Erin's Journals

Isn’t that quote just perfect? Before we let the good times roll again today, I’ll be linking at the end to this week’s Walmart piece on getting the place spruced up before company arrives this holiday weekend. Give it a look and good luck!
 
Whatever you’re marking: Easter, Passover or even just an extra day or two to sleep in, I hope you have a great weekend. Come by Easter Monday for a few Notre Dame memories, but for today, more stories and pictures!
 
Wednesday of last week saw us venture into Belgium. While Rob and I opted to relax on the boat, others took bus trips into Ghent and Bruges. It’s a good thing we stayed behind: Rob spent hours downloading music on WiFi for a rather impromptu “Coop’s Classics” dance that night! Thanks to Mali Bickley for the photos of the evening which started with me goofing around on the piano…
 

 
…and then The Captain joined Tennille….
 

 
As the dance began, Mike took the reins…
 

 
And all three of us – Rob, Mike and I – worked together to pick just the right song!
 

 
When all was said and done, Holy Hannah, we had fun. The shiny tile floor was jammed for two solid hours (we were supposed to play for one) while Mike and I traded off hosting duties and Rob had two laptops practically on fire mixing and alternating great songs. It turns out the next day lots of guests from outside our group – all of them Americans – were raving about the party the night before; just think if we do this next year and we get to take over the whole boat…OMG. AmaWaterways won’t know what hit them!
 
If you’re interested, just click here to email Gerry Koolhof, our host from New Wave Travel in Toronto, and let him know. He’s putting this together as soon as he returns from his trip to Paris. I can only imagine the stories he’ll tell of his experience in the shadows of Notre Dame on Monday. I’ll have a few memories of my own here this coming Easter Monday.
 
Here are some (hopefully MOST) of our group at the week’s second private dinner.
 

 
Heck, no wonder Rob and I slept ’til 11am the next day. It helps that we were up against another boat, moored in port, so it was dark in the cabins AND no one’s doors ever slam on this boat (a big plus when you’re trying to sleep, whether on a ship or in a hotel, as you well know). Perfect for catching up on that 9-hour time difference Rob and I experienced as west coasters.
 
I feel that after a week of pictures of Amsterdam and Belgium I haven’t even begun to show you the beauty of our trip. So I promise many, many more pictures next week and thanks for sharing in them. See you here Monday for that side trip to Paris.…
 
Now here’s a link to that piece I wrote this week for our friends at Walmart. So the Easter Bunny doesn’t find his cousin Dusty when he visits this weekend! LOL
 

One of the wonders of the week we spent meandering through the canals and waterways of the Netherlands, and later Belgium, was seeing a dear friend come back to life.
 
Last summer, my former radio partner Mike Cooper let us know, some eight months after signing on with us, that he just couldn’t see himself coming along on this trip through the Netherlands after all. He was having trouble picturing life going on, so deep in the midst of grief was he as he watched his wife’s fight against colon cancer come to its conclusion. Fortunately, before Debbie left us, her oncologist told Mike he was going to need things to look forward to when she did – and boy, this cruise managed to tick all of the boxes.
 

 
To every person who wrote and told us to give Mike a hug: trust me, he was well and truly hugged. And kissed. And listened to and laughed with. He held court at dinner, entertained us all and laughed heartily through our many hours together. The service staff got to love him too – especially Michaela, who teased him with the “cup’s full” trick….
 

 
If you look closely, you’ll see how the trick is done, but it was a great sight gag and his face was EVERYTHING! (Thanks to Deb Hill for the photo.)
 
Mike himself was hilarious, too. He’d go around at the Chef’s table dinners we held with our group and take “selfies” – only he was the only one in the pictures. Trust us, it was hilarious. Oh my goodness, we laughed. More on that in a bit.…
 
For a time, he really did find his center, his happy place again. I don’t know if a heart so utterly shattered can ever heal completely, but there were signs of it being gently sewn back together again, that’s for certain.
 

 
So, now, back to our travels! Our second full day on the cruise, Tuesday, was spent in Middleburg and nearby Veere. Rob managed to get a few shots of both towns. I’m sorry I stayed back in the cabin to rest up and missed the more bucolic and tranquil cycling sights…
 

 
…and the stop at a dairy farm where Rob enjoyed a taste of buttermilk. He said it’s the first time in his life he’s enjoyed that beverage – probably because it was raspberry-flavoured and tasted like yogurt. And it was undoubtedly fresh!
 

 
Plenty of historic sights greeted cyclists, too, including a church that Napoleon had converted into three floors of barracks (as well as stables below – which made for a fragrant cot above, I’m sure). The building is currently being restored and turned into an events venue.
 

 
More hospitable is the Roosevelt Hotel (the oldest hotel in the Netherlands) which used to be – you guessed it – a fort.
 

 
Of course, if the edifice didn’t give you a good enough hint as to the building’s origins, perhaps this might have.
 

 
Middelburg and Veere were very peaceful and much less busy than Hoorn had been the day before. What a lovely area!
 

 
That night’s exquisite private dinner was held for half of our group of fifty (hosted by Mike and me) at the chef’s table, a quiet remote dining room, with a menu made up of specially-chosen tasting selections. We enjoyed wine pairings, desserts, unique flavours and presentations and lots and lots of laughter!
 

 
More of those dinner shots tomorrow here.
 
Every time we took the microphone or were addressing our guests, I kept wanting to call these men and women “winners” and some – including Sandra Rye, Mary and Ralph Larin and Andrea and Bill Bates – did win a trip with CHFI (to Ocho Rios) with Mike and me. It just felt like a “winners’ trip.” All of the couples (and a handful of single women) were genuinely glad to be travelling with us, just as we were with them – even though, this time, everyone had paid!
 
This group shared a real camaraderie right from the start. Some folks who hadn’t booked with us (mostly from the US) joined in the fun, too, especially the night we took over the lounge and played Coop’s Classics and had a not-so-Oldies Dance. Funnily enough, some of those non-Toronto folks said when they filled out the survey at the end of the cruise that the dance was their favourite part! (Maybe we’d have to have two of them if we took the ship over entirely.…)
 
Of course, in addition to having a great week, visiting new places and, for some, river cruising for the first time in their lives, people truly wanted to make sure that their Mike – our Mike – was going to be okay. (There were a few single ladies on the trip who wanted to ensure the same thing…!)
 
I am pretty confident that, after this past week, we can all know that he will be. It won’t be tomorrow or the next day, but I think if we DO go ahead and do this in fall 2020 (maybe an entire ship of us on the Rhine in Germany?) we’ll see even more signs of that heart gently mending. (Email Gerry Koolhof to find out more. We truly want to take over the boat!)
 
Mike and I are so grateful. More amazing pics and adventures and stories tomorrow.
 
Hugs, 
 

Like most everyone who’s ever seen, walked past or entered into it, my thoughts today are with Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, and the devastation that was wrought upon this 700-plus-year-old signpost on the journey of humanity from the middle ages to modern times. It’s truly heartbreaking to bear witness to the conflagration that gutted this majestic monument yesterday and I have a few personal memories to share. I’ll do that here on Good Friday. I hadn’t planned a journal that day, but it seems fitting.
 
Today our thoughts are with our frères and soeurs in the City of Light, whose spirit finds itself, no doubt, struggling deep in the dark. I’m thinking, too, of our friends Gerry and Ian, who left for a week’s vacation in Paris after Gerry put together our Amsterdam cruise. No doubt they were immersed in the same sadness and incredulity as everyone else in the city – and indeed around the world – yesterday.
 
And on to trivial things.
 
I’ve so many more pictures from our fantastic Tulip Time cruise from Amsterdam down to Belgium and back to Amsterdam. Don’t ask me why we passed this ark on our way, but there it is! It’s known as Johan’s Ark and it’s moored in Dordrecht. 
 

 
I’ll have more pics tomorrow – and thanks to Mary and everyone else who posted their own pics on my Facebook page yesterday – but I had to do something else today.
 

 
You see, this is a second big “birthday” of sorts for Mourning Has Broken and for readers here who have been asking for an audio version of the book.
 

 
Sitting there next to my microphone is a mug Rob bought me for Christmas down south and the tiny travelling urn that we take with us: a little blackbird containing a few of Lauren’s ashes. I wanted her there at the mic with me as we did this.
 
When first the idea of writing Mourning Has Broken was suggested, we were told that it would be up in the air as to whether an audio version would be needed; Canadians, we were told, weren’t that into books in that listenable format. Today, we hope to disprove that notion.
 

 
Throughout the month of January, between visitors, Rob and I would steal out to the little Shasta trailer in the backyard of the property we rented in Palm Springs. Truth be told, that little white and yellow retro unit was one of the main reasons that we chose that property!
 
We would sit out there for hours, waiting out bouts of rain that sounded like sizzling through my microphone, praying that neighbours’ leaf blowers would soon stop or that the sky-writing bi-plane overhead (yes, a real thing) would give it a rest. Somehow, amidst all of those obstacles, we got this book recorded.
 

 
Only a few times did I have to stop to cry or get my emotions under control; mostly they came during the chapter about saying good-bye to Lauren and playing our little 20 Kisses game. Rob, on the other hand, would sniffle quietly as he sat at his computer at the other end of the small trailer. While I was concentrating on holding it together for a few brief parts and being true to the words on the page, he was hearing our story in my voice. It was hard for him, no doubt about it. We both knew this wasn’t going to be easy and it’s another reason why we were quite intent on recording it ourselves, together.
 
And then, once our hours and hours of putting my voice into a mic and computer were done, Rob’s job was to edit. And edit. And edit. To eliminate the many throat-clearings that resulted from cream in my coffee (or so I believe). To cut out the stumbles, wrong words, slurs – all of those things that, in radio, we just barrelled on through, but would not DO in an audio book!
 
To add music to sweeten the chapters’ beginnings and endings, to enhance the story with a few special sounds (including Lauren’s voice) and to cut in the foreword as narrated by Jann Arden in her own words. You will also be treated to a rendition of the lovely Celtic poem “She Does Not Leave” from our friend Lisa Brandt. And you’ll love Lauren’s laugh after the little joke at the end of the book.
 
This is certainly an uphill climb, but I’d love to prove that audio books – especially in the author’s own voice (like the one we enjoyed from CNN’s Jake Tapper last summer as we drove to Utah, Idaho and Nevada) – really can be successful. So I’ll ask you to pass this journal and/or link along to any of your friends who either has a long commute or prefers to listen to audio books and podcasts over actual reading. Thank you for that.
 
And what a joy it was signing books on the cruise! Thanks to all who brought theirs or had me sign dedications for friends.
 

 
And here’s to new beginnings – AGAIN! We’re about to post details on two fundraisers in Ontario that you can attend if you’d like – the evening of June 4 at Markham Theatre (for Markham Stouffville Hospital) and on the afternoon of June 6 in Alliston (for Matthews House Hospice) – or book signings at Indigo stores in Mississauga and Kitchener that same week. I’ll share details as soon as I get them 100% firmed up in the What’s UP section of this website.
 
In the meantime, more stories and pictures of our Netherlands travels here tomorrow. I think you’ll love our update on how our friend Mike Cooper is doing! Take good care and thank you for sharing this entire journey. What a joy it’s been to bring you along!
 

Welcome to Monday! And just like that, a week of wonders and windmills (and wonderful fellow travellers) has come to a close. After an 8 hour long flight from Amsterdam to Calgary and then a connector to Victoria, Rob and I arrived home late yesterday afternoon to an ecstatic little dog and fresh flannel sheets in our own bed. Ahhhhh.
 
First off, our trip out of Victoria was a breeze and we couldn’t be happier with KLM Airlines. Our 9.5 hour trip to Amsterdam last Saturday and overnight into Sunday was so thoroughly enjoyable that we didn’t want it to end. We even ended up with these little Delft houses (with Bols Dutch spirits inside) as souvenirs! We didn’t keep them, though, giving them away instead at our own private “Oldies Dance” on the cruise.
 

 
Following a smooth private ride to our ship, we boarded the AMAStella in Amsterdam. Interestingly, instead of a lifeboat drill (standard procedure on a cruise ship), we were told where the life jackets are (top deck) and given a pleasant orientation in the 18-month-old ship’s lounge. Here’s that happening gathering spot during a quiet moment.
 

 
To a person, the crew couldn’t have been nicer, but let me tell you about the people who came with us. Our group of approximately 50 flew primarily from the GTA and was made up of former (and current) CHFI listeners. Gerry Koolhof from New Wave Travel in Toronto did an incredible job of preparing everyone for their trip, arranging hotel stays before and after the cruise, as well as transfers, and basically made sure our every need was taken care of.
 
Rob and I have travelled as paying clients of Gerry’s for years and we were reminded of why again and again this past week. A fantastic time was had by all – to a person – a lot of new friendships were forged and we’re already talking about doing this again next year, perhaps in the fall (to give you lots of time to decide) along the Rhine through Germany. But THIS time we want to take over the entire boat. That would mean 150 of us (or so). Do you think we should give it a try? Do you want to?
 
If you’d like to touch base with Gerry, you can email him here. He’s still on the road, so he may take a few days to respond, but I promise he will get back to you.
 
Our first full day, Monday, we were in Hoorn, NL. While some took in this town steeped in Dutch East India trading history, Rob and I (and 17 others) were guided on a terrific bike tour through the Dutch countryside!
 
Did we see windmills? Yes – one under repair and one that’s now a restaurant.
 

 
Later in the week there was a spectacular bike ride through a whole huge area of windmills (some 200-300 years old); more to come in a few days. Did we see tulips? Well, the cruise is called Tulip Time! And although the previous week most of the fields were a sea of green, fortunately for us, the flowers bloomed. This is just one of the spectacular fields we saw.
 

 
Cycling carefully to avoid other bikes (plus pedestrians and cars) made taking pictures almost impossible. But Rob managed to snap a few on our digital camera while he rode.
 

 
Some of our fellow adventurers took in a trip to an authentic tulip farm (if there are farms for synthetic tulips, I didn’t see any LOL) while others toured a museum…
 

 
….and walked the town square. Did I say “square?” Try and find a square corner on one of these buildings!
 

 
There were probably millions more tulips as the week went on, but I can’t go overboard (so to speak) this first day back with you. It was just such a FANTASTIC group experience and we can’t wait to do it again next year. Who’s in?
 
Later in the week I’ll share some pictures with Mike and let you know how he fared on this whole trip, plus the events that were planned just for our special group. I really do love the idea of taking over the ship for an entire week and hope you’ll think about it. I’ll have more details for you – if we are going ahead with a 2020 trip – in a few days, or as we get them.
 
In the meantime, I’ve got some sleep to catch up on. Thanks for coming along and I hope you’re enjoying the trip. “Dank Je” and we’ll be back with you tomorrow.
 

Hello – and Happy Friday! Today we hit up three places in the Netherlands: Rotterdam, Kinderdijk and Schoonhoven. Tomorrow we arrive in Amsterdam and we were supposed to take a canal cruise there, but we’ll be otherwise enjoying ourselves (TBD) and sightseeing until Sunday morning when we disembark. Rob and I arrive home on Sunday afternoon and expect to have a new journal for you here on Monday.
 
I will have a lot of memories made in some beautiful places with some fun, fine people (including our great friend Mike Cooper) for you next week, but today I wanted to take you back to last Friday when I experienced something so extraordinary that I couldn’t wait to tell you about it.
 
We happened to see a poster in a restaurant in downtown Sidney, BC for a concert featuring the Victoria Symphony doing the music of Queen. That sounded fun, we thought, so we got ourselves four tickets for Friday, April 5th and decided to turn it into a late birthday celebration for Rob.
 
What a fantastic move that was! Seated front row in a second- or third-tier balcony in the majestic Royal Theatre, we felt like we had the best seats in the house as the 40-some piece Victoria Symphony began to warm up under their Pops conductor. Then, downstage, we spotted a pianist, guitarist, bass guitarist and drummer. Soon we realized that we weren’t just going to be treated to Victoria Symphony’s renditions of Queen’s hits; we were thrilled to learn that rock vocalist Michael Shotton and two back-up singers would be bringing Queen’s songs to life.
 
Here’s how the show looked from our perch; I didn’t take long to shoot, as I didn’t want our friends behind us or the people next to me to be distracted by the brightness of my screen.
 

 
In the second half of the show, the University of Victoria Jazz Vocal Ensemble (all twenty of them) took the back part of the risers and filled in some of the more anthemic parts of the biggest Queen hits. Here’s how the show unfolded.
 

 
The highlight BY FAR was “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Strings. Horns. A choir. A rocking guitarist. A lead vocalist who owned the songs, not by trying to sing like Freddie Mercury (who could?), but by bringing his own Steve-Perry-meets-Robert-Plant stylings to the show. Start to finish (just about two-and-a-half hours including intermission) it was truly one of the best entertainment nights of our lives, Rob’s and mine.
 
The London, Ontario-based Jeans ‘n Classics, which teams with over 100 orchestras continent-wide and performs everything from Queen to Fleetwood Mac, Eagles to Beatles, Motown to Prince hits, describes its music as suiting (but not exclusive to) those “25 to 65.”
 
I can tell you that while the 81-year-old behind us loved the show as much as we did, there were pre-teens and fans in their young twenties who were equally enthralled. What a fantastic way to introduce the symphony to those who aren’t sure if they like this genre of music. Is there anything Queen can’t do? Yes, everyone was shut down from dancing (which Shotton had playfully encouraged) by the ushers, who would be soundly booed for stopping the dancers – something you can bet never happens on Tchaikovsky night.
 
But nonetheless, it was a great, fun, applause- and cheer-filled evening that just blew us away. You can find out if or when Jeans n’ Classics – in any of its incarnations – is going to be playing near you simply by going to their website. But I guarantee you’ll have the time of your life. It was amazing – with cheers, tears and just so much enjoyment coming from watching a great band and an entire orchestra seemingly having as much fun as we, the audience, were.
 
I’m so glad we saw that little poster. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll be back with you here on Monday with lots of pictures and stories from our Amsterdam adventures. Take good care and thanks for coming by this week!