Outside of OysterBed7

The blogversary mini-retrospect made me realize that I would love to share with you some of our life outside of OysterBed7 during the past year.

Mr. Muscle often caters to me. But, this year we chose our vacation destination based on his preferences. My Montana goldminer (yes, he mined in Montana one summer), chose Alaska. So, we went to Alaska like Yukon Jacks, we floated in a boat.

We cruised in July and spent some pre-cruise time in Seattle with my sisters visiting with our cousins. My sisters and their husbands and some of our closest friends also joined us on the cruise.

The best day of our cruise was spent salmon fishing. The sun was bright and warm. The only truly sunny day of our cruise. We collectively ‘caught’ 30 salmon, throwing back the small stuff and chum/dog salmon.

I say ‘caught’ loosely, because it was a pampered fishing trip. Our captain baited our hooks, drove the boat (trolling), kept an eye on the lines and when we had a bite, he yelled, “Fish on!” Then, we grabbed the pole, jerked the pole up to set the hook in the fish’s mouth and reeled hard.

The captain told us it was an exceptional day because in our 6 hours the fish were biting nearly continually. It was a lot of fun! We saw cool wildlife, too.

Right before this photo was taken, he asked me, “Do you want to hold your fish?” I said, “Not really,” and he plopped it in my hands. This was my monster for the day.

We shipped the salmon home and have tried to treat all our friends with an Alaskan salmon dinner. A Ketchikan company filets the fish, vacuum seals each filet, flash freezes them and sends the dry-ice-packed fish to your house on your specified date. It worked out to about $10 bucks a pound.

Our second best day in Alaska had half a day of good sunshine. We spent it kayaking through a large waterway looking at spectacular snow-capped peaks. Harbor seals played around us. The highlight of my paddling was when a seal popped up just a few yards from my kayak.

Our kayak guides had a field day poking fun at whoever was driving this boat. Apparently, the tide went out on them with passengers aboard. The coast guard had to make a rescue.

The following picture defines the rest of our cruise’s weather.

We tried to enjoy the beauty in spite of the cold and wet. This day the ship attempted to go up the Tracy’s Arm Fjord to see a glacier upclose. It was the reason we chose this particular cruise. We were warned weather and icebergs often make it impassable. Those warnings proved true. To stay safe, the ship turned around halfway up the passage.

This picture denotes how we ended our cruise.

At every corner a staff member was squirting clear sanitizer in our hands. In spite of our complete obedience in keeping our hands santizied, poor Mr. Muscle contracted the dreaded cruise crud, the norovirus. Fortunately, it happened the last 12 hours on board. Unfortunately, he spent the entire night in the bathroom.

In our 27 years of marriage, it was the most violent intestinal bug he had ever had.

There truly was a biohazard sign attached to our doorknob by the time we left our room for shore. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to take a picture of it, but other things were more pressing.

My incredibly sick husband limped off the cruise ship and sat down while I arranged transportation to our hotel.

Because we couldn’t get a flight home with our frequent flyer miles on the day of our disembarkment, we already had a hotel, with early check-in, booked. Coincidence is just God remaining anonymous.

I felt guilty and happy that I never came down with it. It proved Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 true, “Two are better than one…..if either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”

Because this is getting long, I’ll continue this little look into life outside of OysterBed7 tomorrow. I hope you’ll come back! See More Life Outside of OysterBed7.