It’s Almost Here!

Meet our dog Charlie. He is 16 years old and beginning to show his age. My brother and sister-in-law in Tacoma have invited him to stay with them while we’re gone. There is no better place for him to be than with them and their pets. He loves it there and, frankly, he may not want to come home with us when we return! It takes special people to offer to take care of a very elderly dog and all that goes with that. We know that he will be loved and coddled and that eases our minds.

We are driving up to Tacoma on Monday, taking our Covid test Tuesday, and, if all goes well, flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday. We’ll board the ship on Thursday and head towards Hawaii.

Over that last few days, we’ve been in a waiting mode. Everything is packed except for the last minute items. Yesterday, we took Charlie to get groomed so that he won’t be stinky for Don and Laura. Today, we’re cleaning the refrigerator out and I’m getting my hair cut and colored. The color will last through the trip but I’m going to have to get very expensive haircuts while we’re on board. We do have some generous shipboard credit from our travel agent to use for items like this.

Tomorrow evening, we are going to a gathering of a small group of friends to celebrate the first soak. That is the day all the commercial crab boats go out, three days before Dungeness crab season opens, to drop their traps. Unfortunately, crab season opened very late this year and we are going to miss the fresh Dungeness! When you look at the ocean at night, you see all the boats lit up like a string of jewels. In order to make our get together as safe as can possibly be, our friends are all taking Covid tests before they attend.

We will miss our friends while we’re gone. We’re lucky to have so many great people nearby. We do love where we live!