Some of you may remember that my first cruise with Oceania was 180 days long, that is, it was intended to be 180 days but in fact shrank to 101 days because of some necessary repairs to the ship before we embarked. Anyway, it was luxurious with time to waste and squander and expand (not physically; I lost four pounds) and get in touch with oneself as well as with other people. We had time enough to make lasting friends and in one case I know – lovers. So this trip is too short for that. At least I know enough to make my personal choices. Yesterday I opted to stay on board and do my homework and write a blog. My room-mate walked around Wrangell and it was a nice day for a walk, fairly warm and sunny. I should have chosen the physical activity and opportunity to learn about a place I had never been nor will likely ever be again. That’s okay, not great, but okay.

At my back I always hear/ Time’s wing-ed chariot hurrying near.

I’ll tell you the biggest luxury of all is the freedom to choose.

more anon.

May 27 but I wrote this yesterday:

It’s about a blog time. I’m sitting in one of my favorite places in the world although there are three of them, almost identical. It’s the library on Regatta, one of three ships of the same size and layout in n the Oceania line. I’m on my Alaska cruise and after a hard two days, I am relaxed at our first port, Wrangler, Alaska, and I am not going ashore, choosing instead to try to catch up with my screenwriting course and with my blog, both of which have fallen by the wayside – shoreside?

I remember my mother writing a postcard then - perhaps an email now, but she’d never have cottoned on to emails – on a cruise she took to Japan and Australia. She was going by the Great Barrier Reef and she reported her wherabouts and commented that she must look it up when she got home. I suppose I could look up Wrangler when I get home but I did receive an information package so I can read about it here. Why not go ashore, you ask? Why not?

Well, I’m still tired from yesterday’s malaise and the day before’s long hours and struggle to get from Toronto to a ship docked at Seattle. And I guess I’ve seen a lot of port sides and seashores and coastal towns and mountains and pine trees and I’m not quite surfeited but certainly satisfied. I have a lovely view of Wrangler from the library windows. Later when I have coped with some of my homework, I will join my ravel companion in Horizons, the bar at the top of the ship, also overlooking the harbour, and she will introduce me to a Hendrickson’s gin with smashed cucumbers.

Travel is so broadening.

May 26, 2017