I think I said that the plan for today was to head to the Palm Springs tram, and do a little hiking at the top of the tram then enjoy a nice lunch in downtown Palm Springs.  But two minutes before we walked out of the house we changed our …

Its Thursday morning, and the earthquake drill is over.  Not that the drill took up any of our valuable time, all we had to do was put out a white towel to indicate that we were all OK.  The block captain surveys the block and then checks in with anyone …

Its the last day aboard ship, and it has been a day of mixed emotions. We are excited to get back to our friends and family in Decorah, yet we have had so much fun on this cruise, and we have actually met some great people as well. Some of …

I've been back in Decorah for less than 24 hours, its been a little more than 48 hours since we got off the cruise ship in Valparaiso. It was great to get a good nights sleep last night after having an overnight flight from Santiago to Dallas. Boy do I …

This is weird, but I woke up this morning wondering about the question:  "what are the ships procedures in case of a Tsunami?"  Would we head for the open sea and ride out the giant fast moving swell there, or would we seek safe haven in a harbor of some …

We are sitting here having our morning coffee and hot chocolate watching the waves crash and roll.  We left the Straits of Magellan sometime in the middle of the night and entered the Pacific Ocean, where we have high winds and, as the captain says, "Big Waves."  I took some …

Well, here we are, sitting in our room looking out the windows at Cape horn.  Amazing!  One of the naturalists on board gave a lecture today, and talked about the size of the ships that were used by explorers like Cook, Magellan, and Drake.  They are not much larger than …

Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world.  It is in the Patagonia region, and the Tierra Del Fuego province of Argentina.  Thats a lot of geographical trivia for you in one statement.  Another fun fact about Ushuaia is that the Pan American Highway comes to an end here.  You …

We have great table mates this cruise!  Kim and Rico from Houston, Shyla and Yogi from Ohio, and Rachel and Howard from New Jersey.  We look forward to sharing stories of our day with them each night at the late seating.  This is worth remarking on because we have seldom …

The city of Punta Del Este has about 10,000 regular inhabitants, even though when you look at the picture of it you could easily imagine that it hosts ten times that number.  This is because Punta Del Este is a huge vacation getaway for much of South America.  All …