Our day at the Allerton and McBryde gardens was not just beautiful, but also educational. The gardens are right next to each other on the southern shore of the island of Kauai. They are part of the national tropical botanical gardens. See the website at ntbg.org.
During the 2.5 hour tour we learned about the gardens mission to save plants so they can save people.
We saw the Madagascar periwinkle, an unassuming little flower that is responsible for not one, not two, but three anti cancer chemotherapies.
Then there is a whole section devoted to breadfruit. One tree can feed a family of four all year long.
Our very knowledgeable guide tells us all about the breadfruit
Then there the other end of the spectrum, the pong pong tree bears a very poisonous fruit. Just a bite can kill you, giving it the name suicide trees. It lives in an area of the gardens known as death row, along with several other deadly plants.
Our tour guide was 2d generation Hawaiian and very knowledgeable. We learned history as well as science. This property was originally owned by King Kamehameha and there are records of Queen Emma Planting a certain mango tree in the 1800s that is still there and produces fruit.
The incomparable beauty of the gardens has been used for the backdrop of many movies. Jurassic Park among them. Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, loved the place so much, he got married there.
Our tour guide told us that Michael Chrichton got married right here.
Finding a dinosaur's egg! 😮
Chris is looking for dinosaur's eggs.
After the garden tour we walked across the street to the "Spouting Horn." This is a natural phenomenon - we would call a blowhole - where an old lava tube funnels water in such a way that the waves burst thru and shoot up, sometimes 20 feet or more. We were told it is tied for second place among the most visited sites in Kauai - tied with ... Costco!
Then we hailed an Uber to take us back to the port and we had lunch at Duke's. A great day of beauty and learning.
What a view! After 8 days at sea, we woke up to spectacular views of Oahu and the iconic Diamond Head volcano!
We’re in port for 2 days. The first day was Sunday and we were scheduled to do our YouTube live-streaming show, “What does this button do?” Episode 301 We did it, and it went well. Here’s what we covered. You can click a topic to go straight to that spot in the show:
Tech tips and travel tales from our Villa Vie Odyssey cruise ship.
00:00 Introduction
03:29 Where are we?
10:53 Make a custom map of your travels
15:50 Manually change time zone
22:38 Conserve battery by turning off cell data
25:59 A word about VPNs
31:58 Kindle books offline and on your phone
36:19 Google Photos 10 year birthday announcements
39:14 Live view for walking directions in Google Maps
42:46 Our Mexico adventure
49:06 Review Questions
So cool that we’re able to do this from our cabin!
While we’re in Hawaiian ports there are alcohol taxes that prevent the ship from serving any. We always have a champagne toast after a show (whether it goes well, or we crash and burn!) so we left the ship and found a likely place - Pitch sports bar - yes, they had champagne, but they also had delicious burgers and fish and chips. A good find!
Diamond Head hike
We were here last January for Jim’s 70th birthday cruise, but did not get to do the hike up Diamond Head. This year we had an ‘in.’ Linda B was on the cruise with us last year and she had since moved to Honolulu. We contacted her and told her when we would in port and she arranged to pick us up and take us on the hike. Fantastic! Thanks Linda.
The website says the hike is .8 miles. I beg to differ! It felt more like 5 miles, straight up! My watch reported that the uphill portion was 1 mile, combine that with getting from the car and back, and the total came out to about 4 miles. The trail was good and had railings most of the way. It was a good workout, and we did it! The views at the top made it all worthwhile.
Our timing was great. Roughly 3,000 people make this hike daily! The day we went it was threatening to rain and we figured that would keep the crowds a bit thinner - not! Linda made our reservations for 10am we did the hike and were done by noon - that's when the rain started! Perfect.
To get to the trailhead from the car, we went thru a tunnel. The parking spaces inside the crater are by reservation and fill up quickly.
The beginning of the hike is pretty mild, with pavement covering the rocks and railings on one side.
When the trail got a bit steeper, we took advantage of rest stops.
Looking down on the Diamond Head Lighthouse
Look closely on the hillside to see the people climbin UP those stairs. That's the trail.
Tunnel towards the top
We went left.
Diamond Head was previously a military base (Fort Ruger), here we see one of the bunkers.
And, here's Chris demonstrating how easy it is to get into the bunker. 😜
We made it! What a view.
Ok, we're hungry - and thirsty - now! Linda had the perfect solution! Kona Brewing Co.
It was just a couple days, a very mild head cold. One of my criteria for a comfortable home is one that accommodates being sick. I remember looking at RVs way back when. There were some with very space-efficient designs that required you to convert a couch to a bed, or had a murphy-bed situation. I would reject those immediately because it wasn't "home" if you couldn't have an always-available bed, especially if you were sick. Is your home comfortable even when you're sick? I spent the better part of 2 days in the cabin and I was perfectly comfortable. Jim did not get sick and he was able to partake of ship events. No need for me to feel guilty keeping him down. And, if my cold got worse, I was comforted by the fact that I could call the medical center and get a checkup and maybe some antibiotics. Bottom line, our new home passed the 'being sick' test with flying colors. I slept a lot, but still took strolls around the deck for fresh air.
p.s. a week later and I was still coughing and wheezing, I figured I had bronchitis. I finally broke down and walked the 2 decks down to on board medical center to see the Dr. He asked me questions and listened to my lungs and told me I did not have bronchitis, just asthma. Yes, I have asthma but I never associated it with coughing. 72 years old and still learning! I took a hit from my inhaler and felt better already. The Doctor also gave me some prednisone pills to take for 3 days - it should relax my bronchial tubes. The final bill? $15. Being able to see a doctor so easily - priceless.
Outbreak
A week or so ago there were several people on board that suffered from a gastrointestinal problem that caused vomiting and diarrhea. When their number reached 3% (I think) of the ship's population, that triggered a higher level of sanitation procedures. The most notable being in the buffet. You could not serve yourself from the buffet, staff with plastic gloves on were required to collect and deliver the food to you. We really did not enjoy trying to explain exactly how much of the lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, etc. we wanted from the salad bar. But, after 3 or 4 days of this heightened sanitation level, the reportable cases of GI illnesses went below 1% of the population and we could go back to normal.
We're learning the facts of life living on a cruise ship
Our last 3 ports in Mexico were so fun, we may have been in the land of Oz. It started with Topolobampo. Just saying that is fun!
Toh-poh-loh-BOMB-poh
And what a welcome we got there! It seemed the whole town came out to greet us. I'm not sure they'd ever had a Cruise ship here before! What a treat that our small ship Odyssey takes us where big ships don't go.
Check out this video of their Mariachi band!
Then the next day we joined a group taking a boat to the 2 main local attractions; dolphins and bird island.
Plenty of dolphin swimming near our boat, but the highlight was a loner named Pechocho who hangs out in one particular cove and has developed a penchant for interacting with tourists. Just slap the water and he comes over and let's you pet him. As he rolls over and shows his belly you're quite sure that he likes it, he's not just performing for us. When he's had enough, he finds a stick, balances it on his nose and shows it to you. That's his signal that it's time for you to leave!
Blue Footed Boobies
The birders in our group we're excited to see a blue footed boobie and check it off their bird-sighting list. Then we saw whole flocks of them!
Lots of Blue-Footed Boobies with a couple of Cormorants and Pelicans thrown in!
La Paz
We were there for 2 days. The first day we didn't go anywhere but our new friends Wayne and Donna told us they had their best day EVER - out on a boat watching whales breaching and manta rays flying and then going snorkeling. Ok, we can't let them have ALL the fun, so when we chatted with another new friend, Viv, and she told us they had 2 spaces left in their boat for the next day, we said we'd fill them.
Here's the video of that day. We didn't see whales breaching. We did see a couple mantas jumping. We visited a gorgeous beach, hiked to a stunning viewpoint, snorkeled over pristine patches of coral and lastly, we braved freezing cold waters (74 degrees?) to snorkel with dozens of noisy sea lions.
Last stop in Mexico: Cabo San Lucas
Once again, we didn't have any plans for this port. The main reason for that is that there is no pier at the port. The ship needs to anchor and passengers are transported to shore by tenders. This is always an iffy situation and it's better not to count on it happening. As it turned out the anchoring and tendering went extremely well, so we did get off and just went for a walk in Cabo San Lucas.
From the Tender we could see our room - there's Penny, our stuffed Pelican!
I opened Google Maps and quickly saw a good-looking destination in Baja Brewing company. It was on the other side of the marina, giving us a nice walk to get there. It was on the 7th floor of a hotel, giving us a great view when we got there. We ordered a flight of their beers to try, a basket of kettle chips and some fish tacos. All was excellent, but the best was the view. When we left we bought 2 cans of our favorite beers to bring back to the ship, and 2 t-shirts.
Jim can't walk down any street in the world without getting attention for his mustache. Here he found competition! They need to find a Sam Bigote lookalike contest. (bigote = mustache in Spanish)
Walking around Cabo San Lucas was quite fun, lots of shops. It was a beautiful day. I bought a dress and some earrings.
Next stop - Honolulu, Hawaii! We'll be 8 days at sea getting there.
Today is May 20, 2025 and we've been living in our new home, the Villa Vie Odyssey, for one month.
Howzit going?? Below is the map of where we've been so far. Click on the map and it will take you to the interactive Google MyMap where you can click on the numbered icons and see photos and descriptions of where we were.
It's wonderful. We're thrilled to be living here and experiencing exotic ports of call. We're enjoying the people, the views, the food, and the activities. We also recognize that this is not a normal lifestyle. There are some things that are just weird.
Eating
We love eating from a buffet. You can get just what you want, and just the quantity you want. I am always distressed at restaurants when they serve me such large portions that I am forced to waste 2/3 of it or take it home. Here I almost always clean my plate. I love having so many vegetarian options available. In our own house it was near impossible to get our 5 fruits and veggies each day. Here, 5 is just a starting point!
That's the good part. The bad part is that desserts are the best! At home we never had desserts, here it's hard not to just have a couple of bites of ... chocolate cake, caramel mousse, vanilla ice cream ... And, rarely do we pass on the 2 glasses of beer or wine offered with lunch and dinner. At home we would weigh ourselves every morning. We don't have a scales here (note to self: buy scales at next port with a Walmart) and we're worried that it seems our clothes are closing in.
Mealtimes can be rather magical here ..
It's weird not to have a kitchen in your home. Of course, there is a kitchen here but we've never seen it. Other people cook and prepare the food that is available in the buffet. They do an excellent job. We love the food. But it's weird to not be able to wander into your kitchen, open the refrigerator door and browse for something to eat. We eat by the clock. For example, today we took a small boat ride out of Topolobampo, Mexico, to see dolphins and birds. It was wonderful, there is even one dolphin named Pechocho, who loved being petted. He'd come beside the boat where we could touch his fin and scratch his back, then he'd roll over so we could rub his belly!🐬🐬
It was so much fun, we didn't want to leave but we looked at our watches and started getting concerned that we might be late for lunch. The buffet closed down at 2. Oh no! 😥 Don't worry, we made it. We were able to get lunch. But no time for seconds!
As much as I enjoy the food here, I do rather miss the tuna melt sandwiches that Jim would make for me, as well as his breakfast egg sandwiches, and his chicken salad. I still think that my eggplant parmigiana is better than anything I've had here as well. But, we'll manage!
Travel
One of the top reasons to live in this ship is to travel around the world and we don't need to decide where to go or book air fares and hotels! Love it! No planning, no work.
Or is there?
We're in port just 1 or 2 days, sometimes 3. Although that's more time than normal cruise ships, it's still short. If you want to do anything special in a port, you may need to plan several weeks in advance. It's about 3 weeks until we're in Hawaii and we want to do a tour in Maui. I researched on trip advisor, viator, and Google, for tour companies and they were already booked for our date or couldn't accomodate our times. It's weird that you need to plan the details even though the overall travel is done for you.
So far, we have not done much planning and we've still had fun. We've had special shore experiences 3 times during our 1 month on board:
Acapulco Cliff divers (May 3) - no planning, we just walked off the ship and found a taxi to take us to the El Mirador hotel where the restaurant had a great view of the cliff divers
Guided e-Bike tour in Mazatlan (May 17) we joined our new friends Wayne and Donna, who had booked it the day before. We followed their instructions and booked the same.
Boat ride with dolphin petting in Topolobampo (May 20) - we were planning on spending the day on the ship but got antsy and saw people gathering to get the boat ride. They thought it could accomodate more people so we joined them, and it worked!
Sometimes, you don't have to do a thing. The entertainment comes to you, like this delightful Mariachi band in Topolobampo.
People
There are a bunch of really interesting people living in this ship. The community is probably the number one thing that attracted us to this lifestyle. In our normal lifestyle in our house in Fort Lauderdale, there is little opportunity to meet new people. We stay in our house day after day, eat meals with each other, work at our computers and watch TV. Occasionally we'd invite a friend or accept an invite from a friend to share a meal and some conversation. Here on the ship, you can meet new people many times each day. We go to the restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We've learned to sit at tables seating 4 or 5 if we want to be joined by others. Even when we sit at a table for 2, there might be another 2 right next to us and we'll strike up a conversation. It only takes 20-30 minutes to eat a meal, but we've sat there for 2 hours enjoying a good conversation!
Another way we're getting to know our shipmates is thru the "Speakers' Corner" organized by our friend Kit Cassingham. Many of the talks are recorded and put on YouTube here. Check it out.
That is wonderful! It is so fulfilling to have stimulating conversation whenever you want.
What's weird is that it's almost like being back in high school, or in a new job. There are a lot of people you don't know and it can be a bit of a mine field to learn who you want to hang out with and who you don't. But, unlike high school or work, you can always go to your room. We've arranged our room to be a very comfortable place. Which brings me to another weird thing ..
Living in 140 square feet
When people would ask us, "are you sure you can live in 140 square feet?" That's the size of our room. We'd say, that's just our bedroom, we won't be there much. The whole ship is our home. While that is true, I've been surprised at how much time we spend in the room. It's also weird that we don't watch TV. It's very comfortable for us to sit at our computers in our room. After all, that's what we did most of the time at "home." When I want the escape that TV used to provide, you'll find me reading books on my phones kindle app instead. Or taking a nap! Or taking a walk around and around the promenade deck.
We also have a big picture window in our room. One friend (thanks Alex!) has dubbed the window our "travel channel" and it's so true!
Time
It's so wonderful that we don't need to spend any time shopping, cooking, cleaning, driving, or any other of life's minutiae. But the weird thing is that we don't have more time for work or relaxation. There is so much to fill our dance card on this ship that I'm still feeling overwhelmed with not enough time to do what I want.
It's always about time ... when we went fulltime RVing, I thought I'd have more time. But no, we were driving a lot. Other things took up my time. Now, it's primarily meeting new people that takes up the time, but isn't that wonderful!!
Exercise
I can go to a stretch exercise class every morning at 8am. I make it 2-3 times a week. I'm disappointed with myself, but that's still better than nothing! And, I might get there yet. I do enjoy it every time I do go.
It is Oh-So-Easy to walk around the deck. Jim and I usually take a couple laps before and after each meal. Both of us have watches that track our steps. When I check my health app stats it says that I average 3500 steps over the last 21 weeks, but for the last 5 weeks (most of them on the ship) that is up to 7,000! Good stuff.
We have 2 photo albums about this journey.
The first one is "Living on a Cruise Ship - the beginning" It starts when we first heard about the Odyssey and continues thru our first month on board. It is organized in chronological order from beginning to end.
The second one is "Geeks on *World* Tour" that is the continuation of our adventure. That one starts today and we will add photos and videos as we cruise around the world. It is organized in reverse-chronological order. As we add new photos, they will show up at the top. As you scroll down, you'll be going back in time.
I can't wait to tell you about our 1 year Villa-versary!
