Saturday 28 December 2013

Happy New Year & Happy Holidays

To all our followers, Happy New Year and we hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season. This posting was delayed for many reasons from returning to the office and getting the house ready for Christmas to doctor appointments and adjusting our plans for 2014. We are up at our place on the Sunshine Coast for a few days which helps me get away from the city craziness and put down few words. So here goes.

First my summary for this most recent Grand Voyage around the Pacific. Diversity is the word that comes to mind, both in cultures and experiences. The extremes were in abundance, from the well organized clean cities of Hong Kong and Singapore to the street kids in Manila and the human massage Metro, to Chuuck, a spot of third world survival in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Our experiences went from the well dressed of the first world to the red smiles of the betel juiced faces in Papua New Guinea - all amazing experiences that I will not soon forget. This voyage very much circled around WWII sites for the veterans on board and to the Dive sites for the scuba enthusiasts using the ship as site to site floating scuba shop. We took in a little of both with for me the crescendo experience of my first dive, thank you again Bea if you are reading this.

Overshadowing our voyage was our very unfortunate and sad return home some three weeks in. I will give full marks to Holland America and the Crew on board this wonderful ship, they were very respectful and very caring in taking care of every need that unfolded during this time, they truly are an extended family which are thankful and grateful for. Which brings to our plans for 2014.

Our target is Hong Kong for March 3rd, where we are planning on embarking the beautiful MS Amsterdam to complete her second half of the 2014 World Cruise. We do have a medical procedure hurdle to jump before getting the 100% go ahead but it is good to have a target out there to look forward to, so stay tuned I should have an update in this by the end of January. For now Happy New Year and check back in about a month for my update. Not sure if I highlighted that we won the second leg of the photo contest, I have included the prize winning photo here in this update.

Until then ......

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Los Angeles, USA - December 4, 2013: Part 2

Los Angeles, USA - December 4, 2013

One last HAL excursion before cutting all the string from this incredible adventure. Rather than just doing the ship to airport transport, we learned that only 16 people signed up for the last Rodeo Drive, Malibu Beach and Santa Monica Pier tour, so with a 7:30 pm flight we signed up - this means a full size bus with only 18 people, very comfortable. A very nice cool clear and sunny today in LA, around 16 degrees Celsius. Having never been to Rodeo Drive this was another new adventure for me, we saw clean, very clean streets (no graffiti here), wide shopping streets with all the BIG names, the pictures will give you a small sample of who is here. Unfortunately this was a short stop for a stroll and picture taking - no time for real shopping, yah as the price tags certainly reflect the real estate these stores sit on . And oh yes a bathroom break at the recommended Wilshire Hotel - where Pretty Woman was filmed. The pictures include the lobby all decked up for Christmas and of course the Ladies Room. We continued to the beaches at Malibu, wow, wow, wow. Now that is what I call a beach front living, sorry but our pictures could just do this area justice, just beautiful. Our guide was sure to name drop along the way down the beachside strip. A brief stop at the Adamson House before stopping for lunch at the Santa Monica Pier and shopping area. Yes Jan did make one last purchase at Tilly's, a very nice jacket at 40% off. Summary coming soon, stay tune.