It will be difficult to keep up my posts in a timely manner over the next month. We’ll be in Portland, Netarts, Vancouver, or onboard a ship traveling into Alaska then bound for Hawaii. I’ll be eating and drinking my way from port-to-port, far away from neighbors, friends, and the boob tube. We’ll make new acquaintances, take in the scenery, enjoy some live entertainment, hopefully see some whales and experience the Northern Lights. Even Hawaii that I’ve visited many times will seem different when approached from the water.

We start our adventure tomorrow with a day on the plane from Tampa to Portland via Seattle. We’ll arrive late into PDX with some naps to fight the 3-hour time change. We’ll be staying with my wife’s daughter and her husband, with an early morning run followed by a drive to Netarts Bay for the night. It will be time together with two good friends, dating back to high school before I return to Portland for family get-togethers.

It will be impossible to fit in everyone I’d like to see. Saturday is another lunch with friends while my wife tours wine country with her daughter. She has friends and former co-workers to see, as well, before we fly to Vancouver on Monday, once again via Seattle. In the meantime, we have to pass a Covid test, the final obstacle in getting aboard the ship. Oh, the hoops this virus has us jump through.