On the boat again....Excellent Adventure 2012 Edition

Well, it's that time of year again! Andy and I are within a couple days of our next Excellent Adventure - Holland America's "10-day Baltic Jewels" cruise.

Stockholm, Sweden (board on July 31)
Tallinn, Estonia
Helsinki, Finland
St Petersburg, Russia
Berlin, Germany
Hamburg, Germany
Copenhagen, Denmark
Amsterdam, Netherlands (disembark on August 10)

Can we say "Excitement!". Yes. Yes, we can.

This year, this blog is dedicated to my mom, Agnes Adler, who passed away last November at the ripe old age of 97. It was from her that I inherited the Travel Itch - she who wanted to join the Navy during WW II to hop on a ship and "see the world". Which didn't happen - she found out that women weren't allowed on board ship (this was 1942), so she joined the Army instead. And ended up in Indiana. And Washington, DC. Not what she had in mind.

Even though she eventually went to Israel (twice - her first trip to Israel was the first time she ever flew), Mt Saint Helens and the Grand Canyon, she never did get to "see the world".

I started blogging with our first cruise to Alaska in 2008. Since she never did quite get the hang of the concept of "click on the link", I would email her a copy of my blog post every single day (using a REALLY HUGE FONT so she could read it). I did that every day for each cruise for the last 3 years. It was great to hear her say, "It's just like I was there with you!!"

Though I won't be sending those daily emails this year, this is still for you, Mom.