The Cruise to Anywhere

The ridiculously inexpensive cruise was very nice. Watching the last-minute deals, I noticed that Princess had dropped their last-minute-sailing price to $99 per person for a three day cruise from L.A. to Vancouver. I spoke with Angela, who seemed to have little interest in going. But wait! Three days, includes meals and we can explore Canada for a few days after that. She reminded me that it’ll be rainy and she’s already not a fan of Vancouver weather that time of the year. A few days later Princess dropped the price to $87 per person, and a few days after that $54. Given Angela had just returned from Princeton after 10 days, she suggested I go, so add-to-cart! It turns out that I’m a bit of a snob and won’t do anything less than a balcony. The rate was $129 per person for three days, so my cost was only $258 for a balcony cabin.Sweet! Mind you I'm not captain funbucks, far from it but $86 a day for a floating hotel room with a balcony, meals, shows, and all of the other perks included is a great value.

I chose not to watch any TV, so no CNN, no Fox, no email, no social media whatsoever and I loved that they had live music in so many corners of the ship. There was a waaaaay-to-drunk woman on the ship who looked like ‘Mama’ on the Carol Burnett show. After telling me all about hers, she asked me if I had kids, grandkids and I replied a simple “no”. She pushed more saying “you’ve never had any kids, none… I don’t believe it”. I said no, she pushed me again, and I explained that if she asked me again she’d feel really bad and guilty for asking. She asked again. While a sad ending, Madison was a beautiful song that will play in my heart forever. I can talk about her forever, explain the levels of pride and love, but those typically bounce off of sad faces. I don’t openly socialize Madison’s story or scenario to strangers because of the fact that more times than not, people feel horrible with the thought of how they’d feel if they lost a child. It was interesting being perceived in the age range of having grand-kids, but then again "Mama" bought the beverage plan with her partner in crime: they were both drunk by noon, and blotto by nighttime, maxing out their 15 drinks daily included with their plan. Had they been sober, I probably would have been perceived as a parent, versus a grandparent... so let's go with that.

As the ship approached Vancouver a beautiful sunrise!

The majority of the ships passengers were Canadian. Most whom I became acquainted with suggested the ferry to Victoria instead of spending three days in Vancouver. For less than $20 total, I took a train to a bus to the ferry to another bus, and finally arrived in Victoria. While the scenery on the ferry was very pretty, it was mostly the same… for three hours, which excluded the train and buses. I didn’t book any hotel in advance figuring I’d find an area I liked, and just wander in to one: I learned several years ago that hotels would rather get some money for a room versus having it empty. The scenery in Victoria was spectacular, I took long walks, wandered through their parliament building, museums, and really enjoyed myself.

Rather than ferrying to back to Vancouver, I opted for a seaplane, only a 30 minute ride, versus bus, ferry, bus, train, then Uber. Considering the amount of time that would have taken, the seaplane was another solid value. The afternoon before my flight left from there, I met-up with my sister from another mister Maureen, and her husband Scott. Maureen and I have spoken on the phone a dozen times and have exchanged dozens of emails and messages, but never met in person. Maureen and Scott speak annually at a University in Vancouver to graduating classes of palliative care professionals. Unfortunately they’re very well versed… they lost their daughter Angela to chordoma; Angela being their only child. I’m so impressed with their tenacity and willingness to speak to the graduating classes... they continue to pay-it-forward. They’re invited back annually and make the trek in (3-4 hours of trains, planes, and automobiles) and coincidentally were in Vancouver the only full day I was there. Hmmmm… maybe some things actually do happen for a reason.

I spend my last day exploring Vancouver, found a really nice water-front park, did some light shopping, and a ton of walking. 

Early this month I traveled to Chicago for the Chordoma Foundation Community Conference. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I flew in a day early and spent Friday exploring, went to a fantastic museum/art gallery, then to a blues festival that was just ramping up. The main stage is pictured below, but there were other bands and dozens of booths on the side. The 2019 Chordoma Conference was great, and key takeaways are at this link. The main takeaway for me was something I already know: chordoma is a solvable problem and there is a significant amount of progress being made: Looking at Pubmed, I'm amazed there are so many recent chordoma papers being published. #Recent, versus what we saw published even just a few short years ago. While I no longer officially have a dog in this fight, I will see it through. Researchers have determined that when they break brachyury, the Achilles' heel of chordoma and interestingly a few other rare cancers, the tumors basically wither away.

It's a good time to be a mouse.

Something old and beautiful next to something new and well, no so much.

Chicago is very a noisy city, unlike Simi Valley. Chicago has magnificent skylines and is rich with architectural history, unlike Simi Valley. 

Last week I attended an XMO summer camp dinner: it was wonderful seeing the trainers and athletes, as well as my sister Shannon who volunteered this year. XMO leadership presented an award to Pastor Simon (from Madison and Colleen’s church) for his commitment and excellence. As Bryan was announcing the award, I’d be fibbing if I didn’t say I was choking back the tears. Madison’s mom Colleen was next to me, so trying to appear casual I asked her how it was even possible that she’s holding it together. It turns out same as me, just barely! It’s not that we were hurting, but at least for me beauty and goodness often brings joy in the form of tears. Note in the bottom left corner of the picture below; the name of the award.

Overall June has been a busy month. We bought the PPV SUV, and I finally sold Madison’s car a couple of weeks ago. She’s smiling: rather than me settling for under-powered sensibility, I have something that’s all dressed up like a US Marshall’s SUV. Wait! It was a US Marshall’s SUV, so in Blue’s Brothers lingo, the cop horn, light bars, and siren… oh my! From the rear, it looks like a Chevy Tahoe with dark windows. From the front, cop push-bar, cop-tires, and 3’ light bar (inside the windshield behind the rearview mirror), a spotlight, and ludicrously loud P.A. I know what you’re thinking and have been asked the same numerous times; how can this even be legal? The official answer is that none of it cool stuff has power connected, as far as you know.  I removed and sold the weapons locker/drawers from the rear of the SUV, so it now actually functions an actual SUV, so we can load dozens of load bags of soil, mulch, bicycles, trays of plants, etc.    

While Madison loved the maximum miles per gallon, I know in my heart that she wouldn’t want me to settle for something that I simply didn’t like to drive... her car. I’m big, her car wasn’t. I have a high center of gravity, her car is low. On an uphill freeway on-ramp, I had to rev that thing like a sewing machine just to get up to speed. The ultimate reality is that is was her car... would never feel like mine.

In the SUV I’m actually more amazed that I expected to be with how courteous people drive around me. I’m not tailgated, not cut off just ahead of a freeway off-ramps, etc. While I certainly haven’t earned nor do I deserve the respect of our anyone in law enforcement, the presence of the SUV does slow people down, dramatically reduces the selfish stupidity of impatient drivers, which makes the areas I drive much safer for everyone around me. 

Yea, I’m going with that. You're welcome :-)