After one of our most productive but personally challenging seasons at
home, we are once again packing our bags for another round of cruising. Frankly,
I can't believe that we are launching our sixth winter at sea quite so early
(It's still summer! It's still hot!) but we are seizing an opportunity that may
never exist again, and that fact gives us the incentive to abandon the
still-producing tomato plants and wildly blooming flowers and leave home before
even needing to run the furnace. For once we are joining the ranks of most of
our fellow passengers who travel for the destination, not simply to escape snow
and cold.
The cranesbill geraniums were looking happy until I trimmed them back a bit in preparation for winter.
We hit the ground running when we returned home in March (which, last winter, was the perfect time to do so) and by the end of May had completed a majority of the deck renovation work we had started late last summer. Our progress was temporarily halted when I went to Toledo to visit Mom for a few days over Mothers Day, picturing companionable lunches and leisurely drives along the river to see the spring blooming trees. Instead, my trip was extended, and I spent two very busy weeks packing up most of her home. On Memorial Day weekend, Mom moved into a retirement community seven miles from her house, and she has settled in beautifully. The sale of her house, the one I grew up in, was finalized last week, and Mom is happy to be going into another (probably) brutal northern Ohio winter without a care, which means we are happy to be launching into another (hopefully) warm winter at sea with one less concern, too!
Anyone who has gone through a senior parent's move in the past knows exactly what I mean when I say the only items I chose to take from Mom's inventory of household goods and her stockpile of family memorabilia was a citrus reamer and a knee brace...and I needed to wear the latter home. Gathering up the remnants of 55 years of lives wonderfully lived spread over three floors to donate and then carefully packing the dozens of tchotchkes, books and videos Mom wanted to take with her compelled me to question, like never before, the role of possessions in our lives. As a result, I've concluded that my expired passports, digital photos and memories of world travels are the things that bring me joy...plus, they'll fit in a shoebox when it's time to move. ;-)
So, in an effort to keep accumulating experiences in lieu of possessions, we leave on Monday and will fly to Vancouver to join the Pacific Princess for the start of its French Polynesia season as it first cruises to Hawaii and then continues on to Papeete, Tahiti. Like last year, our travel plans beyond that point are written in sand at the water's edge during a rising tide, but one point is immutable: We will be home for Christmas. I really mean it this time!
We had the best time out of many excellent times of our lives on the Pacific Princess in French Polynesia last winter, and we knew we had to return. This trip may be the last opportunity we'll have to do so. The ship is for sale, and its sister ship the Ocean Princess has already been sold to Oceania Cruises and is leaving the fleet next March.
Still, there was competition for our time. I was also considering the 89-night Ocean Princess cruise departing from England in late September, sailing the Mediterranean, circumnavigating Africa, and returning across the Atlantic to Fort Lauderdale. G would have none of it. He had no desire to see most of the ports. "Really?", I asked. "You don't want to visit the Seychelles and Madagascar and Mauritius and South Africa and the Cape Verde Islands?" Well, those sounded interesting to him but they totaled eight days out of 89. In addition, cities still pale in comparison to tropical destinations on G's bucket list of things to see, the Mediterranean ports were mostly repeats for us and while he'd enjoyed the two transatlantic cruises we'd already done, those were quite enough, thank you very much. Since I could be happy with either itinerary, the Pacific Princess it is.
The biggest change for us this year, cruising from the West Coast, certainly simplifies things. We'll arrive in Hawaii on Day 7 of our cruise, where we'll have plenty of familiar stores to purchase the things we had to forage for (that's exactly what it felt like) last winter in French Polynesia. It couldn't get any easier, and that, along with avoiding the long flight to Papeete, made this an adventure we couldn't resist.
In addition to our usual summer activities, we've been doing lots of research related to our upcoming travel. I've always said that second best to being on a trip is planning one, something we were able to neglect when we were traveling the Caribbean year after year. This time, in addition to cruising Hawaii and French Polynesia, we'll also be exploring some new territory, and I hope you'll be vicariously at our sides!