2004 Friday -- (back blipped) Baltic Sea with Peg

Early Friday Morning--July 23, 2004--North America's West Coast

A journey of 1,883 nautical miles on the Baltic Sea, which included seven capital cities, was stamped “Finished” when the MS Noordam docked early yesterday morning in the Port of Copenhagen, Denmark. All passengers who had been aboard for the July 12-22 voyage of "Gems of the Baltic" disembarked. That scenario began the concluding chapter of my 2004 European Holiday.

Peg Smith and I made our farewells to others and walked off the gangway at 8:30 a.m. We were nine hours ahead of Pacific Time. (So you do the math.) A scheduled tour of Copenhagen was on our agenda with a final stop at the airport where we would claim our luggage from the Holland America agent and wait for a 4:00 p.m. jumbo jet to escort us to Seattle.

Later when our plane departed Copenhagen 60+ minutes late, the possibly of making the connecting flight to LAX in Seattle was slim. A smooth landing on Seattle’s runway was followed by 45 minutes of agony as the airport workers struggled to connect a disembarking ramp to the plane. We had to be cleared through customs, claim our luggage, and check in at Scandinavian Airlines to learn that our connecting flight to LAX had already taxied from the terminal gate.

We were re-routed to an Alaskan Airline flight that eventually left 30+ minutes late at 9:15. I rode beside two fishermen who were returning from several days in Glacier Bay successfully catching halibut and salmon. These gentlemen told me their tale and I shared mine. I learned that several days of fishing in Alaskan wilderness and the cost of processing, packing, freezing, and shipping fish were comparable to my dozen days in Northern Europe. Then our plane touched down at 11:15 p.m.

It was slightly after midnight when Mr. Fun and Rosie strolled through the threshold at Hotel Funville. Boarding passes, luggage tags, souvenirs, and a suitcase full of well-used vacation apparel are the remnants that disclose a final destination has been reached. My passport has now received its last foreign stamp for this season. (The Customs Official in Seattle looked at our travel itineraries and said, “You girls have covered some miles!)

At 2:30 a.m. for the first time in many nights these two exhausted people crawled between the sheets of the master bedroom waterbed. I had set at least three alarm clocks to wake me before 6:30ish. I didn't want to sleep through my first morning home.

I woke to the sounding of my internal clock at approximately 5:30. All upstairs windows were open and the morning cool was pleasantly refreshing. The gray sky had ushered in a lovely quiet. The silence in our home and neighborhood was enormously captivating. I softly slid out of bed just to listen. I wanted to make sure that being home was no longer a wish, but a reality. My homing instinct can now take a rest.

I tried to rouse Mr. Fun by gently rubbing his back. I think, though, that he is sleeping deeply for the first time in days. So I wait for his special home brewed coffee—my first cup—by typing as he sleeps.

I still have a few final travel memories to record, so I’ll signoff with this: James A. Michener wrote, “I was once asked if I would like to meet the president of a certain country. I said, ‘No, But I’d love to meet some sheepherders.’ The sheepherders and taxi drivers are often the most fascinating people.”  I also like what Henry Miller expressed, “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware—joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”  Well, on this July morning, Rosie knows she has met some fascinating people and I’m sure that I am more “aware” than I was previous to this journey, BUT, more than anything, what I know is that it’s good to be home.

~ ~ Rosie, aka Carol

There’s one thing more to do, retrieve my “Bob” dog from daughter Deidre.