2017-8-31 Tracy Arm

We are traveling up the Tracy Arm. I missed the lecture about it this morning but it’s the inlet to a glacier that is quickly receding. It’s pretty spectacular. We went outside on the Lido deck to watch the waterfalls and blue ice floes float by.

Bill said, “Ho hum. Another spectacular waterfall.”

I heard that some people saw a whale but we didn’t see it. We have seen whales in Mexico so it’s not going to kill me. But, hopefully, some will show up before we go home.

They are serving hot chocolate and salmon chowder out on deck. It’s really cold and rainy out there. There was a hat/shirt/outerwear sale earlier so I bought some a cute hat with braids and a very warm shirt. Good marketing.

2017-8-30 Ketchikan

We waited until after lunch today to go into Ketchikan. It stopped raining so we visited the touristy area, took a few pictures then got back on the ship.

The tides in Alaska rise and fall much more than anywhere else we have traveled. The angle of the ramps to get on and off the ship can quickly change from a gentle rise into a truly hazardous endeavor. The people who help us on and off get pretty excited if we try to do it by ourselves. So, we let them help us.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a good day to watch whales. I asked our waiters in the Lido which side of the ship would be the best to see the whales. They got a big laugh out of that. They said they would contact the whales and let me know.

Have I mentioned the food yet? It’s really good. Also, the dining staff in the Lido offered to cook special meals for Bill! One of the staff printed out the menu and asked him how he wanted it moderated. On the Maasdam, they told us they would only cook him a low sodium meal if we ate in the dining room. To make it easier for everyone, Bill told the cook he wants grilled salmon with vegetables and a baked potato for lunch and the same except with steak at dinner.

I like to eat in the dining room in order to meet people but my back kills me if I sit in a regular chair. Also, meals last about 90 minutes in the dining room and the time passes slowly if you are uncomfortable either physically or socially.

It’s currently very easy to strike up a conversation with most people. Everyone wants to talk about the floods in Texas. They talk about the latest news and who they know in Texas. There is plenty of political news but no one is talking about it.

There are computer classes about learning different aspects of Windows 10 and also one on how to use a digital camera. The Windows 10 classes are full but I haven’t seen anyone using a camera.

We didn't bring a camera but we brought a small laptop computer because it's easy to type on it. I have not seen anyone using a personal computer or typing on the computers in the library area. Everyone seems to have switched over to their phones for those purposes but there are still people reading the well-worn books in the library and doing puzzles.

2017-8-29 Back on the Amsterdam Again

Two nights have passed since Bill fell out of his zero gravity chair by going head over heels backwards. He survived that little mishap pretty well and slept okay that night. He woke up a couple of times but was afraid to move without my help. I was in a coma after I took some Ambien so he had to wait until morning before he could move again. He was pretty unhappy with the chair after that so we asked the kind folks at the Yakima Holiday Inn Express to throw it away for us.

Room 3431 on the Amsterdam is the smallest accessible room we have ever had on a ship. (The bathroom is the largest and best-equipped, though.) The whole ship is small compared to some of the others. There were a couple of chairs in here but I asked the room steward to take them out and that helped a little. The zero gravity chair is too big to set up in here so it is mostly in our way. If they didn’t have cameras all around the ship, I would be tempted to pitch it over the rail in the middle of the night. But, I am afraid they would spend all night looking for a body if someone heard the chair hit the water.

We didn’t bother to turn on the heater last night. It was really hot for the last few days while we were driving through Idaho and Washington. Bill said he was going to sleep in his clothes and he mentioned that I might not be warm enough in my light summer pajamas. He was right. I was cold.

I thought about sleeping with my legs on a suitcase to ease my back. But we have two sleeping bags that are still bound up tightly in the original bags. I used one of them beneath my knees last night and it worked pretty well. I am using it right now while I type in bed. I used to shift positions a lot while I was sleeping but I am tethered to the CPAP and can’t move much anyway.

Our room is at the tail end of the ship and that could be another reason why it got cold in here. We have a big window and no rooms on either side of us. We have a really good view of where the ship has been. We are on a scenic tour of the Vancouver Island today except we can’t see anything due to rain and fog.

I spoke to a woman in the elevator after lunch and asked her if she was having fun yet. She said yes but she had eaten to the point of being uncomfortable. She said she has been eating since she first boarded and can’t seem to stop. That always happens to me, too. But, after I try everything that looks good, I always go back to eating the same way that I eat at home.

We are stopping at Ketchikan tomorrow. We were signed up for the Lumberjack Show which is really good but it’s going to rain all day. Rain is hard on our electronics so I turned the tickets back in. It looks like we will have rain every day in Alaska so we may stay on the ship.

We had a heart to heart talk with the Shore Excursions person last night. She remembers us from our trip on the Maasdam. (It must be disheartening to see people deteriorate between cruises.) She says we are expecting too much from accessible excursions in Alaska. She said they are accessible for people who are “lightly handicapped”, not for people who are really handicapped. You need to be able to climb onto the bus. It’s not a situation where the equipment can lift you and your chair.

Most of the stops on this cruise are places where we can ride off the ship on our scooters and right into the town. We may still do that if we can catch a break in the rain.

There is a big atrium on the ship with clock themed art in the middle. 

2017-8-26 Moving Mountains When You Shouldn't Move Molehills

Handicapped people travel all the time but not many couples travel when they are BOTH handicapped. The logistics of taking a cruise to Alaska are so overwhelming that I think I would rather stay home. But Bill insisted that we get out and do something while we still can. That’s just it. I’m not sure we still can.

We decided that we would drive only five hours a day on this trip. Today, we drove from our home in the Salt Lake Valley to Boise. It took us much longer than most people because we take it easy and take breaks. 

We both gave up sleeping in a bed this year. At home, our king sized bed has become mostly ceremonial. Instead, we sleep in our cushy, comfortable recliners. Besides being comfortable, we no longer have to change the sheets on the bed, which was becoming something of a trial.

There are few recliners in hotel rooms. Some hotels say they have recliners but they aren’t like the ones at home. There are definitely no recliners on cruise ships.

So, we bought these zero gravity recliners. I wrote to Holland America and asked permission to bring them aboard the ship. They said yes. But that is no guarantee that there will be space for them in our cabin. We will have to wait and see what our room looks like. They did tell me that cruise passengers drag big, cushy chairs from the public areas into their rooms all the time but it's not allowed. The room stewards remove them. 

We first tried out the chairs on our trip to Zion National Park. At 2:30 in the morning on our third night, Bill's chair collapsed. Thankfully, he was not hurt. When we got home, he engineered a solution to this problem because he was afraid it would collapse again. We also had to drag these chairs into the hotel room here in Boise, Idaho. 

He tried out this re-engineered chair when we got home and it seemed to work fine. However, he just laid down to get some rest after a long, hard day and fell backwards, ass over teakettle. He says he's okay. I know he is trying to figure out a way to fix this but he should really try to build a comfortable place to rest on the bed. He can use all the pillows and prop up his feet.

But, no. He insisted on trying this again and here he is in the bed. I will have to help him in and out of it so he doesn't fall again.

We are at the Holiday Inn Express at the airport. Room 333 is the best handicapped access room we have ever stayed in. The bedroom and the bathroom are large with wide access doors. 

Since our dual back surgeries, the doctor told us not to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk. Have we followed this rule? Yes. We do follow it except when we don't want to. Bill insists that I not lift anything unless he needs my help. Then I can lift it. 

He has really overdone it getting us on the road to Idaho. He forgot to take his pills at lunch and dinner. Then, he moved the luggage and chairs into our room. He finally remembered to take them about seven p.m. Anyway, his back really hurts tonight. 

However, at the end of this difficult day, he's still smiling. 

August, 2017--Zion's National Park

I haven't written in this blog for so long that I forgot I had it. I never thought we would travel again after we had a very bad year in 2016. But, Bill insisted that I buy a cruise to Alaska. When we traveled before, Bill was handicapped but I was doing pretty well. Now we both have mobility problems.

Last week we went to Zion National Park as a trial run to see if we could actually make a long trip in our advanced state of decay. We were all set to see the eclipse in Idaho but canceled at the last minute. I did get one good eclipse pic of the leaves in front of the house but that was it. You can see that the eclipse filtered through the leaves on the tree looks like crescent shapes.

We went to Zion because it is only a five hour trip. We had a wonderful time but there was really only one non-driving activity we could do and that we the Riverwalk. There were people from all over the world speaking different languages and enjoying the walk with their families.

This area was level so we were able to see it in our mobility chairs.

Each night we went to the Switchback Grille where they catered to Bill's need for low sodium meals. We loved the Zapotec rugs that were hung on the walls and from the rafters.