From Tragedy to Majesty

Saturday, January 24th
Mesoamerican Majesty

Since our last post from 30,000 feet above the Pacific at the abrupt conclusion of the Voyage Interrupted, in April of 2024, our travel has been largely limited to Uber rides  between extended stay hotels, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living communities.

Upon our return from Hawaii, Tres had surgery number seven on his right knee.  It is structurally stable, and daily prophylactic antibiotics have kept infection at bay, but he is still rocking and rolling in a wheelchair to get around.  After many more moths of hotel hopping, we finally got him settled into a comfortable and accessible apartment that September.

By November, my long-term chronic back pain had become acute and intolerable.  Several trips to the Swedish Hospital Edmonds emergency room failed to identify a cause, provide any remedies, or garner much sympathy.  I could no longer make it up and down the stairs or care for myself at home, so I checked in to Aegis living Shoreline for a respite stay.  The accommodations were adequate, but it was definitely not the Ritz.  My pain had not improved, but I moved back home to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I couldn't last the day, and had to go back to the hospital.

The next day, I transferred to the new Aegis Living Greenwood on Holman Road, a much nicer facility with outstanding staff.  I spent a miserable month there, doctors unable to help, with only Oxycodone to take the edge off the agony.  When even that ran out on Christmas Eve, desperate for relief, I left Aegis for the hospital, this time UW Medicine Northwest.  Finally, imaging revealed an infection and a large abscess at L1-L2 that was compressing my spine and causing the acute pain.  After six weeks of IV antibiotics, the infection was eradicated, the pressure reduced, and the pain manageable.

The stress, the pain, the drugs, the downtime, and the unfamiliar surroundings had all taken a toll.  I was weak and suffering from delirium, unable to go back home.  Kline Galland Home in Seward Park was the best skilled nursing facility with a bed available.  I spent six weeks there for rest, rehab, and recovery, with a ten-day diversion to Swedish Cherry Hill after a "cardiac event."  Still not ready to go home, I moved back in to Aegis Living Greenwood for three more months of respite stay.

In the spring of 2025, after six nearly six months away, I made it back home to Edmonds.  I don't remember much of that time.  Doctors, friends, and family marvel at my recovery.  They say I it was really bad there for a while, and odds were long that I would come back from this.  I have lost a lot, but I fought hard, and I am grateful for my progress.  Tres is proud of me.

Another six months have passed, and we are finally ready to travel again.  We leave tomorrow for Miami to set sail aboard the Oceania Allura in her inaugural season for the voyage of the Mesoamerican Majesty.

Next Stop:  Miami, Florida

Voyage Interrupted

Thursday, April 25th
Over The Pacific Ocean
Delta Flight 0522
Voyage of the Midday Moon
Day 20

We should still be aboard Koningsdam on our way to Victoria, but the Voyage of the Midday Moon has turned into the Voyage Interrupted.

Yes, you guessed it's that damn right knee again.  We were doing just fine.  Our aft corner Neptune Suite with the wrap-around balcony has been a joy, the crew a delight, as always.  The food has generally been disappointing, and Holland America's incessant nickel and diming has gotten old, but there have been highlights.  The fresh-squeezed orange juice in Club Orange, overseen by Cas with class, is the nectar of the Gods, as if squeezed directly from the face of the sun.  The Grand Dutch Café has the best frites on board, outstanding chocolate chip cookies, and refreshing cider on tap.  In fact, it was after one such trip to the Grand Dutch that the trouble started.

Tres has been zooming around the ship on his rented mobility scooter.   There has been a near miss or two.  The corridors on the residential decks are particularly narrow, and virtually impossible to pass when lined with housekeeping carts.  Backing out of elevators into lobbies crowded with the slow moving and infirm has been treacherous.  But, until this point, no disasters.  He looks like Linus at the piano, scrunched over the handlebars of a conveyance at least one size too small, with his knees splayed wide.  I am often behind him yelling, "Knees!!!"  You see where this is going, even if Tres did not.  Leaving the Grand Dutch, headed back toward the stern and the cabin, there is a change in the décor as the the blue-framed mirrors of the café turn into the stark white displays of the photo center.  He drifted too far to the right as another scooter passed going the other direction, and...WHACK...he nailed a protrusion dead on with his bad knee.

We thought he got away with it.  It didn't break the skin, no obvious damage to the hardware.  And then, a few days later, he woke up with a very red, very swollen, very angry knee.  Hoping it would get better, it got worse, the incision that had remained closed since the last surgery in July 2023, started to ooze.  The medical center onboard the ship took a blood sample and confirmed it was likely infected.  The ship was due in Honolulu the next morning.  Tres was transferred to the Kuakini Medical Center by ambulance.

Their examination also suggested infection.  After several hours, the ER doc, an affable if oafish Dan Aykroyd look-alike, decided to lance it.  Flanked by two residents and a nurse, with no preparation or protection, he pierced the boil, and a fountain of blood spewed forth for more than a minute, soaking the bed, and collecting in pools on the floor.  The residents backed out of the room looking green, while the nurse took out her phone to record the eruption.  When it finally stopped, Tres flexed, and it started all over again.  The doctor cultured it, which would eventually come back positive for strep, and the nurse finally got it cleaned up.  After consultations with several more doctors, and many more residents, they recommended surgery, and Tres was admitted to the hospital.  The orthopedic surgeons, Dr. King in Seattle and Dr. Lee in Hawaii, concurred that an I&D (irrigation and debridement) would be necessary.  I returned back to the ship, which was overnighting in Honolulu, but our cruise was over.

The next day, I got our things together and said our goodbyes on the ship, and then moved everything to a hotel in Honolulu, while Tres prepped for surgery.  The ship sailed on without us as scheduled at 5:00, and Tres was in surgery by 7:30, the 6th on his beleaguered right knee.

The surgery was successful, and the care at Kuakini has been excellent.  It is an anomaly as the only private hospital in the islands.  Still run by the Japanese, it was built for Japanese immigrants and integrated in the 1950s.  It is also a teaching hospital, and the home of the residency program for the University of Hawaii Medical School.  In spite of a frank warning from a nurse named Fred, we have no regrets.  Tres was discharged on Tuesday, and we have been staying in an accessible room at the Renaissance Hawaii Hotel & Spa.

We have excellent travel insurance, and Travel Guard has made all of the arrangements for our return home.  They booked us in first class on Delta, with lie-flat seats, and a medical escort to ensure safe travels.  Kevin is a retired critical care nurse who flies all over the world for SkyNurses providing medical care and concierge services to repatriate sick and injured travelers.  He has come directly from his last assignment in Gibraltar to help us get home.  He took a medical history and vital signs last night at the hotel, rewrapped Tres' bandages for the trip this morning, and has continued to manage logistics and make sure Tres is stable through the airport and onto the plane.  We are in the air, comfortable, and confident we can make it the rest of the way home, thanks to Kevin.

Well, it's not how we planned to end this trip, but it's all part of the adventure.  As it turns out, we will beat the ship home by more than a day.

Next up:  Recovery

Total Eclipse

Monday, April 8th
The Pacific Ocean
ms Koningsdam
Voyage of the Midday Moon
Day 3
Sunny - 72 Degrees

A total eclipse is the ultimate astronomical magic trick.  A disappearing act.  Planets align, (and suns and moons), day becomes dusk, the atmosphere cools, the wind stills.  Some say it is a spiritual experience.  Cool!!!  But, first, the protection.

Thanks to Dr. Chen at Virginia Mason for the definitive advice from the JAMA Patient Page.  Sun gazing is serious business, and can do serious eye damage.  The article linked to NASA and the American Astronomical Society for more information and eye protection recommendations:

2024 Total Eclipse: Where & When

Sun...Moon...You!

Professor Adam Burgasser of UCSD and the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences is onboard Koningsdam to narrate the eclipse and lecture on his other areas of expertise.  He is brilliant and a gifted presenter.  We are enjoying, if not fully understanding, his talks very much.  As the Director of the Cool Star Lab, he has to be the hippest nerd since Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Adam Burgasser

Holland America provided paper eclipse glasses, but we came equipped with our own authentic plastic eclipse glasses, and a solar filter for the camera, that meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard.  The ship in position along the path of totality, hats on heads, sunscreen applied, eclipse glasses and camera at the ready, we went up to Panorama Deck, Deck 10 Aft, to join our fellow travelers and amateur astronomers, for this cosmic darkening, and spiritual awakening.

And, here it is, the Midday Moon, the best of our series of photos as the eclipse advanced, and then receded, the moon moving right to left across the face of the sun.

With more than four minutes of totality between 11:01 and 11:06 AM, we removed our eclipse glasses, and basked in the glow of darkness.

Magic?  Yes!  Spiritual?  Yes!!  Cool?  Yes!!!

Just to make it official:

For this NASA simulation of the eclipse as we saw it, enter Mazatlán, MX at:

NASA Eclipse Explorer

To see the archived livestream, check out the HAL Facebook page:

Koningsdam Eclipse Livestream

Or, read about our experience in USA Today:

'The ship can move': Why you should watch next solar eclipses from a cruise ship

USA Today quotes one observer saying that viewing a partial eclipse is like being partly pregnant.  Tres agrees.  He watched the 2017 eclipse from the roof of Plaza Lake City, well outside the zone of totality.  It was a beautiful day, but not much of a show.  Now we know.  A total eclipse is totally worth it.

Next Up:  6 Days in Port, 11 Days at Sea, 17 Days Onboard, then Vancouver.

Voyage of the Midday Moon

Friday, April 5th

San Diego

ms Koningsdam

Voyage of the Midday Moon

Day 0 - Embarkation

Partly Sunny - 68 Degrees

It has been a long road, to get back out on the road this time.  Tres fell and suffered a right tibia plateau fracture in July of 2022.  It took five surgeries over a year to repair the fracture, and eventually a total knee replacement.  The leg is now solid, but recovery has been slow.  He has spent the last nineteen months in a wheelchair, staying in an accessible room at the Satybridge Suites Seattle - Fremont.  I have been driving him to doctor appointments and physical therapy, lifting the wheelchair in and out of the car, and it has been hard on both of us.  Jose, Iris, Tre, Emily, and the staff and ownership of the Staybridge were incredible hosts, extending a medical rate to make it affordable for Tres to be safe and comfortable.  He wasn't really ready, but it was time to move out.  With help from Ted and Chryssa, we moved Tres home last week.

So, what to do with this new-found freedom?  It's time for a cruise.  We are sailing aboard the ms Koningsdam on a repositioning cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, by way of Mexico and Hawaii.

We last sailed on the Koningsdam to Norway in 2017.  There are two ironies in being back onboard this ship, at this time, for this cruise.  The first is our accommodations.  In 2017, we were "upgraded" to a handicap-accessible cabin, which we didn't need, and didn't want.  In 2024, when we probably should have an accessible cabin, we do not.  The second is the theme.  The 2017 cruise was the "Voyage of the Midnight Sun" to see the sun that never sets North of the Arctic Circle.  This cruise is the..."Voyage of the Midday Moon."  We are going to see the total eclipse from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico on April 8th.  Maybe for the first time ever, this cruise is truly about the journey, not the destinations.  We may not even get off the ship

Wooo-Hooo, and cue the music.  Yes it's cliché.  In fact, Bonnie Tyler performed live aboard Royal Caribbean during the solar eclipse of August 2017.  But, come on, "turn around, Bright Eyes," it's a great song.

We spent the last three mostly sunny days in San Diego.  Tres amassed more than 900,000 points with IHG while in residence at the Staybridge, so we cashed in for a free stay at the Hotel Indigo San Diego - Gaslamp Quarter.  The hotel was nice enough, fully accessible, with made-to-order breakfasts served by the singular Sergio.  It is well located just a couple blocks from Petco Park during the Padres season-opening homestand.  We even had a peekaboo view of the stadium from our room.  The Padres lost this one to the Cards, 5-2.  The view was better the next morning.

The highlight of San Diego was an afternoon of wide-ranging conversation with our favorite UCSD gentleman and scholar, Nick.  He is interesting and smart, funny and compassionate, and a total countercultural iconoclastic badass.  Almost 21, and almost a college graduate, it has been an absolute joy to watch him grow up.  We can't wait to see what comes next.

We had a memorable, fun, and fine Baja coastal Mexican dinner with the pre-game revelers at the Blind Burro the first night (the hostess was from Bellingham), and an expensive and utterly forgettable seafood dinner at the Waster Grill the second night.  That left the third night for the obligatory pilgrimage to In-N-Out.  Nick offered to deliver it to the hotel via bike and trolley, but we couldn't justify the effort.  So, it was an Uber-Uber Double-Double trip to hamburger heaven.  Total cost: $83.27, but worth it.

The cabin may not be accessible, but we have done everything possible to ensure a successful trip.  We brought the wheelchair, and arranged for wheelchair escorts at both airports and the cruise terminal.  Tres rented a scooter to get around the ship.  It was waiting for us in the cabin when we arrived, and will be picked up from the cabin in Vancouver.  22 days.  $375.00.  Crazy!!!

This is another Friends and Family cruise courtesy of Holland America and the De Lijn Association.  We booked a Neptune Suite category guarantee, took a chance on the cabin assignment, and got lucky.  We are in cabin 8186, an aft corner suite, port side, on Navigation Deck, Deck 8.  These aft suites are unique to each deck.  They are essentially remnant space, and you get whatever is leftover.  People either love them or hate them, but this one is perfect for us.  Plenty of room, even with a wheelchair and a scooter, a five-piece bath, windows on two sides, and a huge, covered, wrap-around veranda.  It has a table and four chairs, a pair of arm chairs with ottomans, and two chaise lounges.  The view of the wake and the sound of the churn make it the ideal private oasis.  There are trade-offs.  We are at the very end of a very long ship.  Tres is riding in style on the scooter, but I have to walk.  It's right below the Seaview Pool and the open deck aft of the Lido, so the stacking and scraping of deck chairs starts early and ends late.  And, it's far removed from the rest of the Neptune Suites and the Neptune Lounge, so the service is not quite what it is midship on Deck 7.  Still, Clair and Ciarra are amazing at the concierge desk, and a great value-add.  We love this cabin!!!

San Diego sailaway is now behind us, and embarkation dinner at the Pinnacle Grill awaits.

Next up:  Total Eclipse 2024

Waimea Canyon

Tuesday, September 28th
Waimea Canyon State Park, Kauai
Scattered Clouds - 81 Degrees

Waimea Canyon is the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific."  No, we didn't know either.  But, we do now, and the draw is inescapable.  If there is a big hole, we have to see it.

"Waimea Canyon State Park overlooks of one of the State’s scenic treasures – the deep, colorful gorge of Waimea Canyon.  Stretching 14 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep, the Waimea Canyon Lookout provides panoramic views of crested buttes, rugged crags and deep valley gorges. The grand inland vistas go on for miles."

On the West side of the island, Waimea Canyon is well North of beautiful, but still a little South of spectacular.

Next Stop:  ...

Poipu, Kauai

Thursday, September 23rd
Poipu, Kauai
Partly Cloudy - 83 degrees

We had a long, and glorious, day today, touring the South of the island in and around Poipu, passing through the Tree Tunnel along the way.

The first stop was the Spouting Horn.  The spout was more of a sputter today.  We've seen bigger.  Still, a beautiful view, and I love the wild chickens.

"Allerton Garden is part of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, a network of botanical gardens, preserves, and research centers in Hawaii and Florida perpetuating tropical plants, ecosystems, and cultural heritage since 1964.  It is a living masterpiece named one of the ’50 Places of a Lifetime’ by National Geographic Traveler. Guided tours of Allerton Garden are part garden tour, part art exhibit, and entirely unique. Visitors are guided through expertly crafted garden rooms that feature tropical plants, sculptures, and water features. Allerton Garden also has a rich history as a Hollywood film location for many notable movies and TV shows. See the towering roots of the famous Moreton Bay fig trees featured in blockbusters like Jurassic Park.  At Allerton Garden we honor Queen Emma who nurtured beauty in this cherished place and celebrate Robert and John Gregg Allerton’s landscaped dream that you see today. Experience the love story that continues between people and plants, art and nature in this storied garden."

This is a spectacular place, unlike anything we have ever seen.  Our 631 pictures don't do it justice, but we will share what we can.

We ended the day with an early dinner, seated in the open windows, at the iconic Beach House.  

Next up:  The Grand Canyon of the Pacific