2014 "海之狂想曲(Rhapsody of the Seas)"

八月二十二 星期五

與林美君約好在西雅圖機場不見不散,然後一起去遊輪.我一拿到行李,正在找美君,就看見趙俊邁,他已經見到了姚嘉為與她老公傅衣健.

趙俊邁,美君,我坐出租車去遊輪,價廉車美,是趙俊邁三言成交的.

上船馬上遇到老友一大堆,徐新漢做的精緻的年會夾,名牌,令人感動,原來是他女兒徐珍珍大力協助.

晚上作協理事們就工作--開會. 我跟文友們去CASINO,三溫暖,美容院各地參觀.

八月二十三 星期六

上午年會開幕,每分會三分鐘精彩報告該會今年度重要事項,非常圓滿結束.書展中書也被拿得一掃而空.

八月二十四星期天

早上五點半我天不亮就去甲板看船靠近阿拉斯加首府朱諾. 下午跟老友丘宏義,薛麗珍,劉婉玲去坐狗拉雪橇.

拉我們那群雪狗都是一家人,領頭的是狗爸德克薩斯,狗媽瑪麗,後面跟著不到一歲的狗小兒子和三、四、五歲的狗侄兒、侄女們,後面跟的是一些狗侄孫輩,押尾是牠家狗大兒子,因為是靑少年,反抗心大,所以把牠放在最後,跟一隻牠玩得來的新狗在一起.

這群狗大概天生是工作狂,已經等了我們一上午,遠遠看到我們車到,就狂叫不停,急著要拉我們去寒帶叢林.我們十來個坐雪橇的人很被感動.

坐在雪橇上,被牠們在土石流似的泥巴路上狂奔狂叫地拉著,雖然被顛得頭昏腦漲,但的確很感動.

被拉完後,又被請去喝熱咖啡和抱小雪狗,一隻剛生了幾天的小狗仔,特別喜歡麗珍和婉玲,一直要她們兩個人輪流抱個不停,可愛到不行.

黃昏我參團去看海豹與鯨魚,因為下雨,只看到兩處鯨魚噴水和一隻座頭鯨的座頭,海豹島上海豹,一群群在大雨中往我們的船遊來,大概想船上會餵他們食吧.

八月二十五 星期一

船到史凱崴,大家上岸遊玩.

淘金比輪盤賭還刺激,傾家蕩產的淘金人比比皆是.我們車經過三千匹馬為淘金狂人而累死的死馬隘,窗玻璃上掛著一行行外面濃霧結成的水珠,是馬的眼淚?

史凱崴城外亂墳坡到處為淘金而死人的墓碑,坡上有當年惡名朝彰37歲的 "肥皂水"史密斯的小破墳,跟與他在碼頭午夜決鬥槍殺了他,57 歲的警衛佛藍克雷德(十天後也因槍傷而死)的大紀念碑.

史凱崴街上兩邊都是一家家當年的酒吧和妓院, 現在變成遊船公司開的禮品店,賣 "中國製造" 的紀念品, 最有名的一家妓院現在成了「娼妓博物館」,還有駐館女鬼,聽說誰酒喝得多,她就顯靈給誰看,我的女朋友們,每人都喝了兩杯 "血腥瑪麗", 我雖酒精過敏,也喝了兩杯甜得要命的熱可可,等了半個鐘頭,也沒見到她的芳踪. 聽說她又特別喜歡澆花,她的房間已經沒有花盆,但是地板上真的有一塊塊水漬呢.

八月二十六 星期二

清晨六點不到,我就趕到船頭等天亮和特雷西手臂冰川慢慢出現, 海本來是灰色,靠近冰川時,就變成碧綠,海面上浮著零零星星的冰塊,大一點的冰塊上常有一隻或一對隨冰塊逐流的海豹, 特雷西手臂是令人擔憂,正在溶化的冰川,不知道那些海豹會不會也為在溶化的特雷西擔憂.

下午丘宏義講他的科幻小說小行星. 接下來是作協選舉,趙俊邁連任,說兩年後會有精彩年會,一方面,文友們都有出新書計劃,大家都翹首以待.

八月二十七 星期三

是大家最期待的年會遊藝會. 急智成語每人有獎的節目,使各位文友把平常深藏的表演才能充分發揮.下一個是千金難買的極緻表演--夏威夷舞,是文協比美奧斯卡獎表演及中國 "春晚"的壓軸戲. 美女們身穿夏威裝,頭戴鮮花,反串美女們今年還要加一項臉部表情表演.結果陪審委員認位個個都可比美好萊塢超級女星. 王申培--伊麗莎白泰勒,張五星-秀蘭登波兒,范允達-金露華,舒龍--蘇菲亞羅蘭,彭南林--奧黛麗赫本,而徐新漢的霹靂嬌娃: 化裝:珍珍,演出:徐新漢, 後者就像梅蘭芳的貴妃醉酒,一舉手、一投腳都顯出了道地的徐式霹靂嬌娃,一致被通過得最佳獎.

晚上在同樂室唱卡拉OK. 我回房間換衣服,先躺下五分鐘,醒來已經十點,再去同樂室,一大堆文友還正盯著一個小螢幕,唱得起勁呢,我忙把他們唱得忘情的樣子照了下來.快午夜了,管理員來趕大家還不想散.

下一站遊輪在加拿大維多利亞停留. 八月二十九 星期五下船日.

大家在西雅圖上岸, 約好繼續努力寫作,兩年後在中國絲路見.

Trip to Alaska  

2014 "Rhapsody of the Seas" Alaska Cruise

Aug. 22nd

Silvia Lin, my writer friend from Brazil, and I decided to meet at Seattle airport and go to the ship together. We saw Philex Chao, president of our North American Writers Association, so the three of us took a taxi to the ship.

Many friends had already boarded. Some of us were at the Chinese World Writers Association Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia last fall. The conference folder and the name tag were well prepared. Thanks to the hard work of the conference coordinator John Hsu and his daughter Jane.

The board members of the association went to work the same night. My friends and I went around the ship to check out the casino, spa, and, shows in the theater.

Aug. 23rd

The ship was at sea. We had our opening ceremony of the conference in the afternoon. There were twenty-five chapters in our writers association. Writers from thirteen chapters were present at the meeting. Each gave a three-minute report on the activities of our association in the past year. All the books at an impromptu exhibit at the back of the room were taken in the first few minutes.

We were a group of forty and were seated at four big tables at the 5:30 dinner in the main dining room so we could be all together at least once a day.

Aug 24th

 The ship docked at Juneau in the early morning. I went to the front of the ship to see it approaching the port. I was hoping that I might see a whale but saw none.

In the afternoon, my old friends Hong Yi, Nonny, and Veronica and I took a sled ride through the rain forest. The Alaska Huskies had been waiting the whole morning and barked with joy when they saw our bus approaching.

They ran and barked in such high spirit as they pulled us on the muddy path in the damp forest. Imagine when they could run on real ice!

We had hot coffee and a chance to pet the husky puppies born only a few days before. One little puppy must think Nonny and Veronica are his mommies. He went back and forth between them, nestling against their necks.

In the evening I joined a whale watching tour around Douglas Island. It was guaranteed that we see at least a few whales; otherwise we could get a refund.

We saw two blow-outs far away, a tail of a whale not too far from the ship and the hump of maybe the same humpback whale for a second or so. The king of the sea lions was on the top of a slope on the Sea Lion Island. He didn't give up his place even though there were many challengers and he lifted his head high when the boat left. Many sea lions jumped into the water and followed our boat in the rain, thinking people would feed them.

Aug. 25. Ashore Skagway.

I took a bus tour to as far as Lake Bennet on the Canadian Yukon side. At the height of the gold rush of 1897 to 1901, more than 1000 gold diggers took the ferry to the other side each week and then continued on a 550 mile hike to the Klondike gold field.

After the gold was exhausted, the lake was empty of boats, not even a wild duck could be seen .

More than 100,000 people went; only a few hundred got real gold. 3000 horses toiled for them and died at the Dead Horse Pass. As the bus drove by, lines of water drops running down the window in the heavy fog. Tears of the dead horses?

Outside the city of Skagway, in the public cemetery were tombstones of the gold diggers who didn't make it home. The notorious "soapy" smith (age 37) died instantly at a shoot-out with local authority Frank Reid (age 57) who died ten days later from gun wounds. Smith's tiny grave was not far from the tall monument erected for Reid.

The gold diggers went to brothels and bars, which now are jewelry shops owned by the cruise companies. The buildings kept their original names. The Red Onion Bar and Museum was one of the most famous brothels in town. It has its resident ghost

in one of the upstairs bedrooms . It was said she would show up for guests who drank enough. My girl friends all drank at least two Bloody Marys,  and I also drank two ultra sweet hot chocolates since I am allergic to alcohol, but we didn't catch a sight of her. She also loved to water plants. We didn't see any flower pots around, but there were water marks on the floor.

Aug. 26th

I got up early to watch the Tracy Arm Glacier gradually appear. I was on deck for about four hours to see it first as a tiny spot, then its large swath of brown ridges mixed with stretches of ice. There were plenty of worries about the melting glacier. On the floating ice sea lions were taking a ride. I wondered if they worried about the disappearing ice.

In the afternoon our writers association held its important election of a new president and board. Philex won the re-election. Only one board member can represent one city, and there were two Los Angeles chapters in our association. One had ten members attending the meeting this time, and the chapter which I belonged to had only one member-me- present, so it was only fair that the other chapter was elected as a new board member. My association will have to wait for its turn at the next biannual conference.

Aug. 27 At Sea

The farewell party, the most anticipated program of our reunion was held in the afternoon. There were many innovative performances. The grand finale was "the Hawaiian Dance" of the drag dancers, comprised of the most eminent scholars and known writers among us, impersonating divas of Hollywood: Wang Sheng Pei as Elizabeth Taylor, Zhang Wu Xing as Shirley Temple, Fan Yong Da as Kim Novak, Shu Long as Sophia Loren, Peng Nan Lin as Audry Hepurn.

The winner was Hsu Xin Han, the Iron Woman from Outer Space. Make-up artist: Jane Hsu, Performer: Hsu Xin Han. Like the famous Chinese opera singer Mei Lan Fang's Concubine's Drunken Dance, every movement of the hand and of the foot was to the perfection of the unique Hsu-style alien goddess.

The ship went on to British Columbia and returned to Seattle two days later. The writers parted. All hoped to produce the best work yet in their writing career before we met again on the Silk Road in China two years from now.