A Different Kind of Journey

NOTE: This entry also appears as the start of a different blog, called "Ready For Death But It Just Won't Come". Go to http://readyfordeathbutitjustwontcome.blogspot.com

Flying over the Serengeti in Tanzania

Bags ready to go. But where?
My mother is ready to depart this world.  She is tired of living and has announced that she wants to die. She said that she is all packed up and she is just waiting. She's not suffering from a terminal disease, or even from a chronic disease. Rather, she has sustained loss after loss after loss, until she just feels beaten down. She is blind. She has trouble hearing. Her balance is terrible, making it impossible to walk without someone constantly by her side. She was asked to leave the singing group in her elderly home because she could no longer follow the words. The bridge group squeezed her out a long time ago. She outlived two husbands. She needs 24/7 aides to get through the day safely. Moving in and out of a car is just too hard. So she stays in her apartment. Recently, she started opting not to get up to go the kitchen for a meal, choosing instead to sit on the edge of the bed to eat. Scooping her food onto a utensil is history. Now she must be fed like a baby. Sticking with reality for the duration of a phone conversation is also gone. We can talk about the here and now just for now, but then she drifts into fantasy which has become her reality. "Guess what? I went to China yesterday for the day". "I made reservations at Claridge's in London because I haven't been to the Tate in a while". "The company is sending me to Russia because I'm the only person who speaks Russian and they know it".
I got my wanderlust from mom. Ever since she was a little girl growing up very poor in rural Virginia, she knew there was an exciting world to be explored and she resolved to see it all. She loved a photo book of the world's wonders that she used to leaf through with her grandfather. It's called "Shepp's Photographs of the World". For her 70th birthday, my stepfather hunted down a copy, long out of print, and gave it to her. She wept in gratitude when she opened his gift.

She has promised to leave the book to me. The usual suspects were her early checklist -- Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, Roman Colosseum, Matterhorn, the Pyramids. But, the more she traveled with my stepfather, who made it possible for her to realize her travel dreams, the more exotic her goals became. She just had to go to Mongolia and sleep in a yurt. She went to Djibouti -- well, just because. Of course, African safaris were early items on her list. I remember her telling me about when a baboon crept into her hut while she was at dinner, dumped out the contents of her purse onto the bed, twirled open her lipstick, and ate it. After my stepfather passed away in 2001, she kept traveling, into her 80s. She hadn't been to Antartica, so she signed up by herself for a cruise, stocking up on the thick socks and long underwear that she lacked in her Florida residence. She traveled with the Philadelphia Art Museum's trip to Bhutan. Later, she confessed that she had confused it with Angkor Wat, which she had also wanted to see. Bhutan was nice -- but too much walking, she said. So much, in fact, that the Museum later clarified some capability requirements for its travelers on subsequent trips. The trip leader probably did not appreciate having to keep mom safe while touring the temples, wobbling on her cane. She parasailed off a cruise ship in the Caribbean and when she had trouble landing after her flight, she mentioned to the crew attendant that she had a recent knee replacement. He told her she should have notified him before going up. Mom said, "If I told you, you wouldn't have let me go". That's my mom. Always charging forth for the next adventure. She is preparing for this trip, too.  But it is so terribly hard for me to watch her get ready to leave.

Mom and Me, Just Going out to Dinner

Don't Pass Up the Mustard in Middleton, Wisconsin

National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin

I had about an hour to fill during a visit to Madison, Wisconsin. Flipping through the tourist brochures of things to do in the area, I noticed the National Mustard Museum in nearby Middleton, Wisconsin. It claims to hold the world's largest collection of mustards. A quick drive away, it was a great little excursion. The Museum is the lower floor of a gourmet food shop that mostly sells mustards of all flavors from around the world. Admission to the museum is free, and you can stand in the center of the floor and see the whole thing by turning around in a circle. But you won't want to. The cases on the walls will draw you in. There are cabinets displaying mustard jars, categorized by country or state of origin. The operators of the museum have a groan-inducing sense of humor. The Mustard Piece Theatre in the back of the room runs loops of educational films about -- mustard. In the gift shop, you can buy a post card or even a poster saying "Feeling Condimental?" or better yet, a Julie Andrews look alike in the Alps, in the "Sound of Mustard". Fifteen minutes is plenty, but worth it for the grins - or the grains.
7477 Hubbard Ave, Middleton, WI 53562 · (800) 438-6878

To Blur or Not To Blur? Newport Mansions upstaged by Millions of Daffodils

Newport, Rhode Island's Cliff Walk popped with color last weekend as the millions (or trillions) of daffodilians burst into bloom. The brilliant yellow blossoms look like carpets running along the pathways and into the woods. After such a long, dreary winter, the flowers were a very welcome sight.

I just wanted to focus on the flowers....Everything else was a blur.

The Mansions look dreamier when they are just a smudge in the background

Actually, the mansions look awfully nice when they are in focus, too

Flowers front and center; Mansion a gray blob.

This mansion is Ochre Court of Salve Regina University

Male Frigates Not Subtle: "Look at Me!"

Male Frigatebird with Inflated Gular Pouch

It was mating season for the Frigatebirds during my visit to the Galapagos islands in March. Male Frigatebirds are almost entirely black, except for a bright red pouch at their throats. Most of the time, it droops like a saggy sac. But when the males want to attract females, the males inflate their pouches to the point where it looks like they are big red balloons, ready to burst.

Deflated Guy

There was a huge concentration of Frigatebirds on Genovese Island -- known as Bird Island.

A Crowd of Male Frigatebirds Competing for Attention of the Female Flying Above in the Top of the Picture.
Note the Deflated Guy in the Foreground

Disposable Cameras Work Like a Charm for a Galapagos Trip

When planning my trip to the Galapagos Islands, I knew that there would be at least four times that we would be snorkeling. AND that the snorkel trips would involve swimming with schools of tropical fish, rays and sharks. Loving to take photos, but not loving the idea of buying a digital underwater camera, I decided to use disposable underwater cameras.

I found a Fuji camera on Amazon for about $14 for 27 exposures. It is listed on Amazon as a discontinued product; but the cameras are still for sale and ship right away.  Yes it uses film. Yes you need to figure out how to get the film developed. I researched that before I bought the camera. Both CVS and Walgreens' photo departments still will develop film, but neither develops the film in the store. They both send the film out to be processed. The waiting time is less than one week. I chose Walgreen for its more liberal policy of allowing you to buy only the prints you want.  Knowing that, I decided that it made sense to invest in a bunch of disposable cameras.  If all the photos were awful, I didn't have to pay for developing.  We were only in it for the price of the cameras. We outfitted our group of four people with eight cameras. Since my friends lost interest pretty quickly, I ended up with five of the cameras. I snapped photos like crazy. I did not want to be stuck with unused cameras at the end of the trip.

THIS is what I wanted to capture in a photo. Swimming with a school of gorgeous tropical fish. These are Surgeonfish.

Razorfish in my Face

Shark, Supposedly Friendly, Swam Right Underneath Me

The camera has instructions printed on the back, pointing out that the best pictures are in sunny conditions, and that you can take photos underwater and out of the water.  Good option to use the throwaway camera above the water surface! No worry about splashes ruining your good camera.

Chasing dolphins while riding in a Zodiac. Not a prayer of catching up with them. No worry about splasing

Making sure to use up all the film, I took pictures underwater following my friends while snorkeling. (Note that people snorkel with SPF clothes on because the sun is so strong that my husband's back got burnt even though he was wearing a cotton tee shirt).

This particular camera style took some getting used to because the dial to advance the film goes the opposite way of what you would think, so I kept unwinding, instead of winding the film. That got frustrating when I was in a school of fish or something really interesting, and bungled up my film in the wrong direction for the next shot.

Also unfortunately, one of the cameras, which I thought had a great roll of photos, got a badly scratched lens and something greasy smeared on it, so and all the pictures had a milky overlay on top of what would have been some really great shots. Oh well. I'm happy with the shots I got. Of the 135 exposures in my 5 rolls of 27, about 10 were passable. But getting that shot of the school of Surgeonfish made the whole investment in disposable cameras worthwhile.

Galapagos Cruise - No Locks on the Doors

Cabin on board the Santa Cruz, cruising in the Galapagos Islands

Traveling in the Galápagos Islands is supremely casual.  To prepare for my cruise of the Galapagos, the cruise company provided a packing list with the message to dress casual. So casual in fact that you should not bring anything that you care about enough that you would be upset to lose it. I mean care so little about your stuff that there are no locks on the cabin doors.  

Motor Vessel Santa Cruz, operated by Metropolitan Touring

Really. Whether you leave the cabin for a meal or to go snorkeling, you can't lock your cabin. There is a standard hotel safe with a combination lock. The safe is big enough to store a couple of wallets and cell phones, an iPad (but not a laptop) and a small camera. That's all.
However, for some peace of mind like when you are changing clothes or sleeping, once you are inside the cabin, you can push a button in the center of the doorknob for privacy.

Oh, and PS. It is really liberating to not think about your stuff when you are traveling.

Taken from a Zodiac, alongside the Santa Cruz (to the right), about to board the ship (to return to the unlocked cabin)

Bedford Boys - D-Day Heroes (and my family)

My ears perked right up when the guide on the D-Day Beaches tour said that the access road is named for the town of Bedford, Virginia. My mother spent every summer of her childhood in Bedford, staying with her three male first cousins. All three landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

EARL L. PARKER, the oldest of the three brothers, died on June 6, 1944, on D-Day on Omaha Beach in the first wave of more than 160,000 Allied troops that landed along the 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified coastline. His body was never found. His name is engraved on the Wall of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery. He was married and the father of one daughter. He was the only Bedford Boy that had a child. 

Wall of the Missing, Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, France

Detail of the Inscription of Earl L. Parker's name on the Wall of the Missing 

Sgt. Earl L. Parker, Bedford Company A, 116th Infantry, 29th Division,
part of the first wave of D-Day Allied Troops. 

JOSEPH E. PARKER, JR. died on August 27, 1944, almost three months after D-Day, near St. Lo, France, having moved inland after the troops broke the German line on D-Day. His grave is at the Brittany American Cemetery and Memorial in Saint-James, France. I described my visit in a worldgrazer post dated 11/30/14.

Grave of Joseph E. Parker, Jr. at the Brittany American Cemetery, St. James, France

WILLIAM PARKER was imprisoned and released at the end of the war.

Bedford, Virginia suffered the country's most severe per capita losses on D-Day as well as in all of World War II. (I'm quoting from FindAGrave.com, which popped up when I searched the names of the soldiers whose graves I hoped to see when visiting the D-Day memorials in Normandy).

The significance of how Bedford figured into D-Day was reported by author Alex Kershaw in his best seller, The Bedford Boys: One American Town's Ultimate D-day Sacrifice. The book's summary description follows.

"June 6, 1944: Nineteen boys from Bedford, Virginia--population just 3,000 in 1944--died in the first bloody minutes of D-Day. They were part of Company A of the 116th Regiment of the 29th Division, and the first wave of American soldiers to hit the beaches in Normandy. Later in the campaign, three more boys from this small Virginia town died of gunshot wounds. Twenty-two sons of Bedford lost--it is a story one cannot easily forget and one that the families of Bedford will never forget. The Bedford Boys is the true and intimate story of these men and the friends and families they left behind.Based on extensive interviews with survivors and relatives, as well as diaries and letters, Kershaw's book focuses on several remarkable individuals and families to tell one of the most poignant stories of World War II--the story of one small American town that went to war and died on Omaha Beach".

Now that I have seen the harsh cliffs of Normandy and appreciate the extraordinary bravery of the American soldiers who faced German firepower, I have added Bedford, Virginia to my must-see list. The National D-Day Memorial in the United States is located in Bedford. Its website says: "Proportionally this community suffered the nation's severest D-Day losses. Recognizing Bedford as emblematic of all communities, large and small, whose citizen-soldiers served on D-Day, Congress warranted the establishment of the National D-Day Memorial here.

After rechecking the proper labels, I can say that as a first cousin once removed, of three of those incredibly brave young men, I am humbled by the fierce bravery of thousands of soldiers who took on the Nazi forces and turned the course of history.

Locations of the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville and Brittany American Cemetery in Saint James