We are back from Africa and it is good to be home. We left Seattle on Tuesday May 14th and returned to Seattle Sunday May 26th. Our Travel Route From Seattle to Dubai is 7403 miles and the flight takes 18 hours. After spending a couple of nights there we went on to Cape Town South Africa. It is another 4752 miles and it takes 9.5 hours to get there. After spending several nights in Cape Town, we flew to…
My wife Lita and I had the amazing good fortune to secure first class tickets on Emirates Air from Seattle to Dubai, leaving this month. Why is that wonderful? Because first class tickets cost $26,100 per person round trip and we are getting them free through our frequent flier miles. On top of that, this is not like most other airlines. The tickets include a complimentary chauffeur driven pickup at home to SeaTac airport. When we arrive a chauffeur driven…
On Monday October 1st, the feast day of St Theresa, one of the best known saints, we arrive in Venice. The sky is black as we enter the harbor and there is a light rain. By the time we dock there is some blue trying to make it's way through, but it is cool outside. Now for the hard work of packing. We spend the night here and leave the ship in the morning so today we have to pack. We…
On Saturday September 29th, We sailed from our last stop, after an overnight trip, into a huge water area with many islands. Except for the lack of trees and vegetation the islands look like the San Juans with no beaches and rocky shores. After traveling into the bay some distance, trees and green vegetation appear and the islands look like the San Juans. There are small, flat round islands, without vegetation as well. We anchor in Triluke Bay which is…
We arrived at the port in Split, Croatia around 8:00 am. We have arranged a car and driver to take us by ferry to the small island of Brac (pronounced "bra-ch") and the tiny village of Splitska. This is where my mother's father and mother were born. It is also where several of her older brothers and sisters were born before the family immigrated to Sinclair Island in Washington state. One of her brothers, John, was born on Sinclair and…
We sailed from Mongtenegro at 4:00 pm. The captain took a sight seeing detour to the two islands on the way out. When he announced the "detour" I thought of the ill fated Italian captain who put his ship on rocks in Italy, but this detour was without incident. He circled the two islands with the church and monestary which gave us a great view. Afterwards he headed out the fjord towards the Greek island of Corfu. The seas were calm…
Sunday September 24th After we departed Venice, past the cruise ships, gondolas and other variety of boats out of the harbor we cruised at a slow 10 knots.We sailed the Adriatic towards Kotor Montenegro, our first port of call. The seas were virtually flat calm and the weather warm. There was nothing to do except, nap, read and eat. The food on this ship is superb so I've been eating twice as much as I usually do or so it seems….
We flew from Seattle to London on a late afternoon flight arriving in London the next day, Tuesday. We flew business class and the seat configuration on the 747 has the seats facing the opposite way so that your next door passenger faces you only inches away. There is a privacy divider but when the seat is extended flat, it means the inside person has to step over your foot rest to get to the aisle. However, the seats are adequate…
Tomorrow, Monday, we fly to London, then on to Milan, Italy and from there by car to beautiful Lake Como where we will stay for several days. From there we travel by car to Venice and spend another two days before boarding the Seaborn Spirit for a cruise down the Adriatic. At Lake Como we are staying at the Castadiva Resort which is located on six acres right on the lake. It was the residence of a 19th century opera singer, Giuditta…
In the 1976 movie by Paddy Chayefsky, Network, actor Peter Finch plays the role of an ex-TV anchor whose mentally ill ravings are exploited by the network for their own profit as he unravels on the air mentally. Finch’s character, Howard Beale, raves into the camera: “Howard:I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks…
