Oh where do I begin! This has been a challenging year since I left you in Singapore last December!
We (I!) had booked a couple of cruises after we returned from Australia. ADA cabins on ships were getting hard to find. The first cruise we booked was a 28-day round trip from Seattle on the Noordam. We sailed on the Noordam last year to Sydney. This cruise is called the Ice and Volcanoes Grand Voyage which takes us to Alaska and then to the Hawaiian Islands. Luckily, they allowed us to board in Vancouver! We must disembark in Seattle when the cruise ends though and take the train home – no staying on until Sydney this year! This plan is perfect because we can visit my aunt and uncle who live near Seattle.
After booking this cruise, I had surgery planned for January, where the water tap in my right eye was going to be turned off! It has gone from an excessive waterfall back to a normal drainage system, so now it does not look like I am permanently crying! It was to occur in the first week of January but moved to late January due to an issue with my medications. At the first office visit after the surgery, the eye surgeon was a BIT TOO excited to see me – he wanted to show me the picture of the 7mm dager looking, calcium stone from the drainage duct in my eye! It was the largest he has ever seen and removed. Andrew was NOT impressed and left the exam room at that point.
I had just recovered from the ‘panda eye’ look when my father fell and broke the neck of his left hip (between the ball and the femur) at the end of February. He had an excellent surgeon at Richmond General Hospital who put him back together. The regular ‘dad’ and ‘husband’ returned pretty fast. He started making lists of things for us to do, such as buying a watch for my mum. Soon he stood up and gave the physio and OT staff heck during their visits several times a day as he wanted to progress faster! After about a month at the hospital, my dad became congested with fluid on his lungs and passed away fairly fast and peacefully on April 3rd, Good Friday, with my mum, sister and I at his side.
Choosing whether to pay the final deposit on the cruise was very hard for Andrew and me to do – while it was late April at this time, and the cruise was not until September, there was a lot on our plates. In talking with my mum and sister, we decided to proceed and pay for our cruise as it has one very special port – Dutch Harbour, where I was lucky enough to work in 1995. Not many cruise ships stop at the Island of Unalaska where Dutch Harbour is located. It is primarily a fishing community closer to Russia than continental USA! Holland America does not even offer any excursions at this stop due to a lack of infastructure. More on this exciting port later!
Between my volunteering on the Media Team at FIFA, we also planned and held a wonderful Celebration of Memories for our father in June where a lot of my dad’s old workmates from BCIT were able to join us. Also, we moved our mum to a new living environment that is more supportive in July. Then, just as things were looking up, in August my laptop overheated!
I rely on my laptop quite heavily, thank goodness it got me through tax season this year where I was able to submit more than 400 tax returns for the non profits that I volunteer for! Out Dell came to repair it yet again. This time, it only took five hours for the keyboard to get to over 50 degrees Celsius again! There is nothing like an infrared thermometer to tell you that it is HOT!
I was concerned about needing a laptop when on vacation for the various volunteering that I do. Also, there was a bit of déjà vu involved, as last time I traveled to Dutch Harbour, the internal power supply in the Dell laptop that my work provided, ceased to work in the Anchorage Airport on the way to Dutch Harbour! As my current Dell laptop support contract ends in a couple of months, I ordered a new laptop as backup for my trip, in case Dell could not fix my current one on time. The new laptop was supposed to arrive on August 27, but it arrived on September 4! Needless to say, getting my new laptop going has been a bit of a challenge when at sea due to SLOW internet! That said, I have now been successful after a week, so here we go!
To start, I would like to dedicate this “Ice and Fire” cruise to my parents. My dad taught me so much about the sea, tides, ships (vs. boats) and how to appreciate the community where you live. Both my parents taught us to travel and enjoy other cultures – my sister and I have traveled to different parts of the world for both work and vacation. I am constantly learning, absorbing and respecting the different things that make up the great fabric of the world in which we live.
Instead of wearing my Canada hat this trip, I am wearing my dad’s Steveston Maritime Modelers hat. The SMM are a group that my dad belonged to in Steveston. They love to create and display model boats. Some of their creations even float! We are off to discover parts of Alaska that Andrew has not visited previously and I am going to see again after a couple of decades! I hope you enjoy the adventure with us!
Allons-y!
