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...

Since the mid-90s, Ned's sister and her branch of the Davis family tree have lived in Auckland, New Zealand--land of extraordinary natural beauty, many hobbitses, Russell Crowe, and no visits from the Kress-Davis family.  But, this holiday season, we decided to change this last one and buckle in for the 24+ hours of travel to lovely NZ. We began with an overnight in Toronto, at a remarkably solicitous and comfy airport Hilton--with a great breakfast buffet--that allowed us to get to our cross-Canada flight with a bit less stress.  Check out our new hiking boots! Air Canada decided to get us back on stress-track, though.  For reasons no one at the airport could explain, the airline cancelled our long-booked, premium-paid exit row seats and scattered us around the plane for the five hour flight to Vancouver.  Sigh.  After considerable discussion, we eventually cobbled together two sets of paired seats about two dozen r...