Best $109 I Ever Spent

It's cold and rainy this trip. 51 degrees cold. Throw in the wind and rain in Ketchikan and brrr.

The pool isn't much better. While I've been swimming anyway, the water is a bit too chilly to spend much time here. 

What makes up for all the cold is how I spent $109. Access to a sauna, three steam rooms, and these. The tiled loungers might not look like much, but they are heated. Really heated. And a great place to fall asleep. Not that I intend to sleep, but every time I lie down it seems to be a side effect of relaxing in a warm place.

8 days and 7 Nights

We've been on the move for several nights in a row now. Get up early and fly to Portland, spend the night in Portland. Get up early the next morning and take Amtrak to Seattle, spend the night in Seattle. Get up early the next morning and take Amtrak to Vancouver, BC. Our plan was to take the same trip back. 

But a streak of travel good luck always comes our way. So while we're still on the move for the next week we're only unpacking once. Why? Because I found something for $299 per person leaving the day after we arrived in Vancouver.  Who can pass up a cruise to Alaska? Certainly not me, and with the timing being perfect the Universe surely had our backs. 

So off we go to Alaska again. Healthy hubby, torn up knee me, and dependable Scooter. 

And a bunch of these guys. Can you tell what kind of school is in session on this trip?

 

The Challenge

Another day of adventure. Starting in this building

with another trip on the

Pictures of barns and fields. 

Of water and bridges.

Birds and the snacks they open on the railroad tracks.

With all of the pictures being taken from the comfort of my train seat none were really a challenge. 

Enjoying a beautiful day on the Vancouver, BC waterfront? Awesome, but no challenge.

Someday becoming someone who is brave enough and strong enough to paddle board like this gal? A challenge, but a future challenge.

A more immediate challenge is one faced in our hotel room. A lovely, old historical hotel in Vancouver in an amazing location. I've asked about switching rooms to a better set-up but had no luck. For a person on the verge of knee replacement and the inability to bend her knees, here's my predicament. If you notice, there is only one six inch tile between the toilet and the counter and cabinet. Not sure how this one is going to turn out. A huge challenge.

No Wallowing Here

I was supposed to have my knee replacement today. I've been holding out to get the wedding behind me before I launched into the surgery and a multi-week, multi-month recovery. But they lined the surgery up at the wrong hospital. Unfortunately the rescheduled date - at the right hospital - is another two weeks out. I thought the pain was excruciating last month, but now it's excruciating-er.

To get by until the surgery date I should probably stay close to home, not move around much, and pretty much live on pain pills. If you know me you know that's not something I would do. Despite the amount of pain I'm in I don't want to live these two weeks moping and feeling sorry for myself.

Instead, with two weeks to go until surgery I'm back to sucking the marrow - and not wallowing in sorrow.

Remember the solo
Handicapped
Suck the marrow
Trains, planes, automobiles, and ship adventure I went on last month?

Sucking the marrow, not wallowing in the sorrow, started yesterday with our early morning flight to Portland and continued today with our train trip to Seattle.

Pictures were snapped along the way.
Inside the Portland Amtrak Station

Under the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Lunch at my favorite place, Lowell's in Pike Place Market in Seattle. Ed had the tiger shrimp tacos. Spicy!

And a picture of the beautiful sunshine we had in Seattle? We were too busy sitting in the sun, watching interesting people.

NSV

NSV = Non-Scale Victory

It's a term I've noticed people use on weight loss message boards. It represents that thing that's related to weight loss but not necessarily about the scale. And I had an NSV today at 6:00 AM.

When taking my seat on the commuter jet bound for Portland this morning, I asked for a seat belt extender. It has been common practice for me to either bring my own or ask to borrow. But this morning in the few seconds between me asking for an extender and the flight attendant digging it out, I'd already taken care of the problem.

I fastened the seat belt. In this small airplane with small seats and small seat belts, I found that the standard seat belt fit around me for the first time I can remember. NSV.

As for why I'm in Portland, Oregon that's a story for another day. It may have been raining most all day, but hubby and I were able to get a super-early checkin (thank you Residence Inn) and been enjoying just relaxing in our hotel room. The rain did stop long enough for me to snap a picture of beautiful rhododendrons in bloom.

I'll Dance at your Wedding

When my husband was young and his Grandma Bates wanted him to do something for her she'd promise, "I'll dance at your wedding." So when hubby and I got married, on a shoestring budget with no DJ, no dance floor, and no dance, he and Grandma did an impromptu dance. Payment for all those times past where he did something with no payment except for a dance at his wedding.

Fast forward 30 years and it's time for our kiddo to get married. All her life when he wanted a task done and she wanted to know what she was going to get out of it, he'd reply, "I'll dance at your wedding."

And so he did. On a non-shoestring budget (thanks to us), with a DJ playing John Mayer's Daughters song, kiddo and her daddy danced. I'm violating my blog rule about no people-pictures, but it's too precious to skip.

Rose Garden

There had to be a good reason I cut rose after rose after rose in our garden today. The reason? Guess you'll have to come back to find out why.