Day 1: Marathon Travel From Honolulu to Amsterdam

As many of you might have guessed, we have been traveling in Europe for 21 days. We returned a little over a week ago and as usual, jet lag has clouded my mind.

For the next 21 days, I'll be documenting our trip (in detail, sorry to say) just so I can refer to it in order to remember what we did. I have to do this because it's all blending together in a mishmosh of disjointed memories.

Our friend, Dave picked us up on Wednesday at 6:30 in the evening for our 8:35 Delta flight to Los Angeles. The 5 hour flight had us landing in LAX at 4:52 AM. We landed at Terminal 3 and took a shuttle to Terminal B to catch our connecting KLM flight to Amsterdam. It was now Thursday.

Our friends, Craig and Terry flew in on Hawaiian Airlines and landed at 6:45 AM. Terry and I texted each other back and forth asking, "Where are you?" and couldn't find each other.

 It was a long while before we figured out they were outside of security and we were on the other side. Yikes! Whatever the case, we finally found each other and suffered through the long 8 hour layover together.

The flight from LAX to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport left at 2:00 PM and we arrived on Friday at noon after a 10 hour flight.

Unfortunately, I discovered that there was again only 3 underseat storage for 4 people and my rolling carry-on would not fit. Doggone it!

Thank goodness we were served a lovely meal during the flight.

Viking representatives met us at the airport, took our luggage and guided us to the bus to transport us to our Viking Vili riverboat.

A very luxurious lunch was served by super friendly staff.

It boggled my mind to think I hadn't slept in almost two days! There is a 12 hour time difference between Hawaii and the Netherlands. Art joined Terry and Craig for a guided walk around Amsterdam. I stayed behind and took a nap!

We were introduced to our "Hotel" manager that evening who explained that the deepest part of the Rhine is 15 to 17 feet. The riverboat is about 20 feet. Therefore, if the boat should sink we just need to go up to the top deck. There were 180 passengers on the boat. We would be traveling through 67 locks on this river journey.

Our first dinner with our first friends was with Adrian and Jane from England. Jane is a nurse like Terry and Adrian is a teacher like me. Awesome!

Our waiter that evening laughingly told us, "I can do everything for you, but after that, I don't know."

And so began our journey.

Fishes From Cody

We got an evening text from our nephew, Cody who said he wanted to give us some fish he'd caught. We weren't sure what to expect since fish we've gotten from others have often been small and/or full of tiny bones. I've been told that catching fish from the shore these days is very difficult since much of the area has been over fished.

It was so wonderful to find thoughtful Cody had already gutted the fish for us. He told us that the fish on the left was called To-au and the big one on the right is a Nenue. And the fish were really huge. So much so, that mom had to cut off the Nenue's tail to fit the frying pan. As promised the fish were very meaty, tasty with few small bones.

I texted  Cody to let him know how much we'd enjoyed them. In fact there was enough that we had left over for the following day's dinner.

And that evening I got another text from Cody that a friend of his would be sharing some of his catch with us.

This time the fish was Aweoweo and he said they were his favorite fish and that we would enjoy them. I told him Art and I would be in Europe so he should come over and have them with grandma.

It's lovely to have Cody nearby since he is an accomplished car mechanic, techie, and all around nice guy. Now we know he's also a fabulous fisherman.

Toiletries for the Homeless

Whenever we travel on our own, we always put the Do Not Disturb sign on our hotel room door because we don't need anyone to come in to clean and we'd rather not expose what we have to possible theft.

My aunt used to clean hotel rooms in Waikiki and she did tell me once that there was someone who used to go into rooms to clean and walk out with jewelry or whatever was left out in the open.

If I need fresh towels or whatever, I can easily go to the front desk or catch the housecleaning personnel in the hallways. I do still leave a nice tip to thank them for the clean room they provided us with when we checked in.

When we travel on tours, we are rarely in one place more than one or two days. Going to Japan last year had us ending up with a lot of toiletries. Yes, we could leave it behind, but they are really fabulous toiletries and we bring them back to give to the homeless shelters here in Hawaii.

On our last trip to Japan, the tour guide added her toiletries to our stash so we had a LOT to donate to the shelter.

Ummm... yes, it does use up a hunk of our suitcase, but it makes us feel good.

Food for Mom

Whenever we go on a trip, we freeze packets of food for mom since it's not the easiest thing to cook for just one person when she's used to cooking for three.

We bought teriyaki chicken meatballs and rotisserie chicken from Costco and then divided them up in little bags for her to have for dinner each day and maybe lunch as well. She says she never gets tired of them because she adds her own miso soup and a vegetable side dish to go with it.

We also get mom desserts so she can have one a night while we're gone.

And these are her favorites.

So when people ask if it's difficult when we're on a trip, she just smiles and says, "no." After all, there's also our neighbors and friends who are all watching out for her and bringing things for her to enjoy while we're gone.

Now that my brother is retired, he's always around to run any errands for her. She might even share one of her goodies with him.

Ambien?

In the last few months, I've been having difficulty getting a good night's sleep. I can go to bed earlier, but I'll wake up, go to the bathroom and then lay awake doing deep breathing exercises, etc. to no avail. I've been averaging about 5-6 hours of sleep. I'm happy if I get 6. I thought it was the mattress, but I guess not. The bed is fine now.

I finally talked to my doctor about it.

She suggested Valerian (Mayo Clinic website) or Benedryl before resorting to a pill like Ambien.

I've tried Benedryl which didn't do much so I opted for Ambien. Dr. Jeanne gave me the 5 mg dose that is recommended for women. She also said I should cut it in half. It's a small pill and cutting it wasn't easy but I managed.

The first night with half a pill got me 7 hours 6 minutes. That was nice and I got up refreshed.

I decided to try the whole pill the next night and got 8 hours 27 minutes. I was happy with the 8 hours 27 minutes, but not happy about feeling groggy the next morning.

I'll try sleeping without the pill tonight and use it only when I need it.

I wonder if it'll help me on those terrible, long airline flights too.

We'll see.

Great Land's End Buy

We received a coupon from Land's End giving us a 40% off coupon on any originally priced item. Since we were getting ready for the trip, Art suggested I treat myself to some new blouses in order to update my travel wardrobe.

This caught my eye. I've bought Pima cotton before, but not Supima cotton. I had no idea what it was.

I got this from the Supima Cotton website:

"Supima is twice as strong as regular cotton, which makes for extraordinarily resilient products. The longer fiber resists pulling, breaking and tearing resulting in fashion and home products that are incredibly resilient and keep their form for a longer-lasting product."

I've bought Land's End before. I think their products are well made, though often not stylish enough for ahem... the younger group in our family.

I'm always worried about the size. My daughter says I'm notorious for buying clothes that are too big for me. I usually buy Medium.

I checked the Land's End size chart and it recommended I buy the Small. I thought it might work since it's a RELAXED fit.

 My blouses each cost $15.57. Art's one shirt cost $29.99. His green shirt was already a reduced price so it didn't qualify for the 40% off. We had to buy his shirt so we wouldn't have to pay for shipping. Besides, his wardrobe needed an upgrade too.

And you know what? They fit perfectly (even the tummy area)! I'm totally amazed. My daughter will be pleased. Just don't tell her about the Relaxed Fit thing. Actually, they weren't TOTALLY perfect. I should have bought the Small Petite because the sleeves were a bit too long for me.

POSTSCRIPT:
As you may have figured out, we are back from our three week European trip. We returned late at night on Wednesday and I'm still like a zombie. I do have posts still scheduled for this week which is a good thing since we managed to take over 7,000 photos which I need to go through before I start writing about the trip. Right now, the entire trip is a blur. Thank goodness I took a lot of notes although I hope I can read them since I was often writing when I wanted badly to go to sleep.

Getting Ready for the Viking Grand European Tour

When we were living in Chicago, traveling to Europe was not as challenging as it is now. I really hate the long travel time from Hawaii to Europe.

With all the traveling we've done, you'd think I wouldn't be such a nervous traveler, but I am. I agonize 2 weeks to a month before a trip on what to pack.

And yes, a month before our 3 week trip, I started the process of packing and repacking. Do I have a list? Always... which I revise constantly.

Older and weaker now, I don't carry a backpack anymore. I pack all the things we need in our roll-on underseat bag.

Medications, journals, pens, markers, one day/night's emergency clothes, water bottle, inflatable neck pillow, Paperwhite, chargers, earbuds, anti-bacterial wet-ones, snacks,  etc. will all go into the bag.

And now the luggage. Here's what I had so far. I wrote this post a month before our trip so you can see how agitated I was. The red circle is what I planned to wear when I traveled on the airplane. The green circle is what I planned to pack. I knew it would fit once I rolled them up and put them in Ziploc bags.

In the month ahead I changed my mind daily. (What to wear to dinners on the Viking cruise? Which shoes would be most comfortable? Do I need to bring Shoe Goo in case my shoe falls apart again? Long sleeve or short for spring weather? Which clothes will dry quickly when washed? What kind of medicines should I bring? Arrrghhh!)

I relax once the trip starts, but the anxiety before a trip is the worse part.

POSTSCRIPT: Art says he thinks I just like to pack since I like to organize.

Happiness in Kanji

When my grandsons were born, our son asked if their great grandmother could write their names in kanji (Chinese characters). I thought it would be great if Mom could write it in sumi (ink) calligraphy. I didn't realize just how hard that would be.

Mom's Japanese handwriting is elegant and beautifully formed when writing with a ballpoint pen. Writing with a calligraphy brush is a whole 'nother' ballgame.

It took us many, many tries before she was able to create beautiful kanjis for her grandsons.

It occurred to me then that our granddaughter might like her great grandmother to write her name as well. I wanted to treat our grandchildren equally so I asked Tif to ask KC if she'd like her name done in Japanese. I figured just her first name in simple katakana (Japanese alphabet) would be easy for mom to write.

But no.... KC didn't want her name. She wanted a special word. I thought Peace (heiwa) would be nice. I also knew the characters wouldn't be horrendously difficult for mom to write.



But no, that didn't quite interest 11 year old, KC. She wanted Happiness (koufuku).

This was a little trickier. I had to find the right size brush first. Then I needed to create the ink by grinding the sumi stick on the inkstone.

At first mom said I wasn't making dark enough ink. Then she had difficulty centering the kanji. We used a lot of practice paper and a lot of good paper until she was more or less satisfied.

I tried doing it too and discovered just how difficult it was. She says that at 88 her hands are not steady enough to do this.

Whatever the case, KC says she loves it and we'll be sure to put a nice mat and frame on it for her. The main thing is everybody is Happy!

Dermatology Biopsy Result

I am a gutless wonder. It's true. Art will gladly verify that. I don't like needles poking into me. I don't like pain.

Therefore when I met the dermatologist and he told me he would need to do a biopsy because the spot on my chest was not the usual sort of thing, I had questions.

"Since it was more reddish and light brown, it should be OK, right? All the pictures I've seen show dark black or brown moles."

Nope. He showed me other pictures of reddish moles.

"Would the biopsy be done with a needle?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

I had a picture in my mind of a numbing lotion and a quick extraction from the area with a very thin needle.

Nope. He said they'd be injecting a numbing lotion and then he would be slicing off a section of the discolored area for pathology.

I then asked:  Would hurt later? How long will it hurt? What do I put on it? What do I cover it with? How long do I cover it? Can I take a shower with it? When do I find out if it's cancerous? If it's not, what should I do? If it's not cancerous, what is it? And so on and so forth.

He then marked my chest where he wanted the nurse to stick the needle with the numbing solution.

The nurse came in and told me it would sting and little and then burn, but then it would be nicely numb. She checked my cellphone number and said, "I KNOW that area code well! You are from Chicago. I am too!" Pretty amazing coincidence!

When I saw the razor like instrument that the doctor picked up after coming back into the room, I'm sure my eyebrows totally disappeared into my bangs.

The doctor was very gentle and I was truly fine. I couldn't feel a thing.

And then it was just a matter of waiting for the results.

POSTSCRIPT:

I got the phone call from pathology. It was a benign lesion.

Phew! I wonder how long it will take for the now even bigger redness to go away.

Laundry Helper

At one of our tai chi functions everyone brought grab bags and we were told at the end of the party to go up and select something to take home.

There were a lot of snack type options, kitchen towels, bowls, lotions, bags, etc., but nothing I really wanted.

Then I saw this.

Hmmmm....

I remembered washing my down coat and putting it in the dryer with a couple of tennis balls.

This was something to put in the dryer with all your laundry.

Would it really help?

I checked Amazon to see if I could find any reviews and found this exact product. Can you believe it? It's 4 cents! Granted, it's also $5.48 shipping. But 4 cents! What a bargain. Only problem? No reviews.

The one concern I have is that the little spikes seem a bit too pointy. I sure wouldn't put it in with any delicates. However, it might help to dry thick bath towels.

We'll see.

POSTSCRIPT:  I don't know what to say. I tried using them, but I don't know if it helped all that much. One of the balls got stuck in a sleeve so I doubt it did much bouncing. I guess the scientific approach would be to dry the same articles of clothing twice and then timing it to see if there's a difference. That can't happen for a while since we tend to hang our clothes outside on sunny days.

The clothes and towels were soft without the use of dryer sheets, but then again, I never use dryer sheets in Hawaii anyway because of the humidity. We don't worry about static cling.

Ah well... It was fun to try anyway.

Railroad in Hawaii?

We were stopped in traffic the other day and saw this propane truck in front of us.

There was a little bumper sticker at the bottom that caught my eye and made me laugh.

Ummmm.... We really don't have any REAL railroads on Oahu.

Unless you count this one. And then there's another little one at the Dole Pineapple Plantation, but that's about it.

Ah well, it's nice to know that if we did have a railroad, that truck will stop.

And oh my... yes, of course... We will have a light rail system sometime in 2025... maybe. And that's a big MAYBE.

iPad Keyboard Travel Solution

My hand-carry bag gets a little heavy when we travel. It used to be much worse before when we'd carry our iPad, MacBook Air, 2 Kindles, camera and all the chargers in our backpacks.

Nowadays, I can fit all those electronics in this little underseat wheeled carry-on. I love it although sometimes the airline underseat storage area has gotten tighter for even a small bag.

It occurred to me that I might still be carrying too many electronics so I wondered if adding a keyboard to the iPad might allow me to leave the MacBook laptop computer at home.

We looked online and discovered that the reviews for the iPad keyboard wasn't all that great. People complained that the keyboard would not lie flat and didn't work well.

Whatever the case, we had a trip coming up and we decided to give it a try.

We were really happy to find that the keyboard did lie flat and works very well. It's so much easier to have a keyboard.

This lightens the load and I find I really don't need a laptop with me when I'm trying to enjoy a trip.

I wonder what else I can do to lessen my luggage load.

POSTSCRIPT:
Unfortunately, the keyboard would NOT work while we were in Europe. I thought it was broken!

However, when we got home to Hawaii, it mysteriously started working again. In fact, I rarely used the iPad while in Europe because of the terrible wifi onboard ship.

Is It or Isn't It Cancerous?

I saw a red spot on my chest and it seemed to be getting bigger and redder the more I stared at it. I stared at it for a few days and then made an appointment to see my doctor in two weeks. Dr. Jeanne gave me some antibiotic cream to use, but it made it itch more so I stopped. She referred me to dermatology. They called me with an appointment in another two weeks.

The spot kept staring back at me. My daughter recommended that I take a photo with a ruler to keep track of the growth. Ummm... That ruler is not placed perfectly, but I could see it was not quite 1/2 inch long.

I called dermatology again and they gave me an earlier appointment.

Meanwhile, the suspense kept growing.

My son sent me this chart.

It was reassuring since the lump is not black or too brown.

On the other hand, it's not symmetrical and it's larger than a pencil eraser.

Isn't it aggravating that as you get older, all these spots and dots and whatnots start showing up?

England? Britain? What?

I saw this on the Smithsonian website and have kept it because I'm always confused about the different names of that area.

I wonder if the Brits always know what's what.

Antique Quick Meals

I saw an article in the Star Advertiser about quick meals that old timers (me) used to make a long (long, long) time ago when we weren't as worried about calories or healthy options.

I used Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup and mixed it with a can of tuna and frozen peas. Sometimes it was frozen corn or possibly peas and carrots; whatever I had in the freezer.

When I mentioned this at our Zumba class, Diane said she used to add crushed potato chips on top. Pat said she'd made it too. Instead of macaroni though, we just poured it over rice.

There was another recipe I made all the time. My kids will roll their eyes at this. I called it Goulash. It was just hamburger, frozen corn and peas, 1 chopped onion, salt, pepper and tomato sauce. I sometimes added ketchup for sweetness.

Then there was that time I cooked spam by just scoring it with a knife and poking cloves into it. I mixed brown sugar with crushed pineapple and poured it over the spam and baked it. Not healthy, but the kids survived.

Pat and Diane had a bunch of other recipes for very quick meals they used to make, but darn if I forgot them.

It's true, I'm a lot older now and my memory is not good. It's amazing I remembered this tuna recipe.

Fun License Plates from Hawaii: Part 2

Here is my last set of license plates. I shall have to collect more to post in another year or two.

OK. We know that this is Grandma's car.

Since it says GRMAS-1, does that mean she has two cars?

And I see here that Daddy has a truck.

And isn't this sweet?

4MY LV must mean For My Love. 

OWL13? Very curious. They should have chosen PUEO which is owl in Hawaiian.

I think you'd better ease up if you're near the Baddie.

I think it would take guts to proclaim to the world that you're a "Baddie."

Well, we do live in Hawaii and we are surrounded by the ocean so you would expect people to come up with ideas that are water related.

9DIVES? Is this in reference to 9 Lives?

AYE SAIL is cute. This person obviously loves going on his boat.

Whoever owns the Mini Cooper must love pink. Maybe they sell Mary Kay products, but didn't sell enough to qualify for the Cadillac?

And then there's this very successful and wealthy DOC who really does own a Cadillac.

We don't have a vanity license plate, but if I did I  could choose BLOGGER. Art might choose I TRAVL.

What would you choose?

Fun License Plates from Hawaii: Part 1

I don't know when I started collecting license plate photos, but here's the first set of photos from Hawaii. I have so many that I'll have to break it up into two days of posts.

Isn't this a clever way to write JUANITA?

I was puzzled by SALTED. Is there a special meaning for that?

I got this possible definition online from the Urban Dictionary:

"...when pain is inflicted by means of insult, blackmail or general embarrassment."

Ouch! That's not good.

These are definitely animal lovers!

And these drivers are religious.

We've got lots of sports fans in Hawaii.

This top truck is from St. Louis. Art says the Rams used to be in St. Louis. However, they are now in Los Angeles. Ah well...

People in Hawaii love baseball too as the bottom plate suggests.

This last set for today shows lots of humor.

I really love the last one. NOLAFF is NO LAUGH in Hawaiian pidgin.

It really was the cutest little Smart car.

My Chicago License Plate Collection

I don't know how it started, but I started noticing cute and interesting vanity license plates on the roads and parking lots. These are license plates from Illinois.

This top plate is from Illinois. DA BEARS must have been taken. Art reminds me that the C stands for Chicago.

The bottom is from Illinois also and is of a car from Iowa. The Hawkeyes is the football team from the University of Iowa.

JOULES is supposed to be a measurement of energy. This person might be working for the electric company?

WGN TV is a television station in Chicago. So then, why is it on a Florida license plate?

I love the LOL license plate. That's somebody with a wonderful sense of humor. The SMILE NUT  must be a happy person too, unless SMILNUT stands for something else.

That's all I have for Illinois. I must not have been paying enough attention to the road. Then again I'm always in the backseat in Chicago so I would probably miss most of the fun license plates.

Lemon Twist

We have two lemon trees... which is a little absurd since we hardly use lemons.

Just before we moved back to Hawaii, mom said she wanted a lemon tree to make her much asked for Lemon Chicken recipe. So Art and I planted one in the back yard. It didn't do well so while we were back on the mainland my brother planted one in the front yard.

Now both trees are producing lemons... much more than we need. Luckily, there's a lot of people who want lemons so we're always sharing them.

The trees always produce round lemons, until recently.

This is the first time we've gotten this shape.

My brother says it reminds him of a bird.

OK...

I can sort of see the bird.

Maybe I should have kept it and peeled it to see what it looked like on the inside.

Too late.

I gave it to my cousin, Walt who'd stopped by to drop off some coffee he's roasted himself for Art.

Ohhh... I gave him a bag of nice looking lemons too.