We Take Ourselves With Us

After boarding on Sunday, we had a sea day on Monday, giving us all time to sleep deeply in our inside cabins, explore the Koningsdam a bit, and just relax ... except, the captain had advised us that we'd be passing by the volcanic island Stromboli at 8:30 that morning.  So, Ned and I pulled ourselves out of bed and wandered the upper decks--from which we saw only ocean in every direction--trying to understand where a volcano could be hiding.  It turned out that it was hiding at 10:30--the captain had made an error in the timing. We made the best of it by going to an early breakfast in the still rather uncrowded Lido market. As 10:30 neared, I went up to the observation deck to grab some space at the railing--and in the distance, ta dah, a volcano appeared! Just a week earlier, Stromboli had erupted with fury, killing a hiker and putting the small villages at its base in danger.  As Penn wondered aloud, who would build a town on a volcano?  Great ques...

This summer's vacation began with Harper's desire to go to Greece--really, Santorini.  A desire borne, of all things, by the Mamma Mia! movies (the popularity of which apparently extends far beyond the Rose set).  So, we decided to make it an early (very early) graduation gift and set about researching a cruise that would take in as much of Greece as possible and that worked with her existing commitment to be a camp counselor.  Which is why we booked a 12 night cruise with Holland America that had only two sea days and visited almost every island (including Santorini) and took in a bit of Italy, too.  Over several months, I tracked flights on Google, researched excursions, and read reviews, and by July 5, we were ready to make the trek to Toronto to grab our direct flight to Rome. Something happened in those eight plus hours in the air though.  Maybe it was the stormy harbinger of Kawhi's decision to bolt from the Raptors to the Clippers, but the flight was...