Dateline: St. Lucia, Eastern Caribbean Today we woke to the lush and beautifully tropical island of St. Lucia. St. Lucia is one of a string of volcanic islands, tropical and with (once you are out of the downtown area) beautiful beaches. We have docked in Castries, south of Rodney Bay and north of Marigot Bay. At the edges of town there are luxurious resorts and villas. The, rain forested, iconic twin mount peaks called the Pitons are just down the coast and include the worlds only “drive in” volcano-one can drive right up to it! Historians date the settlements on St. Lucia back to 200-400 BC from artifacts of the Arawak Indians. As with many islands here, the Caribe Indians arrived and took control from 800-100 AD. So, who really discovered St. Lucia? Some say Columbus ... read more

Dateline: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida WHOA! After an amazing two fun and restful weeks on Balboa Island near Los Angeles, we were thrown into a whirlwind of activity for the next 38 hours ;-) Before leaving Balboa we walk along the harbor, greeting dogs and “saying” good morning to pelicans and the Orange Coast Community College crew teams as we head to Starbucks on the main street. We sit and people watch. We hate to leave. After walking back to the house, we finish tidying up and head north about 6 miles to drop off our car at an RV storage park. When we arrive we take our luggage into the office to wait for a cab and are immediately greeted by a flying, bouncing black fur ball of a dog named Lucy. Lucy is a couple ... read more

Mamma Mia! Singapore! Saturday…Off the ship and into a cab (actually a beautifully leather encased “tricked out” van ;-) headed to Changi Airport in Singapore. The airport here in Singapore is a destination resort, not just an airport! We checked in to the Crown Plaza, and found ourselves in fabulous, very airy, lots of windows spacious room, overlooking the rainy runways. According to our driver, the monsoon season is in full swing. After getting settled, we wandered over out of the Crown Plaza, which is in terminal three, to look for some lunch and see of the facilities at the airport. What a gorgeous, lofty space with all kinds of light, no sound at all of aircraft. We found a food court on B-2 and had Singaporean special, chicken rice, for lunch. On this level, there ... read more

Langkawi, Malaysia WOW…I think we are in the Caribbean! Warm, humid, beautiful green, lush island surrounded by high peaks and mountains. Lots of little islands jutting out of the water towards the sky all around us. Today we are visiting a Rice Museum which may sound a little boring, but it turned out to be one of the most interesting places of our trip. We saw rice fields in various stages of maturity, water buffalos that work the fields, all of the equipment and tools necessary to grow and harvest the rice…and chickens all over the place. Life here is as it has been for many years. Rice is still planted by hand, harvested with scythes or long knifes, beat by hand on a wooden stanchion to separate the rice from the stalks, and ground to ... read more

Singapore-On to the Mariner of the Seas Such a peaceful morning. We found a Coffee Bean Shop around the corner from our hotel on Orchard Road. We read the paper, had great coffee and watched people. ;-) It is early Monday morning, so not much traffic-just people going to work. After all our travels in Asia we find we are way more interested in what’s going on in this part of the world so devour Singapore paper about life, the economy, and their take on what is happening in the US and the rest of Asia. After a leisurely stroll in the rain back to the hotel we finish packing (takes 3 minutes since we only have one rolling bag between us) and take a cab to the cruise ship terminal. Our cab driver was great, ... read more