We got home yesterday at about 3:30. Our trip is over. Back to the real world for a month or so, and then it is off to Maine to wrap up the summer. Hopefully, today will be quiet here. A recovery day, after our unexpectedly extended return.

When I go downstairs this morning, I should find two newspapers. On our 16 day trip, I only saw one newspaper. None on the boat at all, and none on land. If I wanted to read a newspaper, I guess I could have found one at CVS. Certainly not in any of the hotels.

So you can imagine my shock when yesterday, on the plane from Chicago, the man sitting next to me in seat 11D, began reading the New York Times page by page, line by line. I glanced at his newspaper and, although it was Sunday, he was reading the Times from Thursday. At first, I had no explanation, but then I realized why. It probably took him three days to find the Thursday edition.

Over the course of the last week, I did turn on MS NOW or CNN a few times. But not on the boat. Neither channel was available on Holland America’s Eurodam. There were only BBC and CNN International as news channels. That was another surprise.

There were few signs of politics anywhere. And we saw no signs of the upcoming midterm elections. I had expected to see evidence of the big Senate election in Alaska, where former Democratic Congresswoman Mary Peltola is looking to flip the seat currently held by her Republican opponent Dan Sullivan. But……nothing. At least, yet.

Another thing about the places we visited is that the minority populations are truly minorities. Yes, we were on Indian reservations, and the indigenous populations are “honored” everywhere, but the overall numbers of native Americans is quite small. And while Seattle’s population is about 8% Black (its metro population only about 6%), while the metro DC population is 24%, the Black population elsewhere is hard to count. Even Spokane, the only other sizeable city we visited, is less than 2% Black. And the Hispanic population is also relatively small. Only the Asian population in Seattle is by percentage larger than in DC. As for Hispanics, the DC population by percentage is three times larger.

I was impressed by most of the cities we visited, although in Alaska, I must say that Ketchikan and Sitka were more appealing than Juneau. Seattle always impresses and, as I said earlier, Spokane seemed just plain weird (” i after e, except after w”). Wenatchee and Kalispell were delightful, but physically Missoula was surprisingly unimpressive. This included the hodgepodge campus of the University of Montana. Let me  put it this way. If I were interested in becoming an architect, and if Montana had an architecture school, I would not apply.

Do I have more to say about the trip? Sure. Will I say it? Not today.