Yesterday, Day 13 of this cruise, we sailed from Guatemala towards Costa Rica.  Dinner was at Savor, two courses of soup+salad. An Australian Shiraz. French Onion Soup and Caesar Salad. Parsnip Soup and Bean Salad.  First time I've ever had either. After dinner, on to other activities.  First, something called Lip Sync War in the Atrium, where competitors act out a song.  Then, on to the Theater for the Diva Extravaganza, Patty Dess. Patty's problem is that she tries to sing better than the divas.  The audience can't care less how well she sings.  They would rather nostalgicize with what is in their mind about the past so they can regain memories. Back to the Atrium for the Adda Band, where I had nachos and scotch. Didn't do much today, for I took only 2673 steps. We arrived for Day 14 in Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica. Has a resemblance to Nawiliwili Harbor, Kauai, where the Norwegian Pride of America visits. Noticed that the beaches here have gray sand...

Today, no pandemic, no Trump coup attempt, no gun rights...only pure joy.  I'll start with planning for our Fall trip.  We need to be in Okinawa at the end of October. Our initial thought was to begin on October 3 to catch the  Celebrity Eclipse  in Honolulu for an 18-night cruise to Singapore.  Then find a way to Okinawa and return home, Well, our current plan now is to go first to the Okinawa festival, then on November 3 fly to Tokyo, where we will have a home base at the Tokyo Westin. Do a one week Japan Rail Pass from November 6 to Nagoya, Hiroshima, Miyazaki, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sendai and back to Tokyo on November 13. Fly to Singapore on November 15. Fly to Dubai on November 18. 21-night cruise from Dubai to Singapore on the  Regent Seven Seas Explorer . Cost.  Expensive, but a good deal is being offered. Interesting stops. Doha, Qatar:  went there 12 years ago, and one of my postings while there stands as my most popular ever:   THE WO...

If I tried to list the ten best days of my life, no doubt among them would be my birth, a few graduations, marriage, and assorted other great ones, including maybe even travel, where the  best could well have been that one day in Venice  when I first met my Blue-bar Pigeon, had lunch at Quadri of white truffles and several glasses of wine ( this is the dessert, and count the number of glasses ), topped off with a special concert of  Four Seasons , in the theater where Vivaldi partially composed them. Well, yesterday featured the TEDx program hosted by Blue Revolution Hawaii, that was beamed to the entire world.  Some day the TED organization will again present this effort by adding it to their system package.  You can go to the  BRH website  for other information.  Should you wish to watch my presentation, click on  THIS .  In this 18-minute talk, I only lightly touched on the  Pacific International Ocean Station , our proposed $150...