Day 5: Oslo, Norway (Vigeland Park)

A lot of this trip was about eating (excuse me, dining), yes... it's true. But a lot was also trying to regulate my sleep. I was up again at 3:00 AM but I think I managed to convince my brain that it needed to go back to sleep a little longer. Maybe.

The temperature outside was about 50 to 53 degrees F. 

We had breakfast at The Restaurant. I had the American breakfast and Art had an egg white omelet. Our stateroom was stocked with an assortment of soft drinks, wine and snacks. We never did open the wine. Who can drink an entire bottle anyway?

We tried lunch at the Pool Side Grill and then tried to walk it all off around the deck. That's me. And I must admit to you that it's the only time I walked around the deck. Art went a couple more times and I'm pretty sure our travel buddies were a LOT better than me about getting their exercise.

We docked in Oslo at 3:00 PM. 

Ate dinner at The World Cafe and was off the ship for our excursion at 5:30 PM. 

We arrived at Frogner Park which contains the sculptures of Gustav Vigeland. Today, Vigeland is most famously known for creating Vigeland Sculpture Park and designing the Nobel Peace Prize medal. Frogner Park is the largest park in the city and the sculpture installation is the world's largest sculpture park made by a single artist. 

It was almost 7:00 PM by then but looked like high noon in Hawaii.

We entered the park from the rear and saw the Vigeland Monolith first which contains 121 intertwined naked figures. Other timeless nude figures surrounded the monolith. 

Between the monolith and the entrance of the park, we could see the Vigeland Fountain and bridge. The fountain is surrounded by 20 statues from all stages of life from childhood to death.

Apparently this Irate Child sculpture on the bridge is one of the most famous and yes, he certainly captured a very irate child perfectly.

When we got to the entrance of the park, there was a statue of the famous man himself, Gustav Vigeland.

Our second stop was Holmenkollen Ski Jump. It hosted the Olympics in 1952 and several ski championships since.

It was pretty late when we got back and yes, after a quick dinner.

SLEEP....

I needed sleep.

(But only after I recorded the day's events in my journal, some of which are not very legible since I was so tired.)

Day 4: Stavanger, Norway (Iron Age Arm)

We met our travel buddies outside our Viking stateroom (cabin) doors at 6:30 for breakfast and walked together (masked with N95s) to the World Cafe. We actually stopped at another eating area called Mamsen's first where Art picked up waffles. I got bacon and eggs with fruits at the World Cafe.

At 9:00 we got ready for our Iron Age Farm and Utstein Abbey excursion.

Our guide today was Bent and he told us they are celebrating Stavanger's 900 year anniversary of its establishment. Stavanger counts its official founding year as 1125. They are also known as the oil capitol of Norway because of all the off shore drilling that is being done by Philips which adds even more revenue to Norway's economy.

Although Norway is a wealthy country now, in 1820, they were extremely poor and many Norwegians emigrated to the U.S. for more space, religious freedom and livelihood. They went first to Pennsylvania, then the Midwest including Minnesota and farther west to Washington. As a matter of fact, my wonderful blogger friend, Linda in Seattle has mentioned her Norwegian/Swedish roots in her blog, Linda Letters.

The reconstructed Iron Age Farm we visited was circa 400-700 AD. It was 300 years before the time of the Vikings.

We were told that fire was the most important thing since it was dark and cold in Norway. Someone would have to stay awake and alert all night to insure the fire didn't go out.

The length of a house showed how wealthy a person was.

Long houses were built facing away from the freezing north winds and animals were always kept on the north side of the houses.

Grains were ground in the small stone grinders which left sandy stone debris in their porridge. The inhabitants' teeth were therefore often eventually worn down.

The Iron Age farm was probably burnt down in 550 AD. They might have been attacked because an arrow head was discovered in the excavation site.

We next traveled to Utstein Abbey which was built in 1200 AD. I found this portable chamber pot very interesting. I imagine using the toilet inside the house was a lot easier in winter than walking out to an outhouse. 

We were told this rather eerie story about Christopher Garmann who was haunted by his first wife when he broke his promise to never remarry. 

20 years after her death, Christopher got married again at Utstein Abbey and collapsed at the altar, dying 8 days later.

Apparently his first wife, Cecilie appeared before him in the cathedral during the ceremony and still wanders around Utstein Abbey.

So much of the cruise was about food. This time we decided to try The Pool Grill. I had the Nordic Hot Dog. Art had the Grilled Veggie Burger which he says was not very good. My hot dog was interesting. (And gracious! It was just as long as Costco's.)

We then went to the World Cafe and yes... we got more gelato. We ALL did.

But for dinner...

Yes, more eating.

We went to The Chef's Table where the chef prepares special dishes and matches it with a special wine.

(To be perfectly honest, Art and I were the only ones who drank a little wine. Usually only about an inch and a half worth. The servers were often surprised when we'd tell them to stop.)

It was definitely an interesting meal which we all enjoyed, wine or no wine.

That evening we went to a performance of ABBA songs. We enjoyed it very much. The Viking performers were truly excellent and soooo energetic!

All in all... a very interesting, fun and delicious day.

Day 3: Eidfjord, Norway (Flam Railway)

Wow... I'd been up the last two days for 48 hours. I was really, really tired, but just happy we "Travel Buddies" were all together and had a lot to look forward to.

We woke up at 5:45 and had breakfast together at The World Cafe. Our rooms were next to each other so that made it very convenient.

The first thing we had to do each morning was provide our spit to be tested for COVID. The vials of saliva were to be placed in the red bag and hung on the door for our cabin steward to pick up. 

Although there was a buffet set up at the different eating areas, when 21 people immediately tested positive and was quarantined in a different section of the ship, food was all served for you instead. Those infected during the voyage could not leave their staterooms and food was being delivered to them. Toward the end of the trip, I believe I heard 29 people had tested positive.

The friendly Viking representative who picked us up at the airport the day before said there were 600 passengers on the large ship which could actually hold 900. 

Before entering the eating area you were watched to make sure you washed your hands. Although some people chose not to wear masks, toward the end of the trip, only a handful went about without masks in the hallways. We wore N95s almost the entire time. (The really weird thing is we were almost the only ones masked at shows and lectures. Go figure.)

The selections were absolutely decadent! There were a cold cuts section with meat, fish, cheeses, cut fruits, whole fruits, pastries, and a hot section in The World Cafe. You could also order waffles and pancakes and I don't know what else. It just boggled your mind.

We had sailed to Eidfjord, Norway during the night. Eidfjord is the 2nd longest fjord in the world. Greenland has the longest fjord. Fjord in the Norse language means 'where you travel across.'

 

Our first excursion would be 7 hours which would include the “Scenic Flam Railway.”  I wasn't sure what to expect. 

Our tour guide's name was Alessio and he told us that Swedes and Norwegians once did not get along. This story was supposed to illustrate that.

"A Swedish family was constantly catching a lot of fish so the Norwegian father asked his son to go over  to the Swede's home and find out the secret. 

The boy returned home after a while and said, "You have to cut a hole in the ice before you try to catch fish." 😄

Our first stop was Tvindefossen (twin waterfalls). It's called that because it gets its water from two sources, river and lake. People long ago thought that if you drank water from the falls, you would achieve eternal youth. (Uuummm... Too late for us, but we're young at heart.😁)

Alessio told us that Norwegians discovered anorthosites in 1960 (used for toothpaste, road construction, etc.) which helped their economy. He also said Norway is now using hydroelectric power that provides 90% of their energy needs. That was darn impressive!

We enjoyed the Norwegian buffet lunch at the Stalheim Restaurant.

We then boarded the Flamsbana train. The Flåm Line is a 20.2 kilometer (12.6 mile) long railway line between Myrdal and Flåm in Aurland Municipality, in Vestland county.

We saw Kjosfossen Falls which was even more fun because you could see a woman in a pink dress dancing on a rock .  She must have been awfully cold.

The bus took us back to the ship where we visited The Restaurant and tried the crab legs and seafood. 

Funny thing is the crab legs were rather tasteless and dry. We weren't quite sure why.

Oops!

I didn't mean to put the gelato picture before the dinner picture. 

OK, but let's face it, that gelato station was the place we loved the most. The amazing thing is they make their own gelato and there was always one new flavor everyday.

Sigh...

I miss that gelato.

(Oh, the bottom dinner picture is Art's plates. I didn't take a photo of my dinner. I must have been preoccupied thinking about gelato.) 😏

Day 1-2 Hawaii to Bergen Aggravation

Warning: This is a long post and meant to just be a reminder for me. Please feel free to scroll to the bottom.

Along with our friends, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry we decided to take a trip together about three years ago. We'd traveled with Craig and Terry before on a Viking River cruise of the Rhine River. We enjoyed it so much we decided to do another Viking trip. We decided on a Scandinavian Ocean Cruise. Soon after, Cal and Myra agreed to join us.

And then COVID hit and the trip was cancelled by Viking for two years. But in early 2022 the trip was on and although we were nervous about it, we decided to risk it. We talked about seeing St. Petersburg and going to the Hermitage Museum there. We talked about Finland and Estonia. Viking promised that everyone would have to test negative to go on the cruise and that we would be tested onboard ship every morning. This sounded more reassuring... And then the 2nd booster was promised just in time. Yay!

But then Putin decided to attack Ukraine on February 24th after saying he wouldn't.

Seriously??? 

Viking changed many of the places we hoped to see to places that were well... not what we signed up for.

I wrote before about the pre-trip aggravation we had with a gazillion changes to the itinerary and United changing our flights so that we would miss the other two connecting flights to get us to Bergen.

But... what the heck! 

It was the morning of the trip. 😴 We had to get up at 3:30, leave the house by 4:30 and drive to the airport by 5:00 for the 7:00 flight.

At the airport, the kiosk would not work. Craig and Terry were there and had the same problem.

Myra and Cal had left the night before to have more relaxing times between flights. 

Apparently, the United computer was not working. However we got our tickets and though Art got his GOES pre-check to breeze through TSA, for some reason, I did not and had to stand in a LONG line with the attendant yelling, "Tighten up! Tighten up! No social distancing!" 

Seriously?

However....

We got on board our airplane and sat down.

 Finally.... 

We would have an hour and a half lay-over in San Francisco to catch our flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. After a short layover, we would be flying to Bergan, Norway.

But the flight would not take off. The pilot came on and apologized that there was a problem with some electrical part. They'd have to find it somewhere. Someone behind us joked, "Where? Home Depot?"

What? 😮

Eventually, the flight was scrapped and we were told that there were no more flights out of Honolulu to San Francisco.

Seriously?? 😖

Art and Terry worked with a United representative who finally found a way to get us to Bergen via Newark, New Jersey but we would have to now be retested for COVID to meet the 72 hour requirement. Luckily, the airport had a place we could get that and we left Honolulu at 2:55 PM.

Here was one of the bright spots in an otherwise awful day(s). No kidding! United gave us Premium Plus seats and $20 meal vouchers to be used at the airport in Newark. 😁 The seats were fabulous. Comfortable with leg room and lovely meals. Granted it was 9 hours long, but we were feeling pretty good about it.

Granted there was one passenger behind us who started shouting because they ran out of chicken. He apparently had a meeting to attend in NY and couldn't survive on pasta. The flight attendants had to scramble into first class to placate the guy. 🙄

But now... there was going to be a 12 hour layover in Newark.

I lost count of how many hours I had been up now. I can't sleep on airplanes. I wrote before that I'm a terrible traveler.

We did get those $20 x 2 vouchers from United but for some reason, although it was supposed to have worked with the server doing it for us, we did get charged $49 for two bowls of ramen when we got home. 

Seriously???

As difficult as that layover was, it was made easier by the fact that we were suffering with Terry and Craig.

Myra and Cal texted us that they were in Bergen now and enjoying some sumptuous meals onboard the Viking Star. We agreed with Terry and Craig that since this was their first cruise, we were glad that we were the miserable ones. 

No, honest. 😄 We did say that and meant it.

OK... So eventually we got on our connecting flight without a hitch to Amsterdam. There... we went through a long Immigration line.

From Amsterdam we flew to Bergen, Norway and were met by a very, very friendly Viking representative who took us to the ship.

They never asked for that antigen test we went to such pains to get at the Honolulu airport.

Instead we had to provide our spit before we could leave our cabin.

At this point, I wanted to just lie down and sleep for 5 days. Seriously. 

But no... We were happy and relieved to be reunited with Cal and Myra. We had to dress that night for dinner at The Restaurant. It was a lovely, very fancy meal.

We'd missed the first day of the trip and the excursion we paid for, but we would be reimbursed by Viking. Myra and Cal showed us their excursion pictures which we enjoyed seeing.

And this was our first day. Sort of.

Visiting Vulture?

I was stunned when my daughter sent me this photo from the Chicagoland area. She works in a rather tall building. I've heard of pigeons and sparrows hitting the window, but this bird? Never. She also sent me a long video of it just perched outside her window and looking in for quite a while before flying away and being joined by a partner.

Tiffany researched this bird online and discovered that it must be a turkey vulture. I shall have to ask my Canadian friend, Red if that's correct.

Doesn't it really look like it's checking to see if Tiffany has any food offering?

The only raptors I've seen in Illinois were Coopers hawks. The only vultures I've seen were in the zoo.

I wonder if it'll come back to visit. Have you ever had a visit from a vulture or some other raptor?

Pyrex From China?

A while ago, I was baking blueberry muffins and adding milk to the batter like I always do with my new 1 cup Pyrex measuring cup. The recipe calls for me to alternately add milk and flour into the mixer, but every time I added milk, it would spill. It was the weirdest thing because I've always used the 1 cup Pyrex to do this and never had a problem. Then I remembered.

I'd recently bought another Pyrex measuring cup so I could put the shelled eggs in one and milk in the other. 

I compared the two measuring cups and instantly saw that the spout was different.

When I looked at the lettering on the cups, I noticed that the newer Pyrex I'd bought at Longs (CVS) was made in China. The  older cup was made in the USA.

I decided to look up what had happened. I wondered if Pyrex was now outsourcing its products so it can be made more cheaply.

This is what I discovered from this Chameleon Glass website.

..."Back in the day, Pyrex meant Borosilicate...but, Pyrex ain't Pyrex anymore. We no longer refer to it as Pyrex, because Pyrex is a brand name. A brand that is now manufactured in China, who in an ongoing and well documented pattern, have completely cheapened the actual physical product, but continue to use the brand name Pyrex to fool the average American consumer into thinking they are getting the product that used to be synonymous with strength..."

Apparently Pyrex is now being made with generic soda-lime silicate which is far weaker and easier to break.

So it's not just the design of the cups that is inferior, but the material it's made from.

I just poured the milk into the measuring cup made in the USA and used it to pour into the mixer like before without spilling.

This is so aggravating! I guess I shall be avoiding Pyrex (Made in China) from now on. 

Sigh...

We're Baaackkk....

I wrote this following post just before we left for our Viking Scandinavian Cruise. I scheduled posts to go up while we were gone because we don't like people knowing we're not at home. 

We returned a few days ago and I am thoroughly jet lagged having passed through 12 time zones. I'm told it will take 12 days to recover. Therefore, I won't be posting about the trip until after that. Meanwhile, I have posts I wrote just before we left still scheduled for the interim.

So here we were a few days away from going on our cruise. I was extremely nervous. I'm NOT a good traveler. I worry. I worry even on trips that are planned carefully without COVID lurking in the airplane cabin or onboard ships. I worry even when there are no disruptions like Russia invading Ukraine. 

We were traveling with two other couples. We'd been looking forward to doing this together for three years before COVID hit. 

Because of COVID and Russia's terrible invasion of Ukraine, our stop in St. Petersburg had been cancelled. Changes to our cruise schedule seemed to be a daily thing. The United flight from Hawaii to San Francisco was changed to a smaller plane and United willy nilly moved people to different flights without telling Viking, our travel agent or us. And this effectively had us missing all our connecting flights. Changes were made to seats that were less than ideal. I did complain to United and got a letter back basically saying, "Oops! Sorry. We'll do better next time." 

And so it went from changing flights to excursions being removed and others put in and a constant refund/new payment schedule with us required to just trust whatever they were doing. It was NOT reassuring.

But now here we were just a few days away from this ocean cruise of the Scandinavian countries and our tour friend sent a text saying, "They're sending us to Venice?" 

Uuuuummmm..... 🙄 Seriously?

I know it's just a mistake. You can't do an ocean voyage from Norway to Venice.

So am I worried?

Sighhhhh.....

Almost Scammed!

I recently got an email from a close teacher friend in Illinois that surprised me. 

The weird thing was that it had her picture (probably from my address book) indicating it must have come from her. And the first part of her email address seemed to be correct. I didn't see that there was # 1 added to the "Jane". Also, instead of @gmail.com, it was @hotmail.com which I didn't even notice until much later.

What I puzzled over was why she would ask me to buy her a Google play gift card. I don't even know what that is. Also she says she's out of town. OK.... well, I'm in Hawaii. So how out of town is she? She didn't say she was out of country.

I finally just asked the teacher chat group that she and I belonged to if they knew anything about this. Another teacher said they'd gotten the same email and Jane told her it was a scam. 

(I’ve received a number of emails from a cousin who passed away several years ago. Now that felt really weird.) 

What I'm wondering is.... if I was still in Illinois and if I knew what a Google play gift card is, would I have been fooled? 

Nah……... I think.

POSTSCRIPT: 

Yikes, I just looked in my Spam box and found this:

Jane did change her email password and did a bunch of fixes so I hope that was after this was sent to friends. I heard on the news that unfortunately seniors were being targeted right now for this kind of scam.

Trying to Remember

Quite a long while ago, someone sent this picture to me and I tried to remember WHAT our old phone number used to be when I was growing up.

I showed it to Art and he said that's why he used to choose his old phone number for some of his passwords.

I can never remember any of my passwords, especially because I've changed several of them. I tried to remember my childhood phone # and couldn't remember that either!!! Arrghhh!!! 😖 I could remember two of my high school friends' numbers though.

So I decided to ask my baby brother and he texted right away saying, "67- 8739." 

"Wait," I said. "Wasn't it 677?" I thought I had him there. 

He answered, "No. They added the extra 7 in the 60's." 

Like I said... my memory is very, very faulty. It's becoming more and more difficult to write these posts because the right word just won't come to me (I think they call it word retrieval.).... 

......until the next day (maybe).

Farewell Journey

We got sudden news in March from our son, Keola that they would be moving in July to Sri Lanka for a few years due to my daughter-in-law's job. Yes, it's true he'd mentioned before that something like this could happen, but I didn't really think it would. Not really.

I was upset because we hadn't seen them in person in two years due to COVID. We used to go to Maryland for our grandsons' birthdays every year. Sigh...

We couldn't go to see them in April because we had so many doctors' appointments lined up. We couldn't see them in May because we'd be preparing and leaving for our European Cruise. We couldn't afford to get sick.

We couldn't go in June because of our long awaited visit from our daughter and her family. 

Sigh...

They had a farewell driving trip all the way to the Midwest in April to visit with my daughter-in-law's family in Michigan and then to Chicago to visit with Tiffany, Ed and our granddaughter, KC.

They posted many, many photos so we could journey with them vicariously. One place they stopped at was the 9/11 Memorial to Flight #93 in Pennsylvania.

"A common field one day. A field of honor forever."

I could feel the sadness of the memorial as I saw the photos of my grandsons walking to the overlook where the plane went down. They walked along the walls where the names of the people who perished on that terrible flight were etched.

I was surprised to see these photos from Cleveland.

That giant stamp said FREE on the other side.

They also visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Looks like the boys loved making music on the drums.

They finally arrived in Chicago and I loved seeing these familiar places. They got to eat Chicago style pizza at Gino's East. They played at Millennium Park and ate gyros at Hubs. They even watched pitas being made through a window and was given one to try by a worker.

Best of all, they got to see their cousin, KC, Auntie Tif and Uncle Eddie. Tif had planned an elaborate Easter egg hunt in the house and yard. Tif is a brilliant, amazing planner. Each treasure trove of eggs contained one egg that was numbered with a clue inside leading you to the next hiding place. Did the boys love it? Absolutely. And we loved hearing about every minute of it.

We're very sad that we're not able to see them in person for now... but would you believe Keola has already sent Art a travel book on Sri Lanka shoooould we wish to visit? 

Another Colonoscopy

Before our doctor retired in December, she ordered a bunch of procedures she wanted Art and me to have done. Sigh… We really loved her and was really sad to see her go. I think she was just burnt out with COVID and with the military lacking funding for medical care.

Anyway, she ordered colonoscopies for Art and me. Oh crap! Not another colonoscopy?!? I told her I had one three years ago. However, she felt that Asians tend to get more colon cancer and since my grandfather died of colon/rectal cancer I should get it done. Arrrghhh… I told her the doctor who did my colonoscopy 3 years ago didn’t think I needed another one for 10 years. Woo Hoo!

She did not agree.

Ah well… So we got signed up for the colonoscopy. Art handled the Dulcolax pills and MiraLAX just fine. His procedure was on a Thursday and mine was on Friday. He was even praised for having a super clean colon. He rather loved that they were so amazed. Art was also feeling totally fine after it was done and ready for a big lunch.

Then came my turn the next day. The MiraLAX did something awful to me. I didn’t have as much trouble with the gallon of Colyte but the MiraLAX had me losing control of my bowels. Arrrghhhh… I was not a happy camper.

On the day of my procedure, I was pretty darn cleaned out too. Everybody at the Pacific Endoscopy Center were wonderful. The nurses and technicians were all very friendly and accommodating to make the procedure as (pleasant?) as possible. They made sure I had two warm blankets and that the incline of my gurney was OK.  I met my gastroenterologist, Dr. Wong and liked him a lot. 

I griped about how I didn’t think I needed this. He agreed that a “2nd degree” connection for colon cancer was no longer considered a risk factor. Ahh well, I told him before I was knocked out, “I’m glad you can put it in the notes that I don’t need this anymore.”

When I woke up the technician explained that a polyp was found and removed. It would be sent to the lab for testing. There was also a spot of diverticulum. 

But…. But…. But… 

“We’ll have to see what the test results are to see when you’d have to come back again,” he said.

Sigh….

POSTSCRIPT: Yay! The tests on the polyp were negative, but I noticed the doctor forgot to write that I don't need to have this again for 10 years. Sigh...

The Life of My Lucky Bamboo Plant

We went on a trip to China in May, 2013. There were only about 15 people in our tour because so many people had cancelled due to bird flu. I asked our son what he thought since he's an epidemiologist and he told us that China is such a big country that we should be safe. He did say to stay away from birds. (Ummm... would you believe we actually were briefly in the Wuhan area. 🙄

However, we had a great time and really bonded with the other members in our tour. We hosted the first After-Tour party at our house. One tour friend gave us this beautiful bamboo plant. I actually wrote about it a couple of years ago as that once lush plant began to slowly die away.

I look at the plant whenever I do the dishes. It's no longer really pretty, but I'm just determined to keep it alive.

A few months ago, I was left with this. The stalk on the right was yellowing and eventually turned completely yellow. I was figuring that shoot on the left was attached to the still green and perhaps healthy stalk on the left. Soooo.... I yanked out the yellow one.

"Dracena sanderiana or Lucky Bamboo is one of the most popular house plants in the world because of its fortuitous symbolism. It is used as a luck symbol in Asia due to its rapid growth and easy propagation. The tall columnar growth habit of D. sanderiana is often mistaken for bamboo but is, in fact, more closely related to garden asparagus."  ...The Botanical Journey

Dang! Would you believe it was attached to the yellow, rather dead looking stalk. However, there seemed to be a teeny tiny root attached to those leaves so I just stuck it back in with the green stalk.

I keep looking at the bamboo leaves and wonder how much longer I can keep it alive.

Sigh...

Here's hoping our luck holds as we venture out into the world again.

Being the Oldest Sister

Mom is the eldest of five siblings. There used to be 7 but a brother died of leukemia at two years of age and a sister died a few months after her birth. A much younger brother and a sister still live in Japan. Two of her sisters were here in Hawaii with her. 

Auntie Grace was about a year and a half younger than mom and seemed to be the strongest of the bunch. Mom was devastated when she passed away in February of 2015. In fact, she told us that Auntie Grace talks to her sometimes in her dreams.

And now Auntie Dorothy is not doing well. She is about three years younger than mom and was also in the best of health until she suffered a stroke a few years ago. She is now bedridden and cared for by my devoted cousins, caregivers and my 102 year old uncle.

It's difficult to see what could await all of us as we age. 

Mom keeps telling us that she can't understand why she is the eldest and still walking around and quite healthy.

On our recent visit to their house, mom spent about an hour talking nonstop in a one way conversation to Auntie Dorothy. We knew auntie could understand by the movement of her eyes even though she couldn't respond.

Mom then spent quite a bit of time massaging her sister's legs to help circulation. My cousins were rather amazed as I was.

Meanwhile Art played Connect 4 with uncle. Would you believe he beat Art 4 out of 5 games? Uncle does have a special place in his heart for Art.

Art and I are concerned about mom's short term memory. It seems to suddenly be getting worse and it's scary.

And yet, we are grateful because she's healthy and able to handle her own personal needs.

I guess life is like a hand of cards. You just don't know what you'll be dealt.

"Mama" or "Auntie"

I had to go to Tripler Hospital for a fasting blood draw to test my glucose levels. We then went for breakfast at the Koa Pancake House. 

Art had me go first to place my order. When I got to the counter, the very friendly middle aged lady asked, "What would you like Mama?" 

Mama? I look old enough to be her "Mama"? What happened to "Auntie?" Auntie sounds younger, right? Well, I'm glad she didn't call me "Grandma." 

Actually, calling patrons Auntie is just the friendly island way of speaking. I've never heard anyone here call me "Sweetie" like they used to on the mainland.

I ordered my Breakfast Plate which came with 2 eggs (I like it easy over or is it over easy?), bacon, 3 pancakes and coffee. It's what I always order because I otherwise NEVER get to eat bacon. I eat one of the pancakes and Art always eats the other two.

Then Art went up and told her he just wanted a side order of 2 eggs and coffee. She burst out laughing. I couldn't figure out what was so funny until later. 🙄

OK, OK, I get it. 

Art did eat two of my three pancakes. Honest! (I had to get the photo above online because it didn't occur to me to take a photo of my food.) I ate only one pancake. Granted, Art ate only one of my bacon strips. 😁

Ah well... I want you to know my A1c was much improved (before the breakfast). Phew! Hmmm... But then... I did have that pancake with syrup, didn't I?

Packing OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

My kids think it's hilarious that I start planning what I'm going to pack a month before an overseas trip. They feel that if we're not going to a third world country, I can always buy what I need there. Point taken.

Still... I do obsess over everything that I should bring. I can't help myself.

#1 is a notebook to carry with me whenever we're out and about because let's face it, my memory is NOT good these days.

#2 is my journal into which I write more detailed information at night about what occurred during the day. I use those notes to create photobooks later. Mom looks daily at the photobooks of trips she took with us. We had her write her memories in Japanese so she could read and remember the details for herself. It gives her so much pleasure and as my memories fade, I think it will be the same for me.

Then comes the medication. All the medication I had three years ago for our last trip are now expired which required us to get more. I then packed them separately to save space with the appropriate dosage on each small package. I forgot to do this when we traveled to Turkey a long time ago and it was a good thing we had a pharmacist on our tour group who could advise us as I dispensed meds to some people who didn't bring any.

I have a travel list I use for all my trips that get updated often. I also put my clothing in plastic bags because our suitcases have been checked several times. They leave a little note in your suitcase if they've inspected it. I don't want to seem paranoid, but let's face it. I am. I just don't like the idea of people touching all my things. 

This is an old picture actually. I don't bring my big camera anymore. It's cumbersome and the iPhone photos are good enough.

Oh gosh... and now the clothes. How many blouses, should I bring? How many pants? Raincoat, down coat, fleece jacket? What will the temperatures be like in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland and Germany? Arrrghhh.... Will everybody be crowding around the laundry area on the ship?

Don't mind me... I'm just compulsively obsessing over packing. Arrrghhh!

The Aggravation of Lost Luggage

We are going on a trip later and I've already started obsessing about our luggage. I'm a bit of an agoraphobic, but Art has always loved going outside of his comfort zone. After high school, he opted to attend Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois and couldn't afford to return home to Hawaii for 4 years. After that, he was in the Air Force. 

I, on the other hand stayed on Oahu with only a couple of brief trips to Kauai when I was a child and teenager. I did go to Japan on a college trip with friends but stayed at my grandparents' Sendai temple for the three weeks that we were supposed to be on our own. My grandparents, aunt, uncles in Japan and mom did not want me wandering around Japan on my own or even with friends.

If I hadn't married Art, I probably would have stayed on Oahu. However, we did get married and I've tagged along on his adventures. Our children have definitely taken after him.

All this is leading to why I obsess over everything whenever Art decides to take us somewhere.

One thing I worry about is losing our luggage with all our important, comforting belongings. I worry with good reason. They've lost our luggage several times.

It started with our first trip overseas with our children.

We went to England and Wales in 1990. The plan was to collect our luggage at Heathrow and drive toward Oxford and then Woodstock to see Blenheim Palace.

Unfortunately, the airlines lost the kids' luggage for a few days. They couldn't deliver it to us because we would be moving throughout the country immediately after landing. 

Therefore they had to wear our clothes. They were not happy. Nope. Not happy at all.

It was a relief to them when we headed back to explore London and they could do so in their own clothes which had been delivered to our hotel.

In 2007 Art decided to sign up for a bike tour through the Netherlands.

We went several days before meeting up with the canal boat.

But yes, the airlines lost our luggage... again. We don't know if it was American Airlines or Continental that misplaced them at our Newark connection.

They asked us to describe our luggage. It was not easy. You do realize there are tons of black luggage traveling around the world. 

After that, I decided colored luggage would be better.

In 2013 we flew to Las Vegas for a trip to visit various canyon national parks with mom. Hawaiian Airlines asked us at the gate to check in our carryon which held all our chargers, wires, batteries, nightwear, and most of Art's clothing.

We figured they couldn't possibly lose that carryon since they were checking it in at the gate and there are NO STOPS between Hawaii and Las Vegas.

Nope, they lost that very IMPORTANT carryon, too. We got our checked-in suitcases, but we had to spend a day looking for appropriate chargers, wires and clothing for Art. We did not get that carryon back until the end of the trip. 

Hawaiian Airlines did reimburse us for all the things we had to replace for our trip.

And finally there was 2014. We had stopped in Illinois to visit our daughter after leaving our Mediterranean tour and they somehow lost my luggage again.

I'd even painted a giant K on it. 

#1 Hopefully making it undesirable for thieves and...

#2 Making it easier to describe at the Luggage Lost and Found.

They shocked us all by waking us up at 11:45 PM to deliver the suitcase.

So now... here we are getting ready for another trip after nearly 3 pandemic years. 

One thing Art and I have learned to do is to split some of our clothing between the two suitcases. We also try to carry our chargers and other important electronics with us in our backpacks. 

My fingers are crossed for our next trip. Have the airlines ever lost your luggage?

We Got Boosted... Again!

OK. We did it. We got our 2nd booster shots a few weeks ago.

We took Mom to Kaiser and she got her 4th Pfizer shot. She was totally fine with no aftereffects. Mom said the nurse was really wonderful and it didn't hurt at all. The Kaiser staff were super friendly and efficient.

After taking mom home we went to Longs (CVS) and got Moderna boosters. Our first two COVID-19 vaccinations were Pfizer. We wanted to mix it up for the 1st booster and opted for Moderna. Art did not get any reaction, but I was quite tired for a day or two.

Since we're going to be on a trip later, we were very grateful that the CDC approved the 2nd booster for us.

It's interesting that the Moderna booster was readily available at several Longs stores. The Pfizer would require us to travel so we opted to stick with the Moderna half dose.

It all went off nicely. I chose my right arm for the shot this time instead of my usual left. I swear I felt it more. It wasn't very painful and it was quick. However, I think I'll choose my left arm if we do this again in fall.

I've got my fingers and toes crossed that we'll see the back end of COVID this year.

POSTSCRIPT: 

We were exhausted the following day and I had a low grade fever. Art took a nap in the afternoon and felt better. It took me another day to feel normal.

Norwegian Penpals

My three friends, Diane, Mavis and I once wrote to three penpals in Norway when we were young teenagers. My penpal was Kirsten. Diane had Mona and Mavis had Eva. It was fun learning about their country and discovering that many of their teenage feelings were so similar to ours even though the customs may have been different.

I can't remember when the letters stopped or why. I wish I still had some of them, BUT during one of our many moves those letters were lost. My friends tell me they've lost their letters too.

Kirsten also sent me a little Viking doll almost 60 years ago that I cherished. But doggone it! During our move back to Hawaii some 14 years ago, we drastically downsized all our belongings and when I looked back at my Move to Hawaii photos, I saw that the Viking doll was sold during our garage sale.

However, last year... I was emptying my 60 year old piggy bank looking for some $1 American coins to send the grandchildren and found these photos that Kirsten had sent me of the three Norwegian penpals that my friends and I here in Hawaii were writing to.

And now Art and I will be traveling to the Scandinavian countries and be in Norway for a couple of days. I will, at last, see Kirsten, Eva and Mona's country.

I wonder what happened to them. Their names have probably changed by now. 

It's fun to remember the joy of connecting to someone who lived almost on the other side of the world. And it's amazing to think that we can now connect to people around the world through the wonders of Internet. 

And when you think about it, aren't our blogs or commenting on blogs a form of being penpals? I guess we're all cyber pals. 

Did you have a penpal when you were growing up?  

Mask Debris Everywhere

One of the unfortunate things we're seeing around town are masks being discarded here and there by people too lazy to find a waste basket. Seriously? This is so irritating. 

Here are some masks we've seen discarded around town. 

Unfortunately, the bad thing about dropping these used masks on the street is that it gets swept into the ocean. 

It's really irritating to see how lazy people can be. I'm considering bringing a bag and gloves next time and picking these up.

The one place that really had me shaking my head was this.

Seriously? 

Decorating a flowering bougainvillea with a dirty mask?

Sigh...