Geo: 37.805, -122.273Today is the day we fly to Copenhagen, Denmark to begin our six week vacation through the Baltic area of Europe followed by a Transatlantic cruise back to Boston. Well, problems have already started. At 10am we get news from Norwegian Air that our 5:30pm flight has been changed to 7:20pm. I call the airline and ask if that will affect our connecting flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen. I already know the answer. This is a test. The agent says "Your connecting flight is not affected." I know it's not affected. I'm affected! That flight now leaves 10 minutes before we even get to Stockholm so I can guarantee that we won't be on it.Now he gets it and verifies that we're on the next flight leaving 5:15pm, putting us in Copenhagen three hours ... read more

Geo: 30.7437, -118.615Our last day at sea. Our last day to put things in order. Mom has finished most of the packing. As I feared, it looks like we have one suitcase above our Southwest allotment. That will be $75, please. We only paid $98 for our tickets but here goes my savings. Oh well. It will be good to get home. There will be much to catch up on. Mom made a list of things she knows about, other things we will discover when we arrive home. That's tomorrow. Need I mention breakfast. The prunes, ah, the prunes. We check out the pool area and sure enough, there's a sale. Another chance we have to buy stuff? Unbelievable. Mom looks but does not touch. I work on distributing 3 more days of blogs but stop ... read more

Geo: 15.9106, -129.832Karen is fine this morning. I hate to sound like a broken record but we're up late and off to breakfast. We try to leave in the morning for a few hours to give our cabin stewards, Luzon & Ono, a chance to tidy up the room for us. Neither of us are big breakfast eaters so we stop by the theater to catch the end of Kainoa's lecture on the Hula. The last 10 minutes are interesting, as are all of his presentations. He makes mention that he has Class A pearl jewelry and will make it available for inspection up in the Crow's Nest now. Mom likes him and joins others to peruse the gems for sale. It seems his brother (ya, I know) or some relative is a jeweler in Hawaii ... read more

Geo: 4.43622, -132.392We are closing in on California. 84F and mostly cloudy. It's tough writing about doing nothing everyday. Sure, there are activities to pass the time while we make our way home and I'll continue to write about them. Just remember that what you all are doing is probably more exciting than anything we're doing here. How's this? "We went to breakfast. I had 3 prunes and Karen had some oatmeal, or was it muesli." Who cares? So you know, the day's news will be short and pictures few unless some hot news hits this floating rest home. But I digress. So I spent the morning in the library and Mom went to the pool. I joined her in the afternoon but we had an invitation to the Indonesian Crew Show put on by members ... read more

Geo: -5.44979, -135.501No alarm today! We get up late, well 8 o'clock. We have breakfast- the usual. It's almost 10am when Karen and I split up. I attend Kainoa's spiel on Hawaii's conversion from Kingdom to Statehood. He's always interesting and a great speaker. Meanwhile, Mom heads to the pool. We agree to meet in our room around noon to prepare for our Mariner's Society Brunch in the dining room. Dress code is smart casual, you know, dress pants and a Hawaiian shirt for me and a black & white dress for Mom. Captain Fred Eversen greets us, we toast champagne and have a nice meal. I have cod and Mom, spinach soufflé. They give each person a Holland America ceramic tile. We have many others at home. Karen sees the menu for tonight's dinner. It's ... read more