Good morning from Kalama, Washington. It is a river-port town almost half way from Astoria ton Portland, heading upriver. Weather sunny after rain was predicted. Rain now said to arrive tonight, we’ll see.
From here most pax will visit Mt. St. Helens volcano by bus, and will be gone most of the afternoon. From ship to buses was a long walk but we’ve old legs and found the prospect daunting so we’ll stay aboard. We often do this, and have the ship to ourselves while most pax are ashore.
The passengers (pax) of this ship are like the residents of our winter 55+ village in NV, looking at them you’d imagine nearly all oldsters are long married, at least somewhat happily. I doubt the statistics show that to be the case for the population at large. Both 55+ developments and cruises tend to be favored by the long married, quite possibly because such folk are more financially able to afford them.
You have to wonder what the older divorced and never married do for entertainment and where they choose to live in retirement. I’d guess they may not live as long - on average - as the married. Those of our friends who divorced and remarried tend to have less money to live on than those long together. Two can truly live more cheaply than one on a per capita basis, and with any luck they have two retirements coming in.
