• Day 1: Multnomah Falls, Mt. Hood, Tumalo

    13 Ogos 2024, Amerika Syarikat ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    After arriving SeaTac airport, we picked up our rental car and headed south towards Oregon. Our first stop was Multnomah Falls. This was a stop Donna wanted to be sure I got to see. It is lovely. Worth the two dollars.

    From there we headed towards our airbnb in Tumalo, Oregon. Our journey had us headed directly into the view of Mount Hood. Wow!

    By 10:00 pm we made it to our wonderful airbnb. Got a good night’s sleep and in the morning headed out to Crater Lake. In the morning our wake-up view was inspiring.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 1: BDL to PHL to SEA

    13 Ogos 2024, Amerika Syarikat ⋅ 🌙 59 °F

    We are plenty early. Which is a good thing. Donna & I are heading for Seattle for a ten day mini-trip. Our main goal is to visit the four National Parks in Oregon and Washington. Please reply with comments to let us know you are keeping an eye on us. Let the adventure begin!
    8:12 AM We are on board in Philadelphia for a six hour flight to Seattle.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 140: We’re home!

    10 Mei 2024, Amerika Syarikat ⋅ 🌙 50 °F

    With tons of mixed emotions we come home from our 140 day Viking World Cruise - this was an unplanned surprise out our front door in East Windsor, CT USA

    The Northern Lights! We have never witnessed this before.Baca lagi

  • Day 137: Cliffs of Dover, England.

    7 Mei 2024, England ⋅ ☀️ 54 °F

    This post is for Heather C’s mom and my friends, family, and other followers to let you we have not fallen off the ship. We are still here! It has been 14 days since our last post Day 124 on April 24th in the Canary Island, Spain. On that post I woke up with a pretty bad cough. And had been not been running on all 8 cylinders.

    I promise to get caught up on every missing day. My personal goal was to have every day documented. This will get done.

    Since the Canary Islands, we have been to 3 ports in Morocco - Cadiz, Spain (Which we loved), - Lisbon and Porto Portugal, A Coruña, Spain - St Malo France, - and had lunch with our long time friend Joel in Paris yesterday.

    It has been go, go, go - and with so many days in different ports - and both of us catching a cold and fighting that off - we would go to and excursion for the day and then get back to our room and rest. We tried to be good stewards wearing masks and staying away from people up close.

    There have been reports of Covid and people having to quarantine for 2 days - we both tested negative for Covid. As we have talked with others - we are not the only ones. A cruise ship is like a Petri dish - we are better now.

    Honestly, our brains, our entire being has reached capacity - There are only so many temples, Flower gardens, Bus rides, Mosques, Statues, Coconuts, cobble stoned streets, UNESCO landmarks, Dances from grade school children, stories of the historic greed and conquest which has pretty much been the status quo for human civilization. By the way - Nothing got discovered - someone else found what you already knew you had and took it from you.

    In a couple of hours we will head out on our excursion in Dover, England. Our stewards are cleaning the room - making the bed. While we sit in the Explorer’s Lounge having a cup of tea with the White Cliffs’s of Dover filling the picture frame we call our living room window. Enjoy the pictures.

    We still can’t believe we have been on this adventure. I do have all the stickers on my carry-on to prove it! - see photo.

    As Donna as said many times - “We can’t un-know this.” We got the traveling bug. And have already booked a river cruise and a Mediterranean Ocean cruise for Nov & Dec 2025.

    So, to Heather C’s mom - (and all the others who have been so very supportive of this blog) I do promise to fill in the missing gaps and dates and post them on FB as well. Something to do on the flight home if I am not sleeping.

    We have met a ton of new friends - And we do think a couple of those relationship will stick - for that we are thankful. And if some of the relationships were meant for just this cruise adventure - that’s okay as well.

    Mostly, thank you to everyone for your kind words of encouragement and the good times we shared.

    “As iron sharpens iron, so to a person another.” Proverbs 27:17

    Thank you all for sharpening Donna and I because of sharing this adventure together.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 136: Paris & Friends (Post 2:2)

    6 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ☁️ 63 °F

    Those of us in the IT World understand the dreaded word “Consultant.” Oui, the consultant from Paris France will come and solve all of our IT problems.

    Back in 2009 Joel (A consultant from France) came to New Haven Ct; together Joel and I were locked up in a room for 30 days (and many nights) building a BPM software solution for Yale University. Yes - it was the Lombardi project.

    When you work this closely with someone you either kill each other - vowing to never see this person again - Or you become life long friends. I am happy to report the latter of the two options is the outcome of our journey.

    Back in 2009 Joel stayed with us for a night - we showed him around Boston. Through the magic of FB we have remained friends - having never seen him since.

    A couple of days before arriving to France I messaged Joel of our arrival and VERY short stay in Paris. Without hesitation he adjusted his schedule (Yes - he is still a dreaded consultant now working in the AI space) and was able to drive into the city to meet up with Donna and myself.

    Having limited time we walked into an area that was once a castle - with a lovely garden and tree lined path. Found a cafe to have a meal and a beer together - and basically picked up right where we left off in 2009. Updated on children, grand-children, jobs, our retirement were all shared.

    Once our meal was done, we walked past the Louvre and Joel got a picture of me kissing my lovely wife on a bridge spanning La Seine River. You know just like in the movies.

    These three hours with such a good friend surpassed anything anyone could wish for in Paris. There just isn’t an excursion in the VIking Daily for this type of time.

    I am sure there are many who read this who understand these types of relationships. Today is a special day on our adventure. What a wonderful way to put a bow on this world cruise.

    Also, having someone who knows how to order in French really helped.

    Please enjoy these pictures.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 136: Viva La Paris (Post 1:2)

    6 Mei 2024, Perancis ⋅ ⛅ 59 °F

    Today, day 136 Captain Richard led us safely into Port Honfleur, France. Which is at the mouth of the La Seine river. Then we were on a bus at 9:15 AM for a three hour journey to Paris.

    My dreams from 5th grade French class - Mr. Pino’ teaching “Comen Talle vous?” And the many stories he would tell of wonderful Paris were about to come true.

    The countryside of Fannie is lovely - Most of which reminded us of the states. We like West New York State - very similar. A long ride - but worth it.

    Finally there is was out the bus window - The Arch de Triumph and then the Eiffel Tower. Due to limited time in Paris (only 3 hours) we did not get to explore these gens of Paris. La Seine is amazing- The driver parked the bus under The Louvre in a parking garage. Then we were off to the streets of Paris for the BEST time a person can have in Paris - See Post #2

    Meanwhile enjoy these pictures.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 128: Tangier, Morocco - Part 1

    28 April 2024, Maghribi ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    We spent today in Tangier’s Morocco. Again, so of the people selling their wares got very pushy. But today I was in the zone with my camera. Every where I looked I saw an image just wanting to be captured. Please enjoy these images, I will let them speak for themselves. I would go back here to take more pictures.Baca lagi

  • Day 127: Casablanca, Morocco

    27 April 2024, Portugal ⋅ ☀️ 63 °F

    Today we took the included “Casablanca: City of White” included tour. It was a nice bus tour with several nice places to stop. The colors of the markets always impress me. The different varieties of olives was nice to taste.

    Donna and I weren’t running at 100%. Even with the bit of rain we had, we did enjoy the tour, at lunch at a local cafe. We ordered something that was local - forgot what it was called - but we both enjoy the meal. It was like a lamb gyro wrap thing.

    We did find a pharmacy and stocked up on drugs to help our coughs & cold bug.

    The colors and excitement continue to wish I had more time there. Morocco is a very religious country with a lot of churches and mosques.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 126: Agadir, Morocco

    26 April 2024, Maghribi ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F

    What I hated about Morocco was the pushy in your face people trying to sell you stuff. I hate it when my space is invaded so much and that they just won’t leave you alone.

    What I loved about Morocco was everything else. The colors, the excitement, the energy all made you feel alive. There is extreme poverty in Agadir. The people I did meet that weren’t pushy hawkers were really nice and fun to talk with.

    I would like to go back here to really explore the colors, patterns, and artistic energy that radiates for just above everywhere. Like most of the stops on our cruise, you just never have enough time to do and see it all.
    Baca lagi

  • Day 125: Heading towards Agadir, Morocco

    25 April 2024, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ 🌬 68 °F

    So, pretty much today was a Sea Day. We did not dock into port until 4:30 PM and there were no planned excursions for us.

    We did have a nice Facebook chat with Keara & our new grandson Ozzy. You got to love the internet. We hadn’t been feeling great so for the most part we stayed to ourselves. Sushi for dinner is always nice.

    You can see a pic of our friend Robin when we were in art class. Today we were making gift wallets. We opt’d out of the evening destination performance in the Star Theater to get to bed a bit early.

    Not much to report, pretty sunrises and sunsets - you know the same thing pretty much every day. Great people & friends, Amazing food, and Mother Nature always paints beautiful art work in the skies.
    Baca lagi

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