GLOBAL ADVENTURES

Much of my next two months will be focused on travel. Tomorrow we leave on our around the world adventure. Will include plane and ship. Interspersed will be Tulips through the Netherlands, Mediterranean from Barcelona to Istanbul to Athens, and the Queen Mary II from Southampton to New York City.

Today, I look ahead at what will follow, our half-way global journey in the Fall of this year. Some of our friends might want join us, so following a couple of news item, some details to help you plan.

So first, guess what? In case you missed it, Vladimir Putin won another six years as dictator of Russia, matching the record of Josef Stalin. Got 87% of the votes, with a 74% turnout. 26% protested by not showing up? Well, in 2020 the turnout for Biden vs Trump was 66%. Hawaii is historically about the worst, under 60%. Putin's buddy, The Donald, on Saturday predicted that American democracy will end if he does not beat Joe Biden in November. Huh? Oh, Donald, American democracy will end if you get elected.

And, by the way, did you hear that he can't post the $464 million bond to appeal his New York fraud case?

His daily interest on that penalty is $87,00/DAY!!
If he can't pay, he can't appeal, and will just need to fork over to New York 90% of that $464 million.
But Forbes says he's worth $2.6 billion.
Trump Force One, the Boeing 757, is worth $100 million.
Trump Tower is worth $371 million.
But what actual equity does he have in all his real estate holdings?
Maybe he is a smoke and mirrors billionaire. Is he broke?
We shall see.

But here is the way I see it:

Both Trump and Biden are supported by 30% of the populace, leaving 40% to be influenced.
I can't image more than half of this 40% group voting Trump, for if he wins, that will be the end of American democracy.
While he today keeps beating Biden in polls, November 5 is 232 days away, and I think the actual chances of his losing is 90%, which will be the reality after the Supreme Court rules, a few court cases start, and many of the 40% become convinced that his character and the value of democracy are just too high to trust him

Here is our itinerary for our Fall 2024 trip:

We welcome our friends to join us.

First cruise leg: 21 nights from Seattle to Miami on the Norwegian Encore.

This is a relatively new ship, debuting in November 2019. 4000 passengers.
But here is the interesting part. As of today, VacationsToGo shows a brochure price of $27,242/person for a Balcony Room. However, they indicate an available price of $2201/person, or only $105/person/night, which includes an open bar, specialty dining, 600 minutes of internet and a small amount of shore excursion credit. You won't be able to get that price, but you can try with your travel agent.
Also, a suite shows a brochure price of $30,442, but their price is $2686/person, or $128/person/night. Amazing.

Then, this same ship goes on to Southampton, England in 14 nights. If you thought the above price was unbelievable....

Balcony: brochure price of $17,132 with same amenities. However, the price I see is $982/person, or 94% off!!! $70/person/night.
Suite: brochure price of $19,132. But they show a current price of $1079/person, again 94% off. $77/person/night!!! Can't be true.

Definitely worth your looking into these two cruises.

Alaska Air will take you from Honolulu to Heathrow London for $1800 in business class. Two overnight flights. Takes 25 hours. United Airlines can get you there for 18.5 hours, with only one overnight flight, charging $3,382. I despise overnight flights. However, the combined two cruises for 35 days, with all that free food, drinks, entertainment, Panama Canal and other sites, etc, only would cost $3183/person. This is why we chose this cruise option.

Why would we want to go to England in the Fall? Well, actually, we intend to fly from Heathrow to Amsterdam, spend a couple of days there, then on November 21 board a 15-day Viking Christmas River Cruise to Budapest. Costs $5000/person. Here is a site to search for European river cruises. Not sure about what bargains are currently available.

We then fly from Budapest at 10:35 AM and arrive in Honolulu at 10:26 PM, taking just about 24 hours. But going west, we can party all along the way.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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