Back to Reality

During our cruise several newsworthy events occurred. We learned that Kobe Bryant, his oldest daughter, and a handful of others died in a helicopter crash in the Los Angeles area on January 26. There was a 7.7 earthquake on January 28 between Cuba and Jamaica that we didn’t feel, and we didn’t see clear evidence of damage on Grand Cayman though apparently there was quite a bit. The US Senate continued its impeachment charade. In summary, there was a human disaster, a geologic disaster and a political disaster while we were away. 

In happier news the Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team defeated Oregon State in both “Civil War” matches, Christine Sinclair scored her 185^th international soccer goal making her the highest scorer male or female, and both US and Canada did well in the group stage of the women’s CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament. I was amused that I knew more about Sinclair’s record than most of the Canadians I was traveling with, though most of them know a whole lot more about hockey than I do.

How lucky am I that I got to hang out with 41 others who were on their own versions of the same adventures I had?! When I look back some of the images I have are all of the greetings/hugs the day we boarded, going through the Limbo hole in a cave, enjoying delicious sorbet (in port and on the ship, the latter with chocolate syrup), waking up early to hear the commentary while going through the Panama Canal locks, our nearly aerial view of another boat going through the locks, receiving support from kayaking buddies when I acknowledged my concern about the expedition, helping show the Chinese couple how to paddle their kayak, admiring the strawberry poison dart frog and the blue morpho butterfly, hearing from a researcher, viewing the forest canopy from the tram, standing on sand in the ocean 2 miles from shore, nightly music trivia, hearing the ship’s first engineer describe the technical terms of the ship starting with “pointy end” and “straight end”, having delightful conversations with Sister Long Legs (and others), hanging out with Step Brother (and others), reconnecting with a friend who had dared to share personal information with me in the Mediterranean (and receiving a generous compliment from this person at the end of the cruise), eating lots of dried pineapple, eating dinner at different tables/with different people in our area of the dining room, balls and bowls of ice cream, and so on.                  

I agree with a friend’s comment that the landsharkz cruises are traveling with family. It reminds me of something that I was told before a big geocaching gathering, namely that it would be like meeting cousins that I didn’t know I had – a concept that applied to that gathering and equally applies to the cachers I’ve met and friends I’ve made on the 3 cruises I’ve done so far. I’m looking forward to the one next year, and to having more of my Portland friends join the journey.