Tomorrow night (Thursday) I will be in Vancouver BC. Saturday I will board the Rocky Mountaineer train for a 10 day loop through the Rockies. We spend 2 full days in Jasper Park then back to Vancouver and down to Seattle. Should be a great trip.
Just hope the hurricane doesn't affect my flight. I change at Dallas/Ft Worth with only 40 minutes between flights.
This is my time of year. I have always craved light and these long sunny days are just what I need. My cat, Lucy, loves stretching out in the open windows of the house but shows no interest in going outside. Cassie, I have not put a halter on her yet but I laid one out on the floor and as I expected, she tosses it around as her toy. One of these days, I'll saddle her up. I marvel at the miracle of the internet that allows you to tell me of the pleasure of your wood fire in the winter of the Southern Hemisphere. The shed is now open for business, but with weeding, mulching, and setting up the patio, I have not had time to enjoy it. Only 3+ months to first frost (Sept. 31), much too short a summer!
Have a wonderful time MaryinPA. I have often thought of taking that train trip. In Seattle be sure to try the salmon tacos. There is a.restaurant in the airport there as well.as.down town. They are THE BEST FOOD I have ever tasted. Better than ice cream.
"Only 3+ months to first frost (Sept. 31), much too short a summer!"
Exactly. And exactly how I feel about being 66. I'm thinking of mailing it in because what's the point? There isn't even much point in getting dressed. Not that I'm against that because I think I would look good in a dress. Who doesn't want to see a six foot four, two hundred pound hairball in a cute little yellow Louis Vuitton number?
I get this. I get that MaryPA loves travelling. I get wanting to travel but not being able to. I get being able to travel and not wanting to. I get looking ahead and throwing up. I was catapulted ahead ten years in something as close to time travel as I've ever imagined. Worst trip I was ever on. The service was awful.
What turns an endless summer into a too short a summer is becoming an adult. The amount of time then and now is the same. And since we can never become the child outlook we had before again, we have to learn how to play a game - or maybe that's play again.
It's exactly like going to the theater and after the lights go down and the play begins, looking around irritated at everything - the other people, the chair we're in, the lights being off, hearing people move around in their seats or cough, wondering why you're here and thinking of leaving. If we refuse to forget the reality that all of that actually IS what's going on, pretend they're not there and I'm not there, and instead enter the play - we're not going to have any fun and are actually just wasting our money.
The thing about all that is we've earned all of it. Another thing is we own all of it - whatever it is. And the third thing is it's genuinely not easy to let go of all that and plunge in to whatever it is. I don't need to justify a single thing. All I have to relearn is how to forget I'm sitting in the theater and be in the play.
If Mary does that she's going to be telling stories about the thing itself. If she doesn't she's going to be telling stories about herself in the thing. Not easy. But that's the target right there.
Wolf, I guess I was not paying attention when I posted my comment on the "travel" thread, instead of the "June" thread, but you skillfully tied it to the topic at hand.
Yes, the short summer season is like our lives being shortened by a compressed sense of time, which comes naturally with age. But in our cases, this time travel is intensified when we and our spouses are yanked from our world into a hellish otherworld. And after great agony and struggle, our spouses are killed and we, who have become aged and decrepit overnight, are tossed back into the old world wondering what the hell happened. And when we start paying attention, we realize that our lives will be even shorter than we thought, since September only has 30 days, not 31.
Had a great time on the Rocky Mountaineer train trip through the Canadian Rockies. It was an exhausting trip as 6 of the 10 days we had to be up at 5 or 5:30 am to be ready for the bus to the train. Then 3 of the 6 nights we didn't get to our hotel until 10 or 11 pm. Just fell in bed to be ready for the morning. We did have an afternoon at Whistler and 2 full days at Jasper National Park. Had a tour 1st morning and the rest was sightseeing and "shopping". Didn't even get to see Quesnel or Kamloops. Scenery was great and they never stopped feeding us. Breakfast and lunch in the lower level dining area and spent the rest of the day on the upper level of the domed rail car. We planned an extra day on each end of the trip so had a day in Vancouver and another in Seattle.
I would recommend this trip to anyone but maybe not as many days. There are several different itineraries . Some start at Calgary and go to Banff and Lake Louise and then either go to Vancouver via Kamloops or take a bus up the Colombia Icefields Parkway to Jasper. Then some people went down to Vancouver on the northern route through Quesnel and Whistler, The way we went up.
Now I have to rest up for a cruise August 12 to 24 from Boston to Montreal and back to Boston. Then I will have seen some of western Canada and some of eastern Canada all in the same year.
I grew up in NH and saw a lot of the New England coast. I also lived in St Johns, Newfoundland one year back in the early 1070's, the 25 anniversary of confederation with Canada. I've been to Quebec City a couple of times when Ron had to go for business. But I have never been to Prince Edward Island or Montreal. I can always see something different even if we are somewhere I've been before. Looking forward to relaxing on the ship, too.
Mary, it looks like you're probably cruising on the Maasdam and I guarantee you'll love it. DH and I did Montreal to Ft. Lauderdale one fall on Maasdam and then the next summer did Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal. I'll be cruising the Panama Canal again in September, 14 days from Ft.Lauderdale to SanDiego on the Maasdam and my friends are staying on for another 55 days to Australia and then all around the country. I also love the Veendam and a few years ago took Voyage of the Vikings on it, one of the best cruises ever.
Yes, the Boston to Montreal trip is on the Maasdam. That is also the ship I was on for the 50 day Ft Lauderdale to the Mediterranean and back in Nov/Dec 2015.
The Voyage of the Vikings is near the top of my bucket list, but my DD wants to do it too. She is only 3 months into a new job and couldn't possibly get that much time off. Thinking maybe in another year she might be able to go one direction and my other DD could do the other direction. I'd have to pay for both of then.
I was on the Veendam for the Panama Canal cruise, 15 days San Diego to Ft Lauderdale last November. The 2 ships are the same layout except for 2 or 3 top decks.