Quick Trip to Oregon

 (Or, Sleep is Over-rated!)

I made a quick trip out to the West Coast to see my girl. And, not coincidentally, to see the legendary Oregon Coast. The physical geography definitely lives up to the hype.

The problem is, there is no efficient way to get to where my girl is, a small inland town. I flew to and from Eugene, which required a mid-continent connecting point. The way the schedules worked out, I got into Eugene at 10 pm their time, 1 am my time. Then I picked up a car rental, and drove on down to Roseberg, another 90 minutes.

It's always a challenge to set up in a rental car, figuring it out. And my problem-solving abilities were not at peak performance in the middle of the night. This time, at least, I didn't need to search the car interior for the key fob, it was handed to me and I was given a parking space number. First, I had to try to adjust the seat so I could reach the pedals (is it electric? do I have to start the car first?) and then adjust the mirrors. I'm used to a proximity fob in place of a key, but after searching for a button to push I found instead a place to insert a key. I studied the small, square fob and finally found a button that caused a key to pop out. It started right up, but because it was a hybrid, it didn't sound like it had started. But things on the dash lighted up. Next task was connecting the screen to my phone where I had input my Roseberg motel address. I had cleverly brought both USB-A and USB-C cords with me, because I once had to switch cars due to having only the wrong cord. So imagine my surprise to find the cord was only charging, not connecting to the systems. Finally, in the menu, I found something saying "cord for Android only, activate Apple Car Play via bluetooth". So finally I pulled out of the parking lot and set out.

It was very very dark. It wasn't far to the single expressway that went all the way to Roseberg. But the expressway was dark and winding, requiring attention and both hands on the wheel. I knew I needed noise in the car to stay awake and alert. I had set up my book to play, and started it when on the expressway. It ran five minutes to the end of the chapter and stopped. In no position to take my eyes off the road or a hand more than momentarily off the wheel, I punched Apple music and the "Just for you" box that popped up. 

AAARRRGGGGHHHH! When did Apple decide I had absolutely APPALLING taste in music? There was a series of 70s and 80s disco country pop schlock playing, most of which I had never heard before, but all of which was horrible. I kept hitting "skip" and something else awful came on. Finally, I punched enough buttons to find my own actual playlists, and started up an R&B series that Apple took and ran off with, much better (though still maybe not my first choice). Upon sober reflection the next day, I'm guessing the horrible mix came about because of the singing group I'm in. Every new session, I make up a playlist of the original recordings of the songs we are going to do, and every session there are some real stinkers in the mix, along with many fun ones. Karen Carpenter, anyone?  

So finally I got to my motel, just a block from the expressway, and fell asleep the instant my head hit the pillow. 

At the seal habitat

The next morning, Friday, I went and picked up my girl. She is living in a nice house with co-workers. Everyone else was off at work, so we just packed up and headed to the coast, two or more hours away.

More difficult driving - windy 2-lane roads through the (gorgeous) mountains, often with a steep drop-off and no guard rail. But the coast was worth it! And so, frankly, was the drive. Remember those middle and high school days when a drive was how to capture your kid and maybe have an actual conversation? I learned a lot about my girl's life out there. She is doing difficult work, difficult physically, mentally, and emotionally, taking all of the actual job, the company she works for, and the environment she lives in, into account. So brave! So capable! 

We went up to look at a seal habitat off a state park, catching our breath in the brisk cold constant wind. After contemplating the seal family dynamics for a while, we hit up a vegan restaurant in Coos Bay. Then off to a little local sea aquarium, that had tanks filled with water circulating from the bay right there, and many interested sea creatures. My girl knew them all! 

By then, we could check into our fabulous motel for the next two nights. Built on a hillside looking over the ocean in Bandon, Oregon, every room had a water view and a balcony. We both crashed for a while, took a little walk, brought some Chinese food back to the room, and crashed again. 

Puffin sculpture made of
beach-combed garbage

Saturday was our chill day. We drove 10 minutes to a beach access, and walked along the cliff and down by the water. The wind! The wind was whipping around at nearly 20 knots, as it apparently does all the time. It was high tide, and there was some shelter from the wind down on the beach.

Back to the room for another rest, then a foray on foot down through the little town of Bandon. We found an art gallery / local foodstuffs place built in an old warehouse, and picked up a couple of goodies. We picked a horrible place for lunch - waited 45 minutes for avocado toast and bowl of chowder - and the chowder was served with oyster crackers that were rancid and smelled awful. Oh well. We walked down to a dairy for some really good ice cream, and we had leftover Chinese food in the room in case of emergency.

More chill out in the room, watching the view and dozing. We had a low-tide rendezvous planned at other beach access point. My girl was excited to get to tide pools at low tide and see who and what was living there. It was absolutely the most fun ever! Rocks that had been surrounded by water before were high and dry, and many had tunnels and passageways through them. We saw some critters, and I got a commentary on the life styles of tidal animals.

High tide- later, we walked to those rocks

We did dinner again on foot in town at the brew pub - something every little town has. We were actually surprised at how not-crowded the town and restaurants were, considering it is a tourist town and the weather was fabulous. Back in the room, we figured out how to get Netflix loaded onto the TV, and watched the movie "Remarkably Bright Creatures".  This fun and enjoyable movie is told partially from the POV of an old smart octopus that lives in a cute little local aquarium a lot like the one we had visited the day before, so it was highly appropriate.

Sunday morning, up and out of the room by 6:30 am. Drop my girl in Roseberg, and off to Eugene airport. Arrived in Chicago to find the flight on to DC was delayed by several hours due to thunderstorms on the East Coast. So we finally landed at DCA at 12:30 am, and then sat on the tarmac in sight of the terminal for another 90 minutes before we got to a gate. (Is there anything more frustrating than staring at your destination a short walk away for more than an hour?) Not too many Ubers at that time of night, and they charge a premium. But the DC metro shuts down in the wee hours and it was way too far to walk. Finally, walked in my door at nearly 3 am.  VERY long day.

 

But worth it! 

 

Stylish dog on my plane

 

Moving Along

I'm feeling kind of at loose ends at the moment - waiting for things to happen. They start happening next week! But right now, I'm filling time with chores.

The good news is, I've really been feeling a lot more energetic recently. I've motivated myself by scheduling things to happen, and I'm out there doing things to clear the decks so when they do (happen), I'll be able to take advantage. So chores and more chores it is - gardening and house, mostly. But I'm getting things done that have literally sat on a list for years. Trivial things, not major improvements, but things that I notice or that make a little difference in each day. So some feeling of satisfaction from that.

And more satisfaction from the fact I am clearly stronger than a year ago. It's obvious in my weight workouts. It's also showing up in the activity stats my watch collects. So far this year, my average steps are higher than the previous three years. That makes them the highest since my counted steps fell off a cliff at the end of 2022. (Why did they fall off a cliff? I went back and looked - I think I decided to let my knees determine how much I moved overall. The knee operation was in November 2023 - and I spent much of the year waiting for it.)

The less good news includes my knees - both of them - are hurting more than a little. Not so that I can't walk, just enough for me to feel them every time I climb stairs. But I've decided not to allow them to limit me so much. I'm squatting and lunging and stair climbing away. And walking and standing. My doctor has assured me that I will not damage the knees by using them, and I choose to believe him. And really, they usually feel at their worst when I start an activity, and feel no worse, or even better, as I move along.

More less good news is that my weight loss has slowed or stalled. I weigh every day I'm home, and the weight jumps around a lot each day: down .4 pounds, then up .8, then down .3, then down another .1, then up .2 .... Pop quiz: did I lose weight or not? Picking a trend out is not so easy - I have to use averages, step back and squint. Are any of the numbers the lowest I've seen this year? That's a positive sign! But then up 2.4 pounds the very next day! I won't stop the daily stepping on the scale, but I'm only rarely spending any time figuring out what that means for the trend.

I am spending that time right now, because I'm coming up on the time to order my next four weeks of meds. Is it time to increase the dosage? I'm definitely having more food thoughts, a change from a few weeks ago when I was more gliding along. So continuing to look at the weight data is important, but so is assessing how much effort I'm putting into managing my food. I liked when it seemed more easy and natural to make the right choices.

So I'll continue to monitor for the next few days. Unless I have a big whoosh of a loss in the next week (usually heralded by peeing my brains out), I'm going to request the next higher dosage. The good news is, that will give me two weeks to get used to that higher dosage (5.0) before I go away on vacation. The internet has many horror stories of side effects - I don't take them all seriously. But someone pointed out that this first step increase is the only time the dosage is literally doubled. Each additional increase is another 2.5 mg, but  it's a smaller percentage increase. 

To make me feel better, here is the big picture - my weight as an adult:

Each horizontal line is 10 pounds. The red line is where I stabilized before. 
The blue line is my goal weight in previous weight loss efforts.

 

I'm back down to the pre-intuitive-eating weight, before I decided "Fuck It, I'm just eating". Yay! And on this scale, you can't really tell that the slope has tapered off in the last month. So I really like this picture.

 

 

Diving Deeper: Nuance, But It's Still Lovely

I was grabbed by a headline in the NY Times today, "How to Be Old". Hey, I'm old, and I'd like to know how to be! So I read the piece. Very forgettable. Except for the very last line: "I’m fond of quoting the poet Philip Larkin: “What will survive of us is love.” That should do it." What a lovely thought! I was charmed, and intrigued.

As the NYTimes does, there was a link to the whole poem at the Poetry Foundation website, "An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin. (The link is preserved in my cut-and-pasted quote above.) I have as an attribute the ability to fall deep down rabbit holes, to keep digging deeper on something that interests me. In fact, one set of feedback from a corporate assessment process described me this way: "When you read an interesting book, you will go look up additional references. More, you will collect many books on different aspects of the same subject, and you will actually read most of those."

Guilty as charged. When I am into something, I'm all the way in. I clicked through to the provided link, and read the whole poem. Then I read the commentary from the Poetry Foundation. Then I read more, and this short quote is not all there is to the poem, or the story.

Philip Larkin is no Mary Oliver; he was a cynic, an atheist, and "notoriously grumpy". My man! Dude! Where have you been all my life? I guess this is what I get for majoring in field trips rather than English. I mean, I'd heard the name, but had no idea what he was about.

Here, the poet is musing on how much we want to believe in love, even when it is not true or pure or simple. Here is the whole thing:

 

An Arundel Tomb

By Philip Larkin

 

Side by side, their faces blurred,   

The earl and countess lie in stone,   

Their proper habits vaguely shown   

As jointed armour, stiffened pleat,   

And that faint hint of the absurd—   

The little dogs under their feet.

Such plainness of the pre-baroque    

Hardly involves the eye, until

It meets his left-hand gauntlet, still   

Clasped empty in the other; and   

One sees, with a sharp tender shock,   

His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

They would not think to lie so long.   

Such faithfulness in effigy

Was just a detail friends would see:

A sculptor’s sweet commissioned grace   

Thrown off in helping to prolong   

The Latin names around the base.

They would not guess how early in

Their supine stationary voyage

The air would change to soundless damage,   

Turn the old tenantry away;

How soon succeeding eyes begin

To look, not read. Rigidly they

Persisted, linked, through lengths and breadths   

Of time. Snow fell, undated. Light

Each summer thronged the glass. A bright   

Litter of birdcalls strewed the same

Bone-riddled ground. And up the paths   

The endless altered people came,

Washing at their identity.   

Now, helpless in the hollow of   

An unarmorial age, a trough

Of smoke in slow suspended skeins   

Above their scrap of history,   

Only an attitude remains:

Time has transfigured them into   

Untruth. The stone fidelity

They hardly meant has come to be   

Their final blazon, and to prove   

Our almost-instinct almost true:   

What will survive of us is love.

I think it is a better and truer choice to quote the last TWO lines:

Our almost-instinct almost true:
What will survive of us is love.

It's the "almost" that makes it real and profound to me, not a saccharine myth, but the human reality. In their day, marriage among the aristocracy was not a matter of romance, but rather business. But we want this romantic image to be true. And by wanting it, it will become more true.

(And, I'm as touched by the little dogs as by their clasped hands.) 

I was able to get an ebook of a novel Larkin wrote, so I'm ready to continue to dive even deeper. Apparently I have to go analogue to get any of his poetry books. Maybe.

May Check-in

Me, in mixed white stripes on a sunny day.
It's important to have contrast, thus red shoes.
And for accessories, my black-and-white dog.

Today starts my 13th week on the weight loss meds. I started February 12. How am I doing? So far, so good! Things are going pretty well!

As of today, I've lost about 15 pounds. This is fuzzy, because I waffle on what my starting weight was. My weight is volatile on a daily basis. But since there is no official registry of my weight or weight loss, I have decided to measure from the single highest weight I have been this year, on January 24. That was right after my January vacation and about three weeks before I started the drug. But it's a choice that makes me feel good, because it shows today's numbers in the best light. And who am I accountable to for this? No-one, that is! So let's go with the feel-good choice!

Speaking of feelings, how do I feel overall? Pretty good, that's how! This is a big change from a couple of weeks ago. I got home from France having over-exerted myself and with a head cold, and felt crummy throughout the body a lot of the time. My internet buds tell me often the GLP-1 drugs lead to a decrease in arthritis swelling and pain, both for rheumatoid and osteo forms (I have osteo). But I felt crummy throughout my joints and muscles, all.

But that was two weeks ago! Now, I feel SO much better! What am I doing that might be helping this? 

- Prioritizing sleep. Rigorous go-to-bed times. On those occasions I'm awake in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, and I end up with less than six hours sleep, I take a nap. But that's happening less, the past couple of weeks. I've racked up some super slumber time.

- Prioritizing exercise. I've been doing a functional strength workout with a trainer twice a week for some time now, but I'm pushing myself harder and volunteering for heavier weights. And, significantly, I've added back a cardio component. I did this in February, then fell off the bandwagon in March and early April. On the trip, I was appalled at how out of shape I was for all the walking I did. So back onto a cardio machine four times a week now. It's for just 15 minutes right now, but I'm pushing my heart rate up high and keeping it there for most of the time. After three weeks of this, I'm able to keep up a much higher intensity for most of the ride. Nothing motivates me quite like actually seeing the improvement!

- Taking a supplement and a longer-term anti-inflammatory. For my frequent body pains, I take tylenol. I can't take ibuprofen because it ruined my stomach. Tylenol helps quickly with pain, but does nothing to change the underlying condition. But let's not discount dealing with the pain! I also had in my medicine cabinet from my knee doctor a vial of a prescription anti-inflammatory, Celebrex. It doesn't act quickly, but over time it is supposed to be very good at treating inflammation. I've got a couple of months supply on hand for daily consumption. In addition my doctor recommended, in an off-hand way, taking a supplement I'd never heard of, Co Q10. I still don't know what it does or how it does it, but I'm taking it daily. Of course I've googled it, but evidence on supplements is scarce and shaky. But it doesn't seem to be hurting me, at least.

Sleep, exercise, and tylenol make me feel better right away, and the first two also have longer-lasting positive impacts. But I'm not sure I'd stick with them without the immediate impact. I've always had a hard time believing in the impact of vitamins, supplements, and long-term remedies. You have to take them on faith, faith in the science and studies. But tracing how I feel right now to these longer term remedies is tenuous at best.

So I feel good right now! Yay! But I am suspicious, and I don't trust that this will continue. But I'm continuing with both the supplement and the drug, as an experiment. It's an experiment with a flawed design, since I changed a few things at once. But just in case it's making a difference, I'll continue for now. 

They say that 15 pounds is about a clothing size. The truth is, I was in denial about how heavy I was for the past year - I assumed I'd lose the weight in a week a or two. So I had bought very few clothes for my large size, and instead wore clothes that strained a bit. So now, those clothes are fitting much better! 

My wardrobe in retirement consists mostly of clothes in which I can hike, garden or sail. I have in my closet wedding/fancy clothes, but not much of nicer but not dressy clothes. When we went casual at work many years ago, I was wary of specific prescriptions of what constituted suitable clothes. I suggested a test: if, when you got home, you were going to mow the lawn, change the oil on your car, whip up a huge batch of floury bread from scratch, or hike a few miles on the Appalachian Trail, and you didn't feel a need to change from your office attire first, then your office attire was incorrect. Those very slightly nicer clothes are the ones I've been digging out of my closet and trying on. The picture at the top is an example. I'm still not sure I'm suited for white clothes, because my impulse to just drop to my knees outside and start pulling weeds is somewhat incompatible. I don't want to look like a fashion plate, but I'm trying to not look like I'm about to hike when all I'm doing is meeting someone for lunch.

Normandy

Woke up to this!

The joys of a riverboat became clear when we sailed away from Paris in the night. When I woke up Saturday morning, we were moored on the bank of the Seine in the little town of Conflans. When I opened my drapes, I saw a swan swimming past in the early sunlight. After breakfast, we climbed on some buses and drove about a half hour to the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Vincent van Gogh spent some time at the end of his life, and where he died and is buried. 

All the towns we visited were built of ancient stone in their central areas. Even where there were relatively new buildings, they re-used a lot of the old stones. Auvers was particularly scenic, hence van Gogh's time there, and many of the impressionists as well. The narrow streets and painted doors and vining flowers reminded me of my cousin Jane's art. She would go to Europe for the summer, and take a gazillion photographs. Then returning home, she worked in an art gallery and painted intimate scenes of streets like I saw in the town.

Very Vincent, no?

Auvers is making money on Vincent these day, but to the benefit of tourists like me. They have chosen to preserve many of the landscapes and scenes he painted, so that they look much as they did when he was there. I enjoyed moving through the fields and streets and seeing in my mind's eye the paintings. 

While in Auvers, I visited a little bakery our guide had pointed out. I happened to go in before any other folks from the ship, was the only customer there, and managed to discuss (entirely in French) which pastry was the next best since they were sold out of plain croissants. I got an almond croissant (heavenly!) tapped my watch to pay. Very pleased with myself!

From the cliff; not far from Paris!

Wandering back through town

After lunch back on the boat I set off on a walk along the river bank. Many large barges were moored along the banks, usually three deep (as in, one tied to the river bank, another tied to it further out, and a third still further out- they would walk across each other's boats to get aboard or ashore). They were permanent homes, with mailboxes, electrical cables, and laundry hanging on lines on deck. After a mile or so, I turned inland. The shape of the land was typical of what we would see: one or two roads along the river bank, and then a steep chalk and limestone cliff, with much of the town built up on the cliff to avoid flood (and invaders, I suppose). I walked back along the cliff edge, and wandered into a section with just foot traffic and stairs, too steep for cars and with the old houses crowded close together. It was charming!

Richard the Lion-Heart's castle above the town

The castle ruins

I love looking at these towns!

There are two ships in the picture, side by side.
Ours is the one closest to shore.

We sailed during the night again (and there were locks we went down as we headed towards the sea, but almost all of them were at night and I missed them. We woke up to see another lovely little town, this one with a ruined castle looming over it. After breakfast, we learned about how the castle was built by Richard the Lion-Hearted (that mass murderer personally designed and supervised it) as a state of the art fortress, and lost to the French after his death, in a particularly gruesome, long, and brutal siege where the biggest losers were of course the peasants and townfolk caught up in a conflict that had nothing to do with them. We walked up the steep hill to see the ruins and the view, and we enjoyed some of the best weather of the entire trip.

As it was Sunday, only a couple of tourist shops were open, but again just wandering was fun. That afternoon and night, we pushed on to our northern-most stop. (We were never more than a couple of hours from Paris - the Seine River is extremely twisty and curvy.)  I saw nothing of that town, because Monday was a full day bus tour to the Normandy D-Day beaches and sites. 

Omaha beach today

Normandy was surprisingly moving to me. To be clear, I have no personal, close, family connection to it - my father served during the war, but he was young enough that he was just finishing training when the war was over, so he never went overseas. Other male relatives, and those of childhood friends (when the war was sometimes a topic of conversation), were all in the Pacific. But ever the diligent student, I studied up by downloading and watching the movie The Longest Day. It tells the story of D-Day from multiple points of view, American (John Wayne), British, German, French. I had downloaded the movie to bring along, and I stopped it a few times to look up things on Wikipedia.

The sheer scale of D-Day was astounding. I don't believe anything like it has happened in my lifetime anywhere in the world. In 24 hours, more than 150,000 men were landed in a 50 mile stretch of Normandy. The vast bulk were sent ashore on the beaches, but there were also parachutists and glider landings. On Omaha Beach, the first wave of landings suffered ninety-percent casualties! (Think Saving Private Ryan.) It was uncertain whether the landing would succeed - the German general Rommel knew that his best hope was to never let them get off of the exposed beach and establish points where more troops could come ashore safely. But there are a couple of scenes in the movie where the Germans are trying to get Hitler's permission (required) to move up troops and tanks. First, he's taking a nap and no-one will wake him. Then, he had an unrelated temper tantrum and no-one was willing the broach the topic. (This made me put my hand over my face and weep for us, too familiar to be funny.)

The first village inland to be liberated
Paratroopers came in the night before the beach landings 
and landed in the village itself by mistake
On the church steeple, we see a parachute and a dummy - 
someone was caught there all day and played dead until it was safe

My words are inadequate for the cemetery

 

It was a long day with a lot of different stops and much walking. I was drained when we got back to the ship.

The next day dawned foggy and mysterious. While the boat headed back upstream towards Paris, we took a bus to the well-preserved beautiful little town of Honfleur, almost at the mouth of the Seine. It was filled with galleries and restaurants and gift shops, very geared to holidays and tourists, but still completely charming. And you know I was so pleased to see actual working boats!

Lots of well preserved half-timbered buildings.

A sheltered boat basin - there was a larger but more exposed harbor

Our guide for the morning.
I admired how committed she was to red,
head to toes to fingertips, most in velvet!

 

After the morning in lovely Honfleur, I was almost too tired for the afternoon highlight, the much larger city of Rouen. But I'm glad I roused myself to walk around - it is also charming with a lot to see. The cathedral itself was worth a lot of time - even just the outside. I was struck how they were able to make the stone carvings look so delicate! And, plenty of half timbered buildings, and stone buildings, and sites made famous by burning Joan of Arc there. Rouen would be worth a stay of at least a couple of days. I hear there are trains from Paris.

Facade of the cathedral in Rouen

Delicate stonework filigree

I never learned the story, but big teddy bears 
were a frequent motif throughout Normandy

Yet another quaint street!

 The next day, Wednesday, was to be a highlight - Monet's garden and house at Giverny! I had not actually been so thrilled, yeah yeah, I've seen gardens. But I was awestruck! I took literally 100 photos! You get just a handful here. The colors! The patterns! The repetitions with variations! The rhythms! I could have spent the day sitting on a bench and gazing.

 

And then, we were back in Paris. I stopped at a couple of well known highlights, and I went shopping. In the left bank neighborhood of the ship, I had spotted Galleries Lafayette - not THE Galleries, but a new one, attached to a modern mall. With my friend, we went looking for accessories. I got a couple of scarves, lovely! But not from the designer level (but no less lovely for that). Then we went to a supermarket, and I got some spices and blends. Everyone complained at Christmas that our Norwegian bread didn't have enough cardamom flavor, even though the baker tripled the amount from the recipe. I was very excited to buy some whole cardamom seeds, and I look forward to grinding them for our Julekage at Christmas. I picked up a couple of things for gifts, if I can bear to give them away.

I packed up, rode a Tesla taxi to the airport (my first time in a Tesla!) and had a completely uneventful flight home. When I walked in the door, I was completely endoggened, and knew I was home. 

France - Overview

This was a great trip! It is always a bit of an risk, taking a trip without knowing anyone else, but it worked out great. I am totally fine doing the traveling-to-destination on my own; I had years of experience during my heavy travel days at United. And now, on vacation, I love wandering around new places during the day on my own, but I do enjoy being with others at the end of the day to compare notes while relaxing with drinks and dinner. My tall ship experiences by their nature require constant interaction with crew and fellow passengers, and Road Scholar trips (my Norway and Greece trips) tend towards interactive experiences. I know river cruises are geared towards couples (all the boats are made with only double cabins) and so I wasn't sure how it would go. 

The flight over was uneventful, what we all hope for. I went back and forth on whether to check my bag, which was about the maximum carry-on size allowed. My checked bag did not arrive with me in Norway last summer, and since this cruise departed the same day I arrived I was afraid a late bag would never catch up with me. On the other hand, it was a single non-stop, and so I took the risk and checked it. (Spoiler, no problem.) In spite of talk about long TSA lines, things moved quickly at Dulles. Certain airlines and airport combinations allow you to upload a photo of your passport in advance to the airline app, and then go through the pre-check "touchless" lane - I didn't even have to show the passport as it took a new photo and compared it to my passport on file. I had gotten a "miles + money" upgrade to business class on the way over, and with the lie-flat bed I got a solid, deep, almost three hours sleep on the way over - so much better than sitting up in coach! If I hadn't done the upgrade, I probably would have flown over a day early and gotten a hotel room to catch up on sleep.  

There had been a lot of internet buzz about the new European/Schengen region "EES" (Entry and Exit System) which will use biometrics to record every person from outside the region. There is a regulation requiring it to be in full effect as of the day I arrived. There are kiosks at all ports of entry to the Schengen region (The EC plus Scandinavia, Switzerland, a few others but not UK anymore), where initial biometric readings of fingerprints as well as face photos would be taken and stored. Eventually, the idea is not to need passport documents at all, but setting up the database would obviously take time initially. So there were warnings about huge delays upon arrival. I was arriving in the morning, and the ship wasn't scheduled to depart until evening, so I wasn't worried. As it turns out, my flight got in early, at 7:15 am, and they didn't have the kiosks up and running. So processing was relatively smooth, passport scan, photo to compare, stamp by human being. BTW, this EES system is separate from the ETIAS system scheduled for the EC in the fall, essentially a visa system good for multiple visits for a few years at a time. 

After getting my bag, I called the boat to verify its location, to ask what exactly to tell the taxi driver about how to find the boat. The person I spoke to was SO NICE and pleasant - and he set the tone for absolutely all the staff on the ship. An official taxi is much more expensive than the train, but anywhere in the city of Paris from the airport is a fixed rate, no meter or negotiation. I had decided in advance to go with that, rather than schlepp my bag or deal with uncertainty. To my surprise, the taxi driver spoke no English, but my fatigued brain was able to limp along enough in French to convey what he needed.

Arrival on Paris riverbank, fatigued!
Eiffel Tower way in background.

Cabins would be ready by 2 pm, but it was still morning when I arrived at the boat on the Seine. I dropped my bags, had a glass of water and used the restroom, was invited to have a pastry and hang out in the lounge, but I instead set out on a walk. The boat was just inside the city limits all the way downstream on the left bank, and the Eiffel Tower was a couple of kilometers away along the bank. The weather was lovely, and I had scouted the neighborhood on-line before leaving. I walked along the river bank, decided I wouldn't make it all the way to the tower, and headed inland. I visited a supermarket, stopped for a sandwich at a sidewalk cafe, and just looked at things. I also stopped in a pharmacy, where I bought a fancy facecream/moisturizer with SPF 30 in it, and also three different brands of sunscreen. (Internet research had indicated EU sunscreens have some formulations not approved in the US. My current favorite US sunscreen makes my eyes water and my nose run, though it feels fine on the rest of my body. I used the face cream on the ship, the sunscreens await trial as the weather gets warm here.) I hung out for a while on a reclining bench by the Seine, soaking up sunshine while listening to my Paris-set mystery novel. Finally, back to the ship, where my cabin was ready a bit early. I started unpacking, but the bed called, and I took a deep but relatively short nap.

The first night, we all met in the lounge and did quick introductions (about 130 guests on the boat). It became obvious that not only was it almost entirely couples, but mostly groups of couples traveling together. In age, I may have been about the median. But as we broke up from intros and headed to dinner, I ended up next to what turned out to be the only other solo woman on board! We agreed to find a place to sit together, which was a relief because the dining room set up was tables for 4, 6 or 8. It would be awkward, especially with all those big groups, to occupy only one seat at one of those tables, closing off another couple from using it. We picked a table set for 6, with two couples already there. It was fortunate! They were friends traveling together, but they were really open, friendly, and funny. Laughter at the table ensued, we sat with them every night, and have exchanged photos and emails. We sat with others, also friendly, at lunch, and breakfast usually I was on my own because no talking before coffee.

My new friend Susan and I

My new friend Susan and I agreed to join the same smaller group for tours each day, and we exchanged texts so we could double check neither was being left behind. Mostly, however, I did my own thing and she did hers, our preferred modes of operating. It was a nice arrangement. She had been a bank examiner, a professor of finance, and lastly a diplomat as her third career! She had been on three foreign tours, Mongolia, Poland, and I forget the third. So she was an accomplished and confident traveler. Also extremely amusing.

My cabin aboard was roughly three times the size of my cabin in Norway in January, very nice with a lot of storage and a mini fridge. The bathroom with shower was about as small as it could get, the same size as the Norwegian one. I had a floor-to-ceiling window that opened. Sometimes the view from my cabin was great, and sometimes it was blocked by another riverboat tied up to next to us. Some times we had to walk across the other ship to get to ours. 

Robes were provided, and I was surprised to see shipboard laundry service was available, I thought it wouldn't be. But I had brought the right clothes and didn't need it.

The weather was forecast the whole time to be between 45-65, with chance of showers every day. Pretty much that's what we got, though only really rained on once. 

For the nine days, seven nights aboard, I had brought the following clothes, and wore them all (including airplane clothes):

- Three pair of pants (one water-resistant hiking, two nicer but comfy stretch with good pockets)
- Five tees (two merino, three cotton, merino worn multiple times)
- One big overshirt (slight mistake, works best as top layer, not good under a sweater, should have brought a smaller one for layering)
- Three sweaters (one fleece, two wool, could have got by with one less bulky wool sweater)
- Enough underwear and socks for clean every day (luxury since I had room in bag, no sink laundry required!)
- Sweatpants and tee for pajamas (nice enough to wear for workout or very early coffee run)
- Two silk scarves, two buffs (small infinity scarf) One chunky necklace (Wore buffs during day, scarves or necklace for dinner at night)
- Three pair of soft shoes (should have brought more sturdy sneakers for cobblestones)
- Light rain jacket
- Light down puffy jacket (what the Scandis call "summer weight down")

My next post will be about the specific destinations we visited. Pretty much, each day we had a two shore-based opportunities, walking or bus tours, with lunch back on the ship. They would divide us up into groups for tours. They used a technology for the tours that I really like and appreciate, and has been used on most guided tours I've done in the past several years. Basically, it's a short distance radio, where the tour leader has a microphone and every person has a receiver and an ear bud. It allows you to listen to the tour guide while wandering around a bit and not jockeying for position to listen. The tours involved a lot of walking (I averaged over 10,000 steps a day for the trip), and the guides were very informative, universally excellent. But still, sometimes I skipped the organized tour and wandered on my own. I hadn't done the kind of detailed research and planning I would do if I was all on my own, but I did enough to keep interesting things to see. 

The food was a nice part of the trip. Breakfast and lunch were buffets, and dinner was usually four courses plated. There was an appetizer, choice of a clear or cream soup, a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian for main, and dessert, sometimes a choice. They had their own ice cream machine, and ice cream (my kryptonite) was available at every lunch and dinner. 

Typical dinner main, nice presentation. 
The plated food was not big food, 
very European.

As you know, I was a little worried about how eating would work out. Sadly, but maybe fortunately, the croissants on board were not up to snuff. (I did buy one at a bakery ashore and it was fabulous, but I didn't finish it. I got my croissant fix, at least.) They had European and American breakfast choices. I got into a routine of a heaping portion of fresh fruit, maybe topped with a small amount of yogurt, big scoop of scrambled eggs, one bit of breakfast meat (bacon or sausage) and a small pastry, which I didn't always finish. For lunch, they had soup, salad bar, hot bar meat, veggie and starch, hamburgers and fries available to order, and a baked dessert and ice cream. Again, as a routine, I usually did hot meat and cooked veggies, supplemented with something from the salad bar to get more fiber (like garbanzo beans if there was gravy). Susan started and I followed having *two* lunch desserts! But again, I often tasted but didn't finish them. I did have a problem on the buffets with my eyes being bigger than my stomach (as my mother used to say) and I resigned from the clean plate club. But I was happy with how it all worked out. I skipped nothing because I thought I "should" skip it. And I ate nothing that didn't bring pleasure. Because lunch was usually around noon, and dinner at 7:30, I wanted an afternoon snack, and I got in the habit of munching some of my dried edamame beans in my cabin before heading up to the lounge.

There was a daily cocktail hour in the lounge, which included a group discussion of the day, and what to expect the following day. I had a couple of pre-dinner drinks, but not every day. And with dinner, beer and wine were included. It turns out I didn't love the wines (I'm not such a wine person) except for one night where a Cote du Rhone was fabulous and went down way too fast. The house German draft beer was good, and it came in a small size that often I didn't finish - but I really enjoyed what I had.

I was in coach on the flight back. There were more internet horror stories about the time required to make it through CDG to the gate, so I arranged a taxi to get me there four hours before the flight (internet said three hours minimum - I had to be out of my room early so it made sense to me to get to the airport early rather than sit in the boat lounge and fret). There was speculation about needing to register for the EES system on the way out, but instead they were just using the buggy old passport / face matching system. It took 90 minutes from bag check to gate. I had time to visit the duty free - sadly for me, it was mostly high end fashion and not liquor. I was interested in cider or brandy from Normandy, but in the terminal I was in, the selection was sparse. There was lots of designer shops, though, many with velvet ropes across the doors barring entry unless you were up to their standards.

Uneventful flight home, used the CBP app to speed immigration (I don't have Global Entry, but the app takes your uploaded passport and your checkin upon arrival to match with a face scan), bag was ready quickly, and my BIL picked me up and delivered me home. After sitting for so long, and walking so much all week, my OG bad knee collapsed on the way up the steps to my house and my BIL had to carry my suitcase in. I was so happy to get home where I was instantly smothered with dogs and dog hair. 

The next morning, I was up by 5 am, and got on the scale with trepidation, prepared for a big jump up. But yay! The exact same number I saw the day I left! That is a victory, when ice cream was a thing every day, and sometimes twice! Moderation is my new middle name. 

I don't have anything booked for between now and Antarctica. I might need to change that, but we'll see how my finances and legs feel after a week or so (boat coming out of boat yard, dryer needing fixed or replaced).  

Pre-Trip Musings and Tidbits

I'm in a whirlwind of chores to get ready to leave for France. But in the midst of all of this activity, I'm also in my first little stall in weight loss, eight weeks in. It's not really a stall until it's lasted for way way longer than this. At this point, it's only been a week. But I'm concerned, wondering what is up. Is it that the meds aren't working, and I should up my dose? Or is it that I'm not eating and behaving appropriately? How is this going to affect my trip? 

I went on weight loss meds because I want to create an environment where I can be successful at losing weight and maintaining a lower weight without a huge amount of mental or physical effort to always be focused on eating the right things. (By physical effort, I mean the logistics of buying and preparing food. I know I will always need physical effort to be strong. Exercise till the day I die, baby.) The Weight Watchers app is a great tool to guide and track my food choices, but I don't want it to be my most used phone app every single day!

In the last three weeks I've had a birthday and an unusual-for-me number of social engagements involving food. I've relaxed and eaten what I want, in the quantities that feel right to me in the moment. I'm not meticulously pre-planning every day in advance to make sure I'm going to hit my targets. Instead, I'm more going with the flow, mostly going to my go-to foods I know help get me where I want, but swapping things out as the mood takes me. I thought, "I've got this nailed! Easy-peasy!" Based on recent scale evidence, maybe I shouldn't (yet) trust myself this way. 

I've found that in restaurants, my choices and my portions are different than they would have been before the meds. Those things that would have appealed to me in the past, carb and fat laden, (Alfredo pastas, I'm looking at you!) don't appeal quite as much. Fat especially is off-putting to me. But that is when I really stop and reflect before ordering, and when eating. If I charge ahead without much thought, old habits are right there. I go to the old staples on the menu, and then regret it.  Portions are easier. I fill up more quickly, and unless I'm really wolfing something down with no pause, I will stop well before I'm done. 

I read an article recently (I'm not taking the time to go back and search where, but probably in a newspaper, and probably now I think about it, the Wall Street Journal). The article was speculating on how the new weight loss drugs would impact the food industry. There is actually a lot of speculation about how supermarkets might need to change, but this article wasn't buying it. The author notes how use of the GLP-1 drugs is very much NOT evenly spread through the population. So, looking at the supermarket shopping carts of those on the drug, healthier foods will be spotted than in the average American shopping cart. But, the author asserts, that is likely because those currently on the drugs are those who already eat healthier than normal, are more affluent, more likely to shop at farmer's markets and less likely to buy fast food. But as the drugs become cheaper and more wide spread in their use, the demographics of those taking them will change. If the major effect of the drugs is to re-calibrate hunger and fullness (the author speculates), perhaps the type of foods in folks' shopping carts will not change much. After all, his final well-put thought is, "half a Big Mac is still a Big Mac, it's not an apple". It is too soon, he says, to change over our food system to different types of food. I don't know if he's right, but he has a major point on the demographics. And, on still going for a Big Mac, even if you can't finish it.

So I'm going to be in France, well known for taking food seriously. And excellently. And using butter and cream in everything. On the other hand, I'll be on a river boat where three meals a day are provided. Perhaps the boat cuisine will not that great. I'm not wishing for that, oh no, not at all, just speculating. (The internet reviews tell me it'll be great.) I certainly will not be seeking out the best restaurants in every port of call, though if on-board croissants aren't up to snuff, I will absolutely seek those out elsewhere! I intend to deny myself nothing during the trip, because food is definitely part of the experience. But maybe I'll be able to have a few elegant and savored bites, and be done.  I'm also taking along some dried edamame and garbanzo bean snacks for travel days, and if I feel like I'm not getting enough protein or fiber.

Already, weeks ago, I resigned myself to having a bit of a vacation bump-up in weight. My experience in the past is this always has happened, and generally I've gone back to my previous set point within a week of returning. But now, going into the vacation with a mini-stall, I'm worried. And, because I always borrow trouble plan ahead, I'm thinking about when I renew my Zepbound prescription for the next four weeks. That renewal is scheduled for the day I come back from the trip, and I had assumed I'd stay on my same low dose for another month. That was based on continuing to lose at that dose. I think I can delay requesting the renewal for a few days after I come back, but no matter what the scale says, I (currently) think I should just stay at this dosage through May. By then, I'll have significantly more evidence about how the drugs are affecting me and what it will take for consistent, continuing, weight loss. Time enough to bump up later, if needed.

In the meantime...

 

Most of these linen and cotton shirts were "hang to dry" anyway
But they definitely need ironing now!
The weird pink thing is a strawberry tower - 
check out the garden blog

I still haven't bothered to get my dryer repaired or replaced. Luckily, we've had some sunny weather, and the clothesline in the back yard works great. I don't hang my underwear out there, though! It's fairly private, but not completely. Everything takes longer to line dry, though, so I've had to plan way ahead on what I'm taking on the trip, and make sure it's clean, dry, and ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

And in other news, my girl leaves for Oregon a couple of days after I go to France. I've offloaded a lot of my old camping equipment - and even outer-layer clothes - on her. She'll be living in an minimally furnished house with co-workers, and camping some of the time. I had a tent to give her, and emergency supplies I took from my own bug-out bag for her day pack: a multi-tool knife, a headlamp, a mylar blanket, a solar lantern, a water filter, a Bic lighter, and also rain gear I outgrew (sideways) and a beanie hat. We went together to REI where I had fun fitting her up with a compass, whistle, tiny first-aid kit, and new socks to go with her new hiking boots. I relate to this experience of hers through my memories of my undergraduate years, where I majored in field trips (though the degree says different). I had a summer in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in an old logging camp, learning the same field skills that she will use. (She learned much of what she needs to know in Australia, and will be trained in specifics. But she will be alone in the woods before dawn most days.) I'm sorry I won't be there to wave good-bye to her as she sets off into the world to seek her fortune. I know she'll do fine, and I also hope she will enjoy it. I'm so grateful she has wanted to share her prep and planning with me! It's been fun!