On the ship

Our Hawaii Cruise for Jim's 70th Birthday - everyone was invited!

Saturday went smoothly. We had a delicious breakfast in the hotels cafe, then relaxed in our hotel room till check out time at noon. Catching up on emails etc. We met up with Jo and Devon downstairs, and also Gail West! I waited to call the Uber until we're all on the sidewalk ready to go. It arrives in 1 minute!

Then we're at the ship, drop off our luggage, check in and get our shell necklace leis. Very little waiting on lines. We go straight to the bar to wait for our room. Then lunch at the buffet and our room is ready. I'm so glad we got a balcony. 

At 6 we met up with our group for meet and greet. It was fun hearing everyone's story - no one was shy. I was sure upset with myself though because I didn't take any photos. I also didn't ask about people's plans for the week. A real missed opportunity to learn from each other.

Sunday was a free day for us. Late morning we decided to exit the ship and walk around. It was a futile effort. First, the exit involved about a half mile of walking a corridor of barbed wire. It felt like prison. Then we discovered the botanical gardens we're closed on Sunday. The only place to visit was Longs Drugs. So we just walked back. We did find a little Beach on the way to our our feet in the ocean and take a photo.

Back on the ship it's time for the pool deck. Ahhh, this is the life. When we get hungry we find something to eat. At 3:30 a dolphin game is on. It's always fun to watch football in a bar situation with people cheering their teams. The day was topped off with a great Polynesian show.

During the day I worked about the next day ..  checking on our dinner reservation in a long line at guest services, and coming up with various ways for all 14 of us to get transported to the whale watching spot.

Charmed, I’m sure

What a day! New Year's Day 2024. We woke up in our sweet little camper van, parked in Marie's driveway. We were there for a great New Year's Eve party and we didn't want to drive home. Woke up early and got on the road in order to be home and ready to present Fun with Photos over Zoom for the tech for seniors show. 

It went well, then we got back to work preparing for our Hawaii trip. The last thing on my list was to get Google fi working on my Samsung. I'd already given it a couple tries and was just getting myself deeper in trouble, first trying to set it up with my google voice phone number. That worked but it canceled my voice number … NO, that's not what I meant! So it took another couple hours and $23 dollars to undo that mistake. 

Ok, back to a working voice number, whew! But I still have no service on my Samsung. I try to activate the eSIM on google Fi and get all sorts of error messages. I get on a live chat and they try to walk me thru activation with an old physical sim - after more error messages I realize it has expired. I was told I have to go get a new one. Delivery would be in 2 days, but we get on a plane in 1 day. 

SO

Jim ordered a Sim from Best Buy and we hop on the car to go get it. I try one last time (after rebooting the phone) to activate the eSIM. Lo and behold, it works this time. I have a working Samsung AND it answers to my voice number. But we still need to pick up our order from Best Buy. Oh well, good to have a backup right?

We get there and decide to wander around. A Tiny chromebook (11inch) calls my name and I'm in love! I'd been dreading taking my heavy laptop on this trip, and my current chromebook I hate (can't see the keys, lousy  camera)   This little thing - Lenovo … is on sale for $279! And today is tax free day. Merry Christmas to me!

Meanwhile, Jim is trying to pick up the SIM and they can't find the order. Turns out he hasn't completed the process. Hey! We didn't need it anyway. All of this was just the universe's way to show me the chromebook I wanted!

I came home and set it up. I love it. I can pack it and be ready to go without unhooking my main computer station. Perfect!

Happy New Year!

 Jim and I are very fortunate to be healthy, to have each other, to have a passion for our work, and to be able to travel. Life is good.

What a year! 2023 saw us travel to Indonesia for a dive trip, London for a Google Product Experts Summit, RVing up and down the east coast to Jim's High School reunion and back, and the Bahamas twice, once with friends for diving with Hammerhead sharks and again for a Toastmasters convention. 

We've slowed way down in going to RV rallies and teaching. We only did 2 little ones this year, one in Georgia and one in Florida. Still have a lot of fun RVing and teaching our seminars, we don't plan to ever quit completely. We did stay home for a good stretch this summer, enough for Jim to get a new hip and learn how to use it. Although, it didn't take any time at all. He was at the hospital at 7am and home by 2:30. He used his walker for all of 2 days before he felt just fine. Now he's a bionic geek!

We've replaced RV Rallies with our YouTube channel for teaching. This year we blew past the 10,000 subscribers milestone. If you haven't seen one of our live-streams, check it out. Jim has learned a LOT about using studio production tools for making it look really good.

Now we're home in Fort Lauderdale for the holidays and resting up before taking a Hawaii Cruise for Jim's 70th birthday in January. We have 13 people going all totaled, some family and friends and some Geeks on Tour friends. 

Best wishes for a Happy Holiday and a Fun New Year. 

Here's our 2023 travel map:

December - home for party month

 Another concert! Also at The Parker. This one is The Fab Four - a Beatles Tribute band. They were really fun. See the photo album for some video.

Then came the USA Dive Club Christmas party in Delray. It's about an hour drive, so we took advantage of the special rate to spend the night at the hotel where the party was held. Any excuse to feel like we're traveling!

We've been partying, and diving, with some of these people for nearly 40 years. Still going strong!

For the Christmas day event, things were back to normal with Jim's sister, Debbie, hosting. 

For New Year's Eve - a real treat! Marie invited us to her house and we decided to take the Van and sleep in her driveway.

It was a delicious dinner, fun company, and fun to sleep in her driveway. We had to be home for a morning Zoom call, so we woke up and left early - allowing us to see sunrise on New Year's Day.

November recap

 At the beginning of the month we were still on our way back from New Jersey. We arrived back at Chloe's Big Mill B&B just in time to celebrate Halloween with her! What a hoot.

Then out to dinner at Sunny Side Oyster Bar - the real deal.

Then we got back on the road and stayed at the beautiful Fort McAllister State Park in Georgia. Then on to Florida and a quick visit with Diane and Andy who have moved back to Florida after several years in California. The last time we saw them was in San Juan Capistrano when their daughter, Elizabeth was about 8 and climbing all over the jungle gyms. Now she is 15? and an award-winning goalie on a soccer team.

They live in Melbourne, not far from Robin Werling - so we stayed in Robin's driveway for the night and headed home the next day. We had to get home in time to attend the Graham Nash concert at The Parker on Nov 6 - a reservation Jim made as my birthday present.

But that still gave us time to go to our favorite "date-night" restaurant (Cooper's Hawk) for dinner on my actual birthday!

We did it! We hosted Thanksgiving!

Jim's sister Debbie, always hosts holidays, but we decided to give her a break this year. We got out the folding tables and set them up in the living room to accomodate 10 people. Good to know - that's about the limit to fit comfortably inside our place. Jim made a corned ham - he bought a fresh ham and corned it himself.