Right about now, we were expecting to be packing for a month-long cruise from San Diego to Tahiti and back. We would have been leaving Saturday.
Obviously, that’s not happening. Instead, we are now part of the 65-plus crowd in California that has been asked to stay at home and self-isolate. I’m all for flattening the curve. Still, mentally, I need to get myself into a different place—a more optimistic spot.
Since I live so close to the ocean, I have decided to think of the weeks ahead as a shore-bound cruise. (Considering how many of our friends would consider a month on a cruise ship with tons of sea days torture under any conditions, maybe a month of forced solitude on shore for us won’t be so bad.)
On the plus side, we will have a verandah view room for this adventure, since our house has ocean-facing decks. And just like on a cruise ship that’s moving, the wind is usually too much to enjoy sitting on deck and watch the ocean.
As for our daily shipboard routine of walking the promenade deck for a mile or two, we can still venture outside for a walk along the beach. There’s no one there, and we could probably practice a social distancing of 60 feet, or even 600 feet, without breaking a sweat. And I can still do a ton of reading, which is always one of my main cruise activities. I have downloaded many e-books, and made a final run at the local library’s used book store for their one-dollar paperbacks.
Of course, I know how to open a bottle of wine or shake a martini, so there’s no reason to bypass our shipboard habit of a cocktail before dinner. And even though we’re well-stocked for cooking, I think we’ll take advantage as much as practical and as long as possible of our local restaurants offering special delivery menus. It will add interest to our lives, and help local jobs survive this challenging time.
Our first home-delivered meal . . . Indian Lamb Curry from Robin’s Restaurant
On the other hand, there will be no way to end the evening with attending whatever entertainment is in the ship’s showroom. But, by coincidence, I recently broke down and signed up for Amazon Prime . . . so we can always engage in binge watching. Already we’re through the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisal.
Which leaves one thing—interacting with people. We do love dinner conversations and meeting new people on a long cruise. We will need to work on staying in touch with friends and relatives in a more robust way over these days and weeks ahead. Or, maybe, Robert and I will just learn to talk more to one another.
Have I forgotten anything? Oh, yes, visiting new places and seeing amazing sights. I guess I can read travel books, watch documentaries, prowl through space on Google Earth, and the like. But maybe I will devote some time each day to reviewing and repairing all my old scrapbooks. We have 35 years of cruises stored away in photos and memorabilia in deteriorating albums. That should keep me busy and remind me of what I’ve already seen.
So that’s my plan to stay positive. I’ll let you know how it works.
Please check out all my novels in paperback or Kindle format, including: Tales from the Loon Town Cafe, The Finnish Girl, The Devil’s Analyst—and my latest, The Long Table Dinner.
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