Bon Voyage

Recently I returned from one of the best voyages of my life! The main purpose of the trip was a writers' workshop on a cruise ship, which was sponsored by Hay House Publishing. Not only did I get to learn copious amounts of stuff about writing, publishing, and marketing books, but I was able to do so in style on the HAL Amsterdam, sailing through the inland passage of Alaska. To top it all off, I was blessed once again to be able to spend time with my dear friend Wendy in one of my favorite places in the world--Vancouver, BC, Canada : ) She's the Canadian angel who put up with me for over a week in her luxury, 25th floor, downtown Vancouver Apartment. Without her, I might have gotten complacent and purchased a one-week transportation pass, but OH NO!!!!!! We biked or walked EVERYWHERE, and I'm much the healthier and fitter for it :-)) Many thanks also to my friend, David, who put me up on the outbound and return legs of the trip, stored my car, took me to and from the airport, and even lent me his silk jacket to wear to formal dinners on the cruise. It was his incredible four-wheeled suitcase that helped me to sail through airports, the cruise ship, Victoria Harbor, busses, border crossings, and many sidewalks.

I took a bus from Vancouver to Seattle and made my first ever bus border crossing. These particular busses are only licensed to make cross border trips between the Canada and the US, and they have it down to a fine art. There were two different groups of cruise passengers on one bus, each group bound for a different ship in Seattle. The folks on the Hay House "I Can Do It" cruise on the Amsterdam got on first. After driving for about 20 minutes we stopped at a highway truck stop / convenience store and picked up the passengers bound for the the other boat. About 20 minutes later we were at the border crossing. Everyone had to take everything they owned off the bus and through the security screening and border control where they checked passports, visas, etc. The whole process took less than thirty minutes from the time we arrived until we were pulling out of the border crossing, which was more efficient than I had expected. The drive down the coast to seattle was mountainous, beautiful, and perfectly comfortable in the bus. Along the way I met several nice folks, and a lovely couple from Chicago with whom I later got much better acquainted on the boat. Shout out to Jeff & Kari!!! ; )

After snaking my way through the line for about an hour and 1/2, I boarded the Holland America Lines Amsterdam. Each of HAL's ships are named after some place in Holland, and their names all end in "dam." My big suitcase was checked in and arrived a couple hours later outside the stateroom door; that's what they're called - staterooms. My stateroom was 2705, very near the aft / starboard (back /right) part of the ship. This was a great location, as it afforded easy access to the rear deck and a stairwell which led up to the 3rd floor "promenade" deck on which one could walk around the entire ship and be outside in the fresh ocean air. It also forced me to walk great distances to get to the workshops which were all in the forward part of the ship. Soon after boarding, I met my roommate, Steve. We got along fabulously, and I felt that I hit the roommate jackpot with him! Right after meeting we had to rush up to the 3rd floor promenade deck with our lifejackets on for a mandatory lifeboat drill, which lasted about fifteen minutes. I felt better knowing how to don the life preservers and get to the right place, just in case. I was assigned to early dinner at 5:30, so I got dressed (pants and button down shirt) and had the first of an amazing array of exquisite meals. Cruise ships are quite simply food paradise. That evening was the first session of the writers' workshop, presented by Reid Tracy, head publisher of Hay House. All in all it was an amazing first day.

The rest of the cruise was simply out of this world. Never in my wildest dreams could I have ever imagined the writers' workshop being any better--a separate blog post just on that topic later. I chose one shore excursion for the first port of call, Juneau Alaska. Having come on this trip mainly for the writers' workshop, I decided to take it easy the rest of the time and not to try to do a thousand different things. As it turned out, I only left the ship that one time in Juneau before disembarking at the final port of call in Victoria, B.C. The energy on this ship was phenomenal! People were generally enthusiastic, friendly, easy going, and happy. Every day I exercised, as it was so easy to integrate that into the routine. The entertainment in the evenings was also fantastic. The two shows I attended were comedienne, Julie Barr, and The Texas Tenors. Julie was an absolute riot, and the Tenors were stupendous! Just being on the ship was pleasurable; with the continuous, underlying thrum of the engines in the background and the gentle rocking of the ship, I felt like I was right back in the womb : ) As a matter of fact, I really missed that once I was back on land. The cruise was a top-notch experience!

My one shore excursion was a whale watching trip in Juneau. We took a bus from the port downtown to another dock about 15 minutes away. Along the way we had a great view of the Mendenhahl Glacier, which was named for a glaciologist who never actually saw it in his lifetime. Our whale watching boat was perfectly equipped for the occasion with panoramic six-foot high windows all around the inside, an open deck topside, and a buffet dinner with salmon mousse, roast beef, shrimp cocktail, fruits, breads, pastries....a feast fit for a king (or a queen) ; ) Within minutes of leaving the dock we began seeing the whales spouting in the distance, geysers of mist shooting up from the surface, humped backs undulating slowly. Everyone was waiting with baited breath to get a photo of the tail. Of the fifteen or so shots that I took, two were good tail shots and one was of the whale breaching--jumping partly up out of the water. The humpback whales can be up to fifty feet long and weigh a bunch of tons. Most of the pics that I took of them just looked like a hump sticking out of the water, hence the name I guess. I don't know if they have humps all the time, or if they just arch their backs as they get ready to dive down. Their backs may not be humped at all for all I know. If they saw me doing Bikram Yoga, they might think of me as a humpback person? These whales come to Alaska to feed during the summer and then back to Hawaii for the winter season, so they get the best of both worlds as well as claiming two of the most scenic of the United States as their homes! I'm glad that I got to see them hanging out in their native environment as opposed to in some cage or side show, doing tricks in San Antonio or San Diego for the amusement of people. I wonder how the two respective saints for whom those cities were named would feel about whales being kept there for human entertainment purposes? I also got to see some seals sunning themselves on a buoy near where the whales were frolicking. There were about four of them lying on the flat part of the buoy about 3 feet above the water. Some of the others swimming around the buoy seemed to want to get up, but the ones already there were having none of that! They'd bat the others back dow, arch their backs high, act as if they were going to jump down, then flop back onto their buoy bed as if to say, "Boy, it sure is nice up here on this buoy.... must suck to be down there in the water!" On the way back to the dock we saw some bald eagles up in the pine trees. It was exciting seeing them, but honestly the view of the birds is really better on a 52 inch LCD screen ; )

I've got a lot more to tell about this trip, but this is enough for one post. I think I'll do a separate post just on the writing workshop and another just on the Victoria and Vancouver part of the trip. As always, any and all criticism and/or suggestions are welcome!