Journal Entry #8 - "The End," Six Months Later



The previous post, Journal Entry #7, was the last entry made during the trip.  The trip was almost over, and the last few days were pretty hectic.  We had time while we sat in Victoria, but not much to write about.  I did see a small pod of whales that morning, around sunrise, off the stern, as we sailed south along the west coast of Vancouver Island; I went to the naturalist station to find out what kind of whales they were, met someone who had apparently seen the same pod, identified them, and then forgot what kind they were.  I'm old, and six months has passed.

Putting the journals online - actually, preparing them so they were ready for the online world - was fun.  It's mid-December right now, and I've just finished three or four days of mostly preparing these posts.  I hope you've enjoyed following us around the Pacific Ocean (or, at least, the Northern Pacific).

We spent a day in Victoria while the Canadian authorities inspected the ship.  Occasionally we would see them - they seemed young to us, and carried all sorts of arcane equipment.  We saw one officer with a mirror on a long pole; she was inspecting the tops of the ten-foot tall light stanchions.  Their ship stood off the QE all day, with the mountains of northwest Washington State in the distance.  We left the ship for an area on the pier that had benches and a good wireless signal.  O, Canada!  We got a lot done, including planning with others for our return to the real world, and then back to the ship, dinner, and bed.  Now that we weren't changing the time every day, sleep schedules are back to normal.

In the morning, we were in Vancouver - just a hop, skip and a jump away.  We had breakfast, left the ship, and boarded a bus for our last shore excursion - a tour of the city which ended at the airport.  I found the history of the city to be interesting, and Stanley Park, which is so famous that I've heard of it, lived up to its reputation.  It's big and beautiful.  A modern city with a rich history, lots of water and mountains.

Then a seven-hour wait until our flight left, during which we did not much of anything.  We were exhausted.  Then on the plane, off in Seattle, back on, off in Detroit, wait, back on the plane, and finally off in Albany midmorning the next day.  

Interesting story (to us, anyway) about the car.  We had stayed at a Marriott near the airport before leaving on the trip, and asked to be woken up at a ridiculous hour to get to the long-term parking and then to the airport.  The desk clerk said we could keep the car right there at the hotel, and named a price which was lower than the best deal at airport parking.  A shuttle would take us to the airport, and pick us up when we got home.  What a deal!  I just locked the car and off we went.

When we got home, we called for a shuttle, got back to the hotel - and they had no record of the transaction.  The car was there, and the manager acknowledged that they had messed up, and because there was no paperwork, there was no way they could process our payment, so... it was free.  We got in the car, went down to Bruggerer's Bagels on Wolf Road, and drove home.

The end.




Not really the end.  I need to talk with Mom/Abbey, who will remember more than I have about the last couple of days of the trip.  Stay tuned for upgrades.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journal Entry #1 - Albany to Kagoshima

Image
It's the third morning on the ship, a sea day between Kagoshima, Japan and Busan, Korea. I'm sitting – actually, kind of reclining – on a deck chair, the kind of thing they mean when they say “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.” It is not lost to me that Cunard bought the White Star line before WWII, and the Titanic was a White Star ship. We're on Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, not the original, or the QE II, which is currently a restaurant moored in Dubai.  This must be the QE III, I guess. Anyway, the ocean. Or, actually, the Korea Strait. Out of sight of land. Moderate seas, some whitecaps. Waves seem chaotic, but after a while I can see the organization, generally moving, in ragged lines, from here to there. It's a misty but warm day; the sea recedes into the mist and disappears long before the horizon. The flight from Albany to Newark seemed over before it actually began; the flight from Newark to Tokyo was 14 hours. It is unpleasant to be strapped into...
Read more

Journal Entry #2 - Nagasaki and Aburatsu

Image
Sunrise near Nagasaki   So – Nagasaki. What is there to say about Nagasaki? As you know, our original itinerary included both Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Then the G7 (as I remember, it was G8 before Russia was kicked out) decided to have their rich-nations conference in Hiroshima, so that was it for tourists. We were there first, but I guess that doesn't count. We stopped at Kagoshima instead, which we liked a lot – what's not to like about an active volcano? I had heard from a number of people that the atomic bomb memorial and museum was awesome and unforgettable in Hiroshima, and I was really looking forward to it. It's the only city that I really wanted to visit specifically. Oh, well. Nagasaki will have to do. We pulled into the long, narrow bay early in the morning, and at the end found Nagasaki, probably the smallest city we'd visited so far. The harbor pilot boarded the ship and did a very neat 180 at the end of the bay, in the center, and we docked facing...
Read more

Journal Entry #3 - Mostly Busan, Some Kochi

Image
I can't believe that I left out The Man in Black. Walking up the hill to the Ido castle (it's Monday night, so that was yesterday), the group stopped while the guide was talking to some actors in traditional costume. She turned to us and said, “Now we will have a dramatic performance!” A woman screamed, and a moment later one of the costumed figures, an older man, came around the corner dragging a young costumed woman, still screaming. The man's henchman followed close behind. They got right down in the middle of our group – and then – from the opposite direction, Clint Eastwood appeared. I could almost hear the whistling, almost smell the cigarillo. In this case, Clint was a black figure with the samurai sword and knife; he stepped out of the crowd and confronted the man with the woman. The older man gestured to his henchman and said “Fight him!” (someone translated). They fought, a quick, intense, stylized swordfight, and Clint, of course, saw his opening and del...
Read more