June Highlights

Yesterday morning, I was running along the moving sidewalk in the London airport, trying to keep up with Wyona and at the same time reading the signs on the wall, probably checking to see if I had seen all of London. The text on one billboard read “Two-thirds of all of the people in the world who have lived to the age of 65 are alive now”.

“I am one of them,” I thought. "Lucky me."

Rebecca asked me last night to tell her three highlights of my June 4 to 24th trip to London and countries that rim the Baltic Sea.  The fact that I stepped on the scale this morning and was only one pound heavier than when I left would not be one of them.  Still it was a thrill.  For fifty years I have not had anyone else making my bed, nor preparing all of my meals for me.  I enjoyed that.  I know that is going to happen again as I get older, but I didn’t expect it to happen while I could still get up and enjoy the world.

Highlight 1:
Boat lectures followed by guided tours on land about places in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Russia and Estonia.  This is cheating to combine so many of the joys into one highlight, but there is no other way to tell the truth.

Highlight 2: 
Early morning walks on Deck 12 where I quickly learned that at the same time, I cannot both count laps and drink in the beauty of the sea and land.

Highlight 3: 
Rebecca and I took two ‘Taste of the Gallery’ tours in the National Gallery in London.  Late at night in the hotel we made notes for the blog, notes about the pictures we had studied together, notes that are probably gone forever, given how quickly small paragraphs written on anyone’s computer in the middle of a vacation can disappear.

More later.