Private Mars Rocket II

I have always wanted to visit Alaska, and the best way (for me) to do so was a cruise. Well, an option came up for me to do so and I booked it. September 4 - 11 I'll be cruising from Seattle to Alaska and back.

The next Worldcon, LAcon V, is August 27-31, 2026 - basically the week before my cruise. I usually attend (and wouldn't mind revisiting LA, a city I last was in ~30 years ago) but given how close the dates are and the expense of both events, I'm taking a raincheck on LA. I've bought a supporting membership so I'll be voting, but that's it.

I have a science fiction novel, working title Gunmaker, coming out in summer of 2026. So, I'm looking for a suitable convention at which to debut said novel.

Day One of my Iceland adventure was the Golden Circle. Day Two, which had to conclude with me getting on a plane to go back to the US, started with me visiting the Hallgrimskirkja, which is the "big" cathedral in downtown Reykjavik. I put "big" in quotes because although the tower is tall, the seating area inside isn't that big. Again, there are around 400,000 people in all of Iceland, so things that should be big aren't.

I then went to the National Museum of Iceland. Also nice, also not terribly big and I didn't see anything there that struck me as photogenic. I wanted to be working my way back to Keflavik and the airport, so I stopped at the Arbaer Open Air Museum, which is a collection of mostly 19th-century buildings from the city. Interesting if you're a history buff but I probably should have planned a bit more and joined a guided tour.

Finally, I headed to Keflavik, had a nice lunch in town, then out to the Bridge Between Continents. Frankly that was a bit of a bust - it's just a bridge over a ravine in the middle of nowhere.

Lastly, herewith is another installment in my Adventures in European Showers. In the interests of getting a cheap room, I got a basement room at my hotel. It was fine, except the ceiling over the tub in the bathroom was maybe five-and-a-half feet high. There was no way I could actually like wash my hair with the shower head standing up - I had to sit in the tub! Moral of the story - if you have mobility issues, Call Your Hotel when you book!

While I was on the cruise, I mentioned to several people in casual conversation that I completed the first draft of my fourth novel on this ship. One of the people I said that to told me that he has a degree in English Literature, although he’s not using it at the moment. (He is a bartender at what’s apparently a high-end bar in Orlando Florida.)

The man I was talking to said that what was stopping him from writing was fear that people would think his writing sucked. I did my best to encourage him that the world would not end if somebody told him his writing was bad. In fact, I said, writing is like golf or bartending – part of how you get better is to have people critique you.

Writing for publication is not for the thin-skinned.

The Cruise – Part 2

I had no burning desire to visit Nassau, Bahamas, but thanks to the Jones Act, cruise lines must visit a foreign port and have an opportunity to discharge or take on passengers, so a Nassau-ing we went. Situated on the island of Providence, the approximately 292,000 people living there represent 74% of the nation’s population. My formal shore excursion was a tour ride on a “vintage Model T.”

I put that in quotes because the “Model T” vehicles in question were electric golf carts that had been modified to look more-or-less like a Model T. Still, our tour guide was interesting, and there were only three guests in my vehicle, so it wasn’t the usual herd of people one gets for a shore excursion. Nassau is a typical Caribbean country, specifically poor towns with nice beaches. We visited Paradise Cove, setting for a couple of James Bond movies, and drove by the Bahamian Houses of Parliament, which are a trio of smallish pink buildings. It was an interesting tour but not something I’d do again.

I bummed around a bit at the pier complex, which is right in the middle of the downtown retail district, but not being into shopping I packed it in and had lunch on the ship, then camped out by the pool. When we pulled in, we were the fourth cruise ship in the harbor, and by the time I got back from my tour a fifth ship arrived. None of these were small or empty, so the downtown was packed with tourists.

Speaking of tourists, a word about my fellow passengers. On my previous trip on Liberty, out of Galveston, the passengers were heavily southern and midwestern Americans. This cruise felt a lot more diverse – I heard a lot of Spanish and other languages in the hallways.

So it can be revealed – last week I was on vacation, which consisted of visiting my sister in West Palm Beach for a weekend then going on a cruise, specifically Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas. Thoughts, in several bits.

First, I'll start with the end. It's always better to be lucky than good, and here's example number 1455. I was coming back to Darien this past Friday, and when scheduling the flight I had the choice of a direct flight leaving at 11:15 AM or a 3:00 PM with a layover.

I didn't think I could make the 11:15, so I booked the 3:00. Then I got lucky and got to the airport earlier than expected and changed flights. Good thing as my later flight would have had me landing during the height of last night's snowstorm. I doubt the flight would have been canceled, but there would have been a lot of delays and unpleasantness.

West Palm Beach and the Brightline

Because I have some points with Royal Caribbean due to previous cruises, I decided to stick with them for a 4-day cruise. Their terminal is in Fort Lauderdale, which is literally next door to Fort Lauderdale International Airport. In fact, when flying in, we went over the cruise port terminal at about 500 feet while on final approach. Therefore, the logical place to fly back home from was Fort Lauderdale. It’s easier to book a round-trip than to book two one-ways, so both air legs were to Fort Lauderdale.

I was originally going to rent a car and drive to West Palm Beach – about 50 miles or so – but then my research determined that there was a new railway line, the Brightline, which connected those two cities. So I took said railway. I saved money and didn’t have the hassle of returning a car on Monday.

What I didn’t know until I hit town was that there are two passenger railway lines in the Fort Lauderdale area, Brightline and Tri-Rail. The later is an older commuter rail line which connects the three cities of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. (Hence the name.) Brightline’s claim to fame is that their trains are nicer and continue on to Orlando. The trains and stations are nicer, but the local culture hasn’t quite grasped the idea of assigned seats in a train which led to some confusion on my Saturday northbound run.

A cold front blew in Saturday night, and it rained all day Sunday which is not typical for this time of year. The “cold” was in the mid-60s, so it was still warmer than Darien Illinois. My sister took me out to a very local place, Captain Charlie’s Original Reef Grill. It’s buried in a nondescript strip mall, but when we got there (they don’t take reservations) there was a 30-minute wait. This proved to be a good sign for great food. My sister and I hung out Sunday, buffered by me finding some writing time. Then Monday was Get To The Cruise Day.

I've been thinking about vacation planning. I decided I want: warm weather, good food, shade (I don't tan, I burn) and some variety. I also had to renew my passport for Worldcon (2024 in Glasgow, Scotland in August) and I won't have the new one back until around Christmas this year. Lastly, my sister is currently in West Palm Beach Florida.

So, I'm thinking of a mid-February trip where I fly down to visit my sister for a weekend, then take a short cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and come back to Chicago. I will be discussing this with the relevant parties.

The weather in Chicago having suddenly turned cold, I find my thoughts drifting. One of the advantages of being a fully-remote worker is that I can work, well, remotely, and so I'm thinking about booking a place somewhere warmer for a week or so. Listed here so I can think about them are some decisions I need to make.

1) Do I want to have a car available?
2) If so, do I want to drive from Chicago there and so need to allocate time or will I rent and pay dollars instead?
3) When do I want to go? Hard blocks on my calendar are Capricon and a couple of Rotary events in Chicago.

I arrived back in Darien last night after a four-night, three day visit to Lost Wages, also known as Las Vegas, NV. It's the first time I've been there in at least five years. Herewith is a long report on the same.

Flying in the (hopefully) tail-end of a pandemic

I flew out of Midway Airport on mid-day Thursday and back in on Sunday afternoon. On my admittedly non-peak outbound flight, the airport felt eerily empty - maybe 35% of normal capacity. Only about half of the normal stores and bars were open. The flight (Southwest Airlines) was full, so I assume Southwest has reduced the number of flights to accommodate the reduced travel demand.

Facemasks were required everywhere, including on the plane, except when "actively eating or drinking." They were polite but insistent - the rule was lift your mask, take a sip, put mask back down. McCarran in Los Vegas felt busier and everything was open. How much of that was an illusion due the the million slot machines everywhere I don't know.

Los Vegas proper

I stayed at the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. This was my first time staying in downtown Vegas. I'm a blackjack player, and downtown used to be known as the home of cheap blackjack tables. Whether due to the 50% capacity restrictions or trends since my previous visit, that is no more. $10 tables were the standard, with the only $5 tables being one or two at my hotel. Also, it was eerie seeing a bunch of tables empty (no dealers) on a Friday or Saturday night. Lastly, table games followed the same mask rules as the airlines.

The hotel itself was nice - a newer property with freshly-renovated rooms. I ate dinner twice at their steakhouse, the Triple George Grill. I highly recommend the pork chop. As far as the "Fremont Street Experience" - the light show is nice, the crowds not-so-nice.

The Mob Museum

The Mob Museum was less than a block from my hotel, so as a history geek I visited. Although all the marketing says "Mob Museum" the official name of the place is the "National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement" and the story told by the museum is from the law enforcement perspective. If you're downtown, it's worth a visit.

The museum is the converted county courthouse. The highlight of the visit for me was their Underground Speakeasy. It's in the basement (duh!) and aims to explain what speakeasys were. Part of that explanation is selling various cocktails of the era. Try a Bees Knees (gin, fresh lemon juice, and honey, served shaken and chilled). Also, the liquor for their Old Fashioned comes in a fake book. It was a nice way to spend a few hours.

I've been fighting Comcast with regards to my intermittent lack-of-internet as of late. I've finally convinced them that the problem is with the wire, not my (now brand-new) modem. So now I get to wait for them to come out. Oh joy.

Over the weekend, I saw an article about the restfulness of taking sabbaticals. Since I'm unemployed and de-facto on a sabbatical, I can confirm the validity of the article. I'm to the point now that I miss going to work.

In my now-actually copious free time, I've been watching the Kavanaugh confirmation mess. As a child of the 1980s, I can confirm that sexual assault, even when blind drunk, was not okay back them. I'll go out on a limb a little here and say that, given the details of the allegations, if he at least admitted it and apologized profusely *AND* this was a one-time thing I'd be willing to give him a pass. Since he seems unwilling to do any of the above, no pass for him from me.

That's all for this update - more when events warrant it.

Yesterday, I made plans for my vacations for the rest of the year. On the week before Memorial Day, I will be visiting (I'm told) lovely Door County, Wisconsin. That's one week before their official start of the tourist season, so hopefully the crowds will be a little lighter while everything that will open has opened.

In September, I will be attending the Writing Excuses Retreat and Cruise. I'm not particularly a fan of cruising in the Caribbean in late September AKA "hot" and "hurricane season" but I am fond of the retreat. Also, I get an alumni discount and time to write.

Both vacations should be relatively inexpensive. Southwest has cheap flights to Houston and I'm driving to Door County. In Door County, I'm staying in a condo so I'll bring up some groceries and eat in at least for breakfast. Next year is the expensive trip - Dublin Worldcon, for which I just bought the attending membership.