Dearest Rachel –
Ask, the saying goes, and you shall receive. No sooner do I put pixels onscreen fretting over the fact that my days lack anything unique worth telling you about, and suddenly I’m flooded with news about one thing or another; most requiring action on my part, and soon.
Granted, most of this is for stuff that’s yet to come, and as I’m still (and probably always will be) dealing with Basel syndrome, I can’t bring myself to get overly wrought about a future that may yet fall through. Still, these are reminders that there are things in motion that wouldn’t have been on our radar back in the day, so it might in fact be worth relating to you.
The first has to do with the one last trip for this year, into what is billed as the “Gulf of America” cruise. If you had lived through the past five years, you might have an inkling as to what that implies, but given your own experience, you’d probably think that was just another case of your (to be) bridesmaid Tammy blanking out while playing Pictionary and not remembering what that body of water was called, much to Elizabeth’s mounting frustration.
But no, a certain group of people have begun to call it that; some of them in quite high places, indeed. The name itself – as with almost everything having to do with life in America – has become a bit of a shibboleth; call it by one name or another, and it’s clear to all which “side” you belong to. It’s annoying and yet amusing at the same time; it’s fun to watch people get bent out of shape by the new name (never mind that they’ve renamed plenty of things over the past few years, themselves), but also worrisome, as they tend to take out their frustrations in, let’s just say, kinetic fashion.
Then again, that’s something of the point of this trip; while we’ve often encountered folks with certain virulent opinions on other trips, this is one where we don’t have to be looking over our shoulders when Daniel espouses one opinion or another (well, that’s really only something I do; Daniel, for his part, has no concern about anyone taking umbrage at him, and I have to rein him in now and again).
In any event, Daniel and I need to ‘check in’ with the cruise line within the next week or so – which seems a bit early to even start, but I guess each line has its own rules regarding this. Meanwhile, the group running this particular tour sent a separate email, pointing out that, on my registration, I didn’t submit an address, and if I want that included on my ID, I should get in touch with them. It sounds a little strange; I would have assumed my address would have been required with my purchase, so they should have that information. And if they don’t have it, I find myself wondering why it would even matter.
But that’s just one of the items that popped up all of a sudden yesterday, although admittedly, it’s the one most closely upcoming. I also found myself playing email pickleball with my travel agent yesterday afternoon, as well. Evidently, the flight reservations are opening up for our trip next year to Japan over the Nebuta festival, and she wanted to know when we wanted to fly out there and back, particularly seeing as I’d given her the indication that we wanted to stay several days in town on either end of the trip . If he were still around, I wonder if Dad would be disappointed that this isn’t so much from his practice as our own discovery when we were over there with Jack Rackham’s tour group. Then again, we discovered how interesting it was to be there on our own because we followed Dad’s old pattern, so maybe he’d still take it as a win.
In any event, I basically asked her to give us three full days on either end; and rather than staying in the same place, I requested not only different hotels, but different cities from one end of the trip to the other. Beforehand, we’re hoping to stay in Yokohama, not all that far from where the ship will be docking in Osanbashi (where the Serenade of the Seas was berthed a couple of years ago on its way around the world), and wander around places like Chinatown and the like (as well as a Costco run into Kawasaki, wedged between the two biggest cities in the country). Once we return, I’m hoping she can set us up somewhere in the Asakusa neighborhood of Japan; not that we’re particularly interested in visiting Senso-ji again, but the area is a bit of a hub, much like Ueno or Ikebukuro, so it’s a good place to have as a base.
I’m glad that Daniel’s enthused about this (albeit not so much as I am, but that’s a high bar for him to clear). I just wish you could have seen it with us, like we planned on.
That said, today’s the day for one more bit of trip planning, if it’s not too much of a stretch to call it that; I’d gotten some texts from Doc the other day, reminding me that ACen is about to open up their room block at noon. So I’m at my computer here in the ‘office,’ waiting for the notice to pop up so I can take care of that hotel reservation as well. It’s probably going to be a mad dash, and I don’t expect it to work terribly well, but we do have the fallbacks of the Loews, the Aloft and the Rose if worse comes to worst. You’d be so much more honed in on this than I am, honey, but you’d also be less blasé about it if things don’t quite pan out.
Still, a little nudge in my direction from you would be welcome, and any well-wishes you might offer. Take care, honey, and I’ll fill you in when I know more about any of this.
