, too.  Back “home” at Laskers’, Dave and Caroline posed for what Val calls “puppy porn”.  She has a point.

Looks like I dodged another round of bad weather in Montreal on Thursday, July 13.  A tornado touched down near Mirabel about thirty miles north, and caused flooding, power outages, and the like all the way into the city.  I was working away in my office at Laskers’ and we had an amazing dinner outing planned. 

We were going to Michael Warring at Hiddenbrook in Vallejo and we used UBER, as it included a wine pairing (the restaurant, not UBER).  We drove to Kathy Fitzgerald’s house, just outside of Silverado and got the ride from there.  Michael is a young chef, trained at the C.I.A., and an alum of Auberge du Soleil and Bouchon.  It’s a tiny little restaurant, serves 20 max, if the participants arrive in the correct configuration.  It’s Michelin rated and is always sold out.  There were only 18 our night, though, just the way it happened.  Believe it or not, we knew two of them.  Stacey and Bob Bressler were holding down the 6-top with their two guests.  Stacey was our boss, when we worked the Wine Auction, back in the day, and Val had worked with Bob Bressler at Cisco.  It was fun to see them.

What a night it was.  We had seven beautiful, very soignée courses.  Food like The French Laundry, without the white tablecloths, and extra waitstaff.  There were exactly one chef and one server and she helped with the plating, too. 

I took these pictures from my seat at the counter.  We were the last group to arrive and landed the best seats in the house.  I had to request a box, because bar stools do me in, but she found me the one the sous-vide came in, and it fit perfectly.  Val and I shared it and were just fine. 

Yes, that’s Michael working away.  He did that all night.  The two of them were incredible.  Our table mates graciously allowed me to share this picture of the presentation act, which duties were shared by Michael and his server.

The whole thing was incredible and so was the price.  It was $124 for the 7 course menu, plus $72 for the pairing. Some of the courses were really 3 in 1.  Valerie counted eleven total.  Here’s some of the pretty food:

Yes, those are shaved truffles.

More theatre.

And it was all delicious.  He even had me eating my veggies. 

The Laskers left for the city early on July 14, but I had just a little more to do in Napa.  Marlene and Stan Rosenberg had a little party for me in Silverado Oaks, where we used to live.  Many thanks to them.  Our old place didn’t burn down, but it has a fresh coat of paint and is missing a couple of trees, including the one we used to tie Henry and Sylly P to.

Some of our old Redwoods did survive, and, though not too beautiful, are a testament to the resilience of nature, and no one will part with them. 

Carole Kelly took me to dinner at Celadon and had ordered the calamari before I even got there.  I had missed it badly.  Thank you Carole, for taking me to what is probably still my Napa favorite, but there are a ton of them.  I missed La Toque, Carpe Diem, and everybody up valley.  I might just have to move back to Napa, again, when I retire, again.

2023 – Go West Old Gal – 2.2 – Napa

Saturday, July 8, 2023, still in Napa, I’m busy selling another cruise.  Business is sure good while I am away.  Keeps me from drinking too much wine, I guess.  Speaking of cruises, I am finally getting to sail on SilverSea in 2024, barring another disaster like COVID, which claimed my first SilverSea assignment.  This one will be September 12 and it sails from Vancouver to Tokyo, so my Vancouver friends will get to put up with me again next year.  There’s no easy link to it on the SilverSea website, but I do have a nice packet of info that I can email to you, if you ask.  I’d be happy to tee up an extension in Tokyo, if anyone signs up.  I do have a couple of nibbles, already.  BTW SilverSea is having a sale until August 31 that includes a two-category upgrade, $1,000 in ship-board credit and a 15% reduced deposit.  They usually take 25%.  Yeah, I’m still working.

I broke my intermittent fast for lunch with Frank and Paula Schultz on the verandah of the Silverado Members’ Clubhouse, a place I fondly remember.  It hasn’t changed.  The view is fabulous, and the chef is better.  I pigged on a very nice quesadilla and a big piece of carrot cake, and thank you very much, Schultzes.  It was magic.  They are here for a long summer but have moved to The Towers, for their city pied à terre.  I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Paula Schultz and Chris Silver get together.  They are going to be BFFs for sure. 

Val found some nice sole for dinner and we had it with Homaje – Viader’s tribute to the Mexicans, who make the wine industry run.  It’s Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon and it’s yummy, yes, even with fish.  You just cook the fish in artisanal pizza sauce, you see.  Fresh raspberries from the farmer’s market and we were very happy. 

Sunday, July 9, I worked all day until it was time for an extraordinary tasting dinner at Morimoto with the Brown’s – my thank you for my stay with them.   We were having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures of all 7 courses, and the Browns, but here are the few I did get:

Tuna tartare and accompaniments

Mackerel and roe

Sushi

Cod none of the 365 Portugese ways

I had brought a bottle of Viader to drink with it, so I got a chardonnay to have them waive corkage and it was Jayson, by Pahlmeyer.  We all know his name.  It’s great.  What a super evening, the food and the company vying for excellence at the highest levels.  I love it here.

I was up early on Monday, the 11^th for my appointment at UCSF with the surgeon who brought the ankle replacement to North America.  If you’re interested, he made a short video to describe it a few years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDH_zSU7iI4 .  I set the Beemer’s GPS to the address in Berkeley, but only after I had followed my nose a patch too far, because I was on the phone with Celebrity Cruises, trying to negotiate the advertised square footage of a prime concierge cabin that had turned up 18 sq.ft. short.  That’s what I do.  I hold the cruise lines accountable to their advertising.  The jury is still out on this one, I have had to write the resolutions desk.  So, not only was I not winning that one, it took me almost two hours to get to Berkeley, which was more than an hour more than it should have.  Luckily. I had left in plenty of time to be a half-hour early for paperwork. 

The appointment went better than clockwork.  I was 20 minutes late for the paperwork, but was seen right away and filled it in, with the nursing assistant, straight into the computer.  The doctors arrived five minutes later and the examination was on.  Dr. Mann is pushing ninety at this point so he saw me with Dr. Daniel Thuillier, an assistant Professor at UCSF.  They were both delightful, long on comprehension and explanation, but, alas, my problem can’t be solved by a star-ankle replacement.  It’s in the wrong place.  What I need is a Triple Arthrodesis, which is basically an ankle fusion.  It would leave me with the up and down movement you need to walk, but remove forever any side to side motion.  Elvon had an ankle fusion and I watched him go down every time a pebble caused him to lose his balance.  I’ll stick with my excellent physio and massage therapists for as long as I can, after all.  But, at least I know now.  

I was having lunch at Angèle in Napa with Ritzie Cracker, so I called her to confirm arrival and got back on the road.  No sooner was the car on its way, when Isaac, the Beemer’s private consultant, called to say its new starter assembly had arrived.  Since I was going north on Hwy 80 and it was just another couple of exits Napa to Fairfield, I called Ritzie to say I’d be late and would buy her lunch if she drove me back to Laskers’ at Silverado, after.  Deal.  I took it right in.  Ebony, my Lyft driver got me to Angèle for about a quarter after two, and Ritzie and I had steak tartare and fun conversation.  I also had a very dark berry sorbet for dessert that was yummy.  We drank Sancerre.  It was crisp and refreshing.  She’s living in Point Reyes these days and loving it. 

After lunch we checked out Helen Lyall, Napa’s most upscale women’s clothing store.  Helen is finally retiring next month.  I think she’s 94.   I used to get all my more formal wear there.  I still bring some of it on cruises.  So, we got to say goodbye and I got a nice diaphanous top to wear over a sausage (black tights and top) for formal dinners aboard – 70% off.  Then Ritzie drove me “home” where Val served up a Genova lasagna.  It was the vegetarian one but still wonderful.  We washed it down with Biale from their cellar, yum. 

Tuesday, I had lunch again – so much for intermittent fasting this week.  It was well worth it.  I had got the call from Isaac, that the car was ready, late yesterday afternoon, and was off by 9:30 to fetch it, with another Lyft, the driver also named Isaac.  He got treated to another call to Celebrity, still fighting for those extra 18 sq.ft. in prime concierge class or willing to accept a 313 sq.ft. handicapped cabin, because my client is, after all, bringing a wheelchair with her.  It didn’t work, so I really will be writing them now.  I bid a fond farewell to the Beemer’s Isaac, and took off to get a bottle of wine for lunch, as it had to be white.  Val had suggested Beverages and More, corner of Trancas and Jefferson.  When I got to the appropriate fork in the road, the tine to twenty nine was jammed with traffic, so I decided to take the Soscol way in, after all, figuring I could swing over at Imola.  At that thought, the light went on and I knew I should be paying Steven Goldberg, at Cellar Collections, a visit.  He was there.  I got a hug and taken straight to the white wine cellar, where Harvey & Harriet was waiting for me.  Stephen was very enthusiastic about this wine from Paso Robles by Eric Jensen.  Harvey & Harriet are Eric’s parents, and the wine is a 60% chardonnay blend.  This is what they have been doing so well in France, but hardly anybody blends whites here.  It’s light, fresh and delicious and only $24 a bottle.  I bought three and he sent me the tasting notes.  Email me if you want them and I’ll forward Stephen’s email.

Lunch was Carol Berg’s outstanding seafood salad in Freddie Faraone’s wonderful rebuilt house with some of the best views at Silverado.  Here we are:

Left to right, Arlene Phelan, Pati Simon, Melinda Hubbard, Mariann Sheldon, Carol Berg, Freddie Faraone, Deborah Robertson and Leona Biddle doing what we do best, eating and drinking.  It was great to see everyone again.  Huge thanks to Freddie, Carol and Arlene, who provided the yummy peach pie for dessert. 

What’s next?  More work and another dinner, of course.  I got a request from Claude Lacasse in Montreal for a picture of this one, so I remembered to have it taken.  Here I am at Scala’s in downtown Napa with Terry and France Scott:

That was a very good time, too.  Terry and France had been storing wine for me, too, and we got to drink the 2015 Viader.  Eight years from bottling, it’s just perfect.  So was the company.  This is a very special couple because France is also from Montreal.  She’s also still model thin, of which I was glad because I had parked my car in a very tight parking spot and figured out, as I was getting out, that I’d never be able to get back in, if the car beside didn’t move.  So I took France and Terry back with me and, sure enough, she did have to squeeze into the Beemer and back it out for me.  I have such super friends. 

2023 – Go West Old Gal – 2.1 – Napa

Still Monday, July 3, 2023

Napa

After I picked up my carry-on from the Carousel, I fumbled around a bit before I found out that I needed the Sky Train, and where to find same, but I made it there and managed to find Sixt, who had presented a BMW for my 20 day rental, for not much more than the Yaris I could have had for less than $500 less.  Since I don’t have a car and therefore don’t carry car insurance, I was looking at close to $3K, and $500 wasn’t such a big part of it. 

So I have a Beemer, again.  My last one was a 1987, that didn’t get to come to HK with me in 1989.  I liked that one a lot better than this one.  It took about 15 minutes in the garage at SFO to get used to the new one.  I kept having to call the attendant to help.  The silliest part was getting the three headrests on the back seat down.  Cheaper cars have a button for that.  I looked all over for it. The guy just climbed into the back seat and brought them down manually, because this expensive car doesn’t have that button.  But, it drives very nicely and I took the scenic route through the City, over the Golden Gate, and up through the vineyards to Napa. 

Ulla and John Brown were waiting with hugs at their big beautiful apartment in The Meadows.  They let me get a little nap, because of the time difference, but we were soon off to a party.  It was Silverado’s third of July, which I remember well for its main event – the fireworks.  The wildfires decree that Silverado has seen the last of those, like Montreal and a whole bunch of other places.  But they still have the big party, everyone invites their kids and grandkids, and there’s a bouncy castle. 

The food was good, lots of salads, chicken and burgers for the other people and corn, spare ribs, potato salad and cornbread for me.  Ice cream and cookies for dessert, of course.  In the lower right hand corner of this shot, you get Michael Hooks and Paula Schultz.  We had a very good table and I met a bunch of people that I knew from my 22 years at Silverado.  I met more of them at The Meadows, mind you, but we probably shouldn’t go there.  It gets chilly at night in the Napa Valley, so the party was breaking up by 9:30, which was fine with me, as that was after midnight in Montreal.   

Sure enough, by Tuesday morning, July 4, I was reset.  John had to take one of their cars into the shop, so I volunteered to drive.  The Beemer had given a spot of trouble last night, refusing to shut off when I moved it into The Meadows Visitor parking.  The Browns’ driver got it to turn off but wasn’t able to give me a reliable formula for how to. So, before we left the garage, after dropping their car off, we decided to test it.  It wouldn’t shut down.  I went in to the garage for help and the lady there managed to get it off but couldn’t tell us how.  Meanwhile John had been doing the RTFM thing, but there was nothing it there telling you how to turn it off, either.  You are obviously just supposed to push the button.  Finally, John and I talked it through and came up with:  Just let it turn itself like it does at a stop light with your foot on the brake, then put it in park, get out and lock it.  That seemed to work reliably, but you never know when it might not work, so I took it to Gabe.  Gabriel Pastrama owns Alpina Car in Napa, and maintained Babar, my old grey Merc, for most of its 22-year life.  It beat him, too.  Nowadays, they fix such things by replacing the starter assembly, which is a computer. So Gabe sent me to the nearest BMW dealer, who is in Fairfield.

It was a great place.  I have my own consultant, Isaac Ruiz, who has the most gorgeous smile.  Their waiting area is stocked with all sorts of beverages, from the fancy coffee machine, down to bottled water, which is what I took.  The starter assembly wasn’t in stock, so Isaac called me a Lyft and said he’d call me when I could come get the car, likely tomorrow afternoon.  Sami, the Lyft driver, was very nice, a good conversationalist, and delighted to be driving to Napa, where he could get some delicious sloppy sausage sandwich at Genova deli, which I was delighted to know is still there. 

Back at the Browns’ I worked all afternoon, mostly getting quotes on cruises for clients, who will be sailing the Panama canal next March, once we settle on the cabin or cabins.  Then John and Ulla and I had a very nice dinner at Tarla, a middle-Eastern restaurant on main that opened just before I left Napa in 2016.  The spanakopita was the best I had ever had.  It was followed by an excellent Moroccan lamb shank and some sumptuous baclava.  Happy tummy, great company, happy camper, me.

Wednesday, July 5 was another workday in my office in The Meadows.  By the end of it, we were getting closer to the sale, and it was looking like two cabins.  That night Ulla and John hosted a dinner party in Vela, The Meadows’ private dining room for eight.  Ulla had asked me for a list and I had given her about twenty people, so she could choose the ones she wanted for her dinner party.  As always, she made very good choices and we had Maurine Potter, Ian and Jill Leverton and Pati and Don Simon.  Do I have a picture to show you?  No, that would have been smart, but I wasn’t. 

We were all happy to be together, though, on the right side of the grass, making the most of the decent health we all still enjoy.  And, bless our hearts, we found a lot of other things to talk about than the state of our health.  Good on us.  I have to tell you the story I contributed.  My friend, Steve, lives in Westmount, not far from where I used to live before I went to Hong Kong.  There’s a lot of wild life there, thanks to Mount Royal park, which is enormous.  Steve had a cage/trap in his back yard, because he had a groundhog living under his back deck.  It had been caught but they leave the trap a couple of weeks longer, in case it has a mate.  Apparently it didn’t, but there were new tenants.  One morning Steve went out to find four baby skunks in the trap.  Madame Moufette (Mrs. Skunk to you, but Moufette sounds classier) was studying the problem from all angles.  She made her decision and started to dig.  While Steve watched, she dug a trench along one side of the cage.  Eventually, the edge of the cage toppled over into the trench and, lo and behold, tripped the lock, giving her access to her babies.  One by one, she moved them back under the porch.  Mme. Moufette, B.Eng.  Steve let her stay there until she eventually led them up to the mountain one night, and there were five of them trailing behind her. 

I had also picked up the beemer in Fairfield.  The part won’t be in until next week.  I don’t mind the drive and I’m hoping it results in a couple of free days from Sixt.  Thursday, July 6, was moving day, but Ulla kept me in place for a couple of extra hours with the very nice present of a massage, right in her bedroom.  The massage therapist, named Jen, was happy to come to the house, now that Ulla had purchased a massage table.  If you ever saw the length of the halls in The Meadows, you’d understand why no one will schlep a massage table into there.  It’s a wonderful place though, and I recognized many names and faces, during my short stay.  The most remarkable was Kate Hemphill, who had been a neighbor in Silverado Oaks for my 22 years there.  She’s 99 and looks 75.  She’s a great advertisement for the place, too.  I am being encouraged to return to Napa and am seriously considering The Meadows.  Not for a few years though, as I love my independent life in Montreal at the moment. 

I moved into Val and Dave Lasker’s house in the Silverado Highlands around four in the afternoon and settled in to my new home and office.  It has a nice view over the Silverado Country Club and comes with two very nice dogs and a geriatric cat, two out of three of whom I have known for years.  Caroline, the Canine Companions puppy-in-training, Dave’s tenth, is the new one.  She’s eight months old.  Jacee was his second puppy and Bernie the cat, was a kitten when Sylly P was a kitten.  He’s seventeen now, plagued by a number of serious health problems, but still alert and happy, bless him and his cute little white mittens.

We had a Megan, Fitzgerald and Lasker “company dinner” in the evening at Fumé Bistro, Terry Letson’s restaurant.  Terry was our castle chef on the Loire in France, and for the Villa in Tuscany that I never saw, because of a broken pelvis.  He stopped by our table, which even included Sallyann Berendsen, our teacher partner, and her husband, Peter.  Do I have a picture of this momentous occasion?  No.  Duh.  Smarten up, Helen. 

And I did.  The Panama Canal Cruise sale closed for two cabins on Friday, July 7.  Dave, Val and I went to a concert that night.  It was outside and it got cold and windy as the performance went on.  I kept adding clothing, shawl, raincoat, touque, and gloves by the end of it.  But it was a good concert.  I just felt sorry for the performer who is 84 years old and was trying to play the guitar while her fingers were freezing.  Luckily she had backup.  Here she is, folks, Judy Collins at the Meritage Hotel in Napa.

Monday, July 3, 2023

YUL – Montreal’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport

Pierre was Prime Minister of Canada for eleven years, and I thought he was pretty good.  He was certainly very smart and was following a vocation.  Justin, not so much, but he’s a lot better looking, and we can’t find anyone any good that’s willing to take the thankless job.  The USA has the same problem.  Enough of that. 

This will be the last time I leave Montreal in July, now that I have seen what it really is in Festival season.  I am missing so much this year: The F1 Grand Prix,  The Montreal International Jazz Festival, Just for Laughs, Cirque du Soleil, Francofolies, Montreal Completement Cirque, Nuits d’Afrique, on and on and on.  The Terrasses are full and we have more pedestrian streets.  It’s a happening place.  Come visit, like Sue and Mike Nagle did this year.  I was happy to have them in town, even just for a bit, and Steve was happy to drive us all around.  We had dinner at Bonaparte, yum.

And I didn’t totally miss all of the good stuff.  The Grand Prix paddock is just across the street from my apartment, so I witnessed the partying from on high and walked around the area, where there were fancy cars on display and a lot of car-related booths.  The only one that looked interesting to me was the simulator, and it had too much of a line up.  No surprise. 

I also got to see Echo, Cirque du Soleil’s new show, with Linda, Bev and Wendy.  We had dinner at Terrasse Nellie, on the roof of the Hotel Nelligan, in old Montreal.  I’ll be taking more people there.  It was magic.  So was the Cirque.  They always think of something new.  And, they give us locals a break.  I remember paying $265 US for the big top in San Francisco six or eight years ago.  Here we sat in the very first row for $155, Canadian.  That’s only a hundred bucks to you.  The first row is a kick, by the way.  There’s just enough element of danger from flying bodies to keep you on the edge of your seat. 

That was Thursday, June 29.  The next day at 10:30am, I met with my accountant to turn over my papers so he could do taxes for two countries.  I was ready about 10:28am.  I just threw away a bunch of receipts.  I have way too many to justify, anyway.  How much can you charge against a job that doesn’t pay?  It just gets me about $100,000 worth of free cruising every year.  No, the horseshoe up my touchie isn’t giving me any pain at all. 

The minute my accountant left, I picked up the phone and called my new friend, Steve, to tell him I was free to play on Friday night.  I still had a cruise to sell and the clients were considering a number of them, so there was research, but I needed another night off, after taxes. 

I got on the Jazz Festival web site and found some balcony seats for John Scofield, a famous old guitarist.  By that, I mean he’s my age, and he played with Miles Davis, yada, yada.  Then I found Le Central, an upscale food court with better restaurants, and they had the reincarnation of Pintxo, a tapas place that I had loved years ago.  So I called and reserved there.  Steve left his car at Les Cours and we took the Metro, which is how you do festivals in Montreal, so convenient and no worries about parking, when everyone is in the same place at once.

The reservation at Pintxo got us a table by the patio doors, open to the street.  We had a nice bottle of Spanish white wine with our lobster tail, calamari and patatas bravas and went off looking for ice cream.  We were in the Quartier des Festivales, during the Montreal Jazz Festival, and we had a helluva time finding an ice cream place.  We walked from St. Lawrence Main to Place des Arts, by way of Complexe Desjardins and found exactly one purveyor of crème glacé.  By the time we found it, we didn’t have time to wait in line.  It was a lot of line, as you can imagine.  Someone is missing an opportunity here. 

So we made our way to our venue, the Monument National, home to the National Theatre School of Canada, and up to our pretty good balcony seats.  The theatre is probably a hundred years old, and I was told it had great acoustics.  They all did back in the day, before electronic enhancements took over. Something acoustical happened right on time at eight o’clock, but it wasn’t our show.  It was the fire alarm.  Down the four floors we went and out to the street.  The crowd was very orderly, there was a park across the street and four fire trucks arrived to check the building out.

The whole thing took about a half-hour until we were back in our seats and the show went on, as it must, you know.  I thought it was good, considering how old Scofield is by now, and that’s the essence of a Jazz Festival, the very old, very new, and very popular.  It will be on until July 9 or 10 but I am on a plane bound for California, another home. I can’t complain.

Saturday, I caught up with my emails and worked on my next cruise sale, which involved comparing the available Panama Canal options for next March.  That’s selling out, so I just made five bookings, four of which I will be cancelling.  The weather was very iffy, so I just had Steve over for dinner figuring we could go to the Jazz Festival after, if it improved.  We had thunder and lightening, while we ate down my fridge, and were too lethargic to go out after, even if the weather had improved. 

Sunday morning, I packed up Robbie to go to Dena and John’s house for a month.  I managed to catch him and John took him away around eleven-thirty.  I kept working on the Panama Canal cruise, finishing around four.  I stopped for breakfast and started to pack around five.  By seven I was done, but I made the mistake of going back to the computer, where there is always plenty to do.  I went out to dinner about eight-thirty, planning on Fiorella, my local Italian in the St. Martin Hotel.  No luck, they are closed Sundays.  The next closest place was Dunn’s, but smoked meat sometimes repeats and I wanted to sleep, so I had a hot chicken sandwich.  That was my go-to when I was at McGill and the gang wanted to go to Ben’s.  I didn’t like smoked meat at the time, so I would have a “Hot Chicken” (The “sandwich” is silent), ordered in English with a French accent, fries and a coke.  That’s what I had at Dunn’s, and, with tax and tip, it came to thirty bucks.  I used to get it for a dollar in the early sixties.  My IBM starting salary in 1965 was $5,400.  It’s looking a lot better in retrospect.

At 6:00am, I was in a taxi on the way to the airport, the “hot chicken” having provided the desired good night’s sleep, albeit a short one.  Not having a bag to check saved me a line that had to have 200 people in it.  The customs hall probably had 400 people in it, maybe more.  There was an attractive looking Nexus/Global entry line, and I asked the line monitor if TSA-pre would possibly get me into it.  That, no, but she took a good look at me, said she could do something, and sent me to the crew/handicapped line, which was even better.  So I am recommending that we old farts ask that question, even when we know the answer, just to have our age noticed, acknowledged and rewarded.  Then, at the gate, when they were begging people to check their carry-on rolling bags, I stepped up to the plate, expecting that good deed to be punished by a half-hour wait at the carousel in SFO.  Then, once First class and Super Elite status were boarded, she invited those of us who had volunteered our bags to board next.  I got on this plane without ever waiting in a line.  You’re welcome. 

The other trick that worked was booking an aisle seat in a row where the window seat was already booked, in the hope that no one takes the middle seat.  There is exactly one free seat on this plane and is to my right.   My mouse and notes have a seat of their own.  This trip is starting very well.

Friday, May 5, 2023

Praia di Vitoria

With a cleanish bill of health, Addy was ready to play again.  She would not have liked to be flown home at this point, and is starting to admit to herself that maybe there is too much wrong with her to keep galivanting around the world.  But she was certainly ready for a last fling. So, today, she joined my shopping team: myself, Nona and Lenora, and took it to new heights.  This was absolutely the A shopping team.  We weren’t the only ones out on the same mission.  I met lots of my people.

The shopping was good, too.  It looked like a Hong Kong family had had the bright idea to model their stores on Stanley Market, where I shopped like a local for five years, and kept going back.  We scored tops and bottoms, hats and purses.  It was great fun.  Once you have given in to the second suitcase, and Holland America has provided a big one, you are open to buy.

We finished off with a beer on the square and took the shuttle back to the ship, well satisfied. 

The entertainment  was a fellow named Tom Crosbie, who called himself The Entertainerd.  I am a bit of a nerd myself, and his mathematical feats were impressive, but I didn’t need to see the Rubic’s Cube solved eighteen ways from Sunday, one-handed, blindfolded, etc.  Dee and I pounded a good few zzzzzzzzzzzs.

Saturday, May 6, 2023

At Sea

I worked in the morning, when I suppose I should have been watching the Coronation of King Charles III, but I am not in to watching television by myself in my cabin when there’s work to be done, and the ship hadn’t made an event out of it.  Seabourn did, I found out from my informer.  And one of my fellow hosts did.  Tom Mullen, long time Cruise Specialists’ ‘Round the World host, honored a tradition Brits have for such occasions.  It’s called “The Big Lunch”.  In England and abroad, people hold big, elegant lunches on Coronation Day, and Tom’s was in The Pinnacle.  I was honored to be his friend and one of the “Colonials”.  There were more decorations there than on the whole rest of the ship, which had none, despite our Cruise Director being British, too.  The cake was particularly impressive:

At four o’clock, I had to be in the Crow’s nest to receive my Platinum medal for 700 days sailed on Holland America.  The medals came quickly, thanks to five circumnavigations, but this is the last one before President’s Club and that’s 1400 days.  I should live so long.  Anyway the ship took a nice professional picture with the Hotel Manager, Henk Mensink and Captain Frank van der Hooven:

Henk has been Hotel Manager on all five of my world cruises, but Frank is new.  I did the other four with the inimitable Jonathan Mercer.

The entertainment was to my liking.  It was Pianist/Vocalist Lisa Harman, and the material she chose was show tunes. 

Sunday, May 7, 2023

At Sea

It gets very busy during the last six days of the cruise.  It’s like the ship saves all its events to send you away remembering the fun you had.  There are so many Mariners of all star levels that they do three Mariner’s Lunches.  I went with my old friends from 2012, Beryl and Nona, and this year’s new friend, Lenora.

Microsoft had a title for this picture.  It was “A group of older women sitting at a table”.  The nerve.  Did they not notice we were “happy ladies drinking wine”?  “good old friends getting sloshed” ?  anything.

That night I hosted my own “Big Dinner” at the Pinnacle, to recognize my Distinctive Speakers.  If you want to put together a good party, just ask a bunch of speakers.  I’m never going to let that idea go.  I don’t think the speakers would let me.  They all loved telling the group about what they had done in life that was special.  They had me tearing up with appreciation.

We started dinner at seven, so we did finish in time for Jim David’s second show, the gay, dirty show.  He had warned the audience at the first show not to bring the kids, there are five of them on the whole ship.  He had also cautioned anyone who thought they might be offended to stay away.  There were still negative comments the next day, but I thought it was hilarious. 

Monday, May 8 2023

At Sea

My old friend, Dan, from previous worlds, had a birthday party in another old friend, Marlene’s suite, and a nice dinner in the Dining Room, with “Panjang Amurnia”.  I think Dan was 85.  It was a little sad, because Dan’s best friend aboard, had been disembarked with heart problems in the Azores, and would be flying home.  His condition is stable, but it made us all a somewhat morose.  A lot of people face their mortality on these long cruises, but all in all, it’s not a bad way to go. 

The entertainment was Tom Crosbie again, on which I passed.  I can sleep in my own bed. 

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

At Sea

Our farewell no-host cocktail party was at 4 o’clock, to have dinner with the early eaters, for once.  Fifty four people came and 50 of them came to dinner, where I poured wine for everyone from my own wine package.  That costs me a bit, but, being five-star, I do get it half price, and it generates a lot of good will.  My own table was delightful.  The Zuiderdam Singers and Dancers were on stage with their last Production Show, “Simply Broadway”  They were wonderful.

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

At Sea

This was my packing day.  I got organized and even packed a bit before my office hour.  It was quiet.  I think everyone else was packing, too.  I said a few goodbyes, including a nice one to Tom Mullen, who stopped by.  We will met again. 

Miraculously, I had more wine left in my package than I could drink, but my tablemates were short a bottle, so they drank one and I took my bottle around the dining room, looking for my people to pour for. I found good ones and was happy it was them. Liza Harmon was on stage again.  Good.

Thursday, May 11, 2023

At Sea

It was time to write my sad little farewell letter, so I did.  This one summarized our time together.

Please don’t ask why the logo isn’t centered. It was in the word file that i distributed. I am lucky to have it at all.

May 11^th , 2023                                 Newsletter No. 22                                                                             

Guest Names

Time to say “GOODBYE

Thank you for sailing with Distinctive Voyages.  It has been a pleasure and a privilege to serve you.  You have been a wonderful group, on time, good communicators, nice people, the works.  I am very proud to have been your host.  Please don’t forget to thank your travel agent for this program.  If you did not know about it beforehand, tell your Travel Agent that the amenities are on “Agent Universe”, and that you’ll want to know about them, in a timely fashion, next cruise. 

Our shore excursions saw us in a Maori Village in Tauragna, NZ, on catamarans in Port Luis, Mauritius, watching Flamenco at a winery in Jerez, and Irish dancing in Dublin.  Some of us even went to jail and/or the Opera.

We had six cocktail parties, with optional diners after, and four shore excursions.  We also had no host dinners in the Pinnacle and Canaletto as well as dinners out in Sydney, for people going to the Opera, in Cape Town at GOLD,  at Dim Sum at Zilver in Sydney, and a pub lunch in, Dublin before our no-host add-on at Kilmainham Gaol.  There were a few that came up quickly, when I found a yacht club to visit.  A lucky few were well received by the Royal South Australia Yacht Squadron in Adelaide and the Royal Perth.  We need more overnights.

My apologies to those who don’t drink wine as that’s the way this Montreal and Napa girl expresses her hospitality and her thanks for participating in the program. 

The Distinctive Speakers series has been a great success. I’ll be repeating it every world cruise now and asking for budget to cover the AV.  Huge thanks to our speakers, Larry Sutton, the Navy Diver, Sandra Hobson, the Audiologist,  Ken Stein, who has demystified Space on the World stage, Dee Wescott, with her gorgeous underwater photographs, and Pat Sanders, whose software found the Titanic.

I have helped with three insurance claims and accompanied two patients to medical appointments.  I’m there whenever any of you needs me.

Many thanks to those of you who have returned your Comments Card.  If you haven’t yet, please do.  Return it to me, or to a PERSON at the Front Desk, where they will have an envelope for me.  Do NOT put it in any box the ship puts out for its reviews.  If you can’t find the form, I’ll bring some to our last Happy Hour, tonight.

Time:   6:30 pm          Ship’s Happy Hour   Location:  Crow’s Nest, Deck 10          

 May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face; the rains fall soft upon your fields, and ‘til we meet again, may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Helen Megan, Distinctive Voyages Host                                                                                                       Stateroom 7041

Friday, May 12, 2023

Fort Lauderdale

It was an easy, well run disembark.  We quickly found a cab to the airport.  My plane was on time and landed 40 minutes early.  Best ever.  Now to get my report in, and taxes done for two countries, before I leave for my next adventure on July 4. 

Thursday, April 27, 2023

At Sea

I used today’s sea time to finalize everything for Dublin and Kilmainham jail.  It got more complicated as Dublin is a tender port for us, after all.  We, the Shore Excursions Manager and I, had been hoping for a dock, and had been told we were getting it, but – not to be.  So everything had to be tightened up.  I adjusted the Newsletter accordingly and got the thing out. 

It’s Dutch Kings Day, so it was Dutch high tea, which doesn’t look much different from English but did surprise the guests. 

It was also Wells Wescott’s 86^th Birthday Party day, so here he is in the Pinnacle in Orange

For the Orange Party with the Crew after dinner, I had an orange dress and fascinator, but never got a picture.  That’s Cristel on the far left.

Friday, April 28, 2023

Portree, Scotland

Portree is a tender port, with a floating platform, steps down, yada, yada, and the weather wasn’t so hot, so I took another work day.  I needed to get started on arrangements for my next trip. 

The entertainment was a film “Wild Mountain Thyme”.  The description went: A pair of star-crossed lovers in Ireland get caught up in their family’s land dispute”.   I even question the validity of the grammar in that, unless they were first cousins or something.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Oban, Scotland

Oban is another charming Scottish town that you reach by a not-so-charming tender – read lifeboat.  And it had Scottish weather, cold and wet.  Plus, tomorrow was Dublin and I wanted to be very sure everything would be perfect for that.  So, I stayed in.  One of the things I did, was point my phone at my trophy display: I thought they were fun.

I also got a great email from a Napa friend, who is writing her diary from the Seabourn Sojourn.  It contained this gem: “The first item under activities on the daily news sheet on 4.1 was: -“Nude trampoline exercises for the over 70s to be held in the retreat area of the spa. After thinking that that would definitely not be a pretty sight, we remembered the date!”  She didn’t include a picture, though.  Methinks I am on the wrong ship.  They are having a lot more fun than we are. 

Dinner was a treat.  We had the comedian, Sid Davis for a guest.  The entertainment was good after dinner, too.  It was Jonathan Johnston, Irish personality, Musical entertainer. 

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Dun Laoghaire (Dunleary), Ireland

Port for Dublin

The weather was better in Dublin for our big day.  I got up and out early, but not before someone had checked in sick with a cold, which was later tested and found to be COVID. I didn’t know it then, but had tested myself as a precaution before leading a tour.  Everybody checked in on time, bless them, including our sparkling Addy. When we got to the bus, Peggy told me that Vicky had stayed behind with Addy, who had been whisked off to the Medical center, after feeling faint and nauseous.  I had been so busy checking everyone else in, that I hadn’t noticed what had to have been happening not 20 feet away.  Good on Vicky.  That was very sweet of her to step up to the plate. 

In the end, 58 people came on the tour, which was excellent.  Both of the tour guides received high praise from the participants.  All Irish tour guides are fabulous. It’s a nation of tour guides.  Every Irish person is well-educated and steeped in Irish history, from the cradle.  You can’t be going wrong, now. Ireland also made a disproportionate contribution to Irish literature.  That was discussed, too.  And we stopped by this whimsical statue of Oscar Wilde, who was born in Ireland, but not happy about it.  Don’t miss it if you go, now.

Our tour ended with an Irish music and dance show in the Arlington Hotel, on the river Liffey.  There we were met by my old high-school and later, friend, Mary.  I include this selfie for a few of you who have had the pleasure of meeting her.  It’s still, and always will be, a great pleasure.

I am not all that good with selfies.  Sorry about that. 

After the show, the people who hadn’t signed up for Kilmainham Gaol, went back to the ship in the buses, and those who had, went upstairs for a good pub lunch.  I had a steak and Guinness pie.  Lovely, now. 

At 2:25pm, the bus I had hired separately picked the 27 of us up and took us to jail, without passing “GO” or any of that.  Mary had vouched for the fact that it is the best tour in Ireland, and I truly believe it or I wouldn’t have tee’d it up.  It’s quite moving and a lot of us have Irish roots.  I got a lot of good comments on it. 

Back on the ship, after dinner, there was another River Dancing demonstration.  You gotta love it. 

Monday, May 1, 2023

Cobh, Ireland

I found out early that Addy had gone off the ship for medical evaluation and the faithful Vicky had accompanied her.  When they came back, without having been able to get the cat-scan required because it was a public holiday, I assured Vicky that I would take the next shift.  She should not be ruining her vacation for someone she had just met on the cruise.  They are both part of about six single women who hang together a lot.  I am part of the group now and then, too. 

I went out in Cobh with Nona and Lenora.  There was a lot to do, very near the ship, and we did a lot of it.  First there was a fair, where I purchased an Aran sweater tea cozy and a home-made gluten-free carrot cake for my 4PM breakfasts.  It was this kind of a fair:

 Check the horse shoes.

Cobh was the port from which most of the Irish sailed who were coming to North America.  There is an extensive heritage museum right near the ship and the Titanic Museum in the very offices if the White Star Line, which owned and operated her.  We decided to tour that.  The ticket was very interesting.  We each got a replica of one belonging to a real passenger, and inside, after the tour, we would be able to access the record of what had happened to our person.  We had a little time before our time slot and spent it, of course, in the shop.  There they were selling 4-quid bookmarks and I was sucker enough to buy one.  It had part of my passenger’s story on it, you see.  She had survived and only died in 1944, the year I was born.  I was convinced I was the re-incarnated Nora Keane:

Well, I’m not, because she lasted until December of ’44 and I was born in October.  So much for that.  I’ll use the bookmark, though.  There was a lot of information on the ship herself and how she sunk, who rescued the passengers and why more of them weren’t rescued.  It was very interesting and monumentally sad, but I can recommend it.

It was a cold, sunny day, which meant you could eat and drink outside if you could find a table in the sun.  The pub with the live music was full, but we found a coffee shop across the street next to a place that sold beer, so Nona got her beer and I got my hot chocolate and a pastry to break my fast.  It was a very good day. 

Dinner was good and we had another fine production show, “Rockin’ Roadhouse”.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

At Sea

Luggage Forwarding are on board and everyone has a zillion questions.  So I got ahead of it and got most of the answers to help my people.  Many people treat a world cruise like a second home.  They don’t pack lightly.  They bring most of their clothes and a lot of other stuff, too.  It is four-and-a-half months, after all.  Even I checked a bag and will have two on the way home, because of my trophies and all.  But I don’t deal with Luggage Forwarding.  It was a day full of baggage questions, though. 

I made a bunch of birthday cards, and got out a Newsletter because I had a Distinctive Speaker tomorrow.  The entertainment was nothing short of weird.  You were to wear your jammies to the pool, where stories would be told “Once upon a time…”  I had a little look at it and retired to my cabin to read my book.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

A Sea

I spent from 9am to 10am in Medical with Addy, making sure we had an appointment for her cat scan tomorrow in the Azores.  There was not to be a repeat of the day in Cobh, where Addy and Vicky taxied all around the place and never found one.  My COVID patient is still feeling badly and has a really sore throat.  I had some Strepfen in my pharmacy and she pronounced it way better than what the Medical Center had given her (Strepcils).  I’ll get more of that. 

Pat sanders gave his Distinctive Speaker talk to a full house.  It was excellent.  Just to give you an idea of the kind of talent you find in a DV group:

Pat Sanders learned how to survey underwater with the US Naval Oceanographic Office.  In 1985 he formed HYPACK to provide PC-based mapping and search software to oceanographers and hydrographers.  HYPACK® is commonly used to maintain shipping and boating lanes at specified depths to ensure safe passage of marine vessels. It provides hydrographic surveyors with the needed tools needed to design their survey, collect, and process data, and present it in a variety of output formats.  After several unsuccessful attempts by others, over the years, since the Titanic sunk in 1912, it was finally located by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, using HYPACK software.  Pat was president of the company from 1985 to 2015, when he sold the company and retired.  He has served as President of the Hydrographic Society of America and was elected to the Hydrographer Hall of Fame in 2018.  

His presentation looked at the tools used in searching underwater for hazards to navigation, shipwrecks, cars, etc.  It explained how they found the Titanic and looked at some items found for a NOVA TV special on surveying wrecks from the D-Day invasion.  He even told us what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight 370. 

The show was Jim David, a pretty good comedian.

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Ponta Delgada, Portugal – The Azores

Addy and I were up and out at 9am and off to the Hospital Internacional dos Açores.  It is a very nice facility, all that you would want a hospital to be.  It took until about one-thirty, but we got the scan and the doctor’s evaluation, everything but the bill.  We were told it was being taken care of by the ship and she would pay them.  The driver reappeared to take us back to the ship but Addy wanted to go shopping.  I haven’t told you.  She’s 88 and rides a scooter but she’s the hippest cat on the ship.  So, we had ourselves let off downtown, had lunch and went shopping.  It was fun and we needed that. 

When we got back on board the documents staff were waiting for us.  It seemed like we had skipped out on the bill and would have to go back to the hospital and pay it.  Neither of us wanted anything to do with that.  So, we stood out ground, saying we had offered before we left the hospital and they would have to find a way to get the bill to the ship, where Addy could sign it onto her ship-board account and the ship could pay it.  It took another three or four hours, but we weren’t sailing until 11pm, so it did get done in time. 

The entertainment was a movie called “80 for Brady”.  Since I am not into sports films, I passed.  If they had advertised the cast I would have gone.  I heard it was good it starred:

• Lily Tomlin, 83
• Jane Fonda, 85
• Rita Moreno, 91
• Sally Field, 76
• Tom Brady, 45

I’ll have to find it on Netflix some day.

2023 – 4 – Grand World 4.4 of 5 More Europe – Scotland and Ireland

Thursday, April 27, 2023

At Sea

I used today’s sea time to finalize everything for Dublin and Kilmainham jail.  It got more complicated as Dublin is a tender port for us, after all.  We, the Shore Excursions Manager and I, had been hoping for a dock, and had been told we were getting it, but – not to be.  So everything had to be tightened up.  I adjusted the Newsletter accordingly and got the thing out. 

It’s Dutch Kings Day, so it was Dutch high tea, which doesn’t look much different from English but did surprise Patrick Sanders. 

It was also Wells Wescott’s 86^th Birthday Party day, so here he is in the Pinnacle in Orange

For the Orange Party with the Crew after dinner, I had an orange dress and fascinator, but never got a picture.  That’s Cristel on the far left.

Friday, April 28, 2023

Portree, Scotland

Portree is a tender port, with a floating platform, steps down, yada, yada, and the weather wasn’t so hot, so I took another work day.  I needed to get started on arrangements for my next trip. 

The entertainment was a film “Wild Mountain Thyme”.  The description went: A pair of star-crossed lovers in Ireland get caught up in their family’s land dispute”.   I even question the validity of the grammar in that, unless they were first cousins or something.

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Oban, Scotland

Oban is another charming Scottish town that you reach by a not-so-charming tender – read lifeboat.  And it had Scottish weather, cold and wet.  Plus, tomorrow was Dublin and I wanted to be very sure everything would be perfect for that.  So, I stayed in.  One of the things I did, was point my phone at my trophy display: I thought they were fun.

I also got a great email from a Napa friend, who is writing her diary from the Seabourn Sojourn.  It contained this gem: “The first item under activities on the daily news sheet on 4.1 was: -“Nude trampoline exercises for the over 70s to be held in the retreat area of the spa. After thinking that that would definitely not be a pretty sight, we remembered the date!”  She didn’t include a picture, though.  Methinks I am on the wrong ship.  They are having a lot more fun than we are. 

Dinner was a treat.  We had the comedian, Sid Davis for a guest.  The entertainment was good after dinner, too.  It was Jonathan Johnston, Irish personality, Musical entertainer. 

Sunday, April 30, 2023

Dun Laoghaire (Dunleary), Ireland

Port for Dublin

The weather was better in Dublin for our big day.  I got up and out early, but not before someone had checked in sick with a cold, which was later tested and found to be COVID. I didn’t know it then, but had tested myself as a precaution before leading a tour.  Everybody checked in on time, bless them, including our sparkling Addy. When we got to the bus, Peggy told me that Vicky had stayed behind with Addy, who had been whisked off to the Medical center, after feeling faint and nauseous.  I had been so busy checking everyone else in, that I hadn’t noticed what had to have been happening not 20 feet away.  Good on Vicky.  That was very sweet of her to step up to the plate. 

In the end, 58 people came on the tour, which was excellent.  Both of the tour guides received high praise from the participants.  All Irish tour guides are fabulous. It’s a nation of tour guides.  Every Irish person is well-educated and steeped in Irish history, from the cradle.  You can’t be going wrong, now. Ireland also made a disproportionate contribution to Irish literature.  That was discussed, too.  And we stopped by this whimsical statue of Oscar Wilde, who was born in Ireland, but not happy about it.  Don’t miss it if you go, now.

Our tour ended with an Irish music and dance show in the Arlington Hotel, on the river Liffey.  There we were met by my old high-school and later, friend, Mary.  I include this selfie for a few of you who have had the pleasure of meeting her.  It’s still, and always will be, a great pleasure.

I am not all that good with selfies.  Sorry about that. 

After the show, the people who hadn’t signed up for Kilmainham Gaol, went back to the ship in the buses, and those who had, went upstairs for a good pub lunch.  I had a steak and Guinness pie.  Lovely, now. 

At 2:25pm, the bus I had hired separately picked the 27 of us up and took us to jail, without passing “GO” or any of that.  Mary had vouched for the fact that it is the best tour in Ireland, and I truly believe it or I wouldn’t have tee’d it up.  It’s quite moving and a lot of us have Irish roots.  I got a lot of good comments on it. 

Back on the ship, after dinner, there was another River Dancing demonstration.  You gotta love it. 

Monday, May 1, 2023

Cobh, Ireland

I found out early that Addy had gone off the ship for medical evaluation and the faithful Vicky had accompanied her.  When they came back, without having been able to get the cat-scan required because it was a public holiday, I assured Vicky that I would take the next shift.  She should not be ruining her vacation for someone she had just met on the cruise.  They are both part of about six single women who hang together a lot.  I am part of the group now and then, too. 

I went out in Cobh with Nona and Lenora.  There was a lot to do, very near the ship, and we did a lot of it.  First there was a fair, where I purchased an Aran sweater tea cozy and a home-made gluten-free carrot cake for my 4PM breakfasts.  It was this kind of a fair:

 Check the horse shoes.

Cobh was the port from which most of the Irish sailed who were coming to North America.  There is an extensive heritage museum right near the ship and the Titanic Museum in the very offices if the White Star Line, which owned and operated her.  We decided to tour that.  The ticket was very interesting.  We each got a replica of one belonging to a real passenger, and inside, after the tour, we would be able to access the record of what had happened to our person.  We had a little time before our time slot and spent it, of course, in the shop.  There they were selling 4-quid bookmarks and I was sucker enough to buy one.  It had part of my passenger’s story on it, you see.  She had survived and only died in 1944, the year I was born.  I was convinced I was the re-incarnated Nora Keane:

Well, I’m not, because she lasted until December of ’44 and I was born in October.  So much for that.  I’ll use the bookmark, though.  There was a lot of information on the ship herself and how she sunk, who rescued the passengers and why more of them weren’t rescued.  It was very interesting and monumentally sad, but I can recommend it.

It was a cold, sunny day, which meant you could eat and drink outside if you could find a table in the sun.  The pub with the live music was full, but we found a coffee shop across the street next to a place that sold beer, so Nona got her beer and I got my hot chocolate and a pastry to break my fast.  It was a very good day. 

Dinner was good and we had another fine production show, “Rockin’ Roadhouse”.

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

At Sea

Luggage Forwarding are on board and everyone has a zillion questions.  So I got ahead of it and got most of the answers to help my people.  Many people treat a world cruise like a second home.  They don’t pack lightly.  They bring most of their clothes and a lot of other stuff, too.  It is four-and-a-half months, after all.  Even I checked a bag and will have two on the way home, because of my trophies and all.  But I don’t deal with Luggage Forwarding.  It was a day full of baggage questions, though. 

I made a bunch of birthday cards, and got out a Newsletter because I had a Distinctive Speaker tomorrow.  The entertainment was nothing short of weird.  You were to wear your jammies to the pool, where stories would be told “Once upon a time…”  I had a little look at it and retired to my cabin to read my book.

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

A Sea

I spent from 9am to 10am in Medical with Addy, making sure we had an appointment for her cat scan tomorrow in the Azores.  There was not to be a repeat of the day in Cobh, where Addy and Vicky taxied all around the place and never found one.  My COVID patient is still feeling badly and has a really sore throat.  I had some Strepfen in my pharmacy and she pronounced it way better than what the Medical Center had given her (Strepcils).  I’ll get more of that. 

Pat sanders gave his Distinctive Speaker talk to a full house.  It was excellent.  Just to give you an idea of the kind of talent you find in a DV group:

Pat Sanders learned how to survey underwater with the US Naval Oceanographic Office.  In 1985 he formed HYPACK to provide PC-based mapping and search software to oceanographers and hydrographers.  HYPACK® is commonly used to maintain shipping and boating lanes at specified depths to ensure safe passage of marine vessels. It provides hydrographic surveyors with the needed tools needed to design their survey, collect, and process data, and present it in a variety of output formats.  After several unsuccessful attempts by others, over the years, since the Titanic sunk in 1912, it was finally located by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, using HYPACK software.  Pat was president of the company from 1985 to 2015, when he sold the company and retired.  He has served as President of the Hydrographic Society of America and was elected to the Hydrographer Hall of Fame in 2018.  

His presentation looked at the tools used in searching underwater for hazards to navigation, shipwrecks, cars, etc.  It explained how they found the Titanic and looked at some items found for a NOVA TV special on surveying wrecks from the D-Day invasion.  He even told us what happened to Malaysian Airlines flight 370. 

The show was Jim David, a pretty good comedian.

Thursday, May 4, 2023

Ponta Delgada, Portugal – The Azores

Addy and I were up and out at 9am and off to the Hospital Internacional dos Açores.  It is a very nice facility, all that you would want a hospital to be.  It took until about one-thirty, but we got the scan and the doctor’s evaluation, everything but the bill.  We were told it was being taken care of by the ship and she would pay them.  The driver reappeared to take us back to the ship but Addy wanted to go shopping.  I haven’t told you.  She’s 88 and rides a scooter but she’s the hippest cat on the ship.  So, we had ourselves let off downtown, had lunch and went shopping.  It was fun and we needed that. 

When we got back on board the documents staff were waiting for us.  It seemed like we had skipped out on the bill and would have to go back to the hospital and pay it.  Neither of us wanted anything to do with that.  So, we stood out ground, saying we had offered before we left the hospital and they would have to find a way to get the bill to the ship, where Addy could sign it onto her ship-board account and the ship could pay it.  It took another three or four hours, but we weren’t sailing until 11pm, so it did get done in time. 

The entertainment was a movie called “80 for Brady”.  Since I am not into sports films, I passed.  If they had advertised the cast I would have gone.  I heard it was good it starred:

• Lily Tomlin, 83
• Jane Fonda, 85
• Rita Moreno, 91
• Sally Field, 76
• Tom Brady, 45

I’ll have to find it on Netflix some day.

2023 – 4 – Grand World 4.3 of 5 More Europe – Holland, Denmark and Norway

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

I took a tram into downtown Amsterdam with Nona and Lenora.  We ended up touring the Royal Palace, which happened to be open that day.  There were a lot of interesting sculpted friezes, but I think I liked this dining room best. 

They knew how to entertain.  I should put that in the present tense.  The palace is still in use to entertain state visitors, who even get to sleep in it. 

I like to eat out in a city when we have an overnight, but Holland America had a different plan.  They were having a gala dinner and a 150^th anniversary bash with the president of the company.  So we all went to that, and I would have preferred my usual strategy.  I don’t run the show here. 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Still in Amsterdam, Nona and Lenora and I took a different tram and visited the flea market.  It was a lovely day and I got this pretty picture. 

And this one of the bicycle culture that has long been alive in Amsterdam:

Then we walked around for a bit and didn’t find a resto we could agree on.  The others started getting nervous about missing the boat, but I was hungry, so I had croquettes on the street at the place I was sanding near, and it was a very pleasant experience.  Then I went in search of orangines to compare Dutch ones to Belgian ones.  All in all a good day.

I had given Belgian Orangines (Leonidas) to the Front Desk after our stop in Zebruge and now I presented the Dutch competitor.  Both the Front Desk and my table agreed, the Dutch version was better.  They had a comedian after dinner, Sid Davis.  We thought he was very funny. 

Thursday, April 20, 2023

At Sea

I got word that our very important question for Gus Antorcha had been delivered to his room and would be answered.  Well, it wasn’t answered at the Q and A session, I can tell you that.  I sat through 40 questions before I had to leave to get ready for our welcome cocktail.  Gus made a lot of points for Holland America with that session.  He just plain stayed on the stage until the last question was answered and I don’t know how long that took, because I had to leave after two hours.   But he got a lot of marks for staying on his feet and taking it.  There was another great production show from our singers and dancers called “All for Love” and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Friday, April 21, 2023

Copenhagen, Denmark

Uffe & Joan Folkmann joined Nona and Me on board for breakfast today.  I had to have ONE dining room breakfast and this was a good occasion.  Uffe was our guide for Mariann’s tour of Denmark last year.  He’s such a nice person and so is his wife, Joan, who joined us for the last day, last year.  They were not unfamiliar with cruise ships.  It’s one of their favorite ways to have a vacation.  I get it. 

But it was a work day for both of them, so, after I had thoroughly enjoyed my eggs Benedict, they drove Nona and me into downtown Copenhagen.  Joan was already gone when I had the presence of mind to get a picture with Uffe.  I hope they visit me now, in Montreal.  Could happen. 

With a map from Uffe’s Segway Tour business, Nona and I walked through the shopping district, through a department store and on to Nyhavn, where we met Shari and Pat Sanders and had them take this super picture. 

I should have one of them but they rushed off to more adventures.  Nona and I had a beer, in the sun, at one of the delightful cafés, happy to have found a seat.  It got really packed while we were sitting there.  Then we walked along the waterfront past the cherry blossoms in bloom and The Little Mermaid, had a smoked salmon smorgasbord and another beer, and caught the shuttle to the ship, an A+ day. 

My acupuncture session after that was pure torture but I had a nice dinner with Lynann, Nona and Lenora.  The entertainment was another EXC talk about Nordic Pioneers.  I gave it a miss.

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Oslo, Norway and cruising Oslofjord

Lynann and I got on the Hop On Hop Off bus right on the pier.  Lynann’s plan was just to ride the thing once around.  Mine was to ride it twice, getting off in Frognerkilen on Bygdoy and having a drink at the Royal Norwegian Yacht Club, which had an interesting location “Dronningen”, which means “The Queen”.  It looked like a bit of a challenge but, by my google research, doable.

It was a beautiful Spring day, and, no surprise, Norwegians behave like Canadians on the first gorgeous day of spring that happens to land on a weekend:

They also clog the streets with traffic and hold marathon runs.  Net, it took well over two hours to circle Oslo once.  Back at the ship, Lynann got off.  I made some calculations and decided to go around again, to get off at the RNYC. 

That’s where I made my mistake.  I should have just taken a taxi to the yacht club, because the HOHO took even longer the second time and I ran out of that commodity.  Next time.  It was still a beautiful spring day.  There was scenic cruising as we left Oslo, a treat we were to have for the next few days. 

Sunday, April 23, 2023

Kristiansand, Norway

We docked in Kristiansand and it was easy to just step off the ship and walk around, so Nona and I did that.  They were nicely set up for tourists with literature on what to see, not that we could have missed any of it.  It was a pretty small place.  But, we did as we were told and toured the sculpture garden.  I liked this whimsical display:

Then we walked into the old center of town, where we were invited to go to mass at the Catholic church by a very nice Vietnamese man.  We demurred, not that Nona doesn’t go to mass every day, but yours truly certainly preferred what we did do. 

Next thing you know we were sitting in a restaurant on the square, where we were introduced to “dirty fries”.  I don’t know where they have been all my life.  They were delicious, French fries with all the tacos toppings, and they were pretty much a meal. 

I fell asleep in the bathtub when we got back to the ship. 

There was more scenic cruising, dinner and nice entertainment for a change, Iris Kroes on Harp and vocals.

Monday, April 24, 2023

Haugesund, Norway

This looked like another nice little town but I needed to stay in and work

We had a terrific dinner guest in the person of sax player Akos Laki.  The actual entertainment was a film: At Eternity’s Gate about Van Gogh.  I went back to the cabin and read my book. 

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Eidfjord, Norway

There was no Internet all day because they were changing the ship over to 5G, so I was very willing to go out.  It was a pretty little town from my balcony. 

It was also very cold, like 45 degrees.  There wasn’t all that much to see on our walk, until we happened on the Nils Bergslien Gallery attached to the Voringfoss Hotel, just opposite where the ship was docked.  Nils Bergslein (1853-1928) was a native of the place.  He did very well as a painter, sculptor, and designer of many major buildings.  He returned to Eidfjord for the last 25 years or so of his life and this delightful museum is the result.  Here’s a sample:

There was plenty of daylight left when we got back on board at five, so more lovely scenic cruising in the Crow’s Nest.  The entertainment was our delightful dinner guest from a few nights ago, sax player, Akos Laki. 

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Bergen, Norway

I got a newsletter ready to go tomorrow before I even thought of venturing out at noon with Lenora and Nona. 

The weather was terrible in Bergen.  People coming back in reported sleet.  I don’t go out in sleet.  I went back to my cabin and took care of business, like insurance for my next couple of trips. 

The entertainment was good, again, comedian Sid Davis.