April 27, 2023

I dreamed many years ago that when I retired, I’d love to travel.  Thankfully, I’ve not only traveled, but traveled with the love of my life. So happy he wanted to go along on this ‘wild hair journey’ together.

Good Food, Good Friends, Good Times

We so enjoyed our transatlantic crossing (7-days).  I really was expecting some high seas and motion, but it was very calm (btw, I like high seas, so either way it would be very enjoyable).  The ocean was beautiful and someday’s like glass.  We spent many hours sitting on our balcony and just taking it all in.  I would always say, let’s go watch for dolphins and whales.  Wouldn’t you know, one day we’re sitting there and a whale comes jumping out of the water, a total breach (Bob spotted it).  I quickly grabbed my phone for a picture and got one when his head came back out of the water.  Unbelievable!

The day before we arrived in Florida, we went through the Bahama’s.  You could see land on each side and some cruise ships docked at one of the private islands.  Once night approached, a big storm went through.  I sat out and watched the lighting storm.  It was beautiful on the water and seemed to be endless.  On Thursday morning, April 27th, we docked in Ft Lauderdale.  America!  Haven’t seen you in 4-months.  Missed the red, white and blue.  Our country may have a lot of issues, but still proud to be an American.

We disembarked the ship and like many ports, we saw ambulances waiting to take people to the hospital.  Sadly, not all passengers that got on the ship in January, made it back to Ft Lauderdale.  We pray for their families.

We proceeded to claim our luggage and then called an Uber to take us to AVIS to get our rental car.  I went inside the office while Bob watched the luggage.  The young man at the counter told me, I’ve upgraded you.  Ok.  Thank you.  ‘To a Dodge Challenger Hemi’.  What?!  I did not show excitement, but inside I was busting.  500 hp.  I went outside and pulled the car around to the front where Bob was waiting for me.  The sound of the engine was a deep rumble.  He looked up and realized it was me and had a big smile on his face.  We loaded up and off we went.  I promise you, it was a great ending to our trip.

Thinking back over the past 4 months:

We had a fabulous choir (Princess Harmony Choir) that performed several times on this cruise.  Unfortunately, I was not able to participate this time (I did on 2020 cruise) because I had coughed so much, my voice just couldn’t handle it.  Fortunately, we were able to attend some of the performances.  David Crathorne, who has been with Princess for over 26 years, (which includes 17 World Cruises) pours his heart into music performing at various venues and also leading the choir.  David always has such a great variety of songs that really have special meaning.  One song performed was “Far Away Places”.  Words include ‘they may call me a dreamer, well, maybe I am but I know I am burning to see those far away places with strange sounding names”.  So true.

We’ve met many new people on this cruise and made many new friends, including Ashley, our go-to Princess Officer.  We stop to see him almost every evening after dinner.  He works at the customer service desk and has been more than helpful in answering all our questions or working out any issues we might have.  We’d laugh at dinner and say, let’s make up something to ask Ashley tonight.  It’s been a joy getting to know him and having him join us at our dining table some nights for dinner and also birthday party’s for Pedro and Bob.  Ashley was so kind to treat them both to special made birthday cakes.

We miss our friend Martha, who sailed with us from Florida to Sydney, Australia.  She’s home again in Tennessee and I kept her informed of our on-going journey.  We’ve made friends with a couple from Pennsylvania (Andrea and Ray), North Carolina (Martha and Harvey), Florida (Tammy and Ted) and California (Peter).  We’re also sailing with friends that we met on the 2020 World Cruise (Carmen and Pedro, Bev and Mike) and met up with Michael and Carolyn that live in Auckland.

We celebrated birthday’s together.  We shared evening meals with friends and prayed for each other.  Had afternoon tea’s, where Bob held his pinky high.  We went to many varieties of entertainment.  We are hooked on cappuccino with fresh baked croissants.  We had portraits on formal nights and included our friends.  We tried new foods and enjoyed old favorites.  We both agree, our favorite meal without question, was in Sicily.  

At the end of our journey, we look back and realize how much we learned, explored, discovered, loved and dreamed.  We had adventures and celebrations.  Enjoyed so many sunrises, sunsets and moon rises.  We experienced new cultures and religions.  Met people all over the world that were so interesting and a pleasure to talk to. We were amazed at how some countries grow their crops, with pride and others, not so much.  Some countries are clean and without litter and others, not so much.  It actually taught us about our own country.  

We have memories of walking through lost cities, many ancient cities and so many magnificent cathedrals.  Seeing beautiful farmland and tall skylines of modern cities.  All types of transportation from high speed trains to camels.  Dormant volcano’s and even one erupting.  Wildlife from our balcony that included whales, dolphins, sea turtles, sting ray’s, sharks and flying fish.

We walked the streets of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and thought about Jesus.  We walked the streets of Ephesus and Malta and thought about the apostles John and Paul.  We thought about the apostle Peter when in Rome and the apostle Luke when in Monserrat.   So much history!

You might think by traveling around the world, our bucket list would be smaller.  Bob and I both agree that this experience only made our bucket list overflow. 

At the end of all our exploring, we will arrive where we began.  One lap around the world! Can you believe it?!  World Cruise 2023 – 6 Continents, 26 Countries, 43 Ports, 111 Days, 36,000 Nautical Miles.  It was a once in a lifetime trip for us, although, this was our 2nd try (lol….2020 trip that was cut short).  We did learn there are many people that do this every year as ‘snow birds’.  A large group of people have become close friends and do this every year together.

Time does fly.  I remember when I was a little kid and hearing my dad talk about something that took place 20 years ago.  I’d thought, how in the world does he remember 20 years ago!  Lol.  Time does fly.  Don’t put off things that you want to do or see, you’ll regret it later.  “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain

Life is a journey and I’m so happy to be on this journey with my love.  We are celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary this week.  I recall for our 25th, I planned a trip every month.  Lol.  Everyone kept telling us Happy Anniversary and then the next month, I’d post another anniversary trip.  I had everyone confused.  This particular journey has come to an end, but the next one is just around the corner.  

At the end of the day, we thank the good Lord that we were able to do this.  We are truly blessed.  We don’t know what our future will bring, only God does. Bob, and so many others, have been through so much in the last few years and now we have close friends that we consider family that have been through it too.  We pray the Lord to take cancer from our friends and family (Bob, Kenneth, Kevin, Jay, Jay, Bill, BJ, Peter, Agnes, Maria, Wayne, Jane and Rick).  We are sad that some of our friends were taken by cancer, way to soon (Mom, Sandy, Mark and Cindy). 

May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Romans 15:13

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

Enjoy each day and thank God for it!