We slept well enough awakening with a growing readiness for tomorrow when we will be embarking on the Voyage of the Vikings. This last day on the East Coast will find us in Rhode Island later this morning where the plan is to meet up with Rhode Island Ruth. Sharon met Ruth the first time in person on a HAL cruise on the Rotterdam (the same ship we’ll be boarding tomorrow) from Rio de Janeiro that went down to Antarctica and then on to Santiago in early 2008. She had met her online a couple of years earlier when Sharon took her first cruise (to New England) alone after her husband Jim died. Sharon was posting along the way and Ruth provided some very nice and supportive responses that helped her get thru her first solo ... read more

We slept pretty good again, and again we awoke to the sun filtering in through our window overlooking the pool. I was hungry and looking forward to my omelet; and, I wasn’t disappointed. Sharon was pretty much looking forward to her scrambled eggs and roasted potato cubes which she’s been enjoying for a couple of days now; but, she was disappointed. Evidently, potatoes is a non-starter on Sundays. As expected, the central elevator is still non-operational… “They’re not going to fix it on the weekends.” Sharon Said so I said, “Well they might if they’re reading our blog!” We met a couple in the hall with a passel of kids and we noted, “It’s inconvenient about the elevators, isn’t it. They haven’t been working for several days now!” “That’s terrible,” she said. Then he added, “We ... read more

Things looked pretty bleak blog-wise yesterday evening as Sharon unpacked the laptop and was going to post the previous day’s blog. The laptop was misbehaving as she sat on the bed while I was tuning into the news in our lounge area. We have two TVs so we just might survive the next six days. I heard her mutter something; which, I recognized as a mutter that wasn’t to be ignored. I came into the bedroom and she declared, “It’s broken.” I’m thinking, our laptop which we need for the blog, which I need for trivia, which we need for handling pictures on our vacation, IS BROKEN! It wasn’t what I remembered as “the blue screen of death”; but, it did look pretty non-responsive. She tried re-booting, and I thought she was having success; but, the ... read more

For me, it was a restless night where I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep until the wee hours of the morning. The wall-mounted A/C was a particularly loud beast and more one that you would associate with mid-twentieth century and perhaps not today. Mother made the journey to the undertaker a couple months ago, so there were no worries about her getting to the graveside service on time. Sharon recalls with some bemusement when she buried her first husband Jim, his body was nearly late because he was shipped a day later than it was scheduled. The funny part was, Jim had never been late for anything in life. My mom was not quite that punctual, especially in my formative years; although my father was meticulously punctual or endeavored to be. I have some memories ... read more

We are in our third summer here in Las Vegas and so far we’ve already had over 30 days of over 100 degrees so we’re ready for some cooler weather. Last year we escaped the heat by traveling to Alaska for a five-week adventure. This year, in celebration of a REALLY BIG BIRTHDAY for Sharon, she chose to knock one particular cruise off of her Bucket-List that she’s been eyeing for some time now: Voyage of the Vikings. Holland America (HAL) offers this cruise once each year, and this season we will be sailing on the ms Rotterdam. It is a 38-day cruise out of Boston, sailing up the east coast of North America, sailing on to Greenland and Iceland, on to Norway, then stopping at Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and returning with stops in Scotland ... read more