A Little Of This And A Little Of That

This last Monday I went in and had an MRI done on my hip and upper leg area. I had to lay on this hard, slightly padded bed for 1 1/2 hours.
I was immobilized from my waist down and I had to remain very still while the machine was doing its thing.
The "bed" that I was laying on, moved me into this big tube. I had my arms folded on my chest and I could feel the sides of the tube kind of squeeze my arms.
There was not much room in there...very confining. I do not like being cooped up in tight quarters and had a hard time dealing with the procedure.
By tilting my head back just a bit, I could get a view of the real world outside of this tube that I was confined in. By seeing this little piece of the outside world and by letting my mind drift to better places, I was able to combat any upcoming anxiety attacks that I felt that I was on the brink of.
Then there was the sounds that the machine made while it was doing its things. It started as a couple of loud clicks...like the machine was adjusting itself before unloading its menacing banging sounds once it really got started.
I had to wear earplugs but they were no match for the banging sounds.
After getting about 2/3 of the way through the procedure, I had to get some contrast media injected into my blood system.
Another 15-20 minutes of loud banging and I was finally finished.
I was sweating up a storm while in the machine. This machine has to do with magnets and magnetic fields. I won't even try to act as if I know what it was all about or how it worked. All I do know for sure is that the machine generated a lot of heat and that I was very grateful when my procedure was finally complete.
Let me tell you...the cool fresh air felt fantastic.
I have a doctors appointment in a couple of weeks, at which time I will get the results from my MRI.
Veronica and I have been trying to figure out what to do for next years vacation.
We were thinking about going to Las Vegas in February for 5 days but after doing more thinking about it, we decided against that idea.
Next week we will be going to Williamsburg for a couple of days, just to get away for a few days and take in the sights and smells of Fall.
It looks like we will be going back up to Canada during the last couple of weeks in September.
It will be nice to do some fishing again.  
I had to send my camera in to get fixed. I was getting lines going across the bottom of numerous photos. I have no idea what would cause the lines but after seeing them on several of my photos that I took during our Baltic Capitals cruise, I knew that I needed to get it looked at and fixed before our next adventure.
We had to get Veronica a new camera a few weeks ago. The Kodak Easy Share camera that she had quite working properly. The flash would not work at all.
Since the camera was fairly old and it would have probably cost more to get it fixed than it would to get a new one....we got her a new one.
If my camera is not back from the shop by the time we go to Williamsburg, we will take hers so that I can take photos using her camera.
Hard to believe that we are mid way through October already. Time sure has been flying by as of lately.

On The Final Leg Of Our Amazing Journey And Adventure

We got up early this morning for our final flight of this journey and adventures.

We caught a 7AM flight on Continental and were in Norfolk around 8-8:30.

After picking up our luggage, we were on our way home but not before a brief stop at the local Lens Crafters.

Just prior to our leaving for our vacation, I had bought a new set of glasses. I did not wear my new glasses until we started our vacation. Well they broke at the end of our vacation. If they were bound to break, the timing could not have been better. 

They actually broke on our last 2 sea days so I did not miss seeing any sights not did it hinder me from taking photos.

After dropping off the broken pair, picking out new stronger frames and arranging for them to mail me the new set of glasses(it is a 2 hour drive from our home to this place), we headed off for our 2 hour ride home.

By this time, both Veronica and I were really feeling poorly.

When we got home, we brought all our luggage and misc bags inside and I just laid them all on the floor.

Veronica and I then went to bed. It was around 2PM or so. Veronica wanted me to wake her up when I woke up.

I woke up around 6PM and tried to get Veronica up but she wanted to sleep a little longer so I ended up going back to bed too.

I did not get up until around 6AM the following morning.

Veronica was still asleep and she ended up sleeping and staying in bed the whole day and night and the following day and night.

It was a good thing that she took an additional day off.

I ended up putting all of our clothes and other items away...unpacking all of our luggage, and doing about 5 loads of wash.

The following day, Veronica had to drag herself out of bed and get back to work.

It took her about a week before she got to feeling better.

Unfortunately, we were back into our normal routine within a day or so of our return home.

Veronica and I had a fantastic time in Europe. It is something that will stay with us forever. Looking at the photos that we took, we still have a hard time believing that we were actually in Europe.

We have already started to dream about our next big adventure...maybe..Italy or France or Norway or Scotland or Ireland or a combination of any of them.

So many countries and too little time.

Thinking about all of those foreign adventures is what can keep a person going at times.

But I guess that is what dreams are for.
And I will keep on dreaming until the next adventure becomes a reality.

  

Day 12 Of Our Baltic Capitals Cruise- Heading Back To Heathrow For Our Return Flight Home

We spent a couple of hours last night packing up all of our suitcases. We put the suitcases out in the hallway, outside of our cabin so they could be picked by NCL personnel.

This morning we arrived in Dover a little behind schedule. It might have been because of the weather.

The seas were a little rough and it might have slowed us down bit. We were not worried about our arrival time into Dover because our overseas flight was not until 4PM.

After getting some breakfast, Veronica and I gathered our carry on items and we headed off of the ship.

We gathered up our luggage and proceeded to a bus that would take us to Heathrow.

The bus ride to Heathrow lasted approximately 2 1/2 hours..the traffic was pretty bad.

After arriving at Heathrow, we checked our baggage in and went walking around the airport for a while.

They had a Harrods store in the Airport so we decided to walk around in it.

By 4PM we were on board the plane and preparing for take off.

They served us dinner, we watched some movies and then I went to sleep. Other than those things, our flight was uneventful. We arrived in Newark Airport at which time we went through customs, then picked up luggage and had to go through a secondary security check point that was mainly focused on our luggage. After completing all security checks, we contacted the local Country Inn and Suites (our favorite hotel chain), so that we could get a ride to the hotel on their complimentary shuttle.

I had not been feeling too well during a couple of days on our vacation and the last 2 days plus the travel day, it all caught up with me. 

I was definitely under the weather and Veronica  started to not feel well.

After we got to the hotel, we just took it easy. We had to get up early the next morning because of an early flight out of the Newark Airport enroute to the Norfolk Airport.

Here are some videos of our take off on our Virgin Atlantic flight

Here are some photos of a flight information channel that you could watch on the small flat screen tv that was embedded into the back of the seat in front of each passenger.