Our upcoming lengthy cruise is not far away. We’ll depart San Diego in September to sail through the South Pacific to Sydney, Australia and then embark on a month-long circumnavigation of Australia. In all, we will be on a ship for almost two months— maybe three if we break down and opt to cruise home from Sydney on a different ship.
Needless to say, for a journey so long, there are many of items on our get ready list.
The first check box for us was obtaining new passports. The old ones weren’t anywhere near their expiration date, but because of our extensive travels since retiring, we had almost no remaining blank pages. Alas, the State Department no longer sews in additional pages.
So we had no choice to but to snap new photos and send away for spanking-new books. We chose the ones with the maximum number of pages, but we must also hang on to our old ones, since they include 10-year visas for Brazil and India. Luckily those visas remain valid when shown with the new passport.
But our new blank passports lack all the interesting stamps from places like Namibia and Thailand. I guess we will just have to go back to those places.
Goodbye, old passport!
In addition to the passport, our checklist included applying for an Australian visa. Luckily that’s a snap. (You can’t say the same about the aforementioned Brazilian and Indian visas. Those are as onerous to get for Americans as it is for most foreign visitors to snag a U.S. visa.)
Next check box: research. What do we want to see on each of our port stops? I am quite excited about multiple options in many Australian ports, but I’m still not sure what we should do in Pago Pago, American Samoa. (Robert was pleased to correct my mispronunciation. The town’s name sounds like pango pango.). And does anyone have tips for Exmouth, Australia? Can you even find the spot in your atlas? (Remember those? They’re hardbound books containing a series of maps.)
Our list can’t be focused just on shore excursions and activities abroad. We also have to tend the home fires. There’s confirming that a neighbor will pick up our mail each day; the post office has a 30-day max for holding mail. There’s thinking through how to handle the bills that will appear while we’re gone. For example, we will have to bring along the information needed to pay our property tax online in November. (And when will our local water company enable e-billing?)
And we haven’t even talked yet about the actual packing list: clothing, toiletries and that bane of older years, prescriptions. How many suitcases will we fill?
But don’t get me wrong. Prepping for a trip is always part of the fun. Anticipation is part of ensuring the resulting experience is fully enjoyed.
But one prep item is troublesome. Just how will I respond to all the talk I know I will get from Canadian, Europeans, Australians and others about American politics? I don’t worry about comments about Trump. I will quickly agree that he’s–choose one—an amoral narcissist, a danger to the whole world, an old coot with signs of dementia, or the commander-in-lies.
No, the challenge is what to say when they ask about what’s going on with Americans? How did we let this happen? Why are we putting up with it? I don’t feel I can defend the wisdom and morality of America as a society. And that may put a damper on many conversations in the months ahead.
But I console myself thinking about all the beautiful places I am about to see. Stay tuned to the blog and we’ll try to share our wonder with you.
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frahmannthoughts 
That sounds like a great trip you have planned. At one time, I considered a circumnavigation of Africa–perhaps too exotic for me. Dave
Dennis & Robert, Oh, your up coming trip sounds wonderful !! We leave the week after next to sail on the Rotterdam doing the Voyage of the Vikings. We’ve put off doing it because the sailing season is so short here for Diek but he really loved the itinerary I thin this winter we will rent a condo in Naples Fl for 6 weeks and then on March 12 take the Prinsendam to do the 56 day Grand Med.
As far as responding to questions about “”whats going on with Americans” , the answer is very simple- just explain for them to be patient and watch how a true Democracy really works with a thing called ‘CHECKS AND BALANCES”. We may stumble and make some errors of choice but our form of government for the last 140 years has always righted itself either through the Judiicerary or the Legislature branches & corrected any mistakes of the Executive branch Then ask them what hurdles they are over coming at home.
We have not heard from Bob & Sheila lately Have you? I hope both Sheila & Hilary have over com their health issues. I was so very disappointed they could not join us on the world cruise last year. Have a great trip M.
On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 4:14 PM, frahmannthoughts wrote:
> dfrahmann posted: “Our upcoming lengthy cruise is not far away. We’ll > depart San Diego in September to sail through the South Pacific to Sydney, > Australia and then embark on a month-long circumnavigation of Australia. In > all, we will be on a ship for almost two months— mayb” >