Random thoughts from the sea
Day 9, 2024 Ultimate Mediterranean Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024; Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal Alas, my plan to enjoy my favorite cocktail – a gin and tonic – at Peter’s Café Sport in Horta, Azores, went awry. Seas too rough for tendering ashore caused us to miss yesterday’s port call after
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Day 1, 2024 Ultimate Mediterranean Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024; Fort Lauderdale, Florida After a whirlwind 16 days on land, it’s great to be back on a “Dam” ship, as Holland America cruisers like to say. This time, I’m on the Volendam for a 42-day cruise from Florida to the Mediterranean
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Day 11 post-cruise, 2024 Majestic Japan Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024; Galveston, Texas I knew something was up when in the course of an hour or two I started getting notices of a few dozen new subscribers to my blog. I hadn’t published a post in several days, so this was
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Day 53, 2024 Majestic Japan Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024; At Sea, North Pacific Ocean Just one more “sleep,” as they say, and this cruise will be over. Our final port was Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii last Friday. I finally met up with my friend Scot, who has
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Days 45-47, 2024 Majestic Japan Tuesday-Thursday, Oct. 15-17, 2024; Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii I leaned in close to the Sephora store greeter, somewhat embarrassingly asking in a whisper: “This may sound weird, but is there a mascara called “Better Than Sex?” The Gen-Z young woman laughed and replied unabashedly in a
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Day 41, 2024 Majestic Japan Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024; 25°29’8” N 174°44’22” E (North Pacific Ocean) Two items in the news caught my attention in the last 24 hours – and neither has anything to do with American election politics. First, a Japanese grassroots organization (Nihon Hidankyo) of atomic bomb
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Day 34, 2024 Majestic Japan Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024; Naha, Okinawa, Japan As much as I like discovering new places, there is something comforting about returning to familiar ports. Today’s stop in Naha, on the island of Okinawa, was just one of those days, combining a new experience with a
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Day 33, 2024 Majestic Japan Friday, Oct. 4, 2024; Ishigaki, Japan The beauty of Ishigaki lies north on the island at Kabira Bay, “where on a sunny day the blue, turquoise and emerald-green water contrasts against the white sand beaches.” At least, that’s what I wrote last February when we
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Day 31, 2024 Majestic Japan Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024; Nagasaki, Japan Today was the second of our visits to historic atomic bomb sites in Japan. The tour this morning in Nagasaki went to this city’s Atomic Bomb Museum, the nearby hypocenter (ground zero) and Peace Park. In many ways, the
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Days 28-29, 2024 Majestic Japan Sunday and Monday, Sept. 29-30, 2024; Toyama and Kawazawa, Japan Japan has its share of large cities, and we visited several of them on this cruise. Now that we are on the north coast of Honshu, the ports are still cities, but small enough that
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