I just got back from a 16 day vacation to Alaska. This has been planned for months and I wasn’t about to let my diagnosis get to much in my way. I talked to the doctors and they warned me to take it easy and if it got worse to let them know ASAP. For the last few years traveling has gotten harder and harder and until a couple months ago I had no idea why, now I do. Apparently Lyme gets active in new environments so travel usually bring out the best in the disease. I packed my clothes, necessary medical machines and as many pills as I could get my hands on and left June 1, 2013. We started out with 17 hours of travel from Austin to Kodiak – what a day! Surprisingly I made it just fine, exhausted but feeling okay. That week we were able to cook and make sure my celiac didn’t make matters any worse. We did a few outdoors things like kayaking and shooting but mostly stayed indoors.
Then we travelled to Anchorage for a day and just walked around, ate and enjoyed the sunshine. The next morning we boarded the cruise ship – 7 nights and 8 days with 4 stops among the way. Usually I am not a fan of all inclusive or cruise type vacations but I have always wanted to see Alaska and the towns are not reachable by land, so cruise ship here we go.
The ship was Royal Caribbean, Radiance of the Seas, and it was meticulously cleaned and pretty big. Being gluten free I was a bit scared to see my options but each day they surprised me with Udi’s bagels, Gf hotdogs and gourmet meals at the sit down dining room. They are not 100% with their practice of gluten free, cross contamination was definitely not an issue they worked on, but ingredient wise they were very knowledgable – all chefs not just one! Much more than I had originally expected.
In each port we had an activity planned: rock climbing, zip lining, kayaking and a hummer tour. Each a little more activity than I should have done but overall proud of myself for finishing it all. Rock climbing was definitely the hardest for me using the most pure muscle strength. About 3/4 of the way up the rock face my muscles started deteriorating and shaking uncontrollably. I truly thought I would have to stop there, but put my mind to it and made it the whole way up!
Our cruise ended in Vancouver where we spent 2 days bike riding and walking. Unfortunately by this point my body had enough and was telling me so. Luckily those stack of pills came in handy and I managed to finish the vacation with no regrets of places, activities or foods missed.
Don’t get me wrong, my body is not happy with me and I will pay for it, I’m sure, for the next few days to weeks, but it was worth it.
Now to just start getting ready to move to Baltimore….