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April 2023
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April 2023

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Roatan Honduras

    12 avril 2023, Honduras ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    We had a fun day in Roatan’s Mahogany Bay, a tropical paradise just like you see in movies and beer ads.

    Our Romanian pals, Constantin and Maria, joined us for the day. We were greeted by a sweet little songbird as we stepped ashore. It put the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds” in my head.

    The four of us took a “magical flying beach chair” over to the beach. Yes, the very same one that I had been making fun of when I noticed it from the ship.

    Well guess what? I loved it. Not only was it a nice view, but there was a little breeze up there. We saw sharks, colorful fish, and conchs from our perch.

    Constantin and I enjoyed a wonderful swim while Larry and Maria found some shady beach chairs. Only later did we realize that although the beach was free, people paid $30 for the chairs and $50 for the bungalows. Oops!

    As we wandered around, we saw a beach bungalow offering salon services such as massages, pedicures, and fish therapy: minnows that nibble any dead skin off of your feet!!

    The heat and surroundings called for cerveza, so we wandered into the beach bar.
    Larry ordered some snacks, too. That’s when we discovered that C&M had never had nachos before!

    It was fun explaining what they were and how to eat them. Not only were the nachos a hit, but they even liked the jalapeños.

    The server got such a kick out of learning that they live in Transylvania. “Really? Like where Dracula lives?”

    (He also complimented my Spanish accent, but he probably says that to all the gringos!)    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Jell-O Shots & Rx Drugs

    13 avril 2023, Mexique

    We are one of four cruise ships docked in Cozumel today and Spring Break is in the air!

    As we stepped off the ship we were swept up in a swarm of tourists, most of whom were from the USA. It’s always funny to hear American accents again when you’ve been traveling.

    The little town by the dock swarmed with tourists, costumed performers, and vendors of all kinds including Jell-O shots and prescription drugs.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    US Immigration

    14 avril 2023, North Atlantic Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    While enjoying espresso with Constantin and Maria today, I said something to Larry.

    “Did you forget I don’t speak Romanian?” he replied. Oops! I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t speaking English.

    The four of us had a good laugh over that, with Constantin and Maria teasing that I’d better be careful when we go through US immigration tomorrow, or they may not let me off the ship.

    All week, the crew has been abuzz, preparing for a big inspection by the US Coastguard in Florida. Sure hope all goes well.

    Everything seems shipshape to me, and the crew has been participating in drill after drill. I’m sure it will be a big relief to get the inspection over with.

    We’ve also been warned that it may be slow going to get off the ship tomorrow. Everyone must go through immigration and it could be slow going.

    Really curious how all this will play out, since we don’t have a ship excursion. We are simply going to meet family tomorrow. We shall see!    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Florida Floods

    15 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    South Florida is full of pocket parks, boardwalks, and beach trails, so after lunch, I used Google to find the nearest one.

    It took us straight to a neighborhood where locals were recovering from yesterday’s flash floods. We sure feel sorry for those folks!En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Fort Lauderdale Family

    15 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Larry’s two brothers are snowbirds who spend their winters in South Florida, so we were able to rendezvous with them today.

    My nephew, Evan, (who now lives in Florida) chose a wonderful Greek restaurant for us.

    Mini Pita is tucked in a strip mall and doesn’t look like much from outside, but wowza! If I lived nearby, I’d visit often. Everything is fresh, homemade, and so tasty.

    Our server took our noisy family gathering in stride. It was great to see everyone and catch up in person. We’ve missed them all!

    After our meal, I tried to find a nature trail so we could walk off the meal, but more about that in another post…    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Orthodox Easter Celebration

    16 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    The majority of guests and crew on this ship are Italian, so Catholic Easter was celebrated last Sunday. Our Romanian pals celebrate a week later, however.

    Constantin and Maria invited us to breakfast to celebrate Orthodox Easter with them along with two Romanian crew members.

    Maria even dyed some boiled eggs red for the occasion, then coached Larry and I through the Romanian tradition.

    We each took an egg, and as we went around the table, we tapped the egg of the person next to us while saying, “Christ has risen” in Romanian. To which they would respond, “He has truly risen.”

    It was fun, and we felt honored to be included in their traditions, even though I was raised Presbyterian and Larry’s an atheist.

    Back to Easter, have you ever wondered why the date changes each year? It’s because Easter is the first Sunday after the first full Moon on, or after, spring equinox. (And if the full Moon happens on a Sunday, then Easter is the next Sunday.)

    Up until 1752, England and her colonies used the Julian Calendar, even though people had realized that this “Old Style” calendar was out of sync with the astronomical year. The dates did not jibe with the solstices and equinoxes anymore, and people knew this since the late 1500s.

    By the time England and her colonies finally switched from the Old Style calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752, the calendar was way off. It had to be adjusted by deleting 11 days.

    The Gregorian (aka New Style) calendar is still used today.

    Even though most Catholic countries adopted the new calendar, Orthodox Catholics still calculate certain holy dates using the Old Style calendar.

    That’s why Easter’s date changes, and why Catholic Easter and Orthodox Easter rarely fall on the same date.

    Phew! That took a lot longer to explain than I thought it would…    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Kennedy Space Center

    16 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    In Port Canaveral, the ship included a tour of the Kennedy Space Center. It was even better than we expected!

    We spent the whole day there and still didn’t get to see everything. The exhibits cater to people of all ages, and there are so many to explore.

    It’s hard to pick a favorite exhibit, but I must say the section dedicated to the Apollo missions did a wonderful job capturing the excitement of that era.

    Launch control fascinates me, and, of course, I got a kick out of all the cigarettes, cigars, and ashtrays littering the desks.

    I was surprised to learn how busy all the launch sites are. They expect 90 launches this year.

    No tours were offered for Blue Origin, which is where Jeff Bezo’s houses space projects, nor did we go inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB.)

    It’s hard to convey the size of the VAB in a photo, but it is massive. For instance, the American flag on the side is 21-stories-high. It even holds the Guinness record for the world’s largest doors.

    I was also happy to learn that despite all the high tech activity, the space center employs an environmental consultant. This meant that in addition to all the rockets, we saw lots of birds. I noticed a ton of osprey nesting platforms, for instance, and the roadside ditches were full of water birds.

    I would definitely enjoy visiting here again!    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Galley Tour

    18 avril 2023, North Atlantic Ocean

    The ship offered us a free tour of the galley. It was fun to enter the crew’s zone and see where some of the food is prepared.

    We also saw the ship’s workshop as well as the area for tailoring and upholstery repair.

    Cruise ships truly are floating cities. If I could channel my inner Julian Fellows, I’d write a maritime version of Downton Abbey.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Boston Lunch with Friends

    19 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 50 °F

    Although our ship docked in Newport, Rhode Island today, Larry and I took a bus to Boston so we could visit a couple friends.

    Carol met up with us at the Old Granary Burial Ground, a historic graveyard along Boston’s Freedom Trail.

    To walk the Freedom Trail, you traipse along a brick pathway that takes you from one historic spot to the next, such as the site of the Boston Massacre, and so on. (The Old Granary Burial Ground is also on the trail, but I’ll cover that in another post.)

    At Quincy Market, we met up with another friend. Angel is my go-to consultant for all things Catholic, but this was our first IRL meeting. She’s a blast!

    She was on her lunch break, so she guided us to the heart of Boston’s Little Italy where she’d kindly made reservations for us at a wonderful restaurant.

    There, we enjoyed an Aperol spritz along with handmade pasta. At her suggestion, I had the broccoli rabe, something I’ve only ever seen before in Italy. Bottom line? Yummy!

    After, Angel insisted we visit a place called Modern Pastry. She didn’t have to twist our arms.

    Wow! What a fabulous Italian bakery. I saw cassatina (from Catania), rum baba and sfogliatelle, (two Neapolitan sweets), and even red velvet cupcakes. (I’m not sure where those originate from, but they made me think of Texas.)

    All in all, it was a wonderful meet up in Boston. My only complaint? The time went too quickly!    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Lady Liberty

    20 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 46 °F

    While Larry snoozed, I woke early to catch a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty as we sailed past her on Liberty Island.

    The cruise director played a couple stanzas of “New York, New York” over the loudspeakers before reading a brief narration about the history of NYC, including its importance to all the Italian immigrants who came here over the years.

    We saw Lady Liberty on our sail away, as well. Here are a few pics from both sightings.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Sailing into NYC

    20 avril 2023, États Unis

    The rising sun gleamed at us, dancing from one skyscraper to the next as we sailed into NYC.

    After stepping off the ship, we posed in front of the NCL Breakaway since the Peter Max graphic on its bow made the perfect backdrop.

    Everyone on the ship, crew and passengers alike, are excited to get out and start exploring the Big Apple.

    Let’s get this party started!    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    NYC Skyscrapers & HoHo Bus

    20 avril 2023, États Unis

    We spent two days roaming around Manhattan on the Hop On Hop Off bus with Constantin and Maria.

    The upper deck of the bus offered good views as we wound through a maze of cavernous skyscrapers.

    The audio quality on the provided headphones was surprisingly good and the narration was full of interesting tidbits. We learned a lot.

    All in all, it was a great way to see the Big Apple.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Times Square

    20 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    If I had to sum up Times Square in a phrase, it would be: hustle and bustle.

    People swarm here like ants on a fallen ice cream cone. One of the many things I learned from the narration on our Hop On Hop Off bus tour is that Times Square was so named in order to lure the New York Times to have an office here.

    Despite the massive throng of humanity, we felt quite safe here. Larry grew up on Long Island and commented several times how much cleaner and safer New York is from when he was a kid.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Big Apple Surprises

    20 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    No sooner did I say, “I wonder if we’ll see the Naked Cowboy,” than he appeared before us. (I love the look on that little girl’s face as her mom yanks her by him.)

    Our friends told us that marijuana was recently legalized here and holy moly, we smelled it all day long, everywhere we went.

    See that guy selling a baggy of pot? There were cops all over the place and they didn’t bat an eye.

    NYC is famous for its rats. My brother joked that maybe I’d see the newly appointed Rat Czar. I did not, but an abandoned lot covered with rat traps caught my eye as we wandered around.

    Since our Romanian pals had never been here, Larry had insisted they try a fresh pretzel from a street cart as well as a knish.

    Another thing we encouraged them to try was NYC’s drinking water. Unlike every other big city I’ve been to, the water here tastes GREAT. This is because it comes straight from the Adirondacks. As a water snob, I was greatly impressed by this when I came here before.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Strawberry Fields

    21 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    On our second day, we hopped off our HoHo bus to traipse through Central Park.

    Along the way, we walked through “Strawberry Fields,” a tear-dropped shaped section of the park dedicated to the memory of John Lennon.

    Although this area is a designated “quiet zone,” both times I’ve visited there has been a busker playing Beatles tunes nearby, and it’s felt quite fitting.

    Along the pathway, there’s a large mosaic, 34 feet in diameter, with the word “Imagine” in the center. It’s only a stone’s throw from the spot where John Lennon was shot and killed in front of his apartment on December 8, 1980.

    The Imagine mosaic was donated by Italian artists who flew over from Naples to complete the artwork on site.

    To me, this little park within a park seems a fitting memorial.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Central Park

    21 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    We had a grand time walking around Centeal Park with Constantin and Maria. What a glorious spring day we had!

    And see that bedrock? That’s why Manhattan is able to support its towering skyscrapers. Without bedrock to anchor foundations, you can’t build those big buildings.En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    General Worth’s Mausoleum

    21 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    Even though Fort Worth, Texas, Lake Worth, Florida, and Worth Street in Manhattan are all named after William Jenkins Worth, this famous American general is buried in the heart of Manhattan, across the street from the Flatiron Building.

    In fact, General Worth (1794–1849) died in San Antonio, Texas of cholera. His body was temporarily interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, before being buried here in 1857. And it was a big deal, too, with a funeral procession that included 6,500 soldiers.

    General Worth’s monument features a 51 foot-high obelisk of Quincy granite inscribed with battle sites meaningful to his military career.

    It must have looked quite grand when first erected, and in just about any other city it would still be a conspicuous structure. Here in NYC, however, it’s dwarfed by skyscrapers, and overlooked by most passers by.

    Last time I was here, a food cart stood right beside the monument. My friend, Andi, and I asked the hotdog guy if he knew he’d parked next to the grave of a famous general. The man had no idea.

    If you look closely, you’ll notice crossed swords as a decorative motif. This is a nod to the Congressional Sword of Honor awarded to General Worth.

    And see that rectangular structure next to the monument? In 1940, part of the fence surrounding the obelisk was removed to make way for an above ground utility shed which services the water supply system pipes that run below.

    Since 1995, an endowment created by the descendants of General Worth have provided maintenance for the monument as well as the flower bed here.    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Bad Kitty & Kurt in SoHo

    21 avril 2023, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

    We met up with my old pal, Bad Kitty, and her fabulous partner in crime, Kurt, for lunch in SoHo.

    Is there a name for that thing where you pick up right where you left off with old friends? I wish I’d taken more photos, but we were having too much fun catching up on each other’s lives.

    It did my heart good to see her happy and healthy and I know she feels the same. The time flew by. Note to self: don’t let so many years slide by before getting together again!!!    En savoir plus

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  • Tui SniderApril 2023Voyageur

    Feeling Bullish on Wall Street

    21 avril 2023, États Unis

    Did you know that New York was originally named “New Amsterdam” by the Dutch?

    Those same settlers also built a large wall to protect them from the Algonquin Indians. That very same wall is where Wall Street gets its name.

    As you can see, we weren’t the only folks who wanted to pose with the famous bull statue, but we got our chance. I’m sure it makes good people-watching for the doorman across the street.

    Along the way, we found public restrooms in the basement at TJ Maxx, after which, Constantin and Maria found (and bought!) some fluffy towels on sale. It was fun explaining the concept of a “bargain basement” to them.    En savoir plus

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