ingridandleotravels

Day 12 – at sea closer to Tahiti Leisurely day spent listening to the talk on two upcoming stops in French Polynesia, Huahine and Raiatea.   Both are small ports that larger ships would not stop at. Well, last night was “Captain’s Circle”, where cruisers who are on at least their second cruise are invited to a special gathering to meet the captain.   Well, on a round the world cruise over 90% of the cruisers are invited to the Captain’s Circle. With free drinks, canapés, and a few words from the amazingly entertaining Captain, this was a very nice experience.   They also take the time to honor the most cruised of the cruisers.   Number two on the list was a couple with over 1800 cruise days aboard Princess ships.   Then an investment banker, with over 2100 cruise days was honored. He said a few words thanking the crew, captain and his family, as he was on his 9 th round the world cruise! I was able to use my new talents with the iPho...

Day 10 – at sea on the way to Tahiti What is to like?   Tall, dark, handsome and “The Captain”.   I just don’t see what Ingrid sees in the guy, but she wanted her picture taken with him!! He is nice, but gosh, I have some good qualities too! The other pic is of John and Donna Campanella in front of their van that holds all the wind surfing toys. They have found their slice of paradise and were kind enough to spend the day showing us around Maui.   We had such a wonderful time and can’t wait to return when we have more time to spend.   This retirement thing just might catch on. We have only stopped at two places and Ingrid is making plans to return to both.   At this rate, by the time we hit all 41 stops, we will have plans to keep traveling for years to come. Fair seas and temps. in the high 70’s.   Another beautiful day aboard our traveling restaurant/gym/bedroom/dance floor/hangout for 111 days. "The Captain" - that is how...

Watching whales from our deck at sunset. 2721 NM so far on our way to Tahiti. Day 9 Amazing how time flies.   We are already on day 9 and heading south out of Hawaii to Tahiti.   After a fantastic time in the Hawaiian Islands now, as Ingrid say, “We are really heading off on our adventure.”   We have both been to Hawaii and although it was really cool to spend time with family and friends in Maui and see the Missouri and Arizona in Pearl Harbor, it now really feels like we are heading off on an adventure.   Neither of us have been to Tahiti and from the pics we have seen it should be fantastic.   This morning we listened to another talk by Dr. Frank Sandstrom, this one on Amelia Earhart. He gave an overview of her entire life and showed how influential she was in promoting women’s rights.   What a strong and courageous woman.   In addition to her attempted round-the-world flight she set many distance and altitude records.   She was re...

Honolulu at night from our deck! Breaching Whale filmed from the beach. The beach that Donna and John wind surf from. Hang loose! What a wonderful time with Donna and John Campanella in Maui.  We spent the day touring the sites and seeing their beautiful condo.  Had a wonderful lunch with Lynette on the beach watching the whales breach!  Amazing to see the young ones just learning to breach. Now it is off to Tahiti.

Day 6 – I’m not sure we are ready to face our first non-sea day tomorrow.   We are having a wonderful time on the sea days.   We have fallen into a lovely routine of waking late, working out, walking on the deck in beautiful 70 degree weather then meeting Jan and George for the Elite club snacks at 6:00 PM, going to the show at 6:30 PM and then going to the late dinner with our outstanding waiter Victor from Mexico.   Victor has been a great waiter and really helps make the dinners fun. Today Ingrid and I also fit in wine tasting and trivia.   Hey – we got 16 out of 20, but the winning team got 20/20.   Can’t beat that.   Tomorrow we have a tour in Honolulu and then the rest of the day to explore and buy things we still need. The picture is from our first formal night.   There are 17 formal nights out of the 111 days and it is really fun to see everyone all dressed up. 7 flies tied to date.   I’m getting pretty good a...

Day 5 - Well I feel I should mention the wonderful Uber driver who took us to the port from Long Beach airport after we dropped off our rental car.   You never know who you will get as an Uber driver, but she was delightful.   She picked us up in her older Lexus sedan which was worn but comfortable and then she told us of her recent trip to Africa and how much she had enjoyed the animals in South Africa. Her routing to the port avoided the massive traffic jam we saw and her stories made us excited for the safari we have planned for Durban, South Africa. What a great way to arrive at the Pacific Princess.   Here we are on Day 5 and it is amazing how fast things are going.   The food has been great and you meet so many people from all over.   We always seem to be running into Ulf and Karen from Frankfurt, Germany.   They have taken the same ballroom dancing classes we took (Foxtrot and Samba) and seem to seek the sunny side of th...

Sail away from LA was pretty neat.  We were eating dinner at the back of the ship and we could see the lights of civilization just disappear.  The first day and a half at see was rather choppy, but Ingrid and I don’t mind that.  We are lucky that choppy seas really don’t affect us, other than walking across the deck everyone looks like they are drunk.  It brings smiles to many faces as we try to pass strangers in the corridors just to be lurched left and right as we are trying to pass in narrow areas.  But some passengers aren’t nearly as fortunate and they have barf bags stationed throughout the ship to accommodate those less fortunate. Well you can see from my pic that I tied my first dry fly.  It resembles an elk hair caddis, but was tied on a #6 hook and not the #14 that they suggest.  I thought I would start with a larger fly to make it easier, but I’m sure the trout will just laugh at my feeble attempt!  What a great way to pass the t...

1st day on the ship. Luckily all 8 of our bottles of wine made it !

So today is the day. Customarily I wake up early, ready for whatever the day has in store, but when the day includes sailing away on a 111 day cruise, well that is special. We have the whole day to get our stuff on the ship.  We can check in around noon and then we don't sail away until 8:00 PM.  I can just imagine sailing out of LA shortly after sunset knowing that we won't be back for 111 days.  It is exciting and daunting at the same time.  Wish us luck and keep in touch. Blog update- I did find a setting on the blog which should now allow anyone to post comments.  Previously, and I guess by default, it had been set to just Google accounts.  Please try again to post comments and we will see how it works now. Can you believe that we could see snow on the mountains around LA?  I remember living here in 1979, Redondo Beach, and I didn't even know you could see the mountains for the first 3 months I was here.  Then, after a big wind and rain, t...

So - what exactly did we bring?  Well - it is all in those bags!  But then we went to Costco, Ulta, Wallgreens and Target to add to the stash.  Tomorrow we deposit it on the ship and hope it doesn't list because of our contributions. I have heard that many people are having trouble posting to this blog.  I'm sorry if you have had problems.  I know that Cheryl was able to make a comment and Ingrid and I have both been able to make comments.  It seems to have something to do with being logged into a .gmail account.  If I find out any tricks to making comments I will try to post them here.  Sorry for those of you who have had problems.  You can always just send us an email and we will try to post if you want.  We can hardly believe that less that 24 hours from now we will be sailing west from LA on the Pacific Princess.  Wish us luck!

We made it to LA.

So what do you bring on a 111 day cruise?  We are still baffled.  Months of planning have come down to this.  Now we just need to go to dinner with friends and think of how to stuff all that into our bags.  Wish us luck!

Only two days left before we leave.  We are furiously tying up loose ends and will start throwing all our stuff (packing) into the suitcases today. Then we have tomorrow to check our lists twice, just like Santa, to make sure that nothing is forgotten.  On 1/19 we fly to LA where we will rent a car and scurry about buying everything else we think we might need for 111 days.  It almost feels like a survival situation until I remember that we are on a CRUISE SHIP and going to civilized ports all over the world.  The odds of us not having the necessities are almost ZERO! Below is a picture of Ingrid on her last day at Lockheed Martin. I will try to find the pic of her first day at Lockheed Martin and update this blog when I find it.  Can you notice the "30 years and I'm done" smile!