Homeward Bound + Update

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

For the third time in less than two weeks, we woke up in Vancouver. 

I noticed my throat was a little dry and scratchy when I woke up but blamed it on the dry air in our cabin. I had to walk outside on "our private deck" to get a good enough signal but then was able to check in for our flight. I had booked our way home through Westjet last October when I saw a great price of $144/person for a direct flight from Vancouver to Minneapolis. And better yet, the flight was actually operated by Delta so we would pick up a few miles and get free checked luggage due to our Delta credit card.

Since booking, our departure time had been changed twice, but luckily it was for the better. We were now scheduled to leave at 1:15 pm, a time which I felt comfortable we could make. I knew getting from Canada Place to the airport was a bit of a journey so rather than deal with Uber or a cab, the four of us had booked the HAL transfers. This was a first for us but worked very well. We had reserved the 8:30 am transfer and from the time our tag color was called to disembark, we never stopped walking until we were seated on the large coach bus. 

Being in Canada, Tim Horton's in the airport seemed like an appropriate place to get an early lunch and then the four of us sat together by our gate until we boarded. Jon and Michelle were flying back to Atlanta and had a later flight. 

Our flight was full and I was seated next to a lady who had just gotten off the Grand Princess ship. I showed her the photos that I had taken of their ship in Glacier Bay and she was thrilled when I offered to airdrop them to her phone.

When we landed, we retrieved our luggage and were thankful we didn't have any drama as we did last time. (A hockey bag had gotten lodged in the conveyor belt on the carousel, blocking all of the luggage behind it.) Our youngest son picked us up as he had done in February and it was about an hour drive to his house where we spent the night. It was a school night for our young grandsons so we quickly said "good night" and they were off to bed.

The next morning I woke up and could tell my throat felt even more raw. I must have been overly tired because by the time I crawled out of bed my daughter-in-law had already left to take the kids to school and do some errands. Bob was outside helping our son on his latest project...building a sauna! We had discussed spending a 2nd night, but the way I felt I just wanted to go home.

By the next morning I knew I definitely had "something". I pulled out one of my stash of Covid test kits and after 15 minutes could see a very faint line indicating I was positive. The kit was past the expiration date (although the government says it is still OK) but I didn't trust the outcome so re-tested again with a different brand. This time the test definitely came back positive. 😞

Over the next few days I felt pretty crummy with mostly cold symptoms and a cough. I tested one more time about 5 days later and it was still showing a positive result. I was so thankful that I hadn't gotten sick until the end of the cruise but also guilty wondering how many people I might have infected without knowing it. Everyday Bob expected to start coming down with symptoms, but he never did. I even made him test just to make sure he wasn't asymptomatic, but it was negative. Jon and Michelle said they had some very slight symptoms when they got home but never tested to find out if perhaps it was Covid. 

Update from July

It has taken me two months to finally get this blog caught up so I thought I would provide a quick current update. My Covid symptoms are gone EXCEPT for an occasional cough. It isn't bad, but once the tickle starts in my throat, the cough follows. 

As far as my knee...it had been over three months since I first injured it in San Diego and it wasn't getting any better. When I returned from the cruise I contacted my local orthopedic doctor and she ordered an MRI. The test results showed I had a stress fracture, a complex meniscus tear, advanced arthritis and cysts on the back of my knee. She called me immediately and said I needed to see a specialist in Sioux Falls, SD (our closest large city) and until then I should be TOTALLY non-weight bearing. Based on my original x-ray, the diagnosis had been a dislocated knee cap so the MRI definitely was beneficial in seeing what was actually going on.

For me, being non-weight bearing was just a disaster waiting to happen. I can not navigate on crutches and trying to use a walker wasn't much better. As long as I was in the house, I used an office chair on wheels as my pseudo wheelchair but our bedroom is on the 2nd floor which made life tough. Fortunately I was able to get an appointment in Sioux Falls a week later and the specialist decided that the stress fracture was stable enough that I could walk and be OK. I have another appointment coming up and at that time they will decide what steps will come next. Having arthroscopic surgery might be an option, but the doctor said doing so would just speed up the process towards needing an artificial knee replacement. One other choice might be a steroid injection. 

That appointment was six weeks ago and since that time I have started taking a daily arthritis drug that has helped quite a bit. Maybe things are finally starting to heal and I won't need to do anything further. I am back attending my water aerobics class three times a week and last night I borrowed my neighbor's e-bike and went seven miles on the bike trail around our lake. 

For now we have no future cruises or travel planned. I am starting to receive special "private sale" offers from Holland America regularly in my email and one of our AMEX credit cards has a really good offer..."spend $750 get $300 back" so eventually I may start looking. The repetition in HAL entertainment causes me to think maybe we should be looking elsewhere for options, but we are SO close to becoming 4-star Mariners and that free laundry perk would be so nice!

Thank you to everyone who has followed along on this particular journey with us and special thanks go to those who have taken time to email or leave comments! As I've stated many times, the goal of this blog is to record MY memories, but if anyone else finds useful information or enjoyment from reading then that is a bonus! 

Until next time...

Our Last Sea Day

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

A sad day...tomorrow our cruise will come to an end. 😢

With no notes and few photos, I don't have much to go on for details of this day. I do know more time was spent in the cabin packing than what I would have liked. Also I think we were probably in the gift shops more than once trying to use up that last little bit of onboard credit. So how did we spend our credits on this cruise?

Usually our daily gratuities come out of our onboard credit, but thanks to a Black Friday special, our tips were covered. We had calculated our spending well because at the end of the cruise we had less than a dollar left of the non-refundable credits. And we actually got a little bit refunded to our credit card from adjusted port fees.

These t-shirts were 2/$30 but with our HAL Mariner discount we paid $27.

This isn't the greatest photo, but the blanket is large and very soft. 

Blue Opal Ring

When we weren't packing, we did spend some time on "our private deck" enjoying the scenic views on a beautiful day! Our cabin location really did work out well for the four of us. A standard balcony would have been too small for all us to enjoy together but this aft deck had plenty of room, gave us a fabulous view from the back of the ship AND was just steps from our economical ocean view cabins!

Our waiter for this part of our cruise, Wijaya, was especially personable and we had a great time with him each evening at dinner. Even though our dining time was a touch too early, I much preferred having a fixed dining time with the same wait staff each evening.

Jon being weird.

I was so happy to see that the sweet & sour shrimp was on the menu for our last night. Bob had ordered this on our Koningsdam cruise on the night I paid the surcharge to get lobster and I thought it was better than the lobster! I made sure to order the shrimp this time!

Another crew member that made our cruise a little more fun was JonJon, the ice cream man at the lido buffet. We usually played cards at the same table each evening which was right by the ice cream station. JonJon was one of those guys that in spite of the long hours he worked was always happy and so friendly! (We gave him a hard time though because the ice cream wasn't available later in the evening!)

And while I am on the subject of crew members, one day we ran into a waiter that we had in 2019 on our 22-day Zaandam Antarctica cruise...Zulfin! He was delivering room service to a cabin in our hallway and I did a double-take when I saw him. He didn't remember us and wasn't even sure he had been on the Zaandam in 2019. We saw him another time or two and Bob was able to get his photo. I know these guys must meet so many people and switch from ship to ship so I understand how they can't remember. (I had hundreds of students over my career and I mostly remember the trouble makers or the extra special ones. Average kids tend to be forgotten just like average passengers do on a ship.)

Zulfin in 2019

 

Ifin (according to his nametag) in 2024

                     
A beautiful sunset to end our last day...

Ketchikan

Monday, May 6, 2024

With an 11 am arrival time in Ketchikan, no alarm was set and it meant a more leisurely morning. When planning our day, I had looked into a car rental as we did at our other two ports, but the traditional agencies were all located further away at the airport and there didn't seem to be any Turo rentals available. We had a sizeable amount of onboard credit still left in our accounts so the four of us decided to use some of it to book the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show ($43/person). I knew this was located close to where our ship would dock and not require too much walking for me. 

Sailing into Ketchikan was from the opposite direction than what we have done on past visits and "our private deck" was a great place to see the shoreline on both sides of the ship.

Have I mentioned how much I love lighthouses?!

But on closer inspection this one seems to be a little dilapidated and out of commission.

I took the photo to get the float plane, but aren't those clouds beautiful!!

We tried to imagine what it would be like to live in this house on the water. 

The boat has seen better days.

Norwegian ships dock outside Ketchikan at Ward Cove which in my opinion is not convenient at all.

The photos weren't the greatest, but we saw several eagles sitting atop trees.

Bob keeping watch on "our private deck".
The staircase leads up to the aft pool area on the lido deck.

The trees on tops of the mountains were covered with frost!

The yacht, Jackpot, was also docked in Ketchikan when we were there in 2022.

Pulling into Ketchikan.

The tunnel in Ketchikan is said to be the only one in the world
that can be driven through, around and over.

During the whole cruise Michelle had been on a quest to purchase Starbucks collectible mugs and so far she had been unsuccessful at finding any from Alaska. We had stopped at a Starbucks in Juneau but they were sold out of the mugs and there was no Starbucks in Skagway. As soon as we had cell service in Ketchikan, she had called the Starbucks located in a Safeway grocery store and they confirmed that the mugs were in stock so Jon and Michelle got off the ship as soon as we docked and walked the 1.4 miles each way to get her mug.

The mug Michelle bought. She also bought a miniature version (a Christmas ornament) for me! 

I did not have have any interest in walking to a grocery store (nor could my knee have allowed me to) so Bob and I had lunch on the ship before we got off. Our lumberjack show tickets were for 1:30 but we were uncertain where we were to go. The electronic tickets on our Navigator app just said "Pier Ashore" for a meeting place. 

Fortunately we were able to find a HAL shore excursions staff member on the dock who said we could either wait with her and walk as a group or just go on our own since the show was just a block away. We chose to do the latter. When we reached the entrance to the show we were informed that we could line up at 1:30 but the show was scheduled for 1:45. That gave us some time to look around the gift shop first. I was keeping in touch with Michelle via texts and they arrived soon after we did.

We were some of the first in line when the doors opened and got seats down front and center (seats are not assigned). The stadium style seating was undercover so the show goes on rain or shine. Once the show began, the audience was divided into two groups to cheer for the two logging camps participating in the lumberjack challenge...the Spruce Mill American team and the Dawson Creek Canadian team. The humor was a little hokey but those guys were true athletes. I read that they can do as many as six shows in a day so it is no wonder they have bodies like they do! 

After the show had finished, we walked over to Creek Street and walked the boardwalk past all of the shops. Bob is not a big spender, but he is always on the lookout for ideas for projects he would like to do himself. So many of his interests were featured in the gift shops...pottery, native art, wood carving, etc.

Cape Fox Lodge is the hotel located at the top of the hill.

Bob carved a very similar bear that now lives at his brother's cabin in Wisconsin.

At the end of Creek Street we went separate ways...Michelle and I meandered back to the ship and Bob and Jon went up Married Man's Trail to Cape Fox Lodge to see the art on display.

I had to get a photo of the welcome sign on our way back to the ship.

There used to be a funicular to get from Creek Street up to Cape Fox Lodge...much easier than climbing all of these stairs!

Fish ladder to help the salmon get upstream.

Thinking the guys would be late, Michelle and I went to the main dining room alone but shortly after we sat down they came walking in. They were being a little more silly than usual and finally confessed that they had "gotten tattoos". I knew Bob well enough to know he wouldn't have gotten a "real" tattoo so I wasn't fooled when he showed me the native art (similar to the photos above) that was displayed on his upper arm. Boys!

As for our day in Ketchikan...seeing the lumberjack show had been fun, but not to the extent that we enjoyed Ketchikan in the past. On our first visit in 2014 we had explored Misty Fjords by float plane, in 2017 we took to the water on a kayak tour, and on our most recent visit in 2022 we went on an e-bike and hike that gave us a chance to experience the non-touristy side of Ketchikan. My injured knee kept me from planning anything too strenuous this time, but in the future (if there are any more visits to Ketchikan) I will try and find a way to enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding the city.

The evening entertainment on the ship was a rerun of the dance show, Musicology, which we skipped. (The many repeat entertainment options on our cruise was discouraging.) Instead we watched as the Zaandam left Ketchikan and then retreated to the lido buffet for a fun evening of cards!