Friends, Food, Sketching Fill Summer Break Between Cruises

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Between Cruises

Friday, July 3, 2026; Chicago.

When I last posted in mid-May, I wrote: “I’m spending the next four months on land. I’ll spend July and August in Chicago (Logan Square area), attending an Urban Sketching symposium and catching up with friends from my summers there in 2017-2019. Fortunately for me, my nephew Colton is moving within the city, and I’ve snagged his old apartment before the lease ends.”

Best laid plans…. The lease extension didn’t work out. But I’m staying busy for the month I’m here and the rest of my four months before returning to the Volendam in late September.

After disembarking in Fort Lauderdale, I rented a car for a road trip to Fort Smith, Ark., visiting friends in Sarasota and Largo, Fla., and spending a couple of days in New Orleans. I can work NOLA into almost any road trip, it seems, and usually include a class at the New Orleans School of Cooking – this time with Harriett, one of my favorite instructors.

In May, we had a mini family reunion in Fort Smith, Ark., — the three sisters, Elaine’s sons Zan and Colton and grandson Ben – where we visited the U.S. Marshals Museum. In mid-June, my sisters and I met in Kansas City for friend Ginzy’s Scoops and Hoops party, I hitched a ride with Elaine to Chicago for my compressed visit.

As I am leaving Chicago July 15 instead of the end of August, and figuring that two months was too long to impose on Eloise in Fort Smith, I considered and rejected various travel plans that didn’t require a car. So, I have booked – what else? – a 14-day Alaskan cruise for late August.

Meanwhile, I’m filling my time on land with visiting friends, especially those from my three pre-Covid summers in Chicago. Shortly after arriving here in 2017, I realized that I would be lonely and bored if I didn’t make some friends, so joined a Just Write weekly group in Logan Square. I haven’t seen them since 2019 (except via Zoom during Covid), but our table at New Wave coffee shop immediately feels like home as I write this blog. So does the graffiti in the restroom.

A couple of weeks ago I also joined the Urban Sketchers Chicago group to sketch and paint at Lincoln Park Zoo. I’m thrilled to be participating next weekend in the group’s annual summer sketch seminar. While cruising off the coast of Australia last March, I stayed up late to book my workshops, knowing the classes would fill within about five minutes of the opening of online registration.

I’m also seeing cruising friends. I jumped on Amtrak’s Borealis for the five-hour ride to La Crosse, Wis., for a fantastic visit with Tom and Monika. We spent a day on their new pontoon boat on the Black and Mississippi Rivers, visited a winery, toured the city and just enjoyed relaxing on their covered patio.

I also joined Monika and a dozen or so other artists at Mississippi Wednesdays, a weekly painting opportunity at a studio overlooking the river.

Back in Chicago, world cruise friends Doug and Elizabeth hosted us for dinner at their Lakeview apartment with its stunning views of the city and Lake Michigan. We met Toya and Bob for dinner in Near North Chicago after a day at the Art Institute of Chicago.

In early August, my sisters and I will meet up in Nashville with cruise friends Jett and Kelly. And to my delight, I’ve discovered that fellow MINI Cooper owner and friend for 25 years Paul and his wife Jane will be on my Alaskan cruise. We’ve already booked some dinners together and will even meet up with other MINI friends Jerica and Sergio in Seattle.

I had great intentions of cleaning out my small storage unit this summer, but it might have to wait. I still have lots of port planning to do for Alaska and this fall’s cruises in the Canadian Maritimes and New England, the Mediterranean, the Amazon and the Caribbean, followed by the 2027 world cruise.