It has taken all I have in me to get on this computer. I don’t know what it is. The week without easy internet access and phone access? Maybe.
We were given a gift. A gift of seeing part of the country we would most likely not have planned for ourselves (at least not at this time in our lives). Cruising to Alaska was nothing short of amazing. I can not begin to say what our favorite part was. It was all beautiful. Whales and in particular–a bubble net feeding, which is significantly rare to see. Ten whales working together to capture their food. Steve got it on video and maybe we can post it. Wow! Canoeing in a dark lake nestled between a mountain range, salmon bakes in the mountains, jeeping through the wet rainforest while it rained, a peaceful day floating around Glacier Bay—while we watched parts of a glacier fall to the water and dodged blocks of ice floating amongst the waters, sea gulls begging for food, sea lions perched, bald eagles flying above, and two bears living it up on a mountain range with out a care in the world that we were giddy to get a picture. It was if they were saying “what is the big deal? I’m a bear–take my pic!”
Perhaps most memorable was the side effects of our scopolamine patches we used to combat sea sickness. The patch did its job. We were not really feeling nauseated or woozy. BUT, we did have a side affect that neither of us knew would be a side effect. Both of us were experiencing a significant dry mouth–which we were alerted to might happen. But the blurred and double vision. Oh the blurred and double vision! Neither of us a clue. So, after wasting 3 pair of perfectly good contacts believing I had purchased a bad batch, and Steve with angst over a preconceived looming tumor behind his right eye, we finally decided it was worth the $$ to do a search on side effects. And you know what? Blurred and double vision was right there. Although we could hardly read it off the ipad without holding it significantly out in front of us. We ripped those patches off so quickly and suffered the remainder of 12 hours with dilated pupils. Pretty miserable if you were trying to read anything. But our far sighted vision was great! (and interesting we were the only ones experiencing these symptoms—and BOTH of us?)
Leaving behind our kids was the hardest. I think they may have had a vacation themselves right here in their own backyard! Thankful for those who took amazing care of them and helped ease our anxiety of being gone for a week—and with limited connections. Never did I realize so clearly how much I rely on texting and constant communication. Until it wasn’t there. Hard to describe—almost a helpless feeling. I did not need to know my kids’ every move—although I really wanted to know. I did not have to make every decision or give my opinion on what they were or were not doing—although, I really wanted to. And amazing to me, how less important social media and emails became. They can wait. We realized that WE are the ones who put the pressure on ourselves—being “in the know” of everything at all times. We realized we didn’t have to be.
Experiences were happening without us there. And for me? That was super hard. I wanted to know every detail…
And we realized that sometimes “disconnecting” is the only way to really “reconnect”.
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Steph's Blessings 