Instead of the usual stories-high stacks of shipping containers, swarthy longshoremen, cheap souvenir stands, and duty free shops, the port of Cartagena adds a very special welcome for its arriving visitors. The path to enter or exit the port will lead you through a natural paradise…a port oasis. Officially known as Aviaro Nacional Baru de…
Continue reading →On embarkation day, we checked into Insignia, dropped our bags in our suite, and called our friends, Andy and Tammy Heath. They were our Cruise Director and Assistant Cruise Director respectively for our 2015 Around the World voyage on Insignia, and live in our home town, so we have become friends on sea and land….
Continue reading →For reasons I cannot explain There’s some part of me wants to see Graceland ~ Paul Simon The only time we were in Memphis, we did not go to Graceland, which I thought was just wrong. Now once again, we have headed south to escape the midwest winter gloom on a meandering drive destined for…
Continue reading →I am struck by the irony that, on the eve of, arguably, the most controversial presidential election in the history of the United States that is being closely followed all over the world, we are watching the results from our suite on Nautica, in the Gulf of the Suez Canal, one of the most volatile…
Continue reading →When we returned to the ship in the afterglow of our lovely day in Trapani, Sicily, gazing one last time at the city from our veranda, we curiously noticed the approach of a large boat arriving at the port next to us. It was filled, standing shoulder to shoulder, with black skinned people, some in…
Continue reading →I worked as a designer at Hallmark Cards during a charmed time, when the company was the social expression leader of the world, the country’s economy was flush, Hallmark was at the top of their game, and the company spared no expense to extract the best out of their broad artistic staff, searching the world…
Continue reading →It kind of seems that every single Norwegian has, essentially, won the lottery. In the 1960’s, huge oil reserves were discovered under the North Sea, and in 1990, the government declared that their oil wealth should be used to develop a qualitatively better society, defined as “greater equality”. The industry was put under democratic control…
Continue reading →The Midnight Sun, when day and night are blurred, is a bit unsettling for those not accustomed to it. There is no darkness from mid-May to mid-July. The sun never drops below the horizon, but hovers there for a couple of hours, then begins to rise again. This is midsummer at sea, above the Arctic…
Continue reading →I am no stranger to Minnesota, as we recently packed up the car and the dog, and headed to the north woods for a weekend family celebration. I spent a couple of weeks every summer of my childhood in the family station wagon, as we wound our way north on our annual vacation. My dad,…
Continue reading →I don’t have to travel far to see world class art and architecture…right in my own backyard. The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
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