Where in the World are Mike and Jan?

Minute Man National Historical Park is most interesting, as it isn’t a “park” where you pay, enter, and look at exhibits. Rather, it encompasses 970 acres of land from Boston west to Concord, with houses and roads and landmarks along the way that you visit. There is no admission fee. The Visitor’s Center had a 25-minute multimedia movie explaining the beginning skirmish of what was to be the American Revolution. A total of 1,800 British soldiers were in the area to control the colonists; once called upon, 4,000 American militiamen showed up to fight the British. The final tally: the British had 73 dead and 174 wounded; the colonists had 49 dead and 41 wounded. For a ragtag volunteer army, the Americans held their own against a world-class trained army. The war had begun!

The first photo is along Battle Road between Boston and Concord…very quiet, serene, and peaceful. It is hard to believe that so much bloodshed took place here. The third picture, with the three following, were taken at Hartwell Tavern, which is along the road the soldiers used. There was a musket demonstration, which was very interesting. A musket stands about 5 feet tall and weighs 15 pounds. After loading and firing, it then takes another 20-30 seconds to reload and fire again. We were supposed to see the musket fire several times, but it misfired all but once….sometimes there was no spark from the flint, and other times the flint sparked but still didn’t set off the charge that would fire the gun. So, there is a photo of the one time the musket discharged, which obscured the ranger’s face. There was also a rafter of turkeys on the property, about 15 or so.

The last pictures are of downtown Concord. It has colonial aspects and some really nice gift shops. As you can see from the street signs, the city is just 2 miles from Walden Pond. The city was purchased from the Indians in 1635, partly paid in wampum-peage, hatchets, knives, cotton cloth, and shirts. The treaty was signed under Jethro’s Tree, long gone. The city was named for the concord among the earliest settlers, who by all accounts worked and lived together peacefully.

Driving down the coast from Portland, Maine, to Concord/Lexington, Massachusetts, on Route 1, we passed through the very cute tourist town of Ogunquit, Maine. It was still filled with tourists and there was even a traffic jam in the middle of town! But the views of the ocean were beautiful and a neat coastal path meanders along the beach. As we drove there, we passed a private home and caught a glimpse of some neat sculptures in the yard, which you can see below. Very joyous!

We had fun in Downtown Portland! The first photo is from the top of the Eastern Promenade, looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. And all the rest are from the Old Port district…definitely a sense of fun and whimsy. Who ever heard of a poet for hire? Lobsters drinking Guinness? The joys of being a mermaid? Who ever heard of a piece of the Berlin Wall residing on a Portland wharf? And, ducks, anyone?

We stopped in a brand new AC Hotel by Marriott, which was gorgeous, to find out more about the brand. We were looking at hotels in Spain for our travels at the end of 2019, and AC Hotels are in most every tiny Spanish town, so we wanted to check it out! A shout-out to Ally and Emma, who generously talked with us for quite a while about travel and hotels.

The last photo puzzled us….if a word is misspelled on your restaurant’s window, why not have it redone? Easy fix!

A few images from yesterday and today. We saw The Lobster Attacks Earth while driving south today….too good to resist. Last night, we found the sign we had laughed at a few years ago…Walk-ins Welcome, with a picture of Christopher Walken. And today we visited the Oreo Cows of Rockport, Maine. They are Belted Galloways, a Scottish breed, noted for their quality marbled meat and, of course, the “belt” of white fur that goes around their middle….hence, the name Oreo. Some people purchase Belted Galloways just to adorn their pastures, due to the cattle’s striking appearance. The woman at the farm told us that to be allowed to breed, the white belt must go entirely around the cow and meet underneath. Two calves were born recently whose belt does not meet, which means that they will not be allowed to breed, as it would weaken the line’s characteristic coloring pattern.

Camden, Maine is idyllic. Peaceful. Beautiful. Spectacular. Small-town. Residents we have spoken to say it has just everything: a caring community, art museums, great concerts and theater, and the Camden International Film Festival, which is what brings us back to Maine after just a month. We were also here two years ago, and found the film fest to be quite wonderful, as it is a documentary film festival, considered one of the best in the world. There are both feature films and shorts (movies less than 30 minutes), and by weekend’s end we will have seen 12 full-length movies and and 27 shorts, so the days are long but rewarding. There are four theater venues spread out over 8 miles among three towns: Camden, Rockport, and Rockland. The Opening Night movie was about a film that Orson Welles never completed. Last night, the featured movie was a Secret Screening. It was the premiere of a movie of great relevance today, but it’s “official” opening isn’t for a few weeks, so….get this!….we had to sign a nondisclosure agreement that we wouldn’t talk about it until it officially opens. Last night’s big movie was about Roger Ailes, the Fox News founder who was accused of sexual harassment, resigned, and died a year later. Fox paid at least $32 million in settlements in the known cases, but it is suspected that there were many more settlements made privately behind the scenes.

So the photos are of the town, which is gorgeous and charming….the harbor, the downtown, the flowered footbridge (which also had wild tomatoes growing on it and mini pumpkins!), and, oh yes, the last two are of Robert Redford. He sat in front of us at last night’s secret screening. We felt creepy taking photos of him (like stalkers), and at one point Mike went in front of the stage to take a photo of the audience…and to capture Robert in the photo, of course…when just by chance, he abruptly stood up, excused himself to Mike as he passed in front of him and left for the concession stand. So these were taken after that. We were told that he also attended last year and liked it so much that he returned! He seemed like a very nice guy, by the way, quite apologetic for getting in the way of the photo Mike was taking “of the audience.”

Lake Champlain is enormous: 120 miles long and 12 miles wide. Both North Hero Island and South Hero Island are connected to the mainland by bridges, with beautiful views of Vermont and the Green Mountains to the east and New York and the Adirondacks to the west. Access is just 18 miles north of Burlington, where we are staying. So we took a 3-hour Sunday Drive on Wednesday to see them (and we really like exploring islands). Eagles were scouting overhead. Cranes were wading in the lake. Like all islands, life is slow and lazy and lush. Also like all islands, there are ice cream shops, restaurants, and local products for sale (here, they are apples and maple syrup).

The islands are named after two patriots, Ethan and Ira Allen, heroes of the Revolutionary War. The Republic of Vermont gave them the islands in 1779 for their military service and their role in settling the state. As you can see in the photo, in Vermont, the county seat is called the shire town, just like in Lord of the Rings!

We liked all of these views of Lake Champlain, and the message on the school board was interesting: tell kids we are honest, safe, and kind, and maybe bullying and violence will stop. And the last two photos were taken on South Hero Island, an old railroad car with a woman with tasseled slippers in front…uh…doing something. The last photo is a closeup!

Burlington is odd…..it feels like a small town, yet has lots of hotels and retail stores that tell you it isn’t so small, after all. The first photos are all taken in Church Street Marketplace, a pedestrian-only street dating back to 1981. It has stores, restaurants, vendor carts, street performers, and hosts special events. As you can see, there are also building murals, funky signs, and benches shaped like swings. Walking along the street, the feeling is very European. In fact, it reminded us of Las Ramblas in Barcelona, although Las Ramblas is much, much larger.

The art installation in the photos is unusual in that it was both inside and outside the building! Looks like it is taking over. The church is St. Paul’s Episcopal, a modern building unusual in two way: no pews, only chairs, for worship; and one wall made of glass that invites the outdoors inside. It also has a nice pipe organ.

Finally, with our hotel being across the street from Lake Champlain, there are photos of Battery Park and the Waterfront Park. It was a little rainy today, but we got out between showers to walk the city and take some photos.

Five days ago, in Washington, DC, it was 93 degrees outside and felt like 102, according to the Weather Channel. Here in Saratoga Springs, it is 59 degrees and everyone is wearing fall jackets and sweaters outside!

Saratoga Springs is famous for its racetrack, which opened when Abraham Lincoln was President, 1863. The town is beautiful, with many blocks of hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and retail shops, including two – yes, TWO – shops named Hatsational, selling those oh-so-important fascinators and other fashionable headwear for the races!

What we found most interesting were the ginormous houses on Broadway, the main drag, once the downtown shops ended. We took photos of just a few to give you the flavor of the over-the-top area of town. And at the end are two photos from Congress Park, at the entrance to downtown. It is a very cute, charming, and bustling place, even though the racing season ended on Labor Day.

We feel like we are back in Washington, DC! All of the buildings below are within one block of our hotel, the Albany Hilton. The first is simply amazing and gorgeous, the New York State Capitol building. It was the most expensive city building ever built at that time, 1899, and it shows. In a city noted for architecture, this really stands out. After that is Albany City Hall, just across the plaza from the State Capitol. The next one looks so much like Washington! It is a former museum that now serves as the State Department of Education. Then there is the Court of Appeals, the highest court in NY (usually it is the State Supreme Court that is highest).

St. Mary’s Church on Capitol Hill dates from 1796, and it is noted for its herald angel atop the spire. The Gothic-looking building after that is the former railroad station downtown, and is now the SUNY administrative building. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church had its first service in 1678, as you can see, and it most interesting to see mentions of Queen Anne, King George III, and Lord Howe on an American edifice.

The magnificent Million-Dollar Staircase, located in the State Capitol, was completed in 1899. It actually cost $1.5 million, is enormous, rising 119 feet in height and consisting of 444 steps. It is made of freestone, sandstone, limestone, and granite and decorated with the sculpted faces of figures in New York and American history, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Walt Whitman, and Abraham Lincoln (although we do not know whose close-up we snapped).

We were pleased to see a plaque honoring the leaders of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, as the first convention for women’s rights was held in Seneca Falls, NY. Finally, we were thrilled that, as several times before over the years, the City held a parade to honor us the day we arrived there. We are not sure what it was for, nor were there many people gathered to watch; we came out of the State Capitol, and the parade began! Such fun! The bagpipe band was great.

The Library of Congress. Vietnam War Memorial. Lincoln Memorial. World War II Memorial. Chinatown. An art installation titled LOOP. Smithsonian American Art and Portraiture Museum.

We have been to Washington, DC, several times, and each time we try to see something different, something we hadn’t had time for previously. So we had seen most of the Smithsonian Institute, took a White House Tour, visited Ford’s Theater and the house where Abraham Lincoln died, saw Georgetown and walked the Exorcist staircase. In addition, I lived in Washington for two years while I was in graduate school, but that was over 30 years ago, and memories fade, believe it or not!

The first three photos are from the Library of Congress, truly one of the most beautiful buildings we have ever seen. It opened in 1897 to house our country’s growing library; two copies of all copyrighted books were required, and the collection, housed in the Capitol, was running out of room. Every corner has paintings or sculptures (and a story!). We took the free tour, and found out there are few books IN the Library of Congress building…it is mainly a museum, with exhibits on Bob Hope, George Gershwin, the Great War, and Baseball, to name a few. There are movies to watch in each exhibit. It really is more like an extension of the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History, which surprised us. The bulk of its books are stored in Ft. Meade, MD, each with a number and location for easy retrieval. If you are approved to use the Library for research, a book requested in the morning will be delivered from Ft. Meade by the afternoon. The Library has more than 32 million books and print materials in 470 languages, along with a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, one of three complete vellum copies known to exist on earth.

The Vietnam War Memorial brought tears. Passing by the 58,000+ names…each a life needlessly lost…was overwhelming. As shown in the photo below, earlier in the day, John McCain’s family had placed a wreath at the middle of the monument, thanking all who served. We had watched the Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns, and he talks about how the war (and casualties) escalated because we didn’t want to admit eventual defeat. One reason the US stayed in the war was probably because the US had supposedly never lost a war prior to that time. That is arguable if one looks at the War of 1812. Although the Battle of New Orleans went very well for the US, it took place after the peace treaty was signed, and it is hard to argue that the US “won” that war, considering that the British sacked DC and that some of the issues the US went to war over were not resolved in the treaty.

The other main reason the war continued was probably due to what economists call the Sunk Cost Fallacy, which means that when making a decision as to continue or not continue a course of action, it is irrational to consider costs already incurred. If the costs cannot be recovered, they should not be considered in the decision-making. Interestingly, neither animals nor children fall for the Fallacy. Children have to be taught it by adults: “Don’t ever give up, kid.”

We went to Vietnam a couple of years ago. It looks a lot like the small Asian countries that haven’t had an affair with communism. Although they still profess to follow the communist ideology, they are increasingly capitalist. One of our favorite magazines, The Economist, describes the country’s leadership as “ardently capitalist communists.” In other words, if the war hadn’t happened, Vietnam would probably look a lot like it does now.

If you like a lot of pain with your history, we recommend that you see the Ken Burns series as well as The Fog of War, which shows that the Vietnam War may have been fought over misunderstandings between the two sides as much as anything.

Around the corner from the Vietnam War Memorial is the Lincoln Memorial, with that gorgeous view of the Washington Monument over the reflecting pool. We are also posting a little-known piece of trivia about the Lincoln Memorial: Lincoln is flanked on the right and left by two speeches, the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, and the inaugural address contains a typo! Here is the text as it should be: “With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.” Look at the word, FUTURE. You can see that the bottom bar of the F has been scraped away, as it was chiseled to read, EUTURE.

The World War II Memorial is quite lovely, two arches with Atlantic and Pacific etched on them, and wreathed pillars for each of the 48 states at the time, along with the American territories, around a pool. It opened in 2004.

Then, a visit to Chinatown. Look at the pedestrian walkway on the streets! All of the animal symbols of the Chinese zodiac are there, making a walk through very whimsical. And in Chinatown is the former boarding house of Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the US federal government. It was at this location on H Street where she met with John Wilkes Booth and the other conspirators. How jolting then, to look at the photo after the plaque and see that today, the building is….Wok and Roll!

Loop is an art installation adjacent to our hotel. You sit in it and pull the bar, and a zoetrope (look it up!) inside revolves around your head! It also lights up with different colors…so delightful to just find this randomly and enjoy an old-fashioned pleasure.

The last three photos are the atrium at the Portraiture Museum, which had an interesting interplay of light and shadow, as we were there when it was approaching dusk; then, a walkway between buildings that shows the clouds and sky; and hanging beach balls that decorated a retail passageway for two blocks. What a fun idea!

So, this all looks pretty ambitious, given that it is very hot in DC and every visit includes lots and LOTS of walking. But keep in mind that this was over 5 days. We normally don’t do so many touristy things, but it is called for in bigger cities like DC, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. We push a little more to get more in when there is a lot to do, but we are always aware that we will visit again in the future and see whatever we hadn’t seen previously. We need our rest days, too! And, we need time to plan our future days and weeks, since we must ensure that we have a bed every night. Currently, we have a place reserved every night through next August. Hotels and airlines will only allow us to book a year in advance, so we cannot yet book the end of next year, although we know where we will be. So today, relaxation….according to the Weather Channel, it is 93 degrees outside, feels like 102, and we know we don’t want to walk or sightsee with sweat rolling into our eyes. We can return in the future and see more….

The South Street Renaissance. It produced Philadelphia’s Magic Garden, a delightful outdoor museum of mosaics and assorted objects gracing walkways and staircases on South Street. It is the largest “piece” of work by local artist Isaiah Zagar. He and his wife moved to South Street in 1968 and opened a gallery to sell Latin American art. This project grew out of that. If you look a few entries below this one, in Havana, Cuba, we visited a similar folk art installation, Fusterlandia. When we mentioned it to a guide, she heartily agreed that they were of the same mold.

After those photos are those of a historic pub, Philadelphia’s oldest continuously operating tavern, McGillin’s Old Ale House. It opened its doors in 1860, the year Abraham Lincoln was first voted into office! It has the wonderful atmosphere of a true Irish pub, and on the walls, they have every liquor license issued to them since 1871. The food was wonderful, with the lowest prices we have ever seen in a large city.

After those photos are random shots from around the city, including Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. It was very hot, so walking around was quite a challenge! Elfreth’s Alley was a special stop, as I visited there 20 years ago on a choir tour. It is the oldest residential street in the US, and is still occupied, with lots of red on the houses, which looks really “colonial.” After that, we stopped in Reading Terminal Market for some beverages, and found a wonderful mashup of produce vendors and food vendors.

The crowning delight on this visit to Philadelphia is shown in the final photos and video….the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ, the largest fully functioning pipe organ in the world. It has 28,750 pipes and six manuals (keyboards). Its string division forms the largest single organ chamber in the world. It was originally built for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, where the world-famous organist and composer Alexandre Guilmant played 40 concerts before it was fully completed. It cost a whopping $105,000 ($2.9 million in today’s dollars), and sat in a warehouse until John Wanamaker bought it for his new department store, a full 5 years later. It took 13 freight cars to ship it, and 2 years to install. It was first played on June 22, 1911, at the exact moment British King George III was crowned. President William Taft dedicated the store later that year, and the organ was featured again. A concert series took shape, and the performances took place after the store closed for the day. Famed organists/composers Louis Vierne and Marcel Dupre were among the performers invited from around the world play this marvelous instrument.

Saturday…in the Park…I know it’s not the 4th of July…

Central Park, that is. Once again, don’t bother going to New York if you aren’t going to visit Central Park. It is an oasis on the middle of all the busyness of the city, and is just fabulous. People are walking, biking, having picnics, reading, walking dogs, kissing, eating ice cream, grabbing a hot dog. It is busy and beautiful and just feels like the epitome of life, happening right now. In the Strawberry Fields section is the Imagine mosaic, which attracted quite a crowd. And…such a deal!…..right there in Strawberry Fields, a man will do a bad portrait of you for only 10 bucks! We would have bought one, but we don’t have a house to hang it in.

Then, on to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, also in Central Park. We knew we didn’t have it in us to spend an entire day there, as usually we take a day off when we have been doing sightseeing for many days in a row just to rest up. And this trip, we haven’t taken a break. So we headed for the Impressionists and the Dutch Masters, two of our favorites. The Monet painting of the bridge over the water lilies at Giverny below is very special to us. We went there on our honeymoon and walked over that bridge. BUT….we were laughing so hard, as at the end of the bridge, hanging over the post, was a life preserver in case anyone fell in the pond. The kicker? The water was 3 inches deep, at most. You could only drown in it if you were the size of a fly. Mike bought a tile inset of that painting to install in his bathroom shower, as we liked it so much. And after that photo is a painting by Renoir. Before you read the painting info below it, look at the painting….a mom and her daughters, right? Nope. Sitting next to mom is her SON, and sitting on top of the dog is her daughter. Most interesting, how times change.

The next photos are from the exhibition Heavenly Bodies, fashion inspired by the Catholic imagination. The exhibit is at the Cloisters, as we wrote the other day, and also at the Met. Both locations had lots of people talking about the dresses and taking photos. They are all really over the top, and are more costumes than anything. They would only be worn to an awards show, if at all. Can you imagine a mom wearing any of them to their child’s wedding? Laughable for a mom, but right at home for Cher.

The last photo made us shake our heads and laugh about the world we live in. You can park your car UP TO 30 minutes for $19.43???? And a surcharge is added to THAT if you are parking a van or an SUV? Wow, Manhattan! Really? What a good reason to take public transportation rather than drive. When we stayed in Manhattan 2 years ago, we drove in, and we paid $80/night just for parking. This time, we parked outside the City for $8/night and rode the bus in!

The Cloisters. A Metropolitan Museum of Art subsidiary. A trip to New York isn’t worth it if you don’t visit the Cloisters. It consists of four cloisters reconstructed from French monasteries that were dismantled between 1934 and 1939. The museum is on a hill in Fort Tryon Park…quite a hike up the hill, since we took the subway to get there and walked! The museum consists of interior chapels, all stone, with arched colonnades and medieval gardens. Over 5,000 pieces of art are on display, including tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, stone and wood sculptures, and panels. In addition, there are approximately 300 pieces of stained glass. It is incredible…like walking through a monastery, but with something to look at every step along the way.

The first photos are part of a current exhibition called Heavenly Bodies….fashion influenced by religious orders and religious artwork. Aren’t these gowns gorgeous, AND unusual? The very first gown and model were being illuminated only by natural light from the slit windows. The gown is influenced by a nun’s habit, and the scene just took our breaths away. Stunning. The pee(p) hole garment was one we hadn’t previously heard of! And the crown of thorns is modern, part of this exhibit, and is shown as a sort of tiara, but it would be impossible to wear, since there isn’t a flat bottom, but spikes all around. The grounds are exquisite, with views of the Hudson River and even a distant view of the Tappan Zee Bridge, which we drove over a few days ago. The last photo before the video was astounding to us. It is an altarpiece triptych from the workshop of Robert Campin, South Netherlandish, painted between 1427 and 1432. It is astonishing because it looks like fresh paint, and the details are sharp and clean and precise. It seems impossible that it can be 600 years old!

In the video at the end, Mike was trying to capture the stillness and essence of the museum. Each room had its own sacred music playing, and some rooms had artwork revolving around a theme, like a room dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, done with lots of blue, and playing Ave Maria. The security guards in each room looked tired….dressed in suit and tie, their job is to stand for 8 hours guarding the objects in the room and answering random questions….AND listening to the same sacred song. Over and over and over and over and

The hustle! The bustle! The sheer excitement of being in Manhattan and Times Square! We love every part of being in New York again, one of our favorite places on the planet. It is the first time we were here in the summer, and it truly is more crowded and more frenetic. As always, we spend a lot of time looking UP, as the architecture from years past always included carvings and statues and various features that just bring a smile to our faces. We had our first night’s dinner at Junior’s, our favorite New York deli. We easily walked in and got a table, but by the time we were leaving, the waiting area was choked with probably 30 people wanting a table. We ended with one of our first real desserts in many months, low-carb, sugar-free plain cheesecake. With a cup of coffee, it tasted like heaven!

Founded in 1635 (!), Hartford is one of the oldest cities in the US. That may not seem old to our friends around the world, but it was about 150 years before the US became a country. The first photo is the state capitol building, while the second, the Wadsworth Atheneum, is the country’s oldest public art museum. The country’s oldest publicly funded park, Bushnell Park, is shown in the fifth photo. Walking around the downtown, there is a nice mix of old buildings with the new, statues, and artwork.

The last two photos are Mark Twain’s home in downtown Hartford. It was built by an architect who typically designed churches, and does have the feeling of a church, which is ironic as Twain was a notorious nonbeliever. It is one of the best-preserved homes we have visited. He and his family lived there for 17 years until he was forced to sell it due to poor investments….he was broke. Even though some accounts call him the most famous man in the world in the mid- and late 18th century, he invested in some speculative inventions that eventually bankrupted him. The house is filled with his children’s dolls and toys. With some, he invented bedtime stories for them every evening. The desk at which he wrote all of his most famous books is preserved in the Billiard Room. That room is decorated with cue sticks, billiard balls, cigars, and pipes, an original Man Cave. The children and his wife were not allowed in. He held drinking and billiard parties every weekend, and he himself smoked 30 cigars per day! He and his wife bought a very expensive bed with angels at the four corners and carved into the headboard. Told it was an antique, they later learned they had been swindled. Twain placed the bed pillows at the bottom of the bed, saying he wanted to look at what he bought for all that money! We felt a kinship with him, as he tried to recoup his fortune by doing talking tours around the world. He and his family stayed in hotels in the biggest world cities for several months at a time, for a few years, until they could afford to buy a house once more. We are “purposely homeless,” but we appreciate having a forebear who did what we are attempting.

A private island in the Caribbean. Dreamy. You think about being like Robinson Crusoe, alone and blissful, at first, anyway. But we weren’t alone, not by a long shot…we were there with over a thousand other cruise ship passengers. It is big enough that it never felt crowded. Half Moon Cay is a small slip of land that Holland American Cruise Lines bought 20 years ago as a private island destination on its cruises. So, the beach lounge chairs, hammocks, chairs, walkways, even the Beach Barbecue, are all free. But it IS a cruise line, so they charge for private cabanas, water sports, alcoholic drinks, and fishing/snorkeling excursions. But it felt like paradise. We laid in a hammock together for a while, just watching the sky and ocean and people. And the buildings all felt like a walk through Disneyland. The old shipwreck is manufactured, of course, as is Captain Morgan’s On the Rocks Island Bar. Walking through the sand felt like walking through flour, very dense and light, all at the same time. It is a gorgeous beach. In the last picture it is hard to see much anything, but our cruise ship was being followed by a pod of dolphins later that day. They were leaping and diving and just looked so happy to be showing off for us! It was a perfect ending to a truly perfect day on a private island.

So, does this port in Jamaica have eight rivers, which is the translation of the name? Nope. The indigenous natives called the city Las Chorreras, and the British heard it as Ocho Rios, put it on maps, and that became its name. Water sports and the beach are why you come here….snorkeling, diving, swimming, tanning, even fishing. But don’t come for the downtown. The shops are a mix of 80 percent jewelry and 20 percent souvenirs, with not much else. Mike had said that when he was here 20 years ago, he was amazed by the number of shops with the name Cool Runnings, after the movie about the Jamaican bobsled team. In a small strip mall in this tiny downtown, there were TWO stores with the name Cool Runnings. Also rampant 20 years ago were offers of marijuana for purchase, constantly and all the time. We encountered none of that today. We WERE asked about 30 times in 30 minutes if we wanted a taxi or a tour “at a low price,” but once we declined, we were left alone by that person, at least. The Caribbean is just gorgeous, of course, and the turquoise blue water is very inviting.

La Perla Del Sur….Pearl of the South. Cienfuegos is about 150 miles over land from Havana, but more than 400 miles by ship. About 60 miles from the Bay of Pigs, it is located on the southern coast of Cuba. There is one tourist area that has been renovated and cleaned up, with shops and restaurants, and as you can see, a whole street of kiosks with vendors selling souvenirs. This area is just off of the Parque Marti, which is where all the government buildings, theater, churches, and statues are located. The coast area is gorgeous, with blue water and a walkway along the Caribbean. But as you can see in the first four photos, the people live in squalor. The buildings are deteriorated, moldy, and badly need paint. There were horses tied up to trees along the street we walked. The man driving the horse carriage saw us taking a photo, and yelled, “One CUC,” requesting payment for riding past us! People sat on their stoops (we didn’t see any porches to speak of) to catch a breeze. Some children yelled “Hola!” Several teens followed us for a while, asking questions in Spanish and wanting money. Cienfuegos is no Havana, but it gave us a glimpse of how people in Cuba actually live.

In the past few weeks, we have heard, “My friends went to Havana and said it was like going back in time.” And, “My brother was there, and he only posted two photos on Facebook…maybe they don’t allow photos.” And, “We saw lots of old buildings and ancient hotels.” Well, we are here to say, uh, NO. It was really fun. There are lots of statues and contemporary sculptures on the street. There is a lot of color and vibrancy. The old cars are mostly all restored, painted in gorgeous colors, and have air conditioning added (which is really a necessity, might we add). You can see in a photo below, one of the drivers is keeping out of the sun by lounging in his trunk! Under that photo is one of a good-sized SUV that rode alongside us for a few blocks. It is a communal taxi, driving a set route, and like a bus, picks up people along the way. It is much cheaper than a private taxi. We counted 13 people inside! Yoiks!

Buildings are being remodeled. The parks, which seem to be on every block, are tended to, neat, flower filled, and have people everywhere. Havana has the hustle and bustle of other large cities, particularly those that have almost daily cruise ships putting 1,000+ people onto the streets, people who are taking tours and having coffee, eating lunch, and buying local goods.

We really enjoyed the murals and sculptures. The brass statue of the nude woman riding a rooster and holding a fork, titled Viaje Fantastico, was installed in Plaza Vieja in 2012 by Roberto Fabelo without explanation. Some say it is a symbol of chauvinism, others a nod to the history of prostitution in Cuba. The woman is expected to earn her living, symbolized by the fork, while riding a male rooster and wearing high heels, always also ready for whatever a man wants of her. It has created quite a stir.

Okay, so no doubt, the buildings could be in better shape. They could do with new coats of paint, and inside they could have more variety. The people look resigned to their way of life. Some young people told us they would love to travel the world, but they are not allowed. The government fears they would not return, and we were told that that is most likely true. We went into a local grocery store, and all are owned and run by the government. It was very dirty, since they don’t have to worry about competitors. The floors and frozen food cases were filthy, as you can see in the photos. There is little variety. You can see a woman stocking the shelves with the same mayonnaise that fills the entire aisle, top to bottom, left to right. Every aisle was like that….the same exact brand and size is the only brand and size, and it fills the shelves.

It was hot. Unreasonably, absolutely HOT. Every time we got out of our air-conditioned car, we were walking into an oven, barely able to catch a breath. No matter what we were seeing, no matter how interesting, all we wanted to do was get back inside the car, where it was cool.

The photo of the street just before the grocery store photos represents a remarkable material….planks of wood. Many (many) years ago, the governor’s wife was tired of hearing the click-clack of carriages on the brick street outside the mansion. They replaced the bricks with wood to make it quieter! It has been replaced many times since then. Looking at it, we weren’t sure what it was made of, at first. It looked like bricks, but not quite.

Then came two jewels of Havana. After the grocery store photos are pictures from Fusterlandia. Jose Fuster was inspired by Gaudi and his work in Barcelona. If you look carefully, you will also see many similarities to Picasso. Fuster wanted to create a similar place of whimsy in his native Havana. So, he started making mosaic art installations in his house and his neighbors’ houses as well. There is no charge to enter and take photos to your heart’s content. There is a donation box, which was quite full, and you can purchase items too, of course.

The last photos are of the Gran Parque Metropolitano, also called the Forest of Havana. It is fabulous….a lush rainforest in the heart of Havana. There were tour buses and taxis all along the river, with people taking photos of this improbable treasure in the midst of the city.

All in all, would we return? You bet! We had a fabulous Cuban lunch at Paladar Buenaventura, an open-air restaurant with excellent food, including plantains, black beans, piccadillo, chicken with pineapple, tamals, and a wonderful soup. The bread basket was served with spicy garlic-infused oil. Lunches were typical American prices. Entrees with beans, rice, salad, and bread cost between 13-16 CUC. If you are not on a cruise, Cuba can be very expensive. Havana’s hotels range from $200-900 per night. Their money, the CUC, is on a par with the American dollar, but with fees, you only get 87 CUC for $100 US. The average worker earns $3 per day. In the grocery store, a small “snack-size” bag of Oreos cost $3.45. Can you imagine spending what you earn in a day on a bag of cookies? We are hopeful that after almost 70 years of Communism, people can again, in the near future, have a taste of freedom, earn real money, travel, and enjoy robust trade with other countries. It feels like it’s time.

Quirky. Funny. Happy. Key West has a great sense of humor! It is Party City, right up there with Las Vegas and New Orleans. Key West was our first entry on this blog, but there is only one picture and no commentary, as we didn’t yet know what we were doing, nor quite how this website worked. But today is different….both lots of photos AND descriptions of them!

We have visited Key West several times, and it is normally too hot here to think about anything but air conditioning. Today, there was a lovely breeze all morning and into the afternoon, so walking around was really pleasant.

The photos show some quirky fake animals as well as a family of chickens, which roam around freely. The fourth photo is of a bar with enough currency from all different countries to pay off the mortgage! The photo after that reads, “U.S. flags protected by bat-swinging crazy (really) New Yorker – break or remove at your own risk!” It sounds like he has had it. The police car’s motto is “Protecting and Serving Paradise”….and there are many signs welcoming visitors to Paradise. If only it weren’t so humid and devastatingly hot!

Do you love the tree with a heart it built into its trunk? And there is an old Packard we saw in an almost-hidden driveway, along with some bananas, gorgeous red flowers, and some of the tropical houses along the way. My favorite food in the world is potato and cheese pierogies, which we don’t eat any more since going on a low-carb diet. But then we stumbled upon Pierogi Polish Market in Key West, of all places. No, we did not partake. But I wanted to. Finally, there is the picture of the ecclesial coat of arms we took at the Basilica. We thought it most interesting that it contains both a conch shell and a palm tree! Somehow, you expect it to have more “churchy” items on it. We were delighted at the whimsy! And how about the old Strand Theater, newly remodeled and now a Walgreens? Is it not fabulous? Finally, the last photo is looking down Duval Street, the main drag. The best thing to do is walk its 14 blocks…the only place in the US where, on one street, you can walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico! So fun. Quirky. Funny. Happy.

So here’s a mouthful for you: Lake Anasagunticook, Maine. It is near Canton, Maine (population 900, and idyllic). The mouthful is its actual name on maps, but people from Canton call it Canton Lake. We were visiting Mike’s cousin, Sarah, and her family, and had a spectacular time. EVERY place looked like the first photo! It was serene, calm, small town, and quintessential New England. Sarah told us a funny story about the lake. Far in the distance on the first photo is the island in the second photo. Sarah said the man who built it put boulders out on the lake in winter every time the lake froze over. As the ice melted, the boulders dropped and formed the foundation for the island. The man built a tiny castle on it, along with a miniature faux lighthouse. The lighthouse is actually the outhouse for the home!

The last two photos are the Atlantic Ocean along the Boston/Revere coast. We are in Boston to take a cruise to Cuba, and last night was “date night”…a movie and dinner in Revere, so we drove out to the beach after dinner (D’Amelio’s Off the Boat Seafood…some of the best Eggplant Parmesan on the planet) and got some almost-nighttime photos. Even at 8:00 pm, it was warm, sultry, and had several groups of people who didn’t want to give up on the day just yet.

Back in the US….Back in the US….Back in the US of A! (Yeah, we know the Beatles song is back in the USSR, but we are happy to be back.). Canada is wonderful, and we very much enjoyed driving it from one coast to the other, but one’s home country is best…familiar and comforting. Almost immediately, we purchased a quart of famous Maine blueberries. Now, here’s the thing: they don’t taste like the big, sweet blueberries we normally get in grocery stores, which often taste more sweet than anything. These berries aren’t as sweet, but they are teeny-tiny, and they have more of a blueberry taste than we have had in years. Pure, organic, no-pesticide blueberries! The woman said we could eat them without rinsing them, so we had many handfuls as we drove. Pure heaven! We entered the US at Calais, ME, about an hour west of St. John, and drove Route 9 into Bangor. We couldn’t put our finger on why, but almost immediately, we both thought that it didn’t look like Canada anymore, but very American. There were trees and fields and flowers, but it was different. Mike remarked that none of the fields we passed were planted with crops, but just left natural. There were more houses along the road, and for some reason, they seemed less formal, more relaxed, more laid back than those on Canada, if that makes sense! A mystery, for sure!

We know from trivia competitions that Prague is called the City of Spires, but we noticed all of these spires in Bangor and wanted to feature them. (Apparently, residents are very particular about the pronunciation: BANG-ore, not Banger.) There is also a river walk along the Penobscot River that is very inviting. The last six photos illustrate the best thing in Bangor and in the best reason to visit: Stephen King’s home. One of our favorite authors and the King of Horror, car after car stopped to take photos of the house, and we all talked and laughed about stopping there. We also all agreed that it would be a pain to live in a historic neighborhood filled with expensive, gorgeous Victorian houses, only to have carloads of people stopping throughout the day, 7 days a week. At any rate, there are two photos of the home, his jumping frog way down in the corner of the property, and closeups of the bats, gargoyle, and cobwebs on the gate. It was our second time there, our encore visit, and both times the house looked empty and quiet. We wonder if the family ever gets to enjoy the front porch or the balcony above the porch? The price of fame……

Did you know that there is a fifth time zone in Canada? We didn’t! We are one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island…..called the Atlantic time zone. We are always learning new things as we travel. We have now driven across Canada from Vancouver on the West Coast to Charlottetown on the East Coast. Quite the journey. Two interesting things we noticed as we traveled Canada were the lack of billboards and the extreme tidiness/neatness of all of the homes and farms that we passed. Every property looked as though it was ready to be photographed. The lack of billboards…and the plenitude of trees and fields….made traveling in this country very peaceful. There was a lack of the busyness and drama that is often around us.

Prince Edward Island completes our goal of visiting all 10 Canadian provinces. It is named after Queen Victoria’s father, and it is common to see it called PEI. The Confederation Bridge, just about 20 years old, connects the island with the mainland. Before its construction, there was a 3- or 4-hour wait for a car ferry to cross the Strait. So the bridge was most welcome. However, it cost $1 billion to construct, so there is a one-way toll when you leave. Now is the time to be sitting down, without hot coffee in your mouth: the toll is $47!!!! It is the steepest toll we have ever paid to cross a bridge. It is quite the hot button issue, as Islanders have repeatedly asked for a reduced price. But no, they pay the same toll as one-time visitors. Yikes!

The fabulous pink flamingo inflatable is what everyone was photographing in the harbor! The other photos show the harbor, complete with Adirondack chairs, which are everywhere; a business’s welcoming front porch; City Hall; The Tuna; and a delightful pub. The last three photos are of St. Dunstan’s Cathedral. Have you ever, ever, seen a sign in a church forbidding in-line skating?? We are still smiling over that and would love to know the story behind it!

Six months of traveling the world! At the same time, it feels like we have barely just begun, AND that we have been homeless and traveling for a long time. Anyway…. Halifax is most interesting geographically, as its ragged coastline makes for many bays and inlets. The first three photos were taken on the boardwalk downtown. It was very hot and very busy. The next three photos are from Deadman’s Island, which is actually a peninsula. We thought perhaps it referred to a dangerous coastline where ships wrecked, but no….it served as a cemetery. There is a plaque honoring the American prisoners of war from the War of 1812 who died there and were buried at Deadman’s Island.

There are also photos from Halifax Harbor. Sailing and ships and shipbuilding has been the heartbeat of Nova Scotia. We drove to and through Frog Pond Park, Halibut Bay, Portuguese Cove, Herring Cove, Bear Cove, and Ketch Harbor. It was quite a pretty drive, as the water comes and goes with the undulation of the road.

We thought the Harborwalk was very cool….a pontoon floating pedestrian walkway across the bay, with the downtown boardwalk on either end. The last photos were taken at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The two outstanding exhibits were one on the Titanic and one on the Halifax Harbor Explosion, five years apart. Halifax was the closest port to the Titanic sinking, and the salvage ships brought the remains of those who died to Halifax to be tagged, identified (if possible), and buried. Survivors went to New York, but Halifax had the far harder job. Bodies were still being picked up weeks after the ship’s sinking. The last photo is a deck chair salvaged from the Titanic. We didn’t know about the Halifax Harbor Explosion in 1917. Two ships collided, but one was filled with 3,000 tons of explosives. The blast was the largest human made explosion before the development of nuclear weapons, releasing the equivalent of 6.4 million pounds of TNT. Most of the downtown was decimated, with about 2,000 people killed and 9,000 injured. Aid in the form of medical personnel and provisions came from all over, but specifically from Massachusetts. The province was so grateful that it still sends a Christmas tree annually to Boston in gratitude for the friendship and assistance.

We are in…..what else? Another saintly city! On our way here from Quebec City, we passed many more cities named after saints. St. John is named after the St. John River, where Samuel de Champlain landed on June 24, 1604, and that date is still the Feast of St. John the Baptist. The city was mainly settled by American Loyalists starting in 1783, loyal to England and King George III, and wanting to remain under the monarchy. St. John is the port city on the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, a province that has gorgeous fields, forests, trees, and flowers. It is more rural than the other provinces we drove through. There is a McDonald’s in town, and of course several Tim Hortons, the Dunkin’ Donuts of Canada, but no Starbucks and few other chain restaurants.

We walked around town and found Theodore Tugboat! He starred in a children’s show on PBS from 1993 to 2001. What a happy guy! Even though it was chilly outside….yes, we know it is July 27!…..people were out in the park and shopping. This was the first day of our three here that we could go out, as it has been foggy, with rain and blowing wind. People were wearing coats! The General Store sells ice cream, but also doubles as a museum of old consumer goods. We also went into St. John Market. As you can see, it is beautiful when you step in, with all the hanging flags and mobiles. We bought rainbow carrots and some other produce. Who can resist Java Moose coffee? And the last two photos advertising CDs that are available just begged to be shared!

The farther you travel north from Quebec City, the more French you hear, and fewer people understand you. We traveled up the St. Lawrence River until the road ends in a ferry, in St. Catherine Bay. It was a breathtaking drive that went through small fishing villages, and we passed many small lakes and forests. The pictures show the Baie-Saint-Catherine estuary, the place where the St. Lawrence River and the Saguenay River meet. Along the river westward is Fjord Parc, and in the fjord can be seen whales, seals, and lots of birds. We were surprised that the area is not very touristy. There were few restaurants and few activities, other than the much-touted whale watching tours through the fjord and helicopter tours. You reach the end of the road, and the only choice is to take the ferry or turn around.

We stopped for gas and coffee in a small village, and only one worker (out of four) understood and spoke English. Signs are all only in French. It is truly very different than the rest of the places we travel, where English is as common to hear as the native language. We read on Wikipedia that 100 percent of Baie-Sainte-Catherine residents speak French as their first language, and 0 percent speak English as their first language.

The Island of Orleans has long been inhabited by indigenous tribes. The Huron called it Minigo – Enchantress – precisely because it is inherently charming. Jacques Cartier, setting foot on the island in 1535, named it the Island of Bacchus, due to the plentiful grapes that grow there. But a year later, he renamed it in honor of the Duke of Orleans. However, in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was also called Grande Ile, Sainte-Marie, and Saint-Laurent for periods of time. The Island has six municipalities, all named after saints, of course! Each has a church and its own character.

We found it delightful. There are several chocolateries selling chocolates and fabulous chocolate dipped ice cream. There is a fromagerie, a cheese maker, making and selling the first cheese ever made in America. It is served pan fried, melted and with a crust on the outside, and is wonderful. Driving around the entire island was interesting. It is 28 miles long and 5 miles wide. We passed huge mansions, some with long driveways and gates, as well as modest homes. We even passed a tiny one-room house. It was surprising that so many had a red roof, or lots of red accents in the form of doors and shutters. You can see the St. Lawrence River from everywhere on the island, as coffee shops and restaurants have capitalized on the view. Even some cows had a view of the river! We loved the French spelling of “picnic” in the last photo!

Ah, Quebec City…..our third visit here, but certainly not our last. It is the only walled city in North America, and compared to, say, New York, it is small, intimate, and spectacular. It has so much history, being situated on the St. Lawrence River. Founded in 1608 by Jacques Cartier, it was held by the French until 1759, when it was permanently lost to the British in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (which is now a beautiful urban park, where we saw a concert, shown in the last photo and the bottom video). During the American Revolution, in December 1775, the Continental Army attacked Quebec City, but due to inexperience with the severely cold temperatures in the city in December, the siege under Benedict Arnold was a failure.

Two things are most interesting. First, it is SO French that some people have difficulty communicating with us, even though all the rest of Canada speaks English. Signs in the Province of Quebec are in French only….no English translation at the bottom! Makes for tricky driving in places. Secondly, it is perhaps the most Catholic, and saintly, place we have ever visited. Many towns and streets are named after saints. There are towns around Quebec City named for…..St. Jean, Jacques, Catherine, Marie, Georges, Claire, Gervais, Cuthbert, Leon-de-Standon, Pascal, Irenee, Ignace, Marcel, Paul, Urbain, Prosper, Zacharie, Rene, Martin, Victor, Camille, Adrien, Joseph-de-Coleraine, Raymond, Stanislaus-de-Champlain, Simeon, Alexandre, and many more. And don’t even start on the streets! It is an amazing array of saints.

The first three photos were taken from our hotel suite’s window at different times of day, including a spectacular 5:00 am photo as the first. Following are some night photos of the gorgeous Grand Allee, which was buzzing with night life on a warm summer evening. After those are two photos of the St. Louis Gate into the walled city. The other two gates are St. Jean and Kent.

There are a few photos of the funicular, always a treat when going back up to the Upper Town from the Lower Town. It has been operational for over 135 years! It beats walking back up the hill, since the Breakneck Stairs, built in 1868 and via which we descended, consist of 398 steps. $2.50 was never better spent!

The rest of the photos were taken around the Upper and Lower old town, including the impressive, massive Chateau Frontenac Hotel, one of the grand palace hotels built by the Canadian Railway. Lots of playfulness abounds…you can see The Jumping Rabbit restaurant and the Crazy Pig! The free concert in the park we attended was Angel Forrest, startlingly similar to Janis Joplin. The video at the end shows a highlight of the concert….you can hear Angel singing, but the Dancing Man never stopped during the entire concert. It was likely his aerobics class for the day! He brought a smile to everyone.

Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, is the original name of Montreal. Its current name comes from the triple-peaked hill in the center of the city, Mount Royal, or Mont Real; hence, Montreal. As seen in the first three photos, the heart and center of the Old Town is Notre-Dame Basilica, which faces a square with people gathered and even live music in the summer (see video at the end).

It is a very pretty city, with all the requisite large office and residential buildings. But it is also very reminiscent of a European metropolis, with lots of trees, lovely flowers, interesting shops, cafes everywhere, and restaurants galore. One of the specialties in Montreal is what they call smoked meat, or smoked beef. We call it pastrami, but there is quite an argument about that. Schwartz’s doesn’t wood-smoke their meat, nor do they make it from the fatty, lesser cuts of beef. Rather, they use brisket in an electric smoker. At any rate, it is the most tender, delicious meat we have ever eaten. Served on rye, with mustard…now, THAT is a sandwich! We ate at Schwartz’s two years ago, fell in love with their meat, and Mike even bought a T-shirt that he wore out. We visited yesterday and swooned as we ate the meat. We had to return today for another go, but the line had 40 people in it, with a waiting time guesstimate of 90 minutes, which was way too long for us. Others kept piling in, though! If you are ever in Montreal, don’t miss Schwartz’s Deli!

A lot of people call Toronto’s most famous urban symbol the CNN Tower, because it rolls off of their lips so easily. But in fact, it is the CN Tower, named after the Canadian National Railway, which built the tower in 1974. It can be seen from all over town. We drove down the city’s main arterial, Yonge Street, once the world’s longest road. We drove for miles and miles past retail stores, malls, and restaurants…it seemed endless. Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot got their starts on Yonge Street.

Down at the waterfront, there were lots of people enjoying the sweltering day. All-day parking is $25 (!), but there is lots to see…the Showboat tourist boat, the Tall Ship Kajama, the cruise terminal on Queen’s Quay, and a lovely flower-filled coffee shop. We ate at a wonderful Somali Restaurant, Xawaash, which served wonderful chicken shawarma with salad and hummus, one of our favorite dishes, and Mutabbal, grilled eggplant dip made with garlic, tahini, yogurt, lemon juice, and olive oil. We also had a bowl of an unusual vegetarian stew, Mbogga, made of spinach, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes. It was absolutely delicious.

The last two photos are leftovers from Niagara Falls….every night in the summer, the city has fireworks, and they were too pretty not to share!

You can look, you can hear, and believe it or not, you can FEEL Niagara Falls…..from 2,652.37 feet (estimated). Water droplets and mist cover you, way on the other side of the Falls. You also hear languages from around the world. Natural wonders sort of beckon to people to come see them!

The Maid of the Mist still takes tourists close to the Falls. In the fourth photo, you can see people climbing a staircase to experience the water close up. We did this the last time we were here, in 2010. Mike changed from shorts to long pants for the experience, and he was sorry he did….he was drenched from head to foot, with his long pants clinging to him. At the time, we told people that it was the most awful, wonderful thing we had ever done. So wet, and yet so happy!

After that are photos from the tourist area, Clifton Hill. There is a Frankenstein attraction, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Guinness World Records Museum…and living high on weed! Moose and Squirrel is the name of our hotel coffee shop…a nod to Rocky and Bullwinkle. The last few photos are of our dinner stop, The Flying Saucer Restaurant. It opened in 1972 and celebrates all things alien. The food was pretty typical diner food, not bad, but you go there for the kitschiness, not the food. Fun place!

Frank Sinatra: Chicago, Chicago, I will show you around – I love it! We do, too. Our pictures will show you around. There is much to do, much to see, lots of history, arts, music, performances. We partook.

The first three photos are of our downtown hotel, The Hilton Palmer House. It really is as over-the-top as it looks. It was built by Potter Palmer for his bride in 1871. Thirteen days after opening, it burnt to the ground in the Great Chicago Fire. He rebuilt it immediately with the largest loan ever made at that time. We thought it funny that a box by the elevator said, “Key drop & email.” Uhh….isn’t email done by computer..??

The next photos are the theaters of the shows we attended. Stage 773 was showing The Buddy Holly Story, which was fantastic. The music was excellent. For a small theater, they put on a giant show. The Cher Show is headed for Broadway, but it wasn’t very cohesive. The music was good, but they changed words to force it to fit the action, which made it frustrating to watch. The costumes by Bob Mackie were the true hit of the show. It was in the Oriental Theater. In the photo after The Cher Show, you can see a little of the theater’s elegance.

Second City, where so many famous comedians of our day got their start (Gilda Radnor, John Belushi, Steve Carell, Alan Alda, Stephen Colbert), is one of our favorite venues from past visits to Chicago. Their improv is very fresh and truly funny. Outside the improv theater, you can see tiles with their version of Graumann’s Chinese Theater, except they do handprints…Mel Brooks, Spike Lee, Mandy Patinkin.

A new favorite this time was Music Box Theater. We went to see a new documentary, Three Identical Strangers, and walked in to an organist playing a theater organ in a 30-minute concert before the movie! So delightful!

The remaining photos are sights we liked around Chicago. We always love the architecture, and have taken several architecture tours on past visits. There are lots of Art Deco and late-1800s buildings on display and still going strong. Chicago has lots of parks, fountains, and green space…more than we could photograph in one trip! And the last photo was at Wrigley Field at the beginning of the Cubs-Reds game on Sunday. The Cubs won, 6-5, in the bottom of the 9th.

Mary Tyler Moore. Flour mills. Mall of America. While not necessarily in that order, these are three of the noteworthy things we found in Minneapolis. Mary Tyler Moore’s statue is on a downtown corner, and while it doesn’t look very much like her, everyone who watched her show recognizes her hat being thrown into the air. The plaque denoting her table is in our hotel, now The Marquette Hilton. It is part of a shopping center, and Mary Tyler Moore is shown sitting at this table in the opening scenes of her TV show.

At one time, Minneapolis was known as the Flour Mill Capital of the World. We were surprised, walking down to the Mississippi River for the 4th of July fireworks, to see the two Gold Medal and Pillsbury flour signs on buildings. The fireworks were really neat, lasting abut 30 minutes. You can see the food trucks in the photo before the fireworks…notice that one is a “cheese curds” truck. We found lots of cheese curds in Seattle and Canada, and now here in the Midwest, known for its cheese production, of course.

The last photos are from the Mall of America, where the entire middle of the mall is an amusement park. It is the largest mall in the US, with an area of 4.8 million square feet, big enough to fit seven Yankee Stadiums inside! It has almost every retail store we could think of, with some brands having multiple stores in the mall. Restaurants take up most of the third floor. We have noticed that the world’s food is getting better and better. When we started traveling about 15 years ago, regions were known for certain foods, and attempts at other cuisines were not very successful. But we had dinner at Laredo Cantina at the mall, and the fajitas were as good as any in Southern California, spicy and flavorful. We don’t know if you can read it, but the last photo, a Caribou Coffee location, says “Life is short. Stay awake for it.” It took a good portion of the day to walk all of the floors, even though we didn’t stop in very many stores. Quite the experience.

The other notable thing about Minneapolis is its many pedestrian bridges over the streets. You can walk quite a distance between buildings and over streets without ever going outside. It undoubtedly helps during the cold winters! Minneapolis has a lovely and thriving downtown, with lots happening…a new favorite city (at least in summer).

This is Canada….what in the world has Winnipeg got to do with the very British Winnie the Pooh? There is even a statue in Assiniboine Park of the original Winnie. Well, around 1914, Lt. Harry Colebourn purchased a black bear cub from a hunter for $20. He named the bear Winnie after his adopted hometown of….Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnie was secretly brought to England with Colebourn, and when he went off to fight in WW II, he left Winnie at the London Zoo. The bear became so loved there that he donated her permanently. Consequently, AA Milne’s son Christopher, for whom his father wrote his stories, fell in love with Winnie. The “Pooh” part came from a swan of that name in the zoo. So, Winnie the Pooh was born and lives in children’s literature even today.

The first photo is of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights. It is a beautiful, modern, dramatic building, but to us it looks a little like Darth Vader! The next two photos are of the Forks Market, its two stories put to use as a food court and for various small gift shops. The last two photos are from the Lyric Theater in Assiniboine Park, where the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra was playing a live, free concert. The photos were taken about 9:00 pm…you can see how late it remains light outside in the summer! The orchestra was fantastic, playing Mozart, Strauss, Dvorak, and even John Williams. If the final video will play for you, it is the encore piece…the orchestra playing the can-can after the director invited up everyone who wanted to dance. We really liked the director, Alexander Mickelthwate. His tempos were very upbeat, his conducting very free and vigorous. A marvelous evening of music!

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When I was a teenager, watching TV, I heard that someone was from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. It promptly became my favorite place name in the world, and for 50 years I have told people about it. The only other name to top it or match it came several years ago, when we visited Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northern California. A section of it is called Bumpass Hell! We were amazed when we were there that the park didn’t promote it more on T-shirts and other items. Hmph.

So we finally got to Moose Jaw and had great coffee in a small coffee shop. Its name derivation is either from a Cree word meaning warm breezes, or that the bend in the river here looks like a moose’s jaw. Either way, it is a cute small town on the way to the province’s capital, Regina.

Regina’s original name was Wascana, from the Cree phrase for a pile of bones, as they found buffalo bones on the banks of the river. But Princess Louise deigned to name it Regina (Latin for “Queen”) after her mother, Queen Victoria. There are still many places in Regina named Wascana, including the lake, streets, a park, etc.

The first two photos were taken in Moose Jaw, and the last three are from downtown Regina’s pedestrian mall. Both cities are pretty. Driving around, there are lots of trees and areas of vegetation.

Did you know there is a Saskatoon berry? It looks much like a blueberry, but more importantly, it is the derivation of the city name, Saskatoon. It is close to the Cree word for the berry.

In 1883, Saskatoon was established as the first permanent settlement of the Temperance Colonization Society….no alcohol! Remove alcohol, the society said, and all of the world’s ills will also be removed. Well, uh, no. But the entire province of Saskatchewan dealt with the prohibition, then easement (back and forth) of alcohol sales well into the present day.

Below are a few photos from the Central Business District…an old double-decker bus doing double duty; an old railway hotel, the Delta Bessborough, now part of Marriott; a pretty old building with a leafy entranceway; and the back end of a salmon-colored 1954 Pontiac, also doing double duty as the frame of a hot dog stand!

North America’s largest mall! 5.3 million square feet. West Edmonton Mall was the largest in the world until 2004; now it ranks 23rd. Nevertheless, it is massive…and impressive. There are 800 retail stores and more than 100 dining venues; two hotels; a water park; the world’s second-largest indoor amusement park; two miniature golf courses; a shooting range; nightclubs; a hockey/skating rink; and, a replica of Columbus’s ship, the Santa Maria. It receives about 32 million visitors per year. Just….wow!

The first photo is Europa Boulevard, built to resemble a shopping area like the Galleria in Milan. Next is the replica of the Santa Maria, followed by one of the miniature golf courses. The glitzy, dimly lit section is Bourbon Street, consisting almost exclusively of sit-down restaurants, bars, and pubs. Yoda floats over the entrance to the Cineplex, and the Chinatown area has retained the cherry trees and Asian influences.

The water park has a beach (!) and the world’s largest wave pool. The Edmonton Oilers used to practice on the hockey rink, but now there are just people ice skating. And the last three photos are of Galaxyland, the indoor theme park. Even though the sign proclaims it the world’s largest indoor amusement park, it is now No. 2. It was originally called Fantasyland, but after a court battle with Disneyland, it changed to Galaxyland.

When you think of Calgary, your mind probably goes to the Calgary Stampede. Cowboys. Rodeos. Bulls. Big hats. Boots. Horses. But guess what? Calgary is a lovely, cosmopolitan city with whimsical artwork on the corners and in the parks. There are tall nudes, dancing. There are multicolored squirrels peeking out from a wall. There are robots and statues in bright colors. What a wonderful city!

There is a pedestrian mall, Stephen Avenue Walk, right in the middle of all of this wonderfulness. It has restaurants, retail stores, and coffee shops. On one corner is Hudson Bay Department Store….and, can you believe?….the plaque on the building says the company was incorporated on May 2, 1620 by King Charles II as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading into Hudson’s Bay. Quite the title, and quite the date!

The last three photos are from the Esker Foundation art gallery in an old section of Calgary, Inglewood. The last is a modern tapestry, while the artwork above it is an embroidered panel, a skill which the artist is employing because of her grandmother’s influence from Hungary.

Inglewood has now come alive as the new hip place to eat and shop. All of the buildings are vintage, and there were vinyl record stores and several that called themselves “retro” stores.

PS The Stampede starts July 6 this year….but we won’t be here.

A visit to Spokane wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Manito Park, which contains a rose garden, Duncan Garden, Gaiser Conservatory, and Nishinomiya Tsutakawa Japanese Garden. It is a lovely destination for a few hours, with unusual varieties of roses, a formal garden, and a sweet Japanese garden.

Along the way we found the Episcopal Cathedral, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. The final photo is of the organ pipes and rose window, which was all really magnificent.

Our visit to Spokane was made very special by two visits with old friends. Jim and Kathy came from Othello, WA, to have lunch with us and gab the afternoon away. And then we drove to Coeur D’Alene, Idaho (about 30 minutes away) to have dinner and spend the evening with our other friends in the area, Jeff and Gayla. It is so good to reconnect with familiar faces when you have been on the road for a while! We loved hearing about their lives and appreciated their curiosity about our extreme lifestyle. Thanks, Friends! You make the journey memorable for us.

Osoyoos isn’t a place name that rolls off your tongue, nor is it one most of the world has ever heard of. But when we mentioned to Canadians that we would be in Osoyoos for a few days, they nodded eagerly and said it is often a vacation destination. The lake is rather large, and there is boating and a whole range of water sports. We were here several years ago, and it was only to be an overnight stop on the way to Vancouver. We fell in love with the charming town and the people here. We did a bike ride around town and part of the lake today, and everyone waved, said hi, and smiled.

It is hard to believe, but the last two photos were taken exactly across the street from one another…..one side vineyards, and the other – desert! It looks like Arizona across the street! We read that this is the only desert in Canada, although that is disputed somewhat. It gets less rain than other parts of Canada and is relatively warm. There are signs about rattlesnakes, and there are also scorpions and other species normally found only in the desert.

Take a gorgeous blue-sky day, throw in a sophisticated and busy city, add lovely friendly people (the US’ closest allies and friends), and you have the wonderful city of Vancouver. We have had a great time here and have enjoyed talking with so many terrific people. We are staying at the Hilton Metrotown, a 20-minute Sky Train ride away from downtown Vancouver. Our stay is with Hilton points, and thus, free to us. The rate is just over $300 per night, so staying on points really helps our monthly budget.

In the photo with the cruise ship, you can see how beautifully decorated the port is with the “sail” motif. The Japadog hot dog stand is interesting….toppings include seaweed, Japanese miso, and Brussels sprouts. We don’t think we’ll be using the gas station in the next to last photo! And the last photo is of a store that we have never seen in the US…or anywhere else in Canada, for that matter.

Such a vibrant city! We are in the Mayflower Place Hotel downtown, a 5-minute walk to Pike Place Market and in the middle of great shopping, museums, restaurants, and sightseeing. The weather has been spectacular…sunny and warm. The first photos are a few from Pike Place Market, while those at the end are from the Seattle Art Museum.

At the market, we watched Beecher’s famous cheese being made, did some on-site tasting, and bought their cheese curds. It sounds strange, but they are small nuggets of deliciousness, as you can see in the photo. We have been enjoying trying various chowders…Ivar’s is spectacular, slightly sweet and very chunky…and catching up on the movies we missed while on our Alaska cruise. At the famous fish vendor where they toss fish to each other, we also caught the face of this bedraggled-looking monkfish. Just walking around the city has been fun, as it is very diverse and interesting.

The provincial capital of British Columbia is a very British city. We are calling it the Stained Glass City because the buildings are filled with gorgeous glass, which is very…Victorian! The first few photos are from Craigdarroch Castle, actually a mansion with 39 rooms. Built in the late 1800s, it is believed to have cost half a million dollars at the time it was built ($13 million today).

The Parliament building has a large dome, and beautiful windows abound. The coat of arms of BC has the Latin motto, Splendor Sine Occasu (Splendor without Diminishment), which you can see both in the wall relief and in one of the windows.

Now that we are further south, it is noticeably warmer than it was in Alaska. It is a busy port. All of the berths are filled with cruise ships, and we had to wait for a Princess cruise ship to exit before we took its place. Victoria is a beautiful city. Simultaneously, it feels very cosmopolitan, like New York City, and like an intimate small town.

Kodiak Island is the largest island in the archipelago. The biggest income producers are fishing and tourism. Many travelers come here precisely to engage in backwoods adventures and hunting/fishing. The town of Kodiak is small, but we really enjoyed….can you believe it?…..looking at the trash receptacles, as each was adorned with one or two old salmon packing labels. The day was foggy and rainy when we started out, but the weather improved over the course of the day.

In the third photo, you can see a hodgepodge of boats in the harbor, as that is the major way to travel in Alaska. The church is Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It is the Russian Orthodox Mother Church of the Western Hemisphere, founded in 1796. It was very small, but jammed with icons and color. One of the clergy members was there to answer questions and offer information.

The last photo is the skeleton of a whale hanging from the ceiling in the Visitor’s Center. It is huge! The Visitor’s Center had loads of information on local wildlife as well as a movie about Kodiak and other Alaskan wilderness areas.

Flightseeing was a new term to us, but we booked a flight on this Memorial Day afternoon to fly over five glaciers and get out of the city in a different way. Anchorage itself is mainly accessible via boat or plane. The original name for the city, chosen by its residents, was Alaska City, Alaska. But the postmaster liked Anchorage, so that was that. While not the capital city, it is by far the largest, with a population of 300,000 and an area the size of Delaware!

The first photo is amazing in that it looks like a sunny park in spring anywhere, but it is in Anchorage, where even in May temperatures can be quite chilly. The third photo was from a trolley tour of the city, and shows the entrance to an underground home where you can access all three stories by walking down a staircase into the ground. The other photos are of the glaciers and mountains, mostly. One photo show how meandering the streams are, completely zigzagging across the land. The next-to-last photo is of a river where beluga whales are often spotted, as they follow the salmon upstream to snare some dinner. The flight was amazing and beautiful. It is very wild in the mountains and glaciers surrounding Anchorage.

This feels like the “back of beyond” of Alaska. Hoonah had a salmon packing company in the early 20th Century, but Icy Strait Point is only a stop for cruise ships. There is a visitor’s center, a few restaurants, and shops with local goods. Free WiFi was offered, but it didn’t work at all. It was true wilderness outside of the few buildings, a glimpse into what Alaska looks like outside the major cities.

Juneau, the capital of Alaska, is loaded with shops, cafes, restaurants, souvenirs, and indigenous clothing…..and as you can see in the photos, there are many items unique to Alaska. There are lots of luxury furs here, along with an entire pelt from a bear! Many shops display signs noting they are owned and operated by an Alaskan family. I spoke to one man who works in a jewelry store who is from Chicago. He told me that the “season” here is May to September. On October 1, every single downtown shop is closed for the winter, making the area a ghost town.

Do you just love the toppings on an Alaskan pizza? King crab and reindeer! And if you look closely at Tracy’s King Crab Shack, she is both holding a crab by the leg and her own legs are crab legs!

Today was a day of cruising past glaciers….along with gorgeous mountains, beautiful skies, and occasional seals resting on a chunk of ice. The photos really speak for themselves. The first is the Sumdum Glacier in Endicott Arm, while the second and third are Dawes Glacier, at the end of Endicott Arm. The Dawes Glacier calved a few times while we were there, the breaking ice causing a gigantic splash, and is the cause of the floating ice seen on the left side of one of the photos. After that is the photo of the seals taking respite (the brown smudges atop the largest piece of ice). Then, dusk came along, and you can see the ocean and sky and mountains putting on quite the display for us!

Alaska marks the 49th of 50 states we have visited, leaving just North Dakota as the “last frontier.”

Ketchikan is the first stop on our Alaskan cruise. It is filled with totem poles, native indigenous arts, animal….mostly bear….pelts, salmon shops, and the ubiquitous diamond stores! Even though it is a salmon capital, as shown in the first photo (like most all Alaskan cities), one restaurant’s dinner menu offers grilled salmon for…a whopping $28!!! Now, if there is salmon everywhere, wouldn’t you think you could get it for a more reasonable price? Supply and demand? Oh, well.

We had a “flightseeing tour” in a seaplane set up to fly over Misty Fjords National Park today. We showed up, and they cancelled. They said it was so cloudy and foggy that we wouldn’t see anything. So we will try to set up another flight in another port on another day.

The second photo below is a roaring creek that is right in the middle of downtown, even though it looks like we ventured out into the wilderness. The last three photos were taken on Creek Street, the former Red Light District. When the brothels were threatened with being shut down early in the 20th Century, they rebuilt their business establishments on stilts over the creek so that they wouldn’t be subject to the Law of the Land! Today, the district is filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, and even a tour of one of the former brothels.

The signs DO say KEEP PORTLAND WEIRD. And it is, and they do! What a breath of fresh air! We walked in the Nob Hill neighborhood and down NW 23rd Avenue. There were quirky shops, restaurants, bars….oops, “bottle shops”….and coffee houses. It was very vibrant and alive. We enjoyed the blast for our eyes when we went into the retail store 3 Monkeys, filled with everything you can think of on three levels.

Then we wandered down 23rd until we came to The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum. It is a store with all sorts of unusual items, and half of it is a museum. We don’t know if you can read the sign under the rotary dial telephone (1943-1974). It says, “This is how phone calls used to be made. Excruciating, isn’t it? Give it a try, if you can take the pain. We will not be held responsible for finger damage.”

Small, tiny, Pollard Flat is off I-5 in Northern California, a small restaurant and gas station. Great food, and oh….Gertie. When you open the door to the unisex restroom, you gasp, startled into thinking you have interrupted another occupant of the restroom. Everyone outside in the restaurant laughs, as they just wait for first-timers to encounter Gertie. She has been bathing, fully clothed, for 50 years. It is a location big with truckers, and generations of families bring their children here for the great food and to meet Gertie. Once, the owner paid a woman $100 to take Gertie’s place and scare the daylights out of the truckers when they saw “the mannequin” moving!

We rode around the southern end of Lake Tahoe today, which was gorgeous and a perfect temperature for bike riding. We encountered some beautiful cherry blossoms, which were hard to resist. And….the name of this retail store? Too funny!

The highest altitude lake of its size in the US. Sits at an elevation of 6,229 feet. Has 71 miles of shoreline. And get this….335 million gallons of water evaporate each day from Lake Tahoe, yet it doesn’t really change the lake much. So beautiful! With pine trees everywhere, it reminded us of Alpine lakes in Austria.

Yes, it is hard to believe, but as you can see in the fourth photo, Lake Tahoe does have a beach! It was a sunny, warm day, even though there was snow on the ground at various points, and of course, snow on the tops of all the peaks. You can see Fanette Island in Emerald Bay in the fifth photo. Fanette Island even has a teahouse! It is now in ruins, but Mrs. Lora Knight had it built in the late 1920s so that she and her guests could be taken there by boat and have high tea!

We also visited Reno, NV, about an hour’s drive from Lake Tahoe, and had quite a lovely visit with an old choir friend, Jim, whom I hadn’t seen in 20 years! Reno reminded us a lot of Downtown Las Vegas, with casinos galore on the main drag. There also is a new Riverwalk along the Truckee River, where we spied the kayaker in the rapids. And we went to visit the church, but guess what??? All of the doors were locked!

The big attraction in San Jose is the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester was the widow of the man who made his fortune in Winchester guns. When he died at 43, he left a fortune worth $2 billion in today’s dollars. Sarah was told by a psychic to build a house, and she did, with hammers working 24 hours a day for 38 years. There are staircases that lead to nowhere, cupboards and doors that open to a wall. In all, there are 160 rooms…some small sitting rooms, others larger, such as bedrooms and a ballroom. It is bizarre to be inside and see the building madness. Sarah had an obsession with spider webs and the number 13, which is reflected in the windows and even the closets….exactly 13 hooks for coats! She ordered a chandelier for the ballroom from Germany, but it arrived with “only” 12 light sconces, so she added another. There were approximately 50 servants in the house…supporting only her. She died in 1922, and the house was purchased for today’s equivalent of about $150,000 by the family who still owns it today. Many of the house’s secrets, and explanations for why the house looks as it does, died with her.

Here are several shots of the outside features of the house (no photos allowed inside), along with some of the garden roses. After that, we took a walk through downtown San Jose, which is very pretty, and shown in the last two photos.

George Gray

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me —
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one’s life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire —
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

—Edgar Lee Masters, Spoon River Anthology

This has been my favorite poem for 50 years, memorized as a teenager. It is George Gray’s epitaph on his tombstone. I thought of it, and recited it to Mike, as we took a break this morning while biking along the waterfront in Monterey. Looking at the boats moored in the harbor, they looked like they were straining to be free….to be the boats that they were, meant for sailing, not sitting. I guess as a teenager, I wanted to escape my small-town hometown even then, and travel the world. Don’t sit there! DO something! Move! Take a chance…put some risk in your life.

I did not dream the taste of wine could bind with granite,

Nor honey and milk please you; but sweetly

They mingle down the storm-worn cracks among the mosses,

Interpenetrating the silent

Wing-prints of ancient weathers long at peace, and the older

Scars of primal fire, and the stone

Endurance that is waiting millions of years to carry

A corner of the house, this also destined.

Lend me the stone strength of the past and I will lend you

The wings of the future, for I have them.

How dear you will be to me when I too grow old, old comrade.

🔹Robinson Jeffers

Tor House…House of the Outcrop…and its accompanying tower, Hawk Tower, was built by Robinson Jeffers, one of America’s most noted poets in the 1920s-30s. He even appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1932. He and his wife, Una, decided to build a house in Carmel, as the area resembled the rock outcroppings in Cornwall, England, where they had wanted to live. He helped the stone masons build the dwelling, and a few years later his wife asked him to build a tower. The tower only took 4 years, even though he hauled the stones and built it himself. For as large and imposing as it looks on the outside, there are two small (tiny) rooms on the first floor where his twin sons played, and a small room on the second floor, where Una had a desk and couch. This room is the photo with three windows that resembles a church. As you can see from the photos, the house itself had a low ceiling and flowers everywhere! It was quite spectacular, right on the ocean, with the rooms of the house looking out onto the waves and surf. The last photo is of a “secret passageway” leading upstairs. The house had many built-in drawers, cupboards, and compartments, as well as inlaid tiles and statue heads, etc. The complex is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Gorgeous Carmel! Clint Eastwood was once the mayor, and the houses look fit for Hobbits, with thatched roofs and English gardens. We did not see a lawn anywhere! People were out at the beach, wading in the cold Pacific, even though there were signs posted saying that swimming or wading was “dangerous” – !!!

The first two photos are typical downtown stores along Ocean Avenue, and the third is a bakery and coffee shop with an exquisite window display. Ocean Avenue leads down to the beach, and more photos of the wild central/northern coast. The orange flowers are California poppies; the purple, seen along all of the roads, is the Pride of Madeira, a flowering shrub.

The wild Central Coast! Monterey is just north of Big Sur, and the ocean is a little wild and rambunctious, just like Big Sur. It was windy, cool, sunny, and spectacular.

The photos are of the wild coast, along with the bench with couples who never stayed very long because it was a bit windy and chilly. Five minutes saw three different couples sitting there, including us. Pacific Grove is dotted with huge, beautiful Victorian houses, like the one we saw that is now a Tea Room. And walking on Cannery Row along the waterfront was really fun….old sardine canning buildings that are now transformed into shops, restaurants, and museums. It was filled with tourists. There is still a feeling of the old, even though the new has taken over. Very unique.

Ships are floating cities unto themselves. It is hard to believe that so much activity…..meals, casinos, trivia contests, games, drinking, live bands, live shows, bingo, making new friends…..can all happen in the Middle of Nowhere! It was 3,500 miles of blue, blue ocean between Tahiti and LA. It took us a full 8 days of seeing just water to get back to land. We read; played trivia several times per day; watched downloaded movies on our iPads; and attended lectures on sea life, South Pacific culture, classic cars, and the secrets of DNA. Oh, and we ate!…..not every 2 hours, like some, but regular meals with a snack. And the sail was as smooth as glass. Falling asleep in a ship to a gentle rocking is so easy to get used to.

Making new friends on ships is easy. You start talking about something small, and suddenly are telling all. The photos below are of the beloved crew members who made our 27 days enjoyable. They are the ones who were interested in us, and in most everybody….talkative, inquisitive, warm, and funny. The first photo is the atrium of the Emerald Princess. Then, the cast of characters:

🛳 Fermeniman from Jakarta. (Not sure of the spelling….sorry, My Imam!) He worked in the breakfast buffet, and always called out to me with a big smile and kind eyes. He was happy to do anything at all, but would always get us a bowl of nuts for our morning cereal and yogurt. He did everything with joy. Our conversations were always rushed, as the buffet got so busy, but he is going home to his wife Yuni tomorrow. A wonderful man, My Imam!

🛳 Csaba from Budapest. Csaba worked in the back of the buffet, where we escaped every day for some quiet to read or watch Jeopardy. He walked fast, worked hard, and loved hearing about our travels whenever he had a breather. He was always willing to get us whatever we needed, and in fact, he insisted!

🛳 Sherida from Nicaragua. When we saw her name, we sang “Sherry” to her by the Four Seasons, but she had never heard the song. “Maybe when I get home and have Internet, I will listen to it,” she said. Such a nice woman…very interested in our story of traveling. She was always enthusiastic and always smiling!

🛳 Samuel from the Philippines. Samuel taught us a few Tagalog expressions – an informal hello is ….kumusta? I thought he was saying, como esta? – which I know from Spanish, so that was easy. And mabuti is an informal way of saying it’s all good, or a casual thanks. I remembered it by thinking of My Booty, and I greeted poor Samuel most days by calling him Mabuti. He worked in the buffet and brought us coffee most mornings. He was always smiling and always very kind.

🛳 Sandra from Winnipeg. Sandra is definitely a character on board the Emerald. She is part of the Cruise Director’s staff and ran trivia about once a day. She is funny, articulate, and very personable. She said several times that she was married to the sea, and truly enjoys her time on board. She has a different pair of glasses for each day, all wild and unusual!

I love these people. They made life on board enjoyable for about a month of our travels, succeeding in making their cruise a great one. It is the crew and itinerary that make us return to a cruise line, not so much the food or amenities. These crew members shine!

“Moorea.” That is always our answer to, “What is the most beautiful island in the world?” It is warm, lush, tropical, stunning, with turquoise waters in many shades of blue. It has interior parks and forests as well as peaks formed from molten lava. But it is the beaches and the water that turns heads and just make people say, WOW!

Moorea is twice as old as the island of Tahiti, and it has been said to be the inspiration for Bali Hai in South Pacific (although the movie South Pacific was filmed on the island of Kauai in Hawai’i!). Like the rest of French Polynesia, the inhabitants lived a quiet existence before the European explorers arrived. When the explorers returned to Europe with stories of an earthly paradise, whalers, missionaries, and the French military soon arrived. In1889, Moorea and the other Society Islands were united as a French protectorate, and it became an overseas territory in 1946.

The day included some rain and clouds, as you can see in the photos, along with the stunning white sand beaches and colorful ocean. It was a day in Paradise, truly.

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Such a busy, large city! Papeete is probably the second-largest city in the Pacific after Honolulu. It is full of activity, with cars going every which way, and shops line the esplanade opposite the port. The primary language is French….we went to a cafe and ordered a quiche, and the young server said it was ham with…..epinard. He struggled, telling us it was a stringy green vegetable. I said….spinach? ….and he smiled and confirmed that it was spinach. We ordered it, and it was absolutely fantastic. Since we only eat a low-carb diet, we left the crust and ate the filling, which was great.

The Pomare dynasty on the island of Tahiti, which formed at the end of the 18th century, lasted about 100 years, before Europeans began to settle the region. In 1820, the Pomare dynasty’s last queen officially declared Papeete the capital city of the dynasty. The city didn’t gain popularity until the French artist Paul Gauguin relocated here to focus on paintings of Tahitian life.

The last time we were here, in early 2015, we drove around the main island, Tahiti Nui, and then drove on the little peninsula called Tahiti Iti. Outside the city, it resembles Bora Bora. Today’s photos are of the downtown, the port, and some local musicians greeting and welcoming us to Tahiti. The fifth photo is an overview of Papeete, taken from the 15th deck of our ship. The last photo is the walkway along the ocean, which is dotted with real Tahitian huts to escape the sun for a while.

It’s Double Talk Week in the South Pacific! We traveled from Pago Pago to Bora Bora over 2 sea days. Interestingly enough, there is no letter B in the Tahitian language! The native name of this island was Pora Pora (“first born”), but the first explorers misheard the name and thought they were in Bora Bora….and the name stuck!

This is thought of as one of the most exotic places on the planet. It is only 6 miles long by 2.5 miles wide in the Leeward Group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. It was 82 degrees Fahrenheit, but the breezes made it feel cooler. We rented a scooter for the day and drove the island! The first time, we went counterclockwise, and the second time, clockwise. It took about an hour to circle Bora Bora. The scooter topped out at about 30 mph.

We were here overnight, and on the second day, Mike took a diving tour. He stayed inside the lagoon because he was told he would see rays. He did see a “flight” of 9 Spotted Eagle Rays in front of him. He and the dive master sat on the sand on the bottom and watched them gliding in place for about 10 minutes from a distance of about 20 feet.

Like all Pacific islands, including Hawai’i, the land consists of a cooled lava bas, a result of underwater volcanoes poking through the ocean 3-4 million years ago. After being “discovered” by Captain Cook, French military expeditions and British missionaries arrived, and the island’s way of life changed forever. Throughout the 19th Century, the British and French fought for control of the islands. Bora Bora became a French colony in 1842.

In the photos, you can see why European explorers arrived, and stayed…and stayed. The palm trees sway gently in the breeze. The water is several shades of blue as it deepens. The church is St. Peter Celestine, a Catholic church, and the images are painted on clear glass so that you can see their famous peak through the window. The dive boat was Mike’s personal diving adventure with the owner. The island is often described as a necklace, as the center is a lagoon ringed by an outer coral reef and road, where everyone lives. There isn’t a bad view on the entire island. Also noteworthy are the dramatic peaks, one of which is constantly circled by a cloud. You can certainly see the volcanic influence!

Pago Pago, pronounced Pahngo Pahngo, is hot and tropical. An American territory since 1900, its harbor was used as an American naval base. It is located halfway between Hawai’i and New Zealand. It was 85 degrees with 100 percent humidity! We walked through the village and a little beyond, which took about an hour. McDonald’s is the only American chain restaurant here, and it was jammed with passengers trying to get free WiFi. Sadly, with about 100 people trying, it overloaded their system, and no pages would load.

It is funny that we thought there would be “American” items here. Its culture is far more a part of the South Pacific islands than it is the US. Family is all-important, with each ruled by a “matai,” or chief. Families own property that start at the apex of the mountains and widens like a pie wedge to the beach. With just two or three exceptions, families own all the beaches, and you must ask permission to use them! Dress is very casual, but men wear long tribal wraps (skirts), as do the women. Women wear flowers in their hair to denote their availability…a flower over the left ear if taken, right ear if willing, and somewhere in the top and middle if unsure!

The harbor has pretty areas with trees and grass. The coconuts falling from trees kill more people than sharks do in the South Pacific! Across the bay from our ship is a large tuna canning plant, with a statue of Charlie the Tuna. We were told that the local fishermen go out 1,000 miles to catch tuna for the processing plant. The last photo is of a local church opposite the harbor….Pentecostalist, I believe.

Small, laid-back, plenty of water adventures, bustling, happy, even – “Paradise” – on local signs. All these phrases describe Lahaina to a T. The water is blue, clean, and welcoming. The shops are filled with happy workers who welcome you in. It was not as hot and humid as Hilo and Honolulu….there was a gentle breeze that made walking around quite pleasant. We wanted to rent a scooter or car for the day, but alas….there wasn’t a single vendor in the town. Next time!

Such a cosmopolitan city! Honolulu can hold its own with LA, Chicago, or NYC. The shopping and restaurants are great. The weather was hot, humid, in the 80s. There were two small showers during the day. Our cab driver said that when the weather channel calls for a sunny day all day long, everyone worries. They know some rain is inevitable. The first two photos are of the International Marketplace, now a sophisticated open-air mall. The last time we visited, it was still filled with small kiosks and individual vendors. But is is beautifully redone.

Waikiki Beach is otherworldly. It is stunningly blue water. People enjoying the sun on lounge chairs laid there calmly while it rained, as it is very warm rain, and it soon did stop. The last photos were all taken at Waikiki. Can you believe the surf boards? It seems like everyone surfs except the tourists!

It took 4 days to see land again after departing LA on March 30 via a Princess Cruise. Our first port is Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is on the windward, or eastern, side of the island, so it tends to have more rain than the leeward side.

The City of Hilo is more of a large village. It has a bustling Farmer’s Market, and all of the fruits and vegetables looked unusually large and luscious. The flower stalls were filled with exotic bouquets, with most including orchids. The Pacific Tsunami Museum is one of the few buildings that survived the May 23, 1960, tsunami, which destroyed Hilo. It was the second large tsunami to hit the island in just 14 years. All along our route into the city were gigantic banyan trees, with their viny trunks. They are huge!

For 24 years, the City of San Luis Obispo, CA (SLO) has hosted a terrific film festival. This was our second year to attend, with Pam Grier being the featured honoree. Last year it was Josh Brolin.

The festival had many great films again, in three theaters with multiple screens. There were lots of good documentaries and thought-provoking drama. In addition, the City of SLO is very charming. Being a college town, there is a vibrant downtown filled with shops, restaurants, coffee shops, and of course, THREE theaters!

The second photo below shows the ceiling of the old movie palace on the main drag, the Fremont Theater.

Holland America’s cruise of the Caribbean took us to Key West, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, Curaçao, Aruba, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Maya.

The Caribbean was hot, humid, and lush. Lots of color and lots of water sports…diving, snorkeling, swimming, submarines. There is a feeling of joy and fun wherever you go. Puerto Rico’s Old Town has recovered completely, and it was difficult to see that there had been any damage since the last time we were there.

The last two photos are of two of the best Crew Members we have ever encountered….Aina from Indonesia and Jesus from the Philippines. They were both so genuinely kind, considerate, friendly, and fun. We wished we could take take them with us on our travels!