More Travels With Old People

 Hi! Still here, still coping with the phenomenon that is 2025

No, really, it's FINE that a grown child of mine who has worked every day of their adult life can no longer afford health insurance. Totally normal and sensible and definitely NOT a sign of a society on the brink of collapse, no sireebob, we're good!

And you wonder why you haven't heard from me, hmmm? I feel slightly insane

BUT life goes on, even in a fascist hellscape, so let's talk about, I dunno, my trip to the Olympic Peninsula last July. As previously reported, David was not allowed to take us up any mountains, so instead we went to the beach, which involved a mile hike through woods and over some hills, because apparently there is no such thing as a simple stroll in the Pacific Northwest. The beach had humongous rocks scattered everywhere, as if a species of giants lived out there, a species completely unlike us ordinary mortals from the East Coast, with our cute little sand dunes on our accessible shorelines.

A tad intimidating, is what I'm saying

Oh, and our first night staying in Port Angeles, we were suddenly under a tsunami warning, so I texted David (who hadn't joined us yet), saying, "Ha, ha, tsunami warning, I'm sure nothing to worry about, right?" and he texted back, "So, how high is your Airbnb above sea level?" which was not exactly the reassuring response I had expected.

We don't have tsunami warnings at home -- no giant rocks, no giant waves, everything is human-sized.

We took a ferry one day to Victoria, which was very exciting, because I had never ever been to Canada, and man, they have real bike lanes and everything up there, and also universal health care, so I spent the ensuing months trying to convince Anna and her partner to move north, but no dice

Even the crossing signal has a bike on it, SO CUTE

We visited our not-so-newly retired friends for a few days while Susie returned to Seattle with David and climbed Mt. St. Helens with him, and no, I'm not sorry we missed out on that experience. Instead, we sat on our friends' deck looking out over Puget Sound and marveled at the lack of humidity and mosquitoes, just like last year, it was lovely. 

No mosquitoes, NONE

We also went on a private tour of a submarine museum, AND we revisited the marvelous hotdog place, the one with curly fries and like 20 hotdog varieties on the menu. It was a very good time, and our friends didn't make us hike one bit.

Vacation dining at its best, IMO

I don't remember August. Like, literally, no memory whatsoever. I worked, I guess? Helped a bit with the grandbabies? I dunno.

In September, Larry and I took a trip (drum roll please) to EUROPE (the Baltic states, specifically). Larry had been to Europe many times on business, but I had never before set foot on the continent, so it was an all-new experience for me. We chose an organized tour, so if anything went wrong, we could blame Road Scholar and not each other (marriage hack!).

My takeaways:

1. Flying reminds me of surgery: I might die, but I have to do it.

2. KLM has very nice cheese snacks for breakfast, highly recommend

Unexpectedly delicious

3. The Baltic states have wonderful public bathrooms, individual little rooms, complete with real doors and their own little sinks, and maybe we should do that here and everyone can quit fussing about who is going in which bathroom, that would be nice.

4. I got to touch walls that had been standing since like the 1300s or something, which is sort of mindblowing:

These are VERY OLD

5. Seeing things in person is way more interesting than seeing them on YouTube. Maybe I should have known that, but I didn't.

6. There are people who travel A LOT, I felt like a rube compared to everyone else on the trip.

7. The Tallinn (Estonia) airport is impossibly cute:

Like landing at an IKEA, right?

8. I don't like strange (to me) food, so I subsisted on potatoes and yogurt and Magnum bars, I know, it's pathetic. Essentially, Larry was traveling with a 5-year-old.

9. We saw a beautiful church in Lithuania that had been designed and built by Italians, so essentially it was like going to Rome but cheaper (travel hack!)

Definitely NOT like an IKEA

10. Our country currently looks like a total basket case when you're sitting in Europe. The news coming from the other side of the Atlantic at that point was INSANE, to the point of embarrassing. All of us on the trip assiduously avoided talking US politics the entire time, until the last night at dinner, when the woman next to me said, "So, if you WERE going to try to claim asylum over here, which country would you pick?" and the entire table immediately chimed in with their answers, so obviously everyone had been thinking about it.

And there's a lot more to talk about, but I'm going to wrap this up, because it's late and this is long enough. Thanks for letting me talk at you and post vacation photos (I mean, if there is anyone left reading this - I know posting twice a year is not a good way to keep people engaged, but hey, 2025, you know? It's been nuts)