Another member of the Infirmary crew for the first week of our trip was Leon the Dentist. A great guy from Utah who does a lot of humanitarian work around the world and plays the trumpet. He is dedicated to both professions. He even brought his trumpet with him to practice for a "gig" he was doing as soon he returned home. He maybe loves doing dental work a little too much. If he looked at the schedule of appointments and saw an upcoming extraction he would begin rubbing his hands together and chanting "It's going to be a great bloody day". I nicknamed him "Blood and Guts Leon". Obviously that is him in the middle of the photo. Our first port was Ketchikan, Alaska and we got off the ship long enough to walk through the shops in town and sample the goods. We walked up to this shop with this huge stuffed Polar Bear out in front for everyone to have their picture taken with and we couldn't resist.

Recently, my business has been extremely busy and I haven't had much time to post anything here. However, business took a sudden slow down and just in time. My wife Brenda and I had scheduled a trip to Alaska for Sept. 11th to the 25th and we just returned. In fact, my luggage hasn't arrived home yet, that's how recent we returned. This was a leisure trip for me, but a working trip for Brenda. She occasionally signs on with the Holland America Cruise Line as a Registered Nurse and works in the ships' Infirmary. This cruise, aboard the M/S Veendam, was the first one in which I was allowed to accompany her and it was a real experience living in crew quarters and getting to observe the crew from behind-the-scenes. Starting today I will be posting some thoughts and photos from the trip. It was a great experience and if you haven't adventured to Alaska you are missing out on some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. But first I would like to talk about the crew and how well trained they are. Our quarters (room) was just off the Infirmary and one night during our first week the ships' fire alarm went off at 2:50 AM. Within approximately one minute, the Infirmary staff, the ship's Stretcher Team and the Safety Team had responded to the Infirmary and were ready to combat a potential fire and if necessary evacuate any patient confined to wheelchairs, etc. The alarm was caused by a water leak onto a smoke detector in a passenger cabin in close proximity to the Infirmary and the problem was resolved quickly. The crew trains on a regular basis to respond to a number of different scenarios involving life boat drills, man-overboard or illnesses/injuries on board. It was not unusual to walk through the crew area of the ship and see many of them gathered around a TV playing a training video or watching them respond and practice to different scenarios. It is a VERY well trained crew and made me feel exceptionally safe. Heck, they even put me to work and included me in some of their drills. My "official" title was "Secretary". They even gave me a name tag to wear so the rest of the crew would stop questioning me every time I walked through a crew area. The Infirmary team was most impressive as you can see from the photo. L to R is: Nurse Brenda, Me (I just wanted my photo taken with them), Beverly the Lead Nurse, Dr. Jyl the Passenger Doctor and Dr. Ed the Crew Doctor. Stayed tuned as I will publish more about this great adventure.