For 25 years, we have heard the stories and seen the pictures from Gary and Terry, our dentist and his wife’s yearly sojourn to the tropical paradise that is the British Virgin Islands. So when we received an email one January morning inviting us to join them on their summer sailing session, it took 5 minutes to email back saying we were in. This was a special sailing because it was not only their 25th wedding anniversary but also our other friend, Dan’s 50th birthday. There would be 7 of us including Dan’s wife Sharon, a good friend from Chuck’s old work and a new friend Mitch, who we learned was a mortgage banker who had horses that raced at Ascot this year. We would be sailing on a two year old, 46 ft. catamaran complete ... read more

After the Kentucky Derby on May 1st, we had a month before our 3rd and final race at the Indy 500 on May 30th. As we said good bye to Louisville, we made 2 interesting stops before leaving Kentucky. The 1st was Berea known as the Folk Arts and Crafts capital of Kentucky where we had a southern inspired lunch at the historic Boone Tavern and then walked the Old Town area. The 2nd was a finger licking good meal at the original KFC’s Colonel Harland Sanders Café in Corbin. We then crossed into Tennessee, on our way to the southeastern town of Gatlinburg. Our timeshare was in a scenic, peaceful location in amongst the trees next to a fast running creek. This was in sharp contrast to the crowded and fun amusement park atmosphere ... read more

Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Cape Town with Table Top Mountain as a spectacular back drop to this South African city. We immediately drove to Signal Hill for the nightly Sun-downer to toast the sunset over the ocean with champagne and appetizers. It was a fitting way to end our memorable 35 day cruise. Now it was back to the ship, enjoying our last dinner with friends, packing, waking at 3:30 a.m. for our 4:30 a.m. transfer to the airport. We flew to Johannesburg and took a 20 seat prop plane to a small airstrip in the bush and our much anticipated safari had begun. This 6 day experience was everything we hoped it would be and more. We split our time between 2 private game reserves- Leopard Hills and Lion Sands in ... read more

After Bangkok, the pace slowed a bit and we made 2 stops in Malaysia before entering the Indian Ocean. Malaysia is an interesting country, much more developed than you might think. As we drove to Malacca, the freeways were as modern as any in Southern California and the residential homes and condos visible from the road could have been anywhere USA. Malacca was full of Dutch influenced buildings, antique shops in a section known as Jonker Street, and a combination of Christian churches and Islamic mosques. Our other stop in Malaysia was the island of Penang where we did a spice tour. We walked through a garden of nutmeg, clove, ginger, palm trees, pineapple plants, and flowers later ending the tour with a cooking demonstration of a delicious Malay chicken curry dish. During the next ... read more

We were excited to make our way to the Hong Kong cruise terminal and board our favorite ship the 7 Seas Voyager. Because it was the 4th segment of the World Cruise we knew we would see many old friends and we were not disappointed. We quickly settled into our suite and before we knew it we were leaving Hong Kong and off to our 1st three ports of call in Vietnam. We started in North Vietnam and this year we decided to make the 3½ hour trek to Hanoi. We visited the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” where John McCain was held for 7 years during the Vietnam War. We also made stops at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and family home and the bustling old quarter of town where you could find anything for sale. Nha ... read more