We've just had the Captain's Farewell Cocktail Party and final formal night. The last Baked Alaska parade and pictures with the waiters. You can imagine that we have grown very close to our waiters. They take such good care of us and we have gotten to know alot about them and their families back home. I am going to be fighting back tears when we have to say goodbye. Yesterday we were in Lisbon, our only European stop on this trip. We arrived at 10:00 AM so we were able to see the Belem Tower, Monument to the Discovers, 25th of July Bridge, and Christ the King statue as we came up the Tagus River into port. It looked like it was going to rain all day, but we only got a brief shower and luckily ... read more

An incredibly cool thing happened today. We crossed "Point Zero" on the globe. That is, 0.00 latitude and 0.00 longitude. And the most amazing thing is there is a buoy to mark it! Can you imagine? The chain on it must be more than 5000 yards long! The old joke is seeing the line when you cross the equator, but here there actually is a marker! So cool! Except that it is, in reality, really, really hot. And humid. Practically unbearable. The ship put on a silly program commemorating the crossing of the equator. It was similar, but better than the one they did on the way down. King Neptune came aboard and sentenced various members of the crew before he allowed us to cross the equator. This time many of the crew, including the captain, ... read more

I woke up yesterday at 6:30 AM and glanced out the window. The sky was just beginning to lighten behind the Twelve Apostles, the mountains next to Cape Town. It was awe-inspiring! It looked completely two-dimensional: black mountains, pale sky. As if someone had hand-town a piece of black construction paper and laid it against a pale pink background. Stunning. Eventually the far left peak turned into Table Mountain as we rounded the bend. Absolutely the most gorgeous entry into port imaginable. One of the best memories of the trip! Our berth is smack dab in the middle of the V & A Waterfront. About the equivalent of being parked in Nordstrom's parking lot for the Mall of America. We can easily walk to the huge shopping mall as well as many other waterfront attractions. Mom ... read more

Two days, two very different islands, two very different impressions. Yesterday we arrived ahead of schedule (pronounced "shed-jul") in Port Louis, Mauritius. This used to be a British Colony, but became independent in 1968. The official language is English, but most of the signs and people we ran across spoke French. The shuttle bus from the ship to the "downtown" was a disaster. It took us over half and hour to get to the other side of the harbor (no more than 1/4 mile as the crow flies) where the shopping mall was. Not the center of town at all. It was very hot and pouring rain. Mom and I wandered around (we do that a lot, don't we?) looking in the fabulous jewelry store windows and through the "Crafts Market" which was mostly high priced ... read more

Since we left Adelaide, we have been crossing the Australian Bight which is sort of a huge bay along southwest Australia. It is notorious for being rough. And it has been. Yesterday afternoon the swells starting getting bigger and they were 18 - 20 feet all night long. The creaking and banging in the ship were horrible. Our dresser drawers kept opening and closing. Even the door to the balcony opened a few times on its own until I figured out how to secure it. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep! Finally, we arrived in Albany about 7:30 and it was still. Albany was the first port in Western Australia and was very busy until the port in Freemantle (near Perth) was blasted out about a hundred years ago. Now Albany has about 30,000 ... read more