A Cruise from Barcelona Spain to Ft. Lauderdale Florida

I am home now. We had a great vacation but getting Internet connection made posting next to impossible. So here is a recap of our 18 days from Barcelona Spain to Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

After a bumpy start to our trip we arrived in Barcelona via Lisbon. Barcelona is a beautiful city and we enjoyed the time we were there. We had paella for dinner the first night and it was excellent. A tour the next day explored Gaudi’s creative architectural style. Montserrat was amazing too. There were hundreds of bikers and families on outings to the monastery. Categena was our next stop and that too is a lovely city. Malaga and the beautiful cathedral and Alcazaba were on our tour.

Casablanca and Rebat – beautiful and very historical. We were on an 8-hour tour. Lunch was excellent – vegetables of carrots, beets, lentils, chickpeas, tomatoes, onions and then couscous with short rib pieces, and chick peas, rice, carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potato. Dessert was served – very shortbread cookies and their tea made from green tea with rose water.

Friday, Nov. 8^th, a day at sea. The highlight of the day was the Canary Islands port talk.

Saturday, Nov. 9^th, we are in Santa Cruz in Tenerife. We enjoyed our tour of the museum which featured flat pyramids and the story of Thor Heyerdahl of Kon Tiki fame.

It’s Wednesday now and I have not written anything since we were in the Azores. Punta del Garda was beautiful. We took an 8-hour tour where we sampled some local licors, visited the gardens which were absolutely amazing, visited Furnas and the volcanic rocks and hot springs. The hot springs are boiling and steaming. Lunch was excellent too. We are now at sea for a week on our way to Ft. Lauderdale.

The lectures were great. Steve Diggs presented a number of talks on Rock and Roll – he talked about the singers and how records and stars were made. There was another talk on DaVinci.

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Some photos from our trip. Guell Park by Gaudi, Alcazaba, fumeroles, gardens – all amazing.

Cucumber Tree

Recently I visited Violet Bank in Colonial Heights, Virginia. This is an old home which has been converted to a museum but the most remarkable thing about this place is the cucumber tree in the front yard. It was planted in 1718 and the trunk is probably six feet is circumference.

4th of July

I hope you all had a great 4th of July, no matter where you are. We did. We had friends over; grilled hamburgers; ate traditional 4th of July food like potato salad corn pudding, and baked beans. And like what can happen on any summer day, we had a thunderstorm. The fireworks were canceled; people were drenched. Oh well. It was fun anyway. As a note, we had 1 3/4 inches of rain in a very short time.

We’ve done a lot of celebrating over the week – we attended the Richmond Pop Band at the Altria Theatre. The history of country music was featured

Richmond Pop Band

and then a concert at Pocahontas State Park featuring Flashback.

Flashback at Pocahontas State Park

Later in the evening we watched some of the festivities including music and fireworks on TV.

Little Free Library

The Chesterfield Courthouse Chapter, National Society Daughters of American Revolution dedicated a Little Free Library at Dodd Park, Chester, Virginia. A friend build the little library building and it has been stocked with books. People take a book and people add a book. Hopefully it will stay stocked but we’ll be checking on it to be sure there are always books for readers of all ages.

This is a lovely park at Point of Rocks. It is in a historic area – during the Civil War Abraham Lincoln and Gen. Grant visited Clara Barton at the hospital she had set up. Before that, it dates back to the Bolling Family in the mid 1600s. At that time it was known as Cobbs Hall.

The rest of the trip

I’ve been running in slow motion since we returned from our trip. Then it was full speed ahead. The rest of our trip included four stops in New Zealand, two in Tahiti, two in Hawaii, a few hours in Los Angeles, and then our trip ended in Vancouver.

Here are some additional photos from our trip. There are photos from New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Vancouver.

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  Vancouver, Canada

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  Pearl Harbor

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  Mo’orea

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  Mo’orea

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  Scene from French Polynesia

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  Steam Clock

But we were on the ship for 22 days. Here are two photos from life on the ship. There was a whole lot more – entertainment in the theatre, lectures, lots of trivia. We were busy all the time.

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  Polliwogs being initiated into the Society of Neptune.

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  Fruit Sculptures

As we crossed the equator, the fun began with the polliwogs. Polliwogs are those on the ship who have not crossed the equator. There was a group from the crew who represented everyone. They kissed King Neptune’s foot (smeared with dead fish); they were covered in other gooey stuff; and there were fish hugs. Oh, what they had to do to join the Society of Neptune. Cuter were the days of fruit sculpturing. Who knew what you could do with lemons, tomatoes, squash, pineapples, and cucumbers.

I have not included photos from Los Angeles but it was thoroughly enjoyable. We had lunch with my brother and his family.

Cruising from Sydney, Australia to Vancouver, Canada

We just completed a 30-day cruise. We flew from Dallas, Texas, to Sydney Australia. It was a 16-hour flight. Quantas is a nice airline. There was a local craft market in walking distance from our hotel; a nice park ; and it is a beautiful city. After spending a day in Sydney, we boarded the Golden Princess to begin our cruise. I wondered how we would handle 20 plus sea days but it was great.

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Here are some photos from Sydney: the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, and an ibis.

Holy Land

My husband and I just returned fro a 10-day trip to the Holy Land. What an extraordinary adventure. There were 29 of us who flew to Tel Aviv. We were met by our guide and driver. The bus trip reminded me of the old movie, “If It Is Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium.” It was intense, and we covered a lot of territory, not only in miles but in time – Old and New Testament. Here are a few of the photos that were taken. I took hundreds of photos.

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