London, England

Our cruise ended today in Southampton, England. We had to be off at 8:30 a.m., and were due in Rome that evening. In between, we traveled by train, plane, subway, bus, and the good, old-fashioned foot (i.e. we hoofed it).

Our flight to Rome departed Stansted airport, north of London. Fortunately, we'd planned enough time to make the trip up from Southampton (in the, um, south), and we even found enough time to dash around London on the way.

Of course, this did make for a rather long day. (But a beautiful one. Note the spring flowers just behind Jolene's weary yawn.)

Passing by the parliament buildings, this monument caught our eyes. From the color scheme and architecture, it looked to us like the work of Hindus or Thai Buddhists.

On closer inspection, however, that was not the case. As seen on the plaque, the monument commemorates the emancipation of slaves in Britain, a triumph of peaceful political process that occurred here some 30 years before the United States, with much greater pain and bloodshed, achieved the same goal.
Having recently seen the movie, "Amazing Grace", we were particularly impressed and moved. The movie is worth seeing. Both it and the monument serve as reminders that people who are willing work tirelessly in the pursuit of a just cause can change the tide of history.

Brest, France (Zzzzzz....)

We slept in on the morning of arrival to Brest, France. It probably doesn't help that Case, though ordinarily happy to scan a phrase book and then slaughter any language you might care to name, adamantly refuses to attempt French. (The most he does is an imitation that he calls "the French guy", and don't EVEN get me started on that!!! The things you learn about someone after you marry them!!!!)

The boat arrived at 9:00 a.m. and had to leave again at 3:00. We managed to struggle forth from our cozy, dark, inside cabin at about 1:00, just in time to hop on the port bus and ride the loop through town. Though I'm sure there's more to see than we did, we were less than overwhelmed. It probably doesn't help that, during WWII, the Allies bombed the city to rubble (only three buildings remained standing) because of its large German submarine base. Aside from a rather striking old fort on the point of the harbor, we saw only concrete boxes. Stalin would have loved it, but after the port city architecture of the Azores and Cobh, Ireland, it was a bit of a let-down.

So, for photos, we're including these colorful snapshots (yes, these were taken in Brest):

Crowds leave the port buses toting crepes, wine, and haute couture.

A troupe of French bagpipers pipes us back to sea. (They play the bagpipes in Brittany. Who knew?)

Cohb and Cork, Ireland

Our ship docked right in downtown Cohb, a picturesque little port on the Irish coast!

Cobh isn't as well known as it should be. It tends to be eclipsed by it's larger neighbor, Cork. Adding to the obscurity, Cobh was know as "Queenstown" from 1849 (when Queen Victoria paid a visit) until 1922 (when the Irish Free State was founded and the town's original name was restored).

You might know Cobh (Queenstown then) as the last port of call for the Titanic before she began her ill-fated voyage in 1912. Just three years later, the Lusitania's was heading for Cobh when she was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat, helping to move USA and some of the other neutral nations toward joining Britain in the "Great War".

Cobh's port saw the passage of millions of Irish sons and daughters bound for USA, Canada, and other countries of the "Irish diaspora" during the years of the Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849). Those same years saw ships entering the port from all over the world, laden with foodstuffs donated to relieve the famine.

The town contains memorials to all these events. (It's a great town for memorials, and no less picturesque because of it.)

From Cohb we caught a train to Cork, which vies with Dublin to be "THE" Irish city.

Case was more than relieved to discover the Irish natives friendly when he found, to his chagrin, that he'd brought British pounds instead of Euros onto the train to pay for things -- like the train ticket. (Think about trying to use old South Vietnamese currency in today's Vietnam for some sense of his consternation.) Fortunately for us, the conductor was understanding of these silly cruise-ship sheep and simply advised us to change our money and buy our ticket when we got to the station (which we did).

Cork is much more the bustling metropolis. Here, we learned less about history and more about life in Ireland. Most of this we learned by ambling around, looking for steeples and other interesting landmarks.

In the process, we managed to find public market. (And what better place to learn about Irish life?)

Mmmm....fresh bread....where's the plastic wrap?!

Case takes a few minutes to find our location on the map....one of the hazards of wandering around town! (Could he be searching for a place to sample Irish coffee?)

Steeplechase is a fine tourist sport, don't you think? We wandered around St. Fin Barre's Anglican Cathedral, built in 1862. This site has been home to a monastery since the 7th century.

the interior....

....and the rose window.

(... and then it was time to get back to Cobh and our ship ...)

Navigator of the Seas, Royal Carribean

We spent 12 days on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas.

I think we had maybe 2 days of sunshine on the crossing. Fortunately, the ship has a lot of interior space. This is "The Promanade", a five storey atrium space lined by shops and restaurants.

Glass-walled elevators transported the slow-of-hoof between the 14 decks.

This is the view down the elevator well from our 10th floor landing to the 5th floor Promenade.

We saw a lot of this sort of weather.

Fortunately, there were several heated pools & hot tubs.

And the gym gave us a place to stretch our legs when it was too windy and cold out on the running track (5 laps to the mile).

Punta Delgada, Azores Islands, Portugual

We left Miami on April 14, heading for Europe via Bermuda. We were pretty eager to spend some time in Bermuda, but it was not to be. Somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle, we sailed into 20 ft. seas and 50+ mph winds. The closer we came to Bermuda the worse the conditions became. Finally, our prudent Captain announced that, as Bermuda's harbors and airport were now closed due to weather, we wouldn't try to sail into port there. Instead, he had found us dock space in Portugual's Azore Islands, about 600 miles west of the Rock of Gibraltar and several days further sailing from our current position. We spent a full seven days at sea before our first port. It's a tribute to the ship and its crew that we didn't run out of food or things to do during that time. (The ship has a mini-golf course, and even an ice rink!)

Arriving at the Azores. The waterfront architecture reminded Case of Penang, Malaysia, where he grew up.

Happy to have my feet on land!

A look around town....

We thought these signs were worth a picture. It's not often you see a signpost pointing opposite directions to reach the same places.

This port city features a number of beautiful public & private gardens. The islands, as a whole, were a lush garden. Apparently, two volcanoes had merged together to form our island, creating a lot of fertile soil in the process.

EPCOT, Orlando, FL

Disney's EPCOT is more of an experience than we were able to capture in photos. Seeing the Disney version of a dozen countries via their architecture, food, music, multimedia presentations, and people ("cultural ambassadors" from each country work at each exhibit) made for a fun day. Being Disney, they included some rides that could be related to the associated country only by stretching the imagination a bit. (But why not? It's Disney!)


Being springtime, Disney was in the midst of their Garden Show. The grounds were in full bloom, including the Disney character sculptures (Beauty and the Beast in their creepy -- vine -- incarnations).
The colors of the corals in aquarium at the "Nemo" aquarium were quite eye catching. We had a lot of fun shooting photo after photo, hoping to get something that would start to convey the beauty of the underwater environment. (Ain't digital film great?!!)

The firework show at the end of the day provided another opportunity to see what digital film can capture...

Disney's Animal Kingdom, Orlando, FL

Well, I guess we couldn't come to Florida without seeing Mickey's Florida digs...

The Lion King Musical extravaganza complete with Simba!
(I guess according to Walt and staff, the animal kingdom includes cartoon animals!)

"A Bugs Life" with bug 3-D glasses.
(This attraction attempts to be an immersive, sensory experience, featuring bugs ejecting "acid" onto the audience, crawling under their .. er .. seated portions, "stinging" them [through the backs of the chairs], and emitting some smells I am still trying to forget!)

The Okapi
(According to "the experts", the okapi is related to the giraffe. The exhibit featured skulls of the two animals to prove their point. However, it looks to me like the postman serving this guy's parents' household may have been a zebra.)

The Gorilla
(If I weighed 400 lb, all of it solid muscle, I might feel comfortable sleeping nude in public, too!)

Homo crowd-iens
(This species is exhibited at every Disney theme park.)

Wildebeest grazing in a meadow? Does this look like a Disney theme park?
Case and I were very impressed with the African Safari exhibit, providing the safari experience in a natural habitat with near-authentic (but larger) vehicles that drove us through the huge animal exhibit. (OK, the poacher interdiction occurring as part of the ride was a little fakey, I guess, but it is important to remind folks that humans are now the biggest survival threat to most animals.)

I wonder if these guys get headaches holding up those horns all day long!?!?!

A baby giraffe...

and elephant.

Notes to clear up confusion (from Case)

A few folks have written to ask "What's going on?".

For those who haven't noticed, the last few blog posts took a triple-jump from completing the Torres del Paine Circuit in South America on January 29 to visiting Key West in Florida on April 5, with interim foot-plants on Jolene's marathon completion & her cryptic update on how we've been spending the "blank days".

(If you haven't heard of the track-and-field event, the triple jump, don't trouble yourself trying to understand the simile incorporated in the last sentence.)

As Jolene mentioned, we've been traveling California, Washington, and Oregon visiting friends and family. Since this blog serves primarily to update family and friends on our whereabouts, we've let it slide during that time. However, we've had a few intervening experiences that we hope to memorialize here. Keep an eye out for these postings (coming "at some not-far-off time"), if you're interested. (While we will post these under their correct dates, I will try to place an "alert" posting for those of you who want a reminder when they're available.):

Early February: Walking on Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

Mid-February: The Egg Drop Contest (Walla Walla College School of Engineering)

Mid-March: Seattle visit featuring Pike Place Market

I will also post about "how we're managing to do this", for those of you who can't believe it's possible to take a sabbatical without being fabulously wealthy. ("Fabulous wealth" is what most Americans assume we have after we tell them about our sabbatical. Interestingly, most Europeans do not assume this. But more on this later.)

Finally, just a note about process: As it's evolved, Jolene selects our pictures and writes a good portion of the text to go with them. When she's done and the post is published, I go back a few days later to expand the prose, embellish the stories, and (where the narrative seems a little thin) add a dash of humor or a tall tale. That being the case, if a recent post particularly interests you, you might try going back to it in a week or so to see what I've done with it. I will no doubt confuse you further, but I will try to do so in an entertaining manner...

Key West, Florida

We had thought of spending our first anniversary (March 24) in Hawaii, but a temporary job opportunity for Case intervened, and we decided to go later. (We spent the anniversary weekend on California's Mendocino Coast, so all was not lost!) After totaling up the time and expense to go to Hawaii and back, and then immediately head further east for the next leg of our trip, we decided the Florida Keys might be a better choice. We spent a relaxed long weekend ambling about and enjoying the quaint, relaxed ambiance of Key West. Here are a few highlights:


The roosters rule Key West! This rooster stood in the middle of a four-way intersection for several minutes, ignoring the impatient motorists' honks and nudges, and only clearing the scene when a passer-by chased him to the edge of the road.

Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum. I am holding a gold bar, a small part of the $200 million treasure discovered on the bottom of the ocean off the Florida Keys, from a Spanish ship that sank in a hurricane in 1622.

Blue Heaven, a Key West hang out complete with roosters, hens and chicks milling around our feet, waiting for us to drop them some very tasty morsels from our plates.

Hanging out listening to the bar tender telling tales at the bar.

Unfortunately for the chickens, the food was too good to share!!

Relaxing in our room poolside at the Albury Court Hotel.

Plunge pool, right out our door.

Going Back on the Road

A few have asked when we'll be posting on the blog again. We'll be back on the road and posting to the blog in early April.

In the mean time we've been traveling the west coast of the US, visiting family and friends as well as some temporary work along the way.