How beautiful  it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards – Spanish Proverb

What a great sounding trip this couple had.  The book of their journey makes for a good read.

“We had such a great time on our Panama Canal cruise that we actually wrote a book about it. A travel memoir entitled: Cruising Panama’s Canal, savoring 5,000 nautical miles and 500,000 decadent calories. It’s getting wonderful reviews.”
A serious automobile accident sends a senior couple on a bucket-list cruise, and their voyage turns out to be a lively adventure, full of dynamic discoveries and unexpected events.
More than a travel guide, Cruising Panama’s Canal is a spirited ocean odyssey from San Francisco to Fort Lauderdale with fascinating and exotic stops along the way.
This personal memoir is packed with entertaining information on ocean cruising, Holland America’s MS Zuiderdam, and the building of the Panama Canal.
Whether an armchair traveler or an experienced cruiser, this is a rollicking read you don’t want to miss.

When a texting driver slammed into us in the summer of 2012, she ruined not only our car, but our summer. Totally.

We were sitting at a red light in the early evening of July 8. A van sat in the lane next to ours. And the texting driver crashed full speed (60 mph) into us both, totaling all three cars in an explosion of glass and metal.

Thankfully no one was killed, but the rest of our summer filled up with doctor appointments, pharmacy visits, wrangling with insurance companies, and lots of complaining about people who fool with their phones while driving.

And the wreck brought home to us how fragile life is. How in the blink of an eye we could be lying in the morgue or hooked up to monitors in a hospital.

Because of that realization, we decided we should start doing some of the things we’d always dreamed of doing someday.

Our first “someday” dream was to visit the Panama Canal.

My husband, a retired engineer, has always been fascinated by the Canal (considered one of the great engineering wonders of the world).

Research revealed a 17-day cruise leaving from San Francisco. We live just north of San Francisco, so we signed up. And on Oct. 2, 2012, we boarded Holland America’s MS Zuiderdam for the trip of a lifetime.

If I have any advice to share, it’s this: You know that thing you’ve always dreamed of doing? Do it. Do it now, while you can. Believe me, you can’t imagine all the good things that may result from the action you take to fulfill a dream.

And if you’d like to look at our book and read some of our reviews, here’s the direct link.