2021 Top Ten (could be anything)

by | Dec 31, 2021 | Uncategorized

Over the last few days I have written about my five best food experiences of 2021, my 10 best photos I took in 2021 and my five biggest downers of 2021 so today, let's get to the good stuff to close out the year. So here are the 10 best things I loved in 2021. BTW: Unlike my photos which I numbered, this group is in no particular order (except the NUMBER ONE which is down at the bottom).

Walking all year

It's funny that I am choosing to write about this first. I guess it's because I haven't been able to do it for a week (as of today) and that's killing me. Too much ice and snow outside keeps me indoors. I am going stir-crazy but I know if I slip and fall then I might not be able to walk for weeks. It has been a big part of my life this year. So far in 2021, I have walked 1,466 miles (that's 2,359 kilometer for our Canadian viewers). If I had just kept going and not come home I could have walked to my childhood home in Palm Springs and then to my brother's place in San Juan Capistrano. Or I could have walked back and forth to our friends in Chilliwack, BC almost six times. Can you tell I love my walks? (BTW: I know how far I have gone because I use the wonderful app, Map My Walk from Under Armour. )

Going to Southern California twice to see Jamie and Steve

This was supposed to have been the year that the four of us went to Europe (for the third time) together and did a bunch of other stuff. But we "made do" with visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Southern California...twice. Great weather, lots of fun, family, food and superb activities organized by Jamie made these visits at least a good substitute for Europe. Not really, but we did have fun. We even went to the historic Musso and Frank Grille in Hollywood for dinner.

Stopping to see Mike and Meeting Cathy in June

We had so many schedule changes for our Galapagos trip in July that we were thrilled when it all finally worked out and we ended up  flying through South Florida to get to Ecuador. Thrilled because this gave us a chance to add on a couple of days to see one of our best friends and fellow Martini Mate Mike and to meet the new love of his life, Cathy, in person. We had an outstanding time, Mike even got up at 2:00 am to take us all the way to the Miami airport (WHAT A FRIEND!) and we LOVED Cathy. So it really stands out as a highlight for us. Even better, we get to see them again (I really hope) in three weeks.

Getting to go back to Canada in September

Over the last 15 years we have spent a lot of time in British Columbia. Specifically Chilliwack, BC. That's because that's where our friends Bob and Judy live. And in case you missed it, since the start of the pandemic, Canada had closed their border. That meant that even though we could FaceTime to talk, we hadn't seen them in person from the day we got back from our Mardi Gras cruise (March 2o, 2020) until we finally got to get tested, get the Canadian entry app, show our Nexus cards and get in to see them in September. That's a long time not to see someone you are used to seeing at least every other month. If all works out and it doesn't snow again, we may go up again next weekend!

Going to Seaside with family in August

Every summer (or at least three of them) we have rented an AirBnB type place with our grandkids (and their parents). This year we went to Seaside, Oregon. I can't tell you how much I cherish that week with them. We play games, go to the beach, local attractions, make meals together and watch special movies in the evenings (Star Wars!!!). Can't wait until August 2022 to do this again.

Ted Lasso–forever

I know. It's a television show. But I love television and it is the best television show ever made—in my somewhat humble opinion ?. There is not a single episode where I don't laugh, cry and exult in these glorious characters. I have watched each and every episode at least four times and some even more. We watched their Christmas show on Christmas Eve and will every Christmas Eve from now on. I listen to two podcasts about the show every week during the season. I still listen to Brett Goldstein's "Films to Be Buried With" podcast every week.  I follow all the actors on Instagram. I have downloaded every song Hannah Waddingham has recorded that wasn't from a West End musical. I watch every YouTube video about the show that YouTube throws at me—and that's a lot. I have my Richmond FC scarf and I am ready to root for Ted and the Greyhounds again next summer. I am a total fanboy and completely obsessed. The show just speaks to me. When it comes to Ted Lasso, I am never a goldfish (you only get this if you have seen the show—go watch it!).

Getting fully vaccinated and staying that way with boosters

This isn't the highlight of the year but it led to everything else we did. Do you remember when the vaccine was first introduced and so many people (like us) were clamoring to get our hands on our first shot...and then our second. We got our first one at the end of January and our second in mid-February. Then in mid-July I was in our local Kaiser (our HMO) clinic and they said they were throwing away vaccine every day because it was defrosted and people weren't showing up to get it. I just don't understand the anti-vaccination crowd. We know friends and relatives of friends who are part of that group and they are normally intelligent people. Please explain this because I can't. I just know that I have had three, full potency shots (I take an injected auto-immune drug weekly so I got a full shot for my third and not a booster) and Kathleen is boosted.

Storyworth–all year long

I think have mentioned Storyworth on this site before but here's a quick explanation if I haven't. For Christmas 2020 my daughter gave me a one-year subscription to Storyworth. Since then I get an e-mail every week with a single question about my life. Either my past, my opinions or my relationships. Each week I answer the question and they keep them and at the end of the year (now) I order a pre-paid, printed book of all of the stories so that my grandkids can know about their Grandpa and how he got this way ?.

I am currently in the process of editing my book (that's the cover above) and I will order the printed version for myself next week. Once I see my printed copy, I will order two more, one for each of the grandkids. This has been a wonderful experience. I have learned so much. Over my lifetime I have been in therapy a quite a few times, but writing these stories had been more therapeutic than any of that. It does get a little dark sometimes but it's really brought back some good and not-so-good memories. And yes, I guess I am verbose. The average Storyworth book is about 250 pages. I am over 450 at this point. Can you tell I have loved the experience?

Retiring from Jostens Yearbooks after 39 years last June

To be completely honest, this was not supposed to happen until 2022. I love even numbers and I really wanted to get to 40 years with Jostens and my own company, Koobraey Productions. But COVID did this in as well. Yearbooks have been changing every year of those 40 years and I still found things to write and teach about but when the pandemic hit and things were NOTHING like they have ever been before, it was just enough to push me to walk away. Jostens and Koobraey have been a great place to be self-employed for those 39 years and there isn't much I would trade for the friendships I have made during that time.

It was a career I never expected (I was supposed to be a history teacher) but loved and did quite well with. From the day I started in 1982 until last June 14, I loved a lot of it. The six months since retiring (I am still in my "funtirement" job booking travel with Expedia Cruises) have been so busy I can't figure out where I used to fit this job into my life.

Going to the Galapagos on Celebrity’s Flora in July

Being honest, this is number one. I mean not only was it the BEST thing we did in 2021 it may be one of the 10 best experiences I have ever had in my life. It is definitely the best trip/cruise/adventure we have ever done. We loved it so much we are going to do it again in 2024 to see the Inner Loop islands. I find it very hard to put into words what this adventure meant to us. Not only was it the first time we got to really travel after the shutdown, it was so much more than I ever thought it would be.

For me, the biggest excitement was the photography. The Galapagos are a photographer's heaven. After a year of not shooting much of anything other than grandkids (which I love shooting) it was like I got all caught up in a week. Certainly equal to the photography were the amazing people we met on Celebrity's Flora. There is no way I would go again and not go aboard that ship. It made the trip so very easy not to mention being the best place ever to come back to at night. Every single crew member we met was amazing. The guides, the crew in the dining room, the chef who made me sango, the officers and we were especially lucky to have been sailing the week that Celebrity's resident scientist, Ellen Prager was onboard. I was never much for science but going to this incredible place and talking to Ellen and the guides she trains really got me excited about it. I leave you with a special gift to close out 2021, a slide show of my best photos from the islands. Happy New Year!

 

Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.

Art Buchwald

She can’t stand it…and neither can I

by | Jul 23, 2021 | Uncategorized

When we were on Celebrity’s Flora two weeks ago we spent a bunch of very pleasant dinners with two new friends, Katherine and Jamie (that’s them on the right). Jamie and I (even though they are both young enough to be our children) had a lot in common. He loves beer, Formula 1 racing and octopus. All three of those interests make him a great person to have a conversation with…in my book.

Then it turned out that I had two things in common with Katherine. First, she is as big a fan of the what we (Katherine and I) consider to be the greatest television show ever made—Ted Lasso (back tonight for season 2 on Apple TV+! We can’t wait! If you haven’t seen it, go watch the first season now) and she also (like me) can’t stand to finish a vacation without having another one planned.

It just about kills either of us to have nothing coming up and booked. Thankfully for Kathleen and I, we have so much booked I don’t have that problem (but there have been times I did) with our annual beach trip with the grandkids next month, my 50th high school reunion in Palm Springs in October, our Portugal/Amsterdam/Christmas Markets cruise in December, our Pacific Coastal cruise in May 22 and our Mediterranean cruise in the fall of 22.. But Katherine had that problem—nothing booked. I told her to get going. I gave her some suggestions but sadly, I can’t be her travel agent because she works for Royal Caribbean and gets some really nice employee discounts. I am pretty sure that’s how they wound up on Flora.

But if YOU don’t have any travel plans and it’s killing you too (blatant and shameless plug coming ?), drop me a note. I have plenty of ideas of where you might be able to go and I can even help you to get there.

When you can look forward to something outside of now, then you have an open door.    —Esther Peril on Armchair Expert

Summing up the Galapagos on Celebrity’s Flora

by | Jul 19, 2021 | Photography

This was an incredible trip. We’ve decided it was the best we’ve ever taken. On the final night onboard, Captain Patricio (one of the nicest guys you will ever meet) spoke for a few minutes about his feelings regarding the Galapagos. He mentioned, paraphrasing here, that “the Galapagos should serve as a model for the rest of the earth. It’s a place where every animal and bird has learned to coexist, and the visitors who come care about these islands and do their best to nurture them.” I loved that. It reflects how I felt walking among the albatross nests, stepping over sea lions, and watching penguins who were completely unafraid, allowing us to get within inches, and so much more.

I felt the same way when I spoke with the naturalists and crew members who lived and grew up on the islands. Their love for their home was evident in the way they protected the land, animals, birds, foliage, and geology. These islands are truly magical.

One thing I love about Celebrity Cruises is their commitment to giving back. From the perfect ship, which doesn’t run on smog-producing bunker oil, to the fact that they never drop anchor to avoid disturbing the ocean floor, along with the tree planting we did and their continued support for it, the efforts are commendable. I will admit that during our time on Santa Cruz Island, I wasn’t thrilled to stop and plant trees in the rain. However, looking back, it became clear that it was more than just a symbolic gesture on Celebrity’s part. It challenged us to reflect and provided an opportunity to give back to these incredible islands.

One aspect that makes Flora different from every other Celebrity ship (besides the other two small ships in the Galapagos) is that there is no caste system on board. I believe I mentioned that after 21 cruises with Celebrity, we are switching our cruising to Viking Ocean. This decision is due to the fact that on their other ships, if you aren’t in a suite or aqua class, you do not receive the same experience as the others on board. You have a much better trip if you’re willing to spend significantly more money. On their larger ships, you can sail in a suite without ever interacting with those in the “economy class” staterooms. They can relax in “The Retreat” and enjoy a “luxury” experience without needing to mingle with the riff-raff. However, on Flora, everyone is equal. Unless I stood outside the door of the largest suites, I would NEVER know who occupied them. That’s not the case on the other Celebrity ships, where there are many areas those in suites could access that I couldn’t. It’s disappointing.

This post summarizes this cruise and addresses some final questions while providing a few more pieces of information I missed in previous posts.

Let’s start with the questions:

  • What was the weather like?
    When we were there in early July, it was magnificent. The temperature was in the 70s every day and nearly every night. Before we decided to go, we did a lot of research on the weather. Our naturalists informed us that from mid-June through mid-August and mid-November through early January (the transitions between seasons) are the best times to visit. Here’s a chart on the weather:

    From what I see, there may be a better time for snorkelers; you might want to go when the water is warmer.
  • I like cocktails. What were they like on the ship? Are they expensive?
    First, everything is included onboard, including all alcoholic beverages. That said, as much as we enjoy our wine and cocktails, we drank less on this cruise than on any of our 25+ previous cruises. Why? I think there are two reasons. We knew we had to get up early every day to meet the ship’s schedule on the islands. Being even slightly hungover or dehydrated was not an option if we wanted to be at our best for the excursions. The other reason we didn’t drink as much is that there was less time to do so. Seriously, on other cruises, we would gather in our favorite lounge before and after dinner to socialize and sip, but that’s not the case on this cruise. Before dinner, you hear about the islands and what you’ll be doing the next day, and after dinner… you go to bed.
  • What was the one thing you bought for this cruise that you could not have done without?
    That’s easy: my dry bag. I would have been lost without it. I owe my decision to get one to my Instagram friend, Marvic_212. He is a crew member on Flora and takes the most amazing photos of the islands. He and his family live there too, and one of my biggest regrets is not meeting him when we were there. He was supposed to come back onboard a few weeks after we left. If you love my pictures, you’ll love his. When I asked him what I needed to keep my camera dry, he said, “get a dry bag.” So I got the one I linked. I also ordered a strap so I could carry it with me. You’ll need a backpack with straps to take on the Zodiacs. The reason for the straps is that you must have both hands free to board the ship or get off at a wet or dry landing. This is the strap I got. I’m really glad I chose this because on the first Zodiac trip, the bag got soaked. If I hadn’t had it, my camera would have been wet too, and there would have been none of the great photos I captured.
  • What was the best thing that Kathleen got before the cruise?
    She says, “That little turtle backpack.” Celebrity gives you a small mesh backpack but it is just too small. This one was the envy of all our fellow cruisers.
  • Are there bathroom facilities on the islands?
    Nope, the only facilities are the bushes and trees. Seriously. I asked Ellen what people do if they have to go. She said you tell your naturalist, and they will direct you to a place (hopefully out of sight of others, but sometimes that isn’t possible) where whatever you do causes the least damage to the environment. On all our trips (always more than 2+ hours), I only saw one person “using the facilities.” It was a young lady, and I felt sorry for her because she was wearing a wetsuit and a one-piece bathing suit, so she pretty much had to change. And it was on an island with hardly any bushes or trees, just lava. Everyone just looked the other way. As for me, I stuck with one cup of coffee every morning ?.
  • Can you say a little more about the motion of the ocean? Will I get seasick?
    Kathleen says, “A couple of nights were rough. The wind blew in one direction while the currents moved in another. So if you struggle with motion sickness, you should consider possible preventive measures.” Kathleen always brings her “Relief Band” on any cruise. It has saved her numerous times since she learned about it from our friend Carol. The ship offers Dramamine if you need it, and some of our friends onboard used a behind-the-ear patch.
  • What was the best thing about the ship?
    I loved the bed that faced the ocean. That, along with deck eight, where we went to see the stars on two nights (DON’T MISS THIS!), was fantastic! Kathleen says hers was definitely the shower. It was so well equipped and designed. For example, there was a towel rack on the outside of the shower door that opened inward, so you didn’t have to reach out and get the floor wet. Brilliant!
  • What was the worst thing about the ship?
    Kathleen mentions the lack of electrical outlets, especially none on her side of the bed. The two that weren’t on the desk were on my side of the bed. If you ask me, I would say the pillows were an issue. I’m a side sleeper, and the two we had were just too soft. I had to use a couch pillow under one of them, or my neck would be sore all day.
  • What was the most amazing you saw on the ship?
    Kathleen says that for her, everything we experienced off the ship was truly magical. I completely agree with her and would add that one of the most incredible things I have ever witnessed a person do is how the crew on board managed the Zodiacs. They performed feats with them that left me in awe—such remarkable skill. You don’t realize until you ride in one that they NEVER tie them up to the ship or any dock. They control them during loading and unloading using the throttle and steering. It’s astonishing.

We are more than happy to answer any other questions, but this will be my last post about this trip. I believe I have covered everything quite thoroughly, and I cannot think of anything I might have overlooked. I hope you have enjoyed traveling with us. We have many more adventures planned, or you can browse through the archives to revisit our Iceland trip and our Mardi Gras trip from 2019. You can also visit our other website by clicking here to see all our travels since 2002. And be sure to come back after Thanksgiving when we will journey to Portugal, Amsterdam, Prague, Nuremberg, and the Christmas markets in Vienna, Krems, Passau, and Budapest.

The Galapagos Islands are probably the most famous wildlife-watching destination in the world. And no wonder – it’s almost impossible to exaggerate the sheer spectacle of the place that provided inspiration for Charles Darwin’s ground-breaking theory of natural selection. – Mark Carwardine

 

 

 

Flora—What a ship!

by | Jul 17, 2021 | Uncategorized

Now that I have told you all about the cruise and the adventure and shown you the islands and the animals, it’s time to talk about the ship. I can honestly say, Flora is my favorite ship we have ever sailed on. She is also the smallest ship we have ever sailed on. But I wanted to give you a little bit of an idea what our overall accommodations were like and the public areas of the ship as well. First, as you can see above, she looks wonderful in the water. Almost like a private yacht…a BIG private yacht.

Let’s start with the staterooms. Here’s an iPhone pano shot of the bedroom part of our “suite.” Celebrity calls it a suite. Other cruise lines would call it a suite but to me a “suite” means you get more than one room. At the EB Hotel in Quito we had a suite…a bedroom, two bathrooms, a dressing room and a living room. That’s a suite. The really big “suites” on Flora are true suites.

Those suites have other rooms as well (living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms). But we had a traditional verandah stateroom. That said, it was the LARGEST stateroom we have ever been in. It was even bigger than the suite we once had on Century. At more than 330 square feet with an 84 square foot verandah we had more than 400 square feet to ourselves. To give you something to compare, on our last cruise on Reflection to Mardi Gras our stateroom had 194 square feet with a 54 square foot verandah. We found it interesting (at least to us) that we are going to go from the largest stateroom we have ever had on a ship to one of the smallest we have had on our next cruise. In December we take a Viking River cruise to the Christmas Markets on the Danube. Our stateroom on that ship will only be 204 square feet with the verandah. We were very pleased with this one. I did a quick video tour of the stateroom and the bathroom (the largest and nicest we have ever sailed).

[videopress mlEtHuJe]

[videopress MFOZZzmv]

The ONLY complaint we had about the stateroom was the lack of places to charge electronics. This ship was built three years ago. It’s not like she was built in an era before we all carried numerous gadgets. But there were exactly FOUR electrical receptacles in the room (not counting one above the sink in the bathroom for shavers).  One of those was a European plug. I always have a converter but the receptacle was inverted so my adapter/converter would not work with it. That left us three. One at the desk and two in the wall next to one side of the bed. Except that the two next to the bed were vertical and VERY THIN! So thin that if you plugged any kind of adapter or charger in to one of them, you could not use the other. That is crazy. No USB plugs at all. They have those on other, older Celebrity ships.

I know what you are thinking…how many things can you have to charge? Well, we travel with the following: Kathleen has her iPhone, her iPad, her Kindle and her Apple Watch. I have my MacBook Pro, my iPad, my iPhone, my Apple Watch, my Nikon battery charger, my Kindle and my GoPro battery charger. Twelve items to charge with two plugs. That’s crazy. I certainly hope when they dry dock Flora in a few years, this is one of their big upgrades. It is needed.

The rest of the ship

Flora is beautiful from top to bottom. The best way for me to show you that is to add some pics and explain in the captions. So here you go:

A couple of the places on board that I don’t have pics of include The Boutique and Darwin’s Cove on Deck 3. The boutique has a few trinkets, magnets, shirts, jackets and postcards but they are very spendy. See my previous Q&A. Also on Deck 3 is a science lab where you can investigate things like geological samples from the islands under a microscope. As much as our interest in science was piqued while onboard, we never got there. One cool thing to do when you back from an excursion is to go to the Boutique and look through the windows as they bring the Zodiacs in and store them. It’s a really cool operation. Also on this deck is the infirmary, but let’s hope you never have to visit there. Decks 1 & 2 are either crew quarters or storage for the Zodiacs.

On Deck 7 forward there is the Observatory. It looks like a very quiet place to just relax and face forward on the ship. It is right over the Bridge, so it has great views but they play loud techno music in there so it is NOT peaceful at all. They need to turn it off or  change the music. On my first night while trying to find somewhere to write I found the music BLARING at 3:00 am.

Just above the Observatory is the Stargazing deck. DO NOT MISS THIS! We went up twice (cloudy other days…or we forgot) and it is worth the trip. They keep the area very dark and you would be amazed at the stars you can see when there is no light pollution from the ground. And your perch is right at the equator. You can see the Milky Way, the Southern Cross, the Big and Little Dipper and so much more.

This ship is amazing. We can’t wait to sail on her again. Other than my two very small complaints about the outlets and the techno music, it was about the best a ship can be.

Day 7–Santa Cruz and the Giant Tortoises

by | Jul 15, 2021 | Photography

Our last full day in the Galapagos found us on Santa Cruz Island. This was a very different day as there were no choices to be made about where to go today. Everyone on the ship was going to the same place…to drive across Santa Cruz Island. One thing that was different on this day were that we were all asked to wear masks for the first time off the ship in the week. This was because we would be meeting others who were outside our ship’s safety bubble.

After our Zodiac ride to the northernmost point on the island we hopped on busses to drive the entire length of the island to the Charles Darwin Research Center. But on the way an amazing thing happened. You see, so far every island we had visited had either been dry lava rock or dry scrub brush and rock. But Santa Cruz Island is split in half and as we drove south towards the Darwin Center and climbed in elevation, the dry, arid land turned to…rain forest. Seriously, all of a sudden we were driving through clouds. And it was raining. What a huge contrast to the entire previous week of weather.

After driving through some rain, farmland and finally a small town, we arrived at the Darwin Center.  The Center is all about keeping alive all the different species of giant tortoises from all the different islands. They have hundreds of turtles of all ages. The smallest are segregated by the island they came from. Then as they get older they are put into the same pens but with numbers on their shells that indicate the island of their origin.

In still another enclosure were some fully grown giant tortoises. They are truly amazing creatures. These were being kept apart because they can’t be sure which island they came from and they do not want to cross-pollinate species. As you can see from my photos, these animals are amazing. Later in the day we would see them in wild.

After our visit we headed back into the hills to visit the Manzanillo Ranch for lunch but before we got there we stopped to do some community service. Celebrity supports a reforestation project that removes invasive species and replaces them with the kind of plants that are native to the island. It was an interesting experience. Because we were planting them a ways off the road, our bus stopped (blocking half the road) and we got out and found a row of chairs and a pair of rubber boots that we swapped for our shoes. We then grabbed a trowel and two seedling trees and then we headed into the jungle. There we found pre-dug holes that we dropped the seedlings into and from there we just covered them, took pics of each other, changed our boots (while they stopped cars—it was almost funny to see this row of chairs standing on the road) and we were off to Manzanillo Ranch for lunch.

At the ranch they had a very nice covered area where a delicious buffet lunch was served. Again, just like the ship, no one was allowed to serve themselves and all the servers were masked. Lunch was tasty and was followed by an Ecuadorian folk dance performance by students from the island dressed in colorful, traditional colors . Celebrity has been supporting this group for a while including sending them to a folk dance competition to Italy.

I need to mention something that was so typically Galápagos. While I was taking these photos of the dancers in a covered area at a ranch, all I had to do was turn around in the exact spot where I was standing to take this photo. A giant tortoise that seems to have come along to see the performance himself.

After lunch we were allowed to go onto the rest of the grounds on the ranch to see the tortoises close up. Some notes about that short walk. As we started to leave the enclosure, the rain picked up and that meant my camera went into my dry bag so I didn’t get very many pics of the big guys in the wild. But I had so many from the Darwin Center, that was OK with me. Another thing that was very interesting was when a fellow traveler asked our naturalist who owned these tortoises, the ranch or the National Park that bordered it? His answer was, “No one owns them. They own themselves and can go anywhere they want on these islands. That is our  law.” In fact we were told if you were a rancher or a farmer, you could be fined for using any fencing that would block the tortoises from migrating. Speaking of migrating, our friend Fausto who runs the Celebrity operations in the Galapagos told us he had been to the ranch less than two weeks before to finalize the lunch plans and when he was there he saw two or three tortoises. Two weeks later while we were there we saw hundreds. They were migrating to the higher elevations. There were so many on the road leaving the ranch, it made it hard for our bus driver to get off the property. Think of driving in a sheep ranching area and running into a bunch of sheep on the road and have to stop until they moved. Now imagine it at tortoise speed ?.

After our tortoise experience it was back to the ship for our final dinner, packing to leave and sad farewells. But in the meantime, here’s the balance of today’s pics.

I will be back tomorrow with some notes on the ship and our room. See you then.