Sunday, September 9, 2001, my husband, M.E. and I had taken a room at the Travelodge in Vancouver, BC, and ate dinner at "Moxies" an outstanding restaurant where we returned for breakfast and where I had a cinnamon roll, cut and served like French toast, big, rich, sweet and very yummy. Then we were off to the ship. We arrived early and boarded without any wait. The "Volendam" is a beautiful ship, she is almost new.
We spent our early hours unpacking and making our cubical as homey as possible. I was quite pleased that we were on the upper deck of the inside cabins in the cheapest category. We could have been stuck two decks below with the same priced room. Even though our room was above water level it didn"t have a window. I had claustrophobia. Maybe it was the color of our room.
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Tuesday, September 11, M.E. had gone for his morning walk on the deck. I stayed behind to savor the morning in bed. I reached for the clicker to turn on the TV and started absorbing the horror taking place in front of me. I watched the plane hit the World Trade Center. M.E. returned unknowing. We watched with disbelief. God bless us all.
This cruise was dampened by the recent terrorist activities. There wasn't any getting away from the news broadcasts and passengers became paralyzed each time the ship would make an announcement even though the announcements were more often about afternoon Bingo than they were about any world events.
The day was spent cruising up the inside passage. What a breath taking sight and the first of two meetings was led by Dr. Robin Fross, a neurologist from the San Francisco area. She spoke on the different type of tremors. I had no idea that there were so many ways to shake. Celebrities among us were Donna Dorros and Charlie Myers and the very artistic Ellen Myers. What lovely people. Donna spoke about her life with Sid and her roll as a caregiver. We arrived at Juneau on Wednesday and a variety of aircraft excursions had to be canceled because
of the rain and the terrorism. Our excursion was still intact. We had a bus tour of a salmon hatchery, Mendenhall Glacier, downtown Juneau and an interesting private garden, called the Glacier Gardens where we were taken up a steep path in golf carts to see the 600'view of Juneau's airport and admire the wild flowers on the way. When we came back down we were shuffled into a gymnasium size green house filled with hanging baskets filled with flowers most of them hanging to the floor. They were breathtaking.
Thursday it was on to Skagway and a restful train ride that is compared to the engineering feat of the Panama Canal. The rails were merely attached to the sheer side of the vertical cliff. Even though it became quite cloudy the ride was delightful. Friday was the highlight of the tour, when we cruised through Glacial Bay. We spent half a day watching the glaciers calve. There was about one every five minutes. They would make waves big enough to be felt on our big ship. This was the day we saw seals, porpoises, and whales but none of them were
showing off; just riding along in the water.
Our last stop was Ketchican where we opted to see the totem pole park. So sorry to say it was a little too commercial. There were no authentic poles to see, and the gift shop was full of small carvings ranging in size from two feet down to mere inches. The one I was fond of was $850.00. Needless to say I left it on the shelf. To make up for our wasted morning we went into town in the afternoon and found a secluded lounge on the third floor near the ship and had an Alaskan Amber beer.
Sunday was my turn to speak to the group of Parkinsonians and the essential tremor group about my DBS surgery. It was a rewarding trip for us to take because there was a sense of unity no matter whether we spoke to Canadians, Australians, or other Americans, we consoled one another.
jjjane
http://www.geocities.com/janet313/pienet/ross/
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Charlie Myers & Ellen |
Dr. Robin Fross |
Glacier Gardens |
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