Early September – vacation prep

The lead up to vacation is always something I feel I need a vacation from. Somehow when assembling my toiletries or clothes or first aid kit or foreign money stash, I feel the compulsion to organize all the areas those items usually live in. I don’t really mind doing that…I’m actually very happy to putter and tidy and organize, but I tend to ‘loose the plot’ a teensy bit. I need the house to be spic and span before leaving…doesn’t everyone want to come home to a clean house???

I have never been much of a list maker for packing or vacation prep. I start assembling a week ahead and other than forgetting an entire SUITCASE once, I’ve never really forgotten anything.

Tomorrow morning we are heading to Vancouver for a 3-day pre-cruise mini-
vaca. One of the things I’m looking forward to most about this trip is the easy journey to get to the ship. As far as I’m concerned, a 90 min fight beats an overnight one any day. We are flying Westjet and thankfully not Air Canada with their potential strike looming – could just as easily be a Westjet issue, we’re lucky. I wonder how we may still be impacted by Air Canada passengers being shunted to Westjet.

We got what seemed like a pretty good price for one way (we’re flying home from Tokyo) to Vancouver. We thought we’d take a risk on making an upgrade bid. We made the lowest bid we could, and we GOT IT! It’s a short flight, but if I can sit in a bigger seat, not sit next to a stranger and get at least one champagne I thought it was worth it. So, all in…a one way to Van was $170 in premium.

Our cruise a 19-day repositioning/ocean crossing from Vancouver to Tokyo. About a third of the cruise is in Alaska, another third is ocean crossing and the last third is in Japan.

We’ve been to Japan before. I’m very happy to be going back. From quiet culture, to the easy to negotiate Tokyo subway, to the handmade knife shopping, to the Japanese toilets I’m thrilled to be returning.

Our last vacation was to Iceland and Greenland and now Alaska. Somehow, we’ve become cool climate vacationers. That’s ok with me, a cool weather lover. But…cool weather requires A LOT more gear. We’ve taken carryon only for a previous cruise, but with the rain gear and sweaters carryon would be tough.

Chris has never been dying to get to Alaska, thinks it’ll be a lot like BC. I think he’s right-ish...we’re a bit spoiled living where we are as close to the mountains and forests that we are. I’m keen to see glaciers, bears, whales, seals, eagles, hawks, Indigenous culture, and nature. I’m more into the nature vacations than Chris is, but we a team, right???

From the weather forecast it seems like we’ll be contending with a bit of Alaskan rain, but I’m outfitted for the rain and cold as I was in Iceland and Greenland.