January 24, 2023 We were so looking forward to our visit to Port Stanley today, but alas, it was not meant to be.  This is a stop that requires us to tender from the ship to shore.  Anticipated winds of 30 mph and more made that impossible, so our visit will have to wait for…

Punta Ninfas, Patagonia – January 22, 2023 Welcome to Patagonia, a region encompassing the southernmost tip of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile, with the Andes Mountains as its dividing line. We were on the Argentine side known for its arid steppes, grasslands and deserts – and Magellan Penguins! We’re quickly learning it’s always…

January 23, 2023 Some of you have asked about the ship we are on.  We’ll take advantage of this day traveling the Atlantic Ocean to share some pictures and details. On our last voyage with Oceania we were on Insignia, one of their smaller ships.  This time around we are on Marina, home to 1250…

January 19, 2023 Montevideo is the capital city of Uruguay, a small country situated just between Argentina and Brazil. Today’s tour involved a ride around the town and a visit to a local winery.  There’s not a lot of history or information to share, so we’ll get right to the highlights! Views of the city…

January 18, 2023 The day to board the ship for our cruise has finally arrived, but first!  A city tour of Buenos Aires.  Here are a few of the highlights… St. Martin House – a replica of the home of the gentleman responsible for negotiating the independence of Argentina, Brazil, and Peru from Spain. Next,…

January 17, 2023 We said goodbye to Iguazu Falls this morning and made our way back to Buenos Aires.  After a day of travel we had just enough time to get showered and changed for dinner and a Tango show. A little history…although Argentina and Uruguay are generally credited as the home of Tango, the…

January 16, 2023 Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better…it did!  We were blessed with nothing but sunshine on Day 2 at the Falls.  Immediately after breakfast we trekked across the street and down the path along the Falls, enjoying fantastic views every step of the way.  The “crowning glory” of the Falls…

January 13, 2023 SOUTH AMERICA HERE WE COME! Having dropped Princess Sophie off with friends (30 days with her boyfriend, Rusty – woohoo!), we finished our packing and headed to the Pendrak’s official Park ‘n Ride for Jodock World Travels.  We nearly missed the connecting flight from Miami to Buenos Aires (kudos to American Airlines…

We enjoyed a 7 day cruise with our 4 children, their spouses and 6 grandchildren for a total of 16 guests on the Disney Fantasy ship. I must say Disney does an AMAZING job entertaining ages of all levels. The only criteria we gave everyone was to meet us for dinner every evening at 5:30…

July 12, 2022 Stavanger is home to one of Europes most interesting Old Towns. The cobblestone streets are lined with the continent’s highest concentration of wooden buildings that date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Over 250 surround the harbor area. Stavanger is Norway’s 4th largest city with population of 140,000 people. It is…

July 11, 2022 Today was an amazing adventure of buses, trains, waterfalls and tunnels. There is no doubt Norway is the land of mountains and waterfalls. You are surrounded by mountains when looking in every direction and you can barely drive a mile or two before you spot the next waterfall. There is also an…

July 9, 2022 Voss is an international ski town and home of the World Cup ski challenge. Voss is a one hour train ride from Bergen, Norway. They have trains that run from Bergen to Voss about every 90 minutes and tickets range between $13-$40 Euros depending on demand and day. It was a very…

July 8, 2022 Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of 280,000. It is also one of the wettest cities in Norway. It rains 240-250 days a year, wow. It was overcast with occasional drizzle during most of our stay, very much like Seattle. Like the northwest no one allows the weather…

June 30, 2022 Shetland, Scotland.  Welcome to the land where the sun never sets – but you never know that  because the fog never lifts!  We arrived to what we were told is a typical summer day in Lerwick,  Shetland’s one and only town and home to one third of its inhabitants.   Even through the…

JULY 5, 2022 Lofoten is the name of the island meaning flat land and the city is called Leknes. There are 300 islands around this community and only 5 are inhabited. Lofoten (Leknes) is an island city that sits in a very green valley surrounded by high mountains. Fishing is the number one industry for…

Unfortunately, many of the pictures will not be as beautiful as usual because Pam had to leave the cruise today. Her Uncle “General” (Sherman) is gravely ill and she chose to head back to Ohio and be with her lovely Aunt Dori for this difficult journey. Tromso is an island town of 70,000+ residents located…

We traveled to the farthest point north in the European continent. In comparison to the U.S. this is slightly farther north than Nome, Alaska. Fortunately, they were having a heat wave that day, it was 71 degrees. For a strange coincidence note this point is located at 71 degrees north latitude, hmmm. We are traveling…

June 29, 2022 As we pulled into Orkney, Scotland this morning we were greeted by its trademark wind, gray skies, and rain. Undaunted, Pam headed out to our scheduled tour of the mainland while Ken hunkered under the covers trying to sleep away a nasty head cold. Making our way by bus from the port…

June 28, 2022 What a fun day!  Today we are in Edinburgh (pronounced Edenborough – and they don’t like it if you get it wrong), Scotland.  Edinburgh has been recognized as the capitol of Scotland since at least the 15th century.  It serves as the seat of the Scottish government and parliament and is home…

July 27, 2022 Today is a day at sea, a day I imagined standing at the railing of our balcony or gazing out the many windows around the ship at nothing but water as far as the eye can see.  Well, there is water as far as the eye can see, that part I go…

June 26, 2022 Greenwich, England Greenwich, England served as a key location for Royals for more than 500 years and they have the historic buildings and stories to prove it.  We covered a lot of ground in our 2-1/2 hour walking tour and learned more than I have time/room to share, but below are some…

June 25, 2022 Our plan for today was to move from the VRBO to the ship, grab some lunch there and then head to Windsor Castle for the afternoon.  Pam’s research indicated it would take a little less than an hour to get go the Castle, and we were even able to compare the cost…

As I was collecting my notes for today’s blog, I suddenly realized what a busy day it was and completely understood why I needed to stop in the middle of it and take a nap! Some of you will get tired just reading about it, so I know you can sympathize! We began our day…

Welcome back, everyone! It has been a full 962 days since our last adventure – a cross-country road trip with our oldest granddaughter and next-to-oldest grandson – and 1,078 days since we stepped off the ship of our world cruise and we are SO excited to be back out in the world again! For those…

Thoroughly enjoyed a few days with my sister Lois and brother in law Mark in Key West, FL. We had a great day feeding the sharks followed by an excellent sunset meal. Hanging out on the boat Amazing sunset

Great times with our friend Corey in the Florida Everglades and lovely Marco Island. Great community with lots of outdoor restaurants and bars.

After 177 days, 36 countries, 24 time zones and 90 ports of call it’s time to bid our new friends and the amazing crew of the Oceania Insignia a fond farewell.  It has been an incredible experience; our minds are still reeling from the places we’ve been and the things that we’ve seen.  There’s a…

St. George was our final stop before we reach the Port of Miami and the end of this six-month adventure. What an extraordinarily beautiful location for our “last hoorah.” Ken may have been the only passenger on the ship who thought to bring his golf clubs, but he was not the only avid golfer on…

The New York skyline…what could be more exciting – or American!  We arrived at the Manhattan Cruise terminal, sailing along the iconic Hudson River.  The Hudson is a tidal estuary, where salty sea water meets fresh water running off the land.  It experiences two high tides and two low tides in any 24-hour period, each…

Welcome to Halifax, where “car” is “currh,” “bar” is “burrh,” and “furrh” is…you guessed it! “far!” We were fortunate that our Canadian friends, Nancy and Wayne, have a friend who lives here in Halifax and she graciously agreed to play tour guide for a day – a job she did quite well! Elaine picked us…

St. John’s is the oldest and most easterly city in North America.  It began as a fishing village and was particularly renowned for its abundance of codfish.  Reading the history of the area as we wandered through The Rooms, the town’s cultural museum I had to wonder what would make these people want to stay…

If you’re Ken what better way to end your time in Ireland than on a golf course?  With the help of the ship’s concierge, Ken and six of our fellow passengers made an early tee-time at the near-by Cobh Golf Club expecting 60-degree temperatures and morning rain.  Instead they got 65+ temperatures and beautiful blue…

Dublin, Ireland is known as the land of 1,000 pubs.  The establishments are the center of life in Dublin; they are where relationships are forged, deals are made, life events are celebrated.  It’s also the home of four Nobel-prize-winning novelists:  Yeats, Beckett, Shaw and Heaney.  And its Trinity College is host to the Book of…

Having never been to Ireland the image we had in our heads was one of ragged cliffs, rolling green hills and sheep.  The area surrounding Belfast did not disappoint.  Our tour today was to the Giants’ Causeway, a collection of what is said to be 40,000 basalt stones (we didn’t take time to count) of…

Pam was sharing with the ship’s hairdresser, Mario, how disappointed she was that we would be so close to London when the ship docked in Southampton, UK, but not have enough time to do anything more than drive through.  Mario had the perfect solution:  get off the ship in Southampton, spend the next two nights…

Today we visited a 14th Century castle that has been occupied by the same family for more than 700 years.  The original castle was built in 778 by Charlemagne, but all that is left of it are a few wall ruins.  The current castle was built in 1306 by the nephew of Pope Clement V. …

If you’ve been to Bordeaux but haven’t been here in the last five years you might not recognize it. We’re told the government has invested significant money sprucing things up and it appears they have succeeded. We arrived in Bordeaux early one sunny Sunday morning to find people walking their dogs, joggers getting their morning…

Today we are in Basque country – Bilbao Spain.  Driving through this vibrant city today you would never guess that a little less than 30 years ago it was a town struggling to survive after the collapse of its steel and shipbuilding industries.  Bilbao rallied by investing heavily in culture, with the Guggenheim museum at…

Suffering from a sinus infection Pam begged out of touring today, leaving Ken to explore the city on his own.  Facing a historic town of historic churches, old palaces, a 2nd Century lighthouse, and unique fisherman houses, Ken made the only sensible choice – he headed straight for the castle! Located in the center of…

We are loving Portugal!  Today we discovered the wonderful town of Porto.  We toured a beautiful old cathedral, visited a magnificent train station, learned the history of the area’s port wine industry, and felt the wind in our hair as we cruised under the town’s six bridges on a river boat.  We drove through the…

High on a hill in the mountains of Sintra, Portugal sits the beautiful Palace of Pena.  Originally constructed as a 15th Century monastery that was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1755, the Palace occupies 85 acres.  Arriving at the palace gates requires one to navigate a lengthy series of hairpin turns on a steep…

We arrived in Lisbon just in time for our 1:15 tour to Obidos, a town whose history dates back to 308 BC.   Ken climbed the walls of the Obidos Castle, a 12th Century fortification that played a major strategic and military role in Portugal’s emergence as a nation.  He walked the full mile of its…

Seville, Spain is best known as the home of Flamenco dancing. One would think that we would take advantage of being here to witness some impressive displays of that dance, but by the time we arrived we were ready for a break. Instead of touring we opted for a quiet wander through the narrow alleyways…

Barcelona is one of our favorite cities.  It has an energy fed by history, incredible architecture and a genuine spirit of hospitality.  Having been here before we opted to keep it simple and do the hop on/hop off tour.  Here are some of the highlights… Our first stop involved a gondola ride to a castle…

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What a fantastic day! Today we got brave and scheduled a personal tour.  We were joined by a couple of our new friends and had a perfect (and full!) day in Rome. Our first stop was the Catacombs of St. Sebastian.  Discovered in 1920 the Catacombs of St. Sebastian were a 2nd Century Christian cemetery…

With a history that dates back nearly 3,000 years to the ancient Greeks who founded the Naples area during the 8th Century BC, Naples is home to Pompeii and Herculaneum, two famous sites destroyed and conserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.  We visited these sites when we were here 6 years…

Today we visited Delphi, Greece, situated 2,000’ above sea level on the slopes of Mount Paranassu, and believed by ancient Greeks to be the physical and spiritual center of the universe. According to Greek mythology, Zeus sent two eagles, one from each of the Universe, and told them to find the “navel” of the world. …

Today we visited Delphi, Greece, situated 2,000’ above sea level on the slopes of Mount Paranassu, and believed by ancient Greeks to be the physical and spiritual center of the universe. According to Greek mythology, Zeus sent two eagles, one from each of the Universe, and told them to find the “navel” of the world. …

Santorini, Greece was the site of one of the world’s largest volcanic eruptions in all recorded history.  The eruption occurred about 3600 years ago and left a large caldera surrounded by volcanic ash deposits thousands of feet deep.  That caldera filled with water and is now the Aegean Sea.  The Santorini Volcano continues to be…

On today’s tour history met technology as we visited the ancient walled fortress of the Doric Temple of Athena, built about 2500 years ago.  The walk from the parking lot to the fortress was beautiful and a bit adventurous, traveling down and up pedestrian-only cobblestone streets enjoying the whitewashed buildings of the town overlooking the…

Welcome to Cyprus, land of Greek mythology and home to Aphrodite.  Cyprus has over 11,000 years of history; artifacts related to the Stone Age have been found here, and water wells found in Western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world.  Adding to its archaeological lure is the fact that it…

Our final two stops of the day were the wailing wall and the Garden of Gethsemane. The Wailing Wall is the holiest place on earth for the Jewish people.  It is all that remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem.  The First Temple was built in 1000 BC after King David conquered Jerusalem and made…

We are in Monte Carlo today and we are in love – not with Monte Carlo, which would be easy enough, but with a little French town near it called Eze (pronounced Ez).  Our time in port was limited, so we elected to skip the ship tours and just explore the local area with our…

Stations of the Cross (Jerusalem, Israel 05/27/2017) We left Bethlehem for a 2-1/2 hour walk through Jerusalem, following the path of the crucifixion backwards from the end to the beginning.  It was quite an emotional journey. We entered the Old City of Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate, one of seven entrances and the main gate…

Israel and Palestine have long argued over possession of land in this region of the world with Jerusalem being the biggest bone of contention because of its religious significance.  Currently Palestine controls Bethlehem and Israel controls Jerusalem.  The two towns are situated right next to one another; the only indication you are leaving one and…

An Open-Air Concert (Akko, Israel 05/26/2019) Every so often Oceania treats all the Around the World guests to a special dinner event.  Such an event was held on May 26th while we were in Haifa, Israel. We were taken by bus to Old Acre (pronounced Akko), about 45 miles from the port.  Akko is one…

How do we as Christians express what it is like to visit Nazareth and the River Jordan, to walk the lands we know Jesus once walked, to see views similar to those he would have looked upon?  Our tour today included a visit to the archaeologically confirmed home of the Virgin Mary, where the Angel…

The sun was just beginning to make its appearance as we entered the mouth of the Suez Canal, a journey that would take nine hours and see four armed Egyptian security guards join us on board, multiple coast guard escorts handing us off one to another at various intervals along the way, and a military…

Egypt is the oldest tourist destination on Earth.  One of its major tourist attractions, Luxor has been called the world’s greatest outdoor museum.  According to our guide one third of all the world’s monuments can be found here.  Everywhere you look is another historic site.  Our visit focused on the Valley of the Kings, the…

Petra is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan that lies in the basin o a valley that runs from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba.  It is believed to have been settled as early as 9,000 BC by the Nabataeans, a nomadic people believed to have originally been farmers.  The theory…

The skyline of Dubai is a feast for the eyes, and the many attractions offered throughout the city will feed the rest of your senses.  In the late 1990’s government officials made the decision to move Dubai from an oil-based economy to one rooted in the service and tourist industries.  To be successful they believed…

Fujairah is one of the seven independent city states that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).    The UAE is a monarchy controlled by the royal families of each of the seven emirates, with the royal family of Abu Dhabi acting as the head of state.  Each emirate has an elected parliament that creates laws…

NOTE: We’re having problems downloading some of the pictures for this post. Check back later for more photos. Mumbai is a city of extremes.  It is home to both the most expensive home in the world – a 27-story, 400,000 square foot monstrosity valued at between one and two BILLION dollars (6 stories, by the…

After the sunrise visit to the Taj Mahal and the morning visits to Fatehpur Sikri and Agra Fort, Pam went to a marble in-lay factory and jewelry store where several famous tapestry are housed. The marble inlay artwork Agra has become famous for originated in Italy. Visitors from Italy would bring gifts of marble inlaid…

While Ken visited Fatehpur Sikri Pam headed off to the Agra Fort. The Agra Fort was the main residence where all of the early Mughal emperors lived. The Mughals are the people who built and ruled India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh from the early 16th Century to the mid-19th Century. This is where the Emperor…

Following our visit to the Taj Mahal, Ken visited Fatehpur Sikri and Pam visited the Agra Fort. Fatehpur Sikri was founded as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571. The city was built in celebration of the birth of the Emperor Akbar’s first son. All of the buildings are built entirely of red sandstone,…

We rose at 3:30 a.m. today to witness the sun rise at the Taj Mahal – an experience that was totally worth the sleep deprivation.  The Taj Mahal is the centerpiece of a 42-acre complex which includes a mosque and a guest house and is set in formal gardens surrounded by walls and massive gateways. …

We are on our way to the Taj Mahal, by way of New Delhi. Yesterday (May 6th) we left the ship to fly from Cochin to New Delhi, then boarded a bus from the airport to our hotel. What an adventure that was! Traffic is bumper to bumper, and there are no traffic signs or…

A nation of more than 100 ethnic groups, Myanmar has struggled with Civil war for most of its years of independence. It has been under direct or indirect military rule since 1962. Between 1962 and 1974 it was ruled by a revolutionary council that brought almost all areas of society under government control. During this…

The Ao Phang Nga National Park is an area of the Andaman Sea populated with more than 80 limestone tower karst islands.  Tower karst are tall rock structures that form as near-vertical joints.  These particular formations were created more than 300 million years ago when the tectonic plates between Thailand and Malaysia collided.  Phuket was…

Now known as the Silicon Valley of the East, Penang has its roots in the tin industry.  Our today began with a visit to a museum that was once the home of one of the fathers of that industry, Chung Keng Quee.  Chung came to Penang as a 20-year-old peasant boy and made his fortune…

A relatively young city-state, Singapore gained its independence in 1963 and accomplished the remarkable feat of transitioning from a developing country to a developed country in just one generation.  It is one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in, but listen to what other designations it has achieved:  most technology ready…

For most of its life Ko Samui was an isolated, self-sufficient island community.  It didn’t even have a road until the late 1970s.  It could take an entire day to walk the less than ten miles from one side of the island to the other.  An economy originally based on subsistence agriculture, fishing and coconuts…

We first visited Bangkok in April 2017 as part of a land tour through China and Thailand.  The King had passed away the previous October and the country was observing a year of mourning.  This year the country is preparing for the coronation of the new king.  He has been ruling since immediately after his…

The Mekong River is a 2,700-mile body of water that flows from the Tibetan Plateau through six different countries:  China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.  It is a major trade route between China and Southeast Asia.  The Mekong Delta is the area in southwestern Vietnam where the river approaches and empties into the sea. …

Saigon served as the main headquarters for U.S. operations during the Vietnam war.  Today’s tour included a visit to a section of the tunnels the North Vietnamese used in their operations and of that war and a war museum that tells the story of the war from North Vietnam’s perspective.  Gunfire punctuated the air as…

Prior to the Vietnam war, Da Nang served as the country’s capital.  Thirteen different kings reigned during this period, between 1802-1945, under the Nguyen Dynasty.  Our tour today focused on the Citadel, the “court” of the dynasty.  Modeled after the Forbidden City in Beijing, the complex took 27 years to complete and in its prime…

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China but, as part of the agreement made in 1997 when the British returned control of Hong Kong to China, it has a different political system than mainland China. Hong Kong Basic Law stipulates that Hong Kong shall have a “high degree of…

We arrived in Hong Kong to cool weather and the threat of rain. It is a city of tall buildings and shopping for days! The Hong Kong Ocean Terminal, where our ship docked, empties into one of the biggest shopping centers we have ever seen – four stories with more than 700 shops and 50…

Many of you have asked about life on board the ship, so we thought we’d take advantage of a little down time and tell you! We’re trying to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so on most of the days we’re in port we have something scheduled, either an excursion through the cruise line…

More than 50 skyscrapers fill the Shanghai’s skyline in Shanghai’s Pudong financial district. The newest and tallest has 128 floors, and at the beginning of 2019 was the 2nd tallest building in the world (after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai). Shanghai’s skyline comes alive at night with millions and millions of dancing, changing lights. Nearly…

Since we’d been to Shanghai just two years ago and saw most of the city’s highlights then, we opted for something a little different this visit. Zhouzhuang Water Town is an ancient town about 20 miles southeast of Shanghai. It is one of the most famous water townships in Shanghai, a cluster of ancient towns…

Welcome to Kagoshima, Japan, the first city to introduce western civilization to the Japanese and gateway to trade between Japan and the rest of the world – and home to Sakurajima volcano, an active volcano that has been continually erupting since 1955. We began our day at the base of the volcano and made a…

After returning from Miyajima (see previous post), we enjoyed a traditional bento box lunch and made our way to the main event of the day, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. To help the 45-minute drive go a little more quickly our guide taught us how to make origami samurai helmets. Ken was an excellent student, don’t…

Said to tbe one the top three picturesque destinations in Japan, Miyajima is an island near Hiroshima famous for its production of brushes of every size and kind – from the tiniest make-up brushes to calligraphy brushes to paint brushes – and the beautifully unique Itsukushima Shrine. The shrine is unlike any we’ve visited before.…

Tokyo is the world’s most populous metropolitan area. The most recent census puts the metropolitan population at 13 million people, and at least 2 million of them were there to welcome us during our visit today. We have never seen so many people continually in one place. It was like being in a non-stop Seattle…

What a great welcome to Tokyo!  As we entered the port we were greeted by the Tokyo fire department, and then tonight Oceania hosted a special event for all of its Around the World travelers.  We were treated to a traditional Japanese dinner theater performance at the magnificent Hotel Gajoen.   The hotel originally opened in…

Kobe, Japan, home of the world-renowned Kobe Beef.  Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to sample this local delicacy, but we did get to visit more temples and shrines!  😊 Our tour began at the Todai-Ji Temple where the world’s tallest Buddha lives inside the world’s tallest wooden building.  The buildings we visited are…

What an emotional day.  The Battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest of WWII.  More than 200,000 individuals lost their lives, over half of them civilians, and the island of Okinawa was all but obliterated.  The battle has been nick-named the “Typhoon of Steel” because of the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of…

Whatever we were expecting in Japan, it wasn’t this!  An island of fewer than 60,000 residents, Miyako- Jima is considered one of the most picturesque destinations in Japan.  It’s about 190 miles southwest of Okinawa and home to some of the most beautiful water we’ve seen thus far – right up there with Rangiroa. Our…

Taipei, Taiwan is located within the Ring of Fire, a string of volcanoes situated around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.  It has the highest number and density of mountains in the world – 286 of which are 9,800 feet or more above sea level.  Our tour today took us away from the city and…

Kaohsiung, Taiwan is a beautiful city with much to offer.  Our half day tour barely scratched the surface.  The two main religions in Taiwan are Buddhism and Taoism, a reflection of the part India and China have played in the country’s history.  The influence of these religions is felt everywhere, from the many temples that…

Manila is the capital city of the Philippines and the most densely populated city in the world.  It is also one of the most polluted.  According to Wikipedia, pollution alone causes more than 4,000 deaths a year in Manila, and the Pasig River that flows through its corridor is one of the most polluted in…

Puerto Princesa is the capital of the islandprovince of Palawan. It has been called the cleanest and greenest city in the Philippines, a result of its stringent anti-littering and conservation policies. With a population of only 210,000 it is the most sparsely populated city in the the Philippines. There are plenty of cars and traffic,…

What a wonderful and full day! We began our day at the Blasinga Waterfall, near Ubud. After paying the nominal entrance fee we made our way down an outdoor corridor, lined on either side by tall bamboo poles. We emerged in a multi-level tropical paradise, complete with infinity pools, tiki bars, and bamboo swings. We…

Bali, Indonesia…white sand beaches, clear blue water lapping the shore, mountainous backdrops…not the Bali we visited today. Our Bali was incredibly crowded, with serious amounts of traffic, dirt and poverty. It was a far cry from what we expected, but it had much to offer. Bali is land of many, many temples. It is said…

Komodo Island is probably the most untouched of all the places we’ve visited so far. There is only one small fishing village on the island, located an hour’s walk from the pier that we tendered to. There are no roads and cars are forbidden. Fewer than 20,000 people are allowed to visit each year, and…

Today we are in Darwin, Australia, home of the world’s oldest living culture (the Aborigines have lived here for 60,000 – 70,000 years) and jumping crocodiles!  The day greeted us with an amazing sunrise, warm temperatures and EXREME humidity! Saltwater crocodiles are among the largest and most dangerous crocodiles on the planet.  Females generally grow…

Pam has never been able to master the art of the snorkeling mask and breathing tube, so she opted for a different kind of adventure.  She went on a Sea Walk! She donned her wet suit, put on a weight belt, and descended into a “holding pen” in the ocean space below the platform.  There…