April 20/20

John: And so we continue our long trudge across the Pacific Ocean back to the United States. We've been at sea for what seems like forever and a week or so since we left Japan, but we still have a long way to go until we reach Hawaii, much less San Diego, where we get off the ship for the last time. It did not help that the first few days after we left Yokohama were marked by some very rough seas, and then by chilly and rainy weather. We basically spent an entire day sailing through fog, with visibility reduced to maybe a couple of hundred feet in any direction. I don't envy the bridge crew trying to navigate the ship under those conditions; on our tour of the bridge a few weeks ago, Aidan, Maeve and I learned that the ship has every electronic device there is to pinpoint our position and locate other ships and underwater hazards--sonar, radar, GPS, etc--but still, it's got to be easier to be able to see where you're going. We had been so accustomed to the tropical temperatures we have largely been traveling in that the chilly weather came as a surprise--we're not used to it, and do not really have a lot in the way of warm clothing. Also adding to the length of the crossing is the fact that we are crossing the international Date Line from west to east, which means that we are going through April 20 two times, once on each side of the line.  Weird!  The analogy to the movie Groundhog Day  was reinforced when the loudspeakers on the ship started playing "I Got You Babe" (the song that Bill Murray wakes up to in that movie) at alarmingly early hour on the first April 20.  It also means that we go from being seventeen hours ahead of the east coast of the United States to seven hours behind, which hardly seems fair (I have to think that there must be a way of gaming the stock market or picking horses in moving in effect from the future to the past, but can't quite figure out how to do it). It's a little boring.

But the weather has cleared and warmed up in the last two days, which helps a great deal. And, by a happy coincidence, the day we cross the International Date Line happened to be April 20, which is Aidan's birthday! Which means that he gets to celebrate it twice, a fact that has led to a number of questions in the course of the voyage.  I thus offer a list of frequently asked questions:

Q: Does this mean two birthday parties?  A. Yes: one small party with family and closest friends on the first April 20, then, on the second April 20, a larger party for all the children on board during the afternoon kid's program.

Q: Does this mean double the number of presents?  A. Not really, though there were two present-opening ceremonies, one on each April 20 morning. We had neither the foresight in January nor the space in our luggage to bring presents with us, but Vicki was able to shop for toys at the Toys 'R Us in Hong Kong, and I got him an interesting chess set carved of stone in Saigon.

Q: Is Aidan now two years older, since he had two birthdays?  A: No; he simply turned eight twice.

Contemplating his wish.

As a grand finale to the two-day-having-a-birthday-while-crossing-the-internatonal-date-line celebration, we hosted the kids on board for a showing of WALL-E in one of the classrooms. This was Aidan's choice, and it could hardly be more perfect for our situation. It's about the degradation of the environment, which has been a theme of the Global Studies class on the voyage, and much of it is set on a ship that is on an interminable cruise. Everyone had a great time. Aidan's birthday as a whole was a joyous way to get us over the hump of our long voyage home.