Jen and Jerry's Excellent Adventure

  We landed in Puntarenas at 10:00 am.   We could have landed earlier and were scheduled to land earlier but the harbormaster had requested the later landing because of tides.   We had scheduled a horseback ride with the ship shore excursions and the timing on that was changed to match the later arrival.   That is one advantage of scheduling with the ship.   They take care of the changes that are going to occur, apparently quite often on this trip.   Six of us gathered at the bottom of the gangway onto the pier under a canopy set up for guests to be in the shade as they awaited their tour.   Six is generally the minimum for an Oceania tour so we had just enough.   We boarded the bus and the tour guide began a spiel about our visit to San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.   One of our tour members interrupted and said, “I think we are on the wrong tour.”   The surprised guide pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, looked at it, and changed his spiel.   Still not sure if he was tr

 Happy New Year's Eve to all.  May the Holy Spirit sweep into each of your homes and bless you with hope, peace, and joy.  We hear of snow back home.  Stay safe, please.  Wildfires in Colorado...oh my, please, God, send heavy snow. Jen here, giving Jerry a bit of a break from typing. First, here's a snapshot of our ship life:   We have a satellite TV that gets MSNBC, CNBC, FOX News, SKY News, SKY Sport News, TV series, and a channel of all movies arranged similar to Netflix.  So what about Bowl Games, you ask?  Well, surprisingly, we have learned that the ship has special access to the Orange Bowl today and we can see it on our TVs in our rooms.  Tomorrow's Hawkeye game?  Our fingers are crossed as are our eyes, our toes, and my swimsuit straps. A fully furnished fitness room sits just next to the spa area and near deck 10's jogging track. (the deck just above the pool and sunbathing deck) We live on deck 8 so it's an easy trip upstairs to these facilities.  Sometim

You really would think that we would be able to keep up with this blog faster than a couple of days behind, especially with sea days as part of the equation, but that looks like it is going to be the case going forward, especially if we choose to write more than a couple of sentences.  Of course, this assumes you want to read more than a couple sentences.  Planning medication for optimum effect for onboard activities like bridge and eating leaves less good writing time than expected.   A little feedback on that might help guide the commentary.  Shorter and faster, or longer more erudite and slower to post. We watched from the sidelines as we went through the canal.  It poured rain while we were at breakfast.  The system relies on rain, 200 inches a year, to fill the man made lake at the top of Panama,  Gatun Lake, which then drops water into the locks millions of gallons at a time, raising and lowering boats before landing back in the oceans on both sides.  The sun came out and we wa

Merry Christmas.  Feliz Navidad.   My spell check let the second one go so it is probably right.  We have arrived in the South American port of Cartegena for Christmas day.  Just to fill in a couple of holes from last night.   We went to the Christmas singalong in the lounge at 5:15, dressed for the evening.  Not a total shock, but we were the only people dressed up at that point.  We long ago decided that we create our own enjoyment on cruises and it makes no difference to us what other people do or think about us.  I am pretty sure I was the only guy in tails all night (I own the tails for performing—why not use them) and Jen got numerous comments on her fabulous Christmas gown.  We may have been a little over the top for this ship, but when else do you get to go all out.  We were disappointed to discover that the sing along was all secular songs.  It was kind of funny because it was pretty clear that band and the song leaders (the mixed nationality show cast) had not spent a lot of

 Since leaving the port of Key West, we are on our second successive sea day.  The water has been quite calm overall with minimal movement on the boat.  The temperature outside has been balmy, in the 80’s and breezy, with a wind speed of about 17 miles an hour.  The water has registered warmer than the air so the water temp is in the mid 80’s although we have not yet experienced that first hand.  Yesterday was our first day at sea.   It was misty on and off for most of the morning.   It was a geography lesson for me.   First let’s learn about port and starboard. Following is the clearest explanation I have found.   Of course I didn’t look very hard, and only read this one, but it seems to be very clear. Since port and starboard never change, they are unambiguous references that are independent of a mariner’s orientation, and, thus, mariners use these nautical terms instead of left and right to avoid confusion. When looking forward, toward the  bow  of a ship, port and starboard ref

  We are on the second day of our cruise.  We have learned several things. Staff is from all over the world.  The ship has yet to leave port on time.  Portions in the dining room are larger than expected.  While certainly not the youngest we are certainly in the younger quartile I would guess.  The boat was docked in Key West by its 7:00 AM scheduled time, but the announcement that we were free to go ashore did not come until 7:20.   We did not have a shore excursion scheduled for this stop which was a change from the original cruise itinerary so it made little difference to us. We had been to Key West once before and had been totally unimpressed.   We had flown to Miami on New Year’s Eve in preparation for a cruise leaving January 3 rd .   Our arrival at the hotel on that trip had us entering someone else’s room at 1:00 AM getting assigned to a smoking room when we went back to the desk, and spending a sleepless night before hopping in the rental car and driving to Key West on wha

We are officially started on our cruise.  For those of you who have been following along this may come as a surprise since the boat does not leave until tomorrow night (except I didn't get this finished until today).  Having been registered for and planning for 2 1/2 years, shopping and ordering cruise things for much of that time, packing for months, sending our main bags almost two weeks ago, and having flown to Florida almost a week ago it may seem strange to say we are officially starting may seem strange.  We decided that when we made contact with our cruise line Monday afternoon and they were responsible for the transfer to the hotel etc. that marked the official start of the world cruise.   We drove back to Miami from Orlando using non-toll roads which took a little over four hours.  The toll roads would have saved about forty minutes.  Are we really that cheap you ask.  Sort of.  For those of you who have not traveled a toll road recently having a human in a toll booth to c

 We've had four full days in the Orlando area visiting four top tourist destinations: Kennedy Space Center, Universal studios, Disney's Magic Kingdom, and Sea World.  They are four very different venues.  It is time for some thoughtful observations.  We have ranked the four theme parks in order of preference.  Yes, you can quibble with my listing of the KSC (Kennedy Space Center) as a theme park, but it is more like a theme park than it is a regular National Historic Park so I'm going with it.  I'll hold the rankings for a while, hopefully to build suspense.   Observations.  Most theme parks are really not built for senior citizens.  KSC is probably best for older individuals as far the entire set-up.  Sea World is mostly shows in huge auditoriums both inside and outside as well as walk through exhibits.  Although it is supposed to be a mix of thrill rides interspersed with those other venues only two coasters were running and the flume didn't open up till about noo

 Theme park.  Two 60+ year olds.  Does anyone see a problem here?  Bazillions of people.  Miles of walking to get to the park.  Sure wish I had a step meter (and don't anyone dare tell me how to put an ap for one on my phone) for about the first time in my life.  Did you know that Universal is now divided into three different theme parks, not that you really care.  We did not end up in the one we thought we were going into.  Still not sure exactly where we went wrong.   Not to worry.  Although the rides in the different parks have different names, they are the same.   The idea for the majority of the adult oriented rides is to twist and turn you, put your body under an immense amount of G force more than what the astronauts suffer on launch, and abuse your sense of balance and equilibrium in such a way so as to get you as close to sick to your stomach as possible. Observations.  Rollercoasters in this day and age are more radical in every way than the ones people our age are famili

 We left Miami this morning and headed for Orlando via the Kennedy Space Center.  The first observation of the morning is that there are a lot of people on the move in Florida.  Massive traffic for miles going both directions as we headed north.   We arrived at Kennedy Space Center about 12:30 after about four hours on the road.  Observations from the space center were several.  The word that keeps coming to mind is bigness.  Is that even a word?  It apparently takes huge machines to put people and large objects into space.  Seeing a space shuttle from feet away is awe inspiring.  Walking the length of an Apollo moon rocket with it hanging horizontally above you boggles the mind.  Seeing the rocket transporter that gets 38 feet to the gallon next to the largest building by volume in the world gives large a new meaning. Seeing the history of the Apollo program from the inside was remarkable.  The first moon landing was really scary.  It was no sure thing with communications not working,

 You may be wondering what we are doing now that our bags have been taken and our packing is complete.  We are doing a number of last minute items dealing with visits with family and friends, planning  home improvements while we are gone, preparing for visitors while we are gone, mail, newspaper, taxes, end of life plans just in case, etc.  The list seems almost endless.  What a great time to take a quick jaunt to Oberlin, Ohio.  We left on Friday morning, and returned on Sunday about noon. The reason was the junior(college) recital of a former violin student of mine.  She is on her way to a degree in violin performance, a very tough world.  To make it in the field the great majority of string players have been spending seven to eight hours a day on their chosen instrument throughout their college sojourn.  In high school they were spending two to three hours almost every day practicing, not including the time spent in orchestra rehearsals.   In middle school most were spending an hour

 Hello Friends,   We are busily preparing for our departure.  Four bags are shipped to our stateroom on board our ship Insignia and they leave on Thursday the 9th.  Jen has been working at this for months and as you can see from the picture we still have a ways to go.  Today I spent over an hour with the 7 page long Indian electronic visa application with little success.  I'll try again tomorrow.  We leave Le Claire for Miami on the 15th of this month.  We are excited to share our journey with you.  Thanks to our niece Nicole who has set this up to be shared in a way that is totally unique to the internet and computer age.  This first post is mostly about doing a trial run to make sure things are working and that we have some idea of what we are doing.   Wish us luck.

 And so we start.   Our bags are packed and ready to go.  We're standing here, inside the door.  Wait.  Not quite right.  Sigh.  There have been a number of times in the last two years when we wondered if we would ever get to this point.  We picked up the rental car yesterday from the airport in Moline.  Got to go over the new bridge (I-74 across the Mississippi) for the first time.  It is a beautiful piece of engineering and with a minimum of four lanes in each direction it should never be a traffic constriction point.  We booked an economy car and ended up with a van.  Apparently lots of those available while not so many economy are on the lot.  We leave this morning at 8 for our drive in to Chicago.  Cheaper air fare and no layovers which actually means a shorter day for us.  Since they took four filled up suitcases last week we only have carry-ons so should clear the check-in point quickly.  If all goes well we land in Miami at about 6:00 Miami time, 5:00 Central time.   We hav