I am off on Vacation in a couple of days… a cruise. We tend to equate travel with vacation, and travel with exploration
They are all different things…
A cruse is not really travel in the sense of exploration. It may be a vacation, an escape, but not really travel… Yes, you see a new part of the world, but a cruse is safe, contained, escorted. You see the world they (corporate travel companies) want you to see, not the real world.
To get to your cruise you fly, likely on an American airline… (a form of travel, but safe, and defiantly an exploration…) to an American airport, bus (likely provided by the cruise line) to the ship, don’t explore the city, If you spend the night stay at an airport hotel, with its chain restaurants across the street from the airport hotel, the next morning take the shuttle to the ship… don’t look at the harbor area… it’s industrial, real, not a vacation destination. Not approved for us tourists. Wait in lines, on to the ship, they may hand you a glass of champagne, take your picture, and show you to your cabin… It is nice, but not real.
On to the cabin .. It has a nice bed, a private bath, a TV, much like home… a portable home. Safe, well not safe enough, there is a safe in the closet… keep your good stuff there.
After you board its upstairs to the lido for a snack (food, we must have food…) an umbrella drink and hang off the rail while listening to a steel drum band… End of rant for now…
We are taking a different road to the ship… arrive a couple days before, hotel on the beach in Ft Lauderdale, local restaurant for dinner, breakfast at a beach joint, take in the local sites, then off to the ship… there needs to be a transition… there needs to be time to adjust. We need a sense of place as we move on.
Back to THIS cruise.
This cruise is a celebration. It is my wife’s stepmother’s 70th birthday… an homage to her 50th birthday celebration… which was also her 20th wedding anniversary (to my wives father) and his 70th birthday…. That was also a cruise. They invited his 5 children, their spouses, their (10) children (his grandchildren) along with her mother, his brothers, his cousins… etc…
That was 20 years ago… Since then Holger has died… the grandchildren have had children (the great grand children), Maureen (the stepmother) has remarried, to Zabig, the polish rocket scientist (really, a Professor Emeritus at Perdue…)
To this families credit (I married in) 20 years and the death of the patriarch have not diminished the familial connections… Maureen is still mom… mom (Annette) is also still alive, and also still mom… The family is so strong that there can be two mom’s…
So, on the occasion of her 70th birthday, the step mom, and her new husband have invited her 5 step children, their spouses, their children (her grandchildren, buy now I am dropping the “step”, and by now the list includes a step, step grandchild ) and their children (the great grand children) for a Caribbean cruise… Miami to Jamaica, to the Grand Caymans, and back to Miami….
This isn’t exploration, it isn’t just travel, but it is a celebration with family, however defined… It should be good… I know I will have a good time.
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