This is our our 33rd-day of our adventure.  We leave Vancouver in a few hours and will be back in Honolulu tonight.  Some thoughts about this very satisfying journey. My overriding concern was sleep.  Late last year during our two-month itinerary going east on the Norwegian Encore from Seattle to Southampton, followed by a Christmas River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest, I began to have difficulty sleeping during the final three weeks.  My worry was that this trip would result in the same because the Oceania cruise was to the east, where we had to make 8 one-hour time changes, shortening the day again. Well, my body remembered that ordeal, did not want a repeat, and kept me sleepy almost all the time.  Compared to not sleeping at all, this was fabulous. Episode 22 of the Kilauea eruption sequence in Halemaumau Crater resulted in 1000-foot fountains of lava.  However, that stopped after 10 hours, which is good, for a continuous eruption can bring volc...

This is Sunday, February 16, 2025.  What has happened in history on this day? First, this is the 47th day of the year, with 318 days left in 2025.  Not a leap year. Donald Trump is the 47th PUS  ( P resident of the  U nited  S tates). According to  Wikipedia . 1796  The British conquered Ceylon, now called Sri Lanka. 1923  Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber on Pharaoh Tutankhamun. 1937  Wallace Carothers receives a U.S. patent for nylon. 1959  Fidel Castro became Premier, or El Comandante, of Cuba. He served in this capacity for 32 years. 1968  9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service, in Alabama. 1985  Hezbollah is founded in Lebanon. 2006  The last Mash (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is decommissioned. In other words, nothing much happened in history on this day. Watch a  short video of February 6 .  And  another .  By  Dr. Zarr . As of today,  ranking of most famous Genera...

The Kilauea summit caldera, within Halemaumau Crater, began erupting at 2:30AM this morning.  Volcanic fountains up to 262 feet, with gas emissions now at 8,000 feet levels.   How long will this continue?  Not sure, but if you had any urge to see Hawaii at Christmas-time, plus view an eruption, why not now, as the weather throughout the state is fabulous.    Watch this video . Kilauea eruptions have kept this blog site going.  Read my posting of 30April2018 which was titled  MY FINAL DAILY BLOG . Then on 3May2018 I provided a  grand perspective of this 10-year old blog site .  The very next day, Kilauea Volcano erupted, and I posted on  PUNA AGAIN BECOMES THE MOST DANGEROUS SPOT ON EARTH .  I said: It was on   3January1983  that Kilauea Volcano   first erupted .  I just happened to be golfing at the Volcano Golf Course that day, when, on the tenth hole we felt the ground shudder: Soon thereafter, we saw fountains...