St. Paul, MN: We were up at 3 a.m. in order to make a 7 a.m. flight, the airport is an hour from our summer place. The flights here were SOP, nothing to report.
On the second, longer leg I watched part two of the latest attempt to bring Frank Herbert’s Dune to the screen. This director has done a fine job of making the film look good, but he’s taken liberties with Herbert’s work. For example he’s given Paul’s girlfriend Chani a much larger part and a lot more “agency” or independence than the book gave her.
St. Paul is prettier than I expected. There are lots of trees and the land isn’t completely flat. It is definitely a river city; back in the 1800s, before the railroads were built, rivers were our highways.
We board our ship tomorrow, not certain when but almost certainly in the afternoon. Normal cruise ship practice is to disembark in the morning and board the new passengers in the afternoon before sailing around suppertime.
It’s a hard day for the ‘hotel staff’ as they have to clean and refresh all the cabins. While they are scrambling to get everything done, the cooks normally feed us pax a late lunch, to keep us entertained. “Pax” by the way is ‘ship shorthand’ for “passengers.”
