We spent a week in gorgeous St. John. This was our first trip to the Caribbean. The water has indescribable beauty and warmth. It is spectacular in so many ways. We were blessed with great opportunity to photograph a friends wedding and stay with all the family for our week stay on the island. We lived a life style that most dream of. Our accommodations were sprawling gigantic villas with sweeping views overlooking blue lagoon bays and on out to the British Virgin Islands. The weather was pretty hot and humid which I think is normal for the time of year [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a long trip from San Diego to St. Thoms, USVI we were welcomed off the plane with refreshing choice of rum shots. We love the Island life. We stayed in quaint hotel overlooking the town of Charlotte Amalie. We had some time the next day to see a little of St. Thomas before we headed over to meet our friends in St. John for the week. We spent most of our day sitting in AC drinking pina coladas and other rum drinks bewteen walking around the historic part of Charlotte. The weather is very hot and humid. After half a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our plan for this cruising season was to sail up the Caribbean chain, stopping along the way to visit new islands and re-visit some of our favorites from last year. Our goal was to reach the Virgin Islands by April and spend a month there before turning back and heading south again (our insurance for the boat dictates that we must be out of the hurricane belt by the first of July). So once we left St. Martin we sailed west to St. Thomas, which turned out to be is the farthest point of travel for the Rum Runner this year [View Full Entry]

---

---

I confess that I have not been making the most of my port time during the last couple weeks. Last week when we were in port I either took the day to just catch up on sleep and treat myself to such luxuries as lying in bed reading, or I just went out to cafes and enjoyed some good food along with fast internet. So this cruise, I’m more determined to actually get out and do something fun. Last night we were in San Juan. I’m still so in love with that city. It was great to be back there. I [View Full Entry]

---

---

Well I’ve been on the Carnival Triumph now for about a week and a half. It has been so hectic! It’s always rather crazy signing onto a ship. When you don’t have a handover from the director you’re replacing, it means extra time getting things organized. There’s been lots of comings and goings of directors on this ship over the last couple months so there’s some things that were really needing a good look and organization. Add in how tired I was from the travel from one ship to another - early mornings for immigration and sign on - and the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We sailed from Puerto Rico to St. Croix with our good friends Tim and Sandy. [View Full Entry]

---

---

We anchored near M/Y Rising Sun in St. Thomas Harbor. Rising Sun was originally planned to be 120 meters, but the length was changed to 138 meters because Larry Ellison of Oracle wanted his boat to be longer than Paul Allen's of Microsoft. Rising Sun has a basketball court on her. I wanted to ask Larry Ellison over to our boat for fresh tuna we had just caught, but the admiral would not allow it. Mom said she thought inviting Larry over for dinner would be the neighbourly thing to do. [View Full Entry]

---

---

My wife and I took a trip to the Virgin Islands for the Winter Holidays in 2008. It was filled with a paradise of mixed drinks, perfect sunshine, blissful activities and rest. Our observations of a confused clash of cultural forces gave us an unexpected perspective of the various lifestyles on the islands. Our flight landed in St. Thomas on Christmas Day. The Cyril E. King Airport (STT) is a classic tropical airport with hard to find bathrooms and an open-walled baggage claim. We arrived to the Budget car rental kiosk to pick up the jeep we reserved thru Orbitz [View Full Entry]

---

---

Twelve Miles north of Golden Gate Bridge on the coastline of California, lies a thick forest full of redwood trees on a hilly terrain. This is MUIR WOODS named after the famous tree lover and conservationist Mr. John Muir. This is the forest of gigantic Sequoia trees, the age of which ranges from several centuries to many thousand years. They are nearly 350 to 400 feet tall !!! and the diameter of the trunks range from 25 to 30 feet ! with the barks measuring 12 inches to 20 inches in thickness. Traversing through these conifer sky scrapper trees which [View Full Entry]

---

---

How We Roll… I’m hip…I’m cool…I’m down with the lingo! HA!! Some of you will remember that Kel and I returned from our grand viaje back at the end of 2007. We came back to the United States as the same people but had also changed at the same time. We were a walking contradiction; seemingly the same but somehow fundamentally different. But, we were really, really lucky because when we got back there were new friends and old friends who welcomed us with open arms. Almost as soon as we returned we found a group of people who accepted [View Full Entry]

---

---