Patching a Hole With Love

Art recently showed me how he managed to put a hole in his favorite pair of shorts.

How did he do this anyway?

The hole is rather big, but when he wears it, his t-shirt will usually cover it. Still, it was possible that it could get bigger.

He decided that patching it with some sort of custom patch would work. 

I've done this before. A friend of mine gave me a wonderful fleece jacket that she did not need. It belonged to her son when he went to Harvard.

Ummm... I did not go to Harvard and felt funny wearing a Harvard jacket so I ironed on a patch to cover the front logo.

I thought that panda bear was awfully cute.

We went to Walmart's sewing section to see their selection of patches, but nothing appealed to him until I found this.

  

It reminded us of our granddaughter, KC who would leave little messages for us on our whiteboard in the kitchen and my office before she left to return to Illinois with her parents. We could not bring ourselves to erase any of them.

Our granddaughter loved books about loving her family. 

Robert Munsch's book was a favorite. I remember reading this to my first grade class and startling my students when they saw tears forming in my eyes.

When KC was little we'd have this game thinking up how far our love could go.

e.g. 

"I'll love you to the moon and back.

I'll love you to the sun and back.

I'll love you to the universe and back."

I’m sure KC was surprised this summer when she saw her grandpa's patch.

POSTSCRIPT 1:

I was cleaning out the guest bedroom and saw this puzzle our daughter, son-in-law and KC sent Art for his birthday last year. He liked it so much that he framed it after he put it together.

Ahhhh....

That's why the patch appealed to us!

POSTSCRIPT 2:

And before our granddaughter left to return to Illinois earlier this summer, she'd updated her frame in my office with this sign.

What is Happening to Amazon?

Three of the photo albums we made for mom of our trips together to Japan and Canada were deteriorating. It's amazing how certain plastics tend to deteriorate in Hawaii.

I was avoiding going out prior to our overseas trip so I decided to order three new 2 inch Avery binders from Amazon. 

What a shock to receive three much too big 3 inch binders instead a few days later. One of them also had a tiny chip in it.

I chatted with the Amazon helpline person and he told me to just keep/donate or give away the binders and they would send me the correct replacements I ordered.

So I waited and a few days later, I got another big box with binders in it. BUT, again... they were 3 inch binders!!! What the heck!

I chatted with another Helpline person and they told me that the 2 inch binders probably weren't available so they would just send me a refund. So now I had six 3 inch binders. 🙄

Luckily, I have a friend who can use a couple so he will get it. I'll keep a couple for our medical information and I'll find a friend or relative who can use one too.

But now I guess we'll have to go shopping for actual 2 inch binders when we get back from our trip. 

This is the 2nd mistake Amazon has made in just a few days. What is going on?

A Gift from Amazon

We recently received a package from Amazon. I was rather surprised because I didn't order anything in such a small package. I texted my daughter and she said she didn't send it to me. I texted my son and he didn't either.

It was a box of 40 clothespins. Clothespins? Stainless steel?

Who would send me clothespins?

I finally decided to contact Amazon. I always find that Help Chatline really difficult to locate on the Amazon website. However, I finally managed to contact someone named Shubh and he very kindly checked the tracking # and confirmed that it had all been a mistake. He also actually spent the time to wish me a happy day and to keep healthy.

And then he told me I didn't need to send the clothespins back to them and could just keep or donate them. I didn't think they'd be good for us to use in our hot, salty Hawaiian air even though it purports to be anticorrosive/antirust/abrasion resistant. However, Art thought they'd be good for us to use on trips when we wash a few clothes in the room. 😄

And as for Shubh, our Chatline buddy? I gave him TOP marks in everything.

Processing Madness

We've had a very busy spring. First we had that Viking Cruise and a few weeks later, our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter arrived. We hadn't seen them in nearly three years and it was a very, very happy reunion.

This past Sunday, with hugs and tears, they flew the red-eye back to Chicago. And true to form, like her mother, Tiffany didn't get to sleep on the airplane. 

The following morning she sent us a jarring text about the Highland Park shooting. We were just sitting down to a late breakfast in Hawaii. She said the neighbors were outdoors stunned at the news. Highland Park is so very close to where they live now and where we used to live. We have friends who live in Highland Park. I could hardly process it all. Once again, it shows you can't control people, but you could have controlled the sale of guns. That very weak bi-partisan gun bill that went through wouldn't have stopped this or Uvalde. I don't think it will stop much at all.

Highland Park has laws on the books banning semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines. However, although Illinois requires background checks on all gun sales it's not enough. And weapons can easily be bought out of neighboring states and brought in.

So here we are. Again.

But this time, it somehow feels more personal. 

4th of July....

A day to celebrate freedom and yet, because Congress cannot/will not pass a law to ban assault/war weapons, we have lost our freedom.

I remember our kids marching in 4th of July parades when they were little.

Do I want our grandkids to go to a crowded celebration?

I remember sitting outside with neighbors enjoying the parade and excitement of the celebration.

And now I'm picturing those families who watched the parade happily in Highland Park, unafraid. 

Some people have told me that you shouldn't ban guns because people then can't protect themselves.

How many shootings have ended because someone had a gun? There were lots of armed policemen at the Highland Park parade. There were armed police at Uvalde.

I'm looking at these young faces of my children decades ago waiting to see the next 4th of July float to go by.

It was a more innocent time.

I'm angry. I can't help it. I'm trying to process why our country cannot seem to stop this madness.

It just goes on and on.

And now Japan…

POSTSCRIPT:

I have a friend who I'm pretty sure is thinking Japan couldn't stop Prime Minister Abe's assassination even with their strict gun laws. Japan has a population of 126 million people. There were 10 gun related criminal cases resulting in ONE death and four injuries last year and no deaths in Tokyo. 

The US has a population of 331 million.

According to The Free Press Journal:

As of December 31, 2021, gun violence (in the US) resulted in 44,750 deaths, including 20,660 homicides and 24,090 suicides, among them 1,533 were children and teens under 17. The number of injured was also a record high of 40,359, including 4,107 under the age of 17.

Final Thoughts About Our Viking Ocean Cruise

We had a super time on the Viking cruise and it was especially wonderful because we journeyed with good friends. We are all happy we went on the cruise. There were lots of glitches, but we all watched each other's backs and were there to help if something went wrong. If someone forgot or needed something, a friend was always there to lend what they had. It really made all the difference.

But.... I do have other thoughts about this.

* Viking made the flight arrangements, but we suspect they pick the cheapest flights and seats and you have to pay to upgrade. Granted, this could all be due to the COVID situation. But that flight thing was AWFUL!  (We've since learned that it's cheaper to get the flights through a travel agent or on your own.)

* It's all (OK, maybe I’m exaggerating) about the food and we did enjoy the decadent amount of variety available for us to enjoy at every meal.

* The Included Tours are pretty much just a bus trip to give you a general look at the towns. Paid tours are better, but both Included Tours and Paid Tours had knowledgeable tour guides.

* All the servers and stewards onboard ship are unfailingly kind, cheerful and accommodating. I'm always amazed at how happy and friendly they all are. It does make the trip that much more enjoyable.

* We loved all the entertainment. The performers on the Viking Star were super talented. (The above photo was called The Beatles Songbook.) 

And the lecturers were quite interesting.

* Two weeks for a cruise is enough. (These ship photos are for Mage of Postcards.) We met someone doing a World tour that started in December. I think she said she'd been on the ship with her husband for 5 months. The cost is astronomical.

* There are all kinds of facilities available for you to enjoy to get your exercise, ie. pools, saunas, a gym, etc. Our Travel Buddies did enjoy them, but I was busy trying to get some sleep and writing in my journal so I could do my blog for you. 😁 That's my excuse and I stand by it.

* Viking is not a Disney Cruise. No children or gambling. I love children, but this was quite relaxing and catered to senior interests.

* When we were younger, Art preferred doing his own travel arrangements and having us explore places on our own. (Actually, I think he still does.) I'm sorry, but I did LOVE not worrying about where to eat, where to go, how to go, etc. and having those things planned for you instead. Still, even with Viking, you have to be on your toes.

* HOWEVER, I also have to add that cruises are not the same as land tours. If you want to see and truly experience a country, you really have to do land tours. When we were younger, we traveled everywhere on our own. Now that we are older, I (me, not Art) feels safer with a tour and knowledgeable guide.

But all in all... in my final thoughts, I'm pretty sure what made it most fun and the reason why the Travel Buddies enjoyed it so much is that we were sharing the adventure together.

And yes, we're considering England next... sometime in the future.

POSTSCRIPT:

This is so weird. My scale must be broken. I actually lost 5 pounds. How is that possible?

Day 15: Stockholm to Hawaii

Since we had an early morning flight out of Stockholm, Viking opened the World Cafe at 5:30 AM for breakfast. This was greatly appreciated by everybody leaving the ship early like we were.

Our last breakfast with our travel buddies was really wonderful and we thanked the servers who were so kind to us every single day. It was interesting that out of 600 passengers there were only about a dozen Asian Americans and no other minorities. And out of that dozen Asian Americans, there were only six of us from Hawaii. I imagine most people from Hawaii would also NOT enjoy the long, long travel time.

We boarded the bus that would take us to Stockholm's Arlanda Airport. However, there was a moment of anxiety when our bus driver did not seem to know where departing passengers should be let off. Apparently, it was her first time driving to the airport.

Sigh.... If I hear even one comment about women drivers, I am not going to be happy.

Whatever the case, our travel buddy, Cal intuitively seemed to know what to do and directed our driver to the location where we should be dropped off. That was pretty amazing to me since he'd never been to this airport.

When we checked in, we were asked to present the PCR test (that Viking provided for us) as well as a record of all our vaccinations.

After we boarded our KLM flight to Amsterdam, the pilot informed us that there might be a half hour delay or more due to high winds. 

But... but... but... We had only an hour and a half lay-over in Amsterdam to board our flight to Vancouver. Noooo.... This couldn't be happening again like it did when the flight was cancelled in Hawaii going to San Francisco. Could it? 

Ten minutes later, the pilot notified everyone that the winds had died down and we could take off. Another section of the remaining dark hair on my head had turned white.

We ate a left over cookie from the Viking ship. Food on the KLM flight was full of carbs so I abstained from eating it. Granted if it was gelato, I might not have been so picky. 

We got to Amsterdam without further incident and caught our next 9 hour leg to Vancouver.

I watched: Spiderman: No Way Home (It was OK.), Harriet (I enjoyed this one about Harriet Tubman.), Cats (I can see why they made fun of this movie.), and West Side Story (I enjoyed this remake by Steven Spielberg).

When we got to Vancouver, we had to wait to make sure our luggage was transferred from the KLM jet to West Jet Airlines (to Hawaii). There was a monitor in Vancouver to indicate if our luggage had made the transfer from KLM to West Jet. 

Would you believe my luggage was the ONLY one that SOMEHOW didn't get transferred?!? I swear my suitcase is cursed. This is the 3rd time they almost lost it! Or is it the 4th? Whatever the case, I had to tell them what it looked like so they could find it and transfer it to West Jet. 

Before boarding the plane we had to again show results of our Viking PCR test and a list of our vaccinations.

There were no movies on the West Jet Airlines and the flight was 6 hours long. The masking rules were very strict. If you wanted to eat something, you needed to remove your mask, take a bite, put up your mask and chew. Actually, we were feeling reassured by that.

We sat next to a girl from Germany and I gave her my window seat as we neared Hawaii. She saw us at Honolulu airport and offered to take the last of our Travel Buddies photos. 

It would take most of us over a week to get our circadian sleep cycle regulated to Hawaiian time and feel normal again. Terry and Craig somehow quickly adjusted to their home sleep schedule. I'm so jealous.

We all tested ourselves a few days later and were negative for COVID. Art and I even got PCR tests from CVS just to make sure we were really, really negative. We were. Phew!

We were all together at tai chi recently and Terry said, "I'd love to go to England."

Day 14: Stockholm, Sweden (Vasa Museum)

Wow! It was already Day #14. We would be leaving the following morning. The time had flown. It was melancholy to thank and say goodbye to our cabin steward, Tedy. Whenever we needed anything we could always count on Tedy. Tedy is from Indonesia. He told us he was so proud that the section he took care of had NO COVID infections. It had been fun to meet Viking workers from around the world. 

We asked him one evening how the heck did he manage to fix our bedsheets every night so they looked so crisp and wrinkle free. (We didn't think he was changing the sheets every night.) He smiled and demonstrated. He took out his spray bottle with plain water from his supply basket and misted the top of the bedsheet. He then smoothed it out and like magic, the sheets were perfect. Hotels must do the same thing. 

Art and Craig were looking forward to this excursion to see the Swedish battleship, Vasa that sank during its maiden voyage.

Annette was our tour guide. Being a retired teacher, I was immediately happy to hear that she was a high school history teacher.

Vasa or Wasa is a Swedish warship built between 1626 and 1628. The ship sank after sailing roughly 1,300 m (1,400 yd) into her maiden voyage on 10 August 1628. She fell into obscurity after most of her valuable bronze cannon were salvaged in the 17th century, until she was located again in the late 1950s in a busy shipping area in Stockholm harbour. The ship was salvaged with a largely intact hull in 1961.

         --Wikipedia  

The top photo is the original Vasa after it was pulled out of the seawater. Annette said that 98% of the ship is original. It was underwater for 333 years.

The bottom photo shows a model of what it once looked like.

You can see what amazing condition it is in (on the left) even after spending so many centuries underwater. The photo on the right shows what it must have looked like 333 years ago.

It was the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus who ordered the ship to be built as part of a military expansion he started in a war with Poland-Lithuania (1621-1629). It was extravagantly decorated as a symbol of the king's ambition for Sweden and himself. When it was completed, she was the most powerfully armed vessel in the world. However, it was very unstable with too much weight in the upper structure of the hull. Despite that, she was ordered out to sea and sunk within a few minutes after it encountered winds that were stronger than a breeze.

There was an inquest and they looked for someone to blame. In the end, they decided it was the ship builder's fault. However, he couldn't be punished because he'd died the year before.

It really was pretty darn impressive to look at. Sadly, 30 people did die from this calamity while crowds watched from the shore. They found the remains of 15 people in and around the hull of the ship.

OK, you might think I'm crazy but I needed to take a photo of this bathroom in Sweden. 

Each toilet has solid doors. When you shut that door, you have complete privacy. Really complete privacy. It's almost claustrophobic. 

(OH NUTS! Art just saw this and said I forgot that this was a UNISEX bathroom. That's why the doors are solid. Men and women could use the same bathroom.)

Lunch was next.

There were mashed potatoes, a roll and Swedish meatballs. It reminded me of Ikea.

The lunch was fine, BUT I have to tell you the dessert was the smoothest hunk of chocolate EVER! 

Annette gave some facts about Sweden.

* Between 1860-1920 Sweden was so poor that 1/5 of the population moved to the U.S. 

*Sweden is expecting 200,000 refugees from Ukraine.

* Sweden and Finland would like to join NATO now.

* Although once poor, Sweden is now quite wealthy. (IKEA, Volvo, etc.)

* Sweden just elected their first female prime minister.

* Sweden is the 5th largest country in Europe. They have wanted to stay neutral since 1810, but the invasion of Ukraine has changed that.

* There are 96,000 lakes in Sweden.

* Skype, Spotify, Minecraft, Candy Crush were all invented in Sweden.

After lunch, we had a boat ride of the riverway. We saw what looked like a magpie. It wasn't easy to get this shot.

Once back on the ship, we had a lovely dinner together with our travel buddies at Manfredi's and returned to our room to pack our luggage and put them out in the hallway to be ready for delivery to the airport.

The trip had been wonderful and we enjoyed seeing a part of the world we'd never thought of visiting but we were ready to go home.

Day 12 and 13: Sailing (Eating) and Mariehamn, Finland

 OK... Day 12 of the cruise was just sailing to Mariehamn from Gdansk, Poland. 

We ate a lot of delightful, delectable, delicious dishes on the Viking Star.

There was even a Team Trivia game we played with our Travel Buddies, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry. Good grief! Cal must have a photographic memory. 

We attended a lecture called "Spectacular Swedes" and learned about Swedish baroque composer Johan Roman, botanist Carl Linnaeus, Alfred Nobel and feminist Elfrida Andree.

And in the evening, there was entertainment again. It was called Celtic Kate featuring cruise director, Kate Syrett. All the performers on that Viking Star are indeed extremely talented and we enjoyed all the shows they put on.

Instead of the originally scheduled Helsinki, Finland cruise stop, (before Ukraine's invasion by Russia) Day #13 would find us on the island of Åland visiting its capital, Mariehamn. 

Mariehamn is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city.                                                             --Wikipedia 

It was really interesting to see all the tiny islets of the Åland Islands as we neared the port of Mariehamn. 

We joined the bus tour of Mariehamn after our usual bountiful breakfast.

Our guide, Katarina told us that Åland is part of Finland, but independent. They achieved autonomy in 1921-1922 and were therefore about to celebrate their 100th year of independence.

The Åland archipelago includes nearly three hundred habitable islands, of which about 60-80 are inhabited; the remainder are merely some 6,200 skerries and desolate rocks.

We visited the medieval stone Church of St. Olaf which dates from 1260 to 1280. It is thought to be the oldest Christian church in Finland.

After the little bus tour, we were back at the ship for lunch and then took the shuttle back into town. We wandered around, bought some souvenirs and walked back to the ship. 

Our trip was coming to a close and we were treated to the entertainment I confess I enjoyed the most. It was an evening of Beatles songs and you could see everybody was loving it.

It still surprised us to have the sun setting finally after 10:30 PM.

Our final country was coming up and we were looking forward to Day #14 which would be Stockholm, Sweden.

Day 11: Gdansk, Poland

We started our morning doing laundry, having breakfast and walking to our bus for our day's excursion.

Our 9:15 AM excursion for the day was called City of Gdansk on Foot. It was a chilly day and our tour guide's name was an older fellow named Adam who probably wanted a second career as a stand-up comedian. He told us "An apple a day keeps Putin away." 😆 Adam told us 3.5 million refugees from Ukraine had come through Poland.

It was a 20 minute bus ride into Gdansk from the cruise dock.

Adam told us that Chicago is actually the biggest Polish town. Since we lived there for over three decades, I would believe it. Our daughter joins the lines at the bakery for paczkis every year. Chicago schools even had Casimir Pulaski Day off every first Monday in March. He was a Polish born general who fought for the United States during the American Revolution and died during the siege of Savannah. 

After getting off our bus, Adam led us through the Green Gate which would be our meeting place, and several other sites around Gdansk. 

He told us to be sure to visit the Old Town Hall which had been damaged and repaired after WWII. 

And he advised us NOT to miss the upstairs Red Room. It was truly impressive. The structure had been built between 1327 to 1336.

We met an older fellow there who was watching to make sure no one damaged anything in the rooms. When we told him we were from Hawaii, he said he hadn't heard of it. However, when I mentioned we lived in Chicago, he said, "Aaahhh.... I know Chicago!" 

As we were leaving he asked if we were Chinese. I told him we were of Japanese descent. He seemed puzzled and replied, "Hmmm... Japanese with American accent?"

Our next stop was St. Mary's Church.

We were struck by the sadness the Pieta conveyed of Mary's grief at the death of her son.

The astronomical clock intrigued us. The sign explained it, but I still didn't quite understand.

And guess what? I even found some money on the street. It was a very old, dusty 10 złoty coin which is probably worth less than a penny. 😄

It was a lovely day. I sent a photo of us to our Polish friend who now lives in Montreal and he was surprised and thrilled.

Doesn't technology boggle your mind? 

Our dinner that night ended with a lot of gelato. (By the way, that big plate of dessert is Art's. OK, sooo the chocolate thing is mine, BUT I did share that gelato with Art too.) 😁

It was the perfect ending to a lovely day.

Day 10: Bornholm, Denmark

We were now docked in the port town of Ronne on the Danish island of Bornholm. Breakfast was at 6:30 AM and then we were ready for another adventure.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, several changes were made to our 14 day trip. Our previous schedule had 2 days in St. Petersburg (Russia), a day in Tallinn (Estonia) and a day in Helsinki (Finland). 

It had been replaced with 2 extra days in Norway which brought it to 4 days there, a day in Bornholm (Denmark) and a day in Mariehamn (Finland) which is an island off of Finland. They were not happy changes, but we understood the difficulty that Viking faced.

Our excursion for Day #10 at 8:30 AM was called Scenic Bornholm. Our first stop was to see Hammershus Castle. We saw it from a foggy distance so Art did a close up with his iPhone. I then checked Wikipedia and found an even clearer photo.

Our Guide for the day was Kristina who was an American living on the island of Bornholm. She explained that Bornholm is the 5th largest island in Denmark. 

* There are 406 islands in Denmark, but only 70 are populated. 

* They never have true night in summer, it's more a twilight. 

* Their hares are the size of small dogs which Kristina said was disconcerting when she first saw one. 

* Because of the low crime rate, people keep their doors unlocked. 

After a ride around the island, we returned to the ship. 

After lunch we took a 5 minute shuttle ride into town.

It was OK.

And then it was back to the ship again.

Back in our room, I was going through the Viking folder of instructions and information that had been left for everybody.

I guess they must have a problem with people walking off with things? But gosh... $140 for that soap dish? $280 for the tissue holder. Wooow!

4:00 PM We all attended a lecture about the 1066 Battle of Hastings.

This is the site of what is probably the most famous battle in England’s history. In popular imagination 1066 is the date of the last successful invasion of England, the year in which William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England’s Saxon army, killed the king, Harold, and seized the throne.      --English Heritage

I am not going to explain how this is connected to the Vikings, but the whole thing signaled the end of the Viking era. It's just too complicated for my tiny brain to explain. I think I sort of got it during the lecture, but with lack of sleep and passage of time, my brain has lost what little grasp it had of the lecture.

Dinner was at The Restaurant. I had fallen in love with the Caesar salad/added anchovies. I love anchovies. Hmmm.... are there three desserts there? Hmmm.... how can that be? I'm sure they were very teeny portions. 😏

The ship sailed on during the night and we were on our way to Gdansk, Poland. Since we'd met a wonderful fellow from Poland while on another trip and several Polish people while living in Chicago, we did look forward to the next day.

NOTICE: 

I got an email notice that a blogger buddy had left a comment on a previous post but didn't see it at the end of my post. I was puzzled and checked the comments that needed to be Moderated but didn't see it there. Then I thought I'd check my Spam file and there were a bunch of comments from blogger buddies that had landed there. What the heck is going on? 😝 Sigh... So anyway, I marked them as Not Spam, but I see now that I'll have to check that Spam file all the time too. 😕

Day 9: Berlin, Germany (The Berlin Wall)

The Viking Star was now docked in Warnemunde, Germany.

We took out the left over room service breakfast from the morning before which we'd stored in our small refrigerator.

Our breakfast consisted of muffins, bananas and coffee that Art brewed for us.

We then headed out to meet our travel buddies for our train ride into Berlin.

There was a line to collect snacks for our trip. There were bananas, tangerines, water and pastries.

That was rather unexpected.

We were assigned to a train car.

It was supposed to be a 3 hour ride.

It was not 3 hours. 

It turned out to be more like 4 and a half excruciating hours because of rail construction and giving priority to regularly scheduled trains ahead of our cruise car.

Our tour guide, Lena met us at the train station and led us to her bus.

Our first stop was the Allierten Museum. The museum documents the political history and military roles of the Western Allies in Germany (especially Berlin) between 1945-94 and their contribution to liberty in Berlin during the Cold War.

We saw a display of an underground tunnel where the U.S. was monitoring (spying) on the Russians during the Cold War. Actually the Russians knew we were spying on them, but that's another story.

It was rather a surprise to see a display about John F. Kennedy.

Our next stop was the Berlin Wall. It was a strange feeling to stand next to the famous Wall that once separated East and West Berlin.

Lena showed us how a brick (I think it's brick) line in the pavement indicates where the rest of the wall once stood.

What a surprise to go from 50 to 60 degree F weather to 80! Doggone it! I wish I'd packed and worn capris. It was too hot!

We were happy to be taken to a beer garden restaurant for lunch in air conditioning. We weren't sure what kind of German sausage that was with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. However, it was tasty. The sauerkraut was on the sweeter side and different from what I've had before, but it was good. The apple strudel was OK. (Art says he liked it.)

After lunch we were out to do more sightseeing.

It felt hotter and more humid.

The memorial to victims of war was a sad reminder of what Ukraine is going through.

I wish I knew more about that very interesting hand pitcher pump.

It was fun to see the famous Brandenburg Gate also. At that point, I couldn't take it anymore and zipped off the bottom of my pant legs.

AND.... then it was ANOTHER 4 and a half hours back to the ship. However, this time, we had a ton of fun talking to Joyce and Ann, a mom and daughter traveling together and seated right across from us. It made all the difference as we swapped stories about our travels. They were from St. Louis, Missouri which does happen to be next to Illinois where we lived for over 35 years.

It was surprising that when we got off the train, we had to pass through a very strict security check point before we could head toward the ship.

Dinner was relaxing at the World Cafe.

And what I came to truly realize was that any trip is so much happier when you are sharing the adventure with others. People make the difference.

By the way, did you know that Gummy Bears originated in Germany? No kidding! 

Hans Riegel Sr., a confectioner from Bonn, started the Haribo company in 1920. In 1922, inspired by the trained bears seen at street festivities and markets in Europe through to the 19th century, he invented the Dancing Bear (Tanzbär), a small, affordable, fruit-flavored gum candy treat for children and adults alike, which was much larger in form than its later successor, the Gold-Bear.  --Wikipedia

Despite the awfully tiring train ride, it was another interesting day.