Random thoughts from the sea
Days 116-120, 2026 Grand World Voyage Wednesday to Sunday, April 29-May 3, 2026; Seattle, San Diego and at Sea. While the days of truly grand special events during a Holland America world cruise are in the past (think a private evening at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam or at the foot
Continue reading
Days 111-114, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Monday, April 24-27, 2026; Kodiak, Sitka and Ketchikan, Alaska. Alaska is a special place to cruise. Majestic mountains with snow-covered caps, dense evergreen forests, dozens of rocky islands and if you’re lucky, plenty of sea life, wildlife and even bald eagles. It
Continue reading
Days 103-110, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Thursday, April 17-23, 2026; Hakodate, Japan, and Seven Days at Sea If you placed a map of Japan over a map of the North American east coast, our six Japanese ports would stretch from Miami to Nova Scotia. Most maps — whether
Continue reading
Days 100-101, 2026 Grand World Voyage Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14-15, 2026; Yokohama, Japan. They say you can’t go back again. But sometimes you can. I went back to a magical bamboo forest in Kamakura on Tuesday, and it actually lived up to my memories. A beautifully groomed forest of
Continue reading
Day 99, 2026 Grand World Voyage Monday, April 13, 2026; Shimizu, Japan. If you want to learn to make sushi, why not take a master class? Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and his team guided us through the steps to make maki and nigiri. (Maki is what most of us think
Continue reading
Days 96-98, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Sunday, April 10-11, 2026; Nagasaki, Japan, and at Sea. Just steps from the docked Volendam I discovered a world of miniature art that, once again, challenges me to think beyond simply replicating a scene. After all, a photograph will do that. Artist
Continue reading
Days 93-94, 2026 Grand World Voyage Tuesday and Wednesday, April 7-8, 2026; Naha (Okinawa) and Amami, Japan. The sound of children playing at recess told me I had arrived at my destination. Google Translate proved it. The “Amami City Obama nursery school.” While putting together a walking route in this
Continue reading
Days 90-91, 2026 Grand World Voyage Saturday and Sunday, April 4-5, 2026; Kaohsiung and Keelung/Taipei, Taiwan. Who cares that I wore formal evening attire to a casual Italian restaurant in Taiwan? I didn’t even get any weird stares. Elaine hadn’t returned yet from her all-day tour to Taipei so I
Continue reading
Days 87-88, 2026 Grand World Voyage Wednesday and Thursday, April 1-2, 2026; Hong Kong. It’s not news that I’ve come to enjoy clothes shopping while on a cruise. Perhaps because there’s no pressure to find something, or the styles in other countries suit me more. Losing a few pounds hasn’t
Continue reading
Days 82-85, 2026 Grand World Voyage Friday to Monday, March 27-30, 2026; Phu My, Da Nang and Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam. While not as well-known as Angkor Wat, Hạ Long Bay in Northeastern Vietnam has been on my bucket list for years. Through travel-brochure photographs, I’ve long admired the otherworldly
Continue reading
Recent Comments