Come with us as we travel the world! See where you can go!

Venice to Turkey 01

Day 01, 02 & 03, Travel Days!

Our good friend Tony takes us to the airport for an overnight flight. We’re starting out here at LAX, on the largest airliner I’ve ever been in my life! There are two full tiers of people. Two sets of staircases to access the upper tier, one in the front of the plane and one in back! There are also two jetways attached to the plane! It is also our first time on Lufthansa Airlines. A lot of firsts already.

We get settled in our seats and await takeoff which is one of the smoothest ever! Then we are handed menus on the plane! When the food comes, it has metal utensils and acrylic drinking glasses! Well, you can’t have everything!

10.5 hours in the air for the first leg to Munchen (Munich), Germany. I take a sleeping pill and manage several hours sleep. When I awake, breakfast of eggs and spinach are served. Landing in Munich to change from Lufthansa to Dolomiti Air is uneventful. We first have to go through immigration control and convince the guards that we will promise to leave and go home in a month! We ride a bus and load the plane on the tarmac.

It is now Day 02. The one hour flight goes by fast and we land in Turin, Italy. We retrieve our luggage and our friend Scott is there to pick us up. He is driving a tiny rental car and it’s cramped but not uncomfortable. Less than an hour later we are stopping at a local winery where Scott knows the proprietor and our wine tasting has begun. We get to Scott and Manuela’s house at the base of a church and we see why they drive such a tiny car. The roads are tight and the corners are many! We have arrived in Chiaverano, Italy, about an hour north of Turin!

Scott and Manuela take us to a favorite restaurant where we indulge in seafood and pasta. Back at their house, we taste grappa and other aperitifs before turning in for the night. They have allotted an entire apartment on the downstairs level to us!

Florida, Day 18

The trip home…

Fun clouds looking down from 12-15,000 feet as we com into LAX. Then a fun shot of SoFi Stadium right before landing. My first shot of the completed stadium from above! The World Cup will be playing there this summer!

We arrive home around 1 AM, 4 AM Florida time. Time to sleep in!

Florida 2026, Day 13

Sarasota, Ringling Bros Museum

On a day without much planned, we head over to “The Ringling” Museum to check it out. It’s a pretty fabulous collection of circus memorabilia!

A man named Howard Tibbels fascination with the circus began in his childhood. He spent summers with his grandparents in West Virginia. He would watch the circus trains unload using binoculars from a hilltop. As a child, he started making miniature models of different circus figures. He would end up spending over 50 years recreating the circus in miniature. The Ringling Museum took his models and put them on display. It is a fabulous depiction of the circus that spans about an acre of museum space! Check out the workshop that he built everything in!

Famous costumes and props the circus used.

Then we walk outside for a walk to the next building.

We step in to check out the Historic Circus Galleries and more miniature models. There is a workshop where workers refurbish and complete unfinished works! One of the train cars that the dignitaries of the circus travelled in was quite the car, complete with bathtub! And of course the ‘Human Cannon”!

A walk through the grounds reveals many Banyan trees where even a statue of a child has been swallowed up by the trees!

We checked out the “Ca’dzan” museum from the outside but did not elect to pay the $30 admission fee.

Then it was back to John & Andrea’s place for the evening.

Florida 2026, Days 09-18

Touring Florida and visiting people!

After disembarking the ship, we pick up a rental car and visit a shipmate friend from our 2 Round The World Cruises! Hey ‘E-Less Ann’!

Then it’s off towards Naples to visit Elee’s college roommate and her husband! Hey Ellen & Bob! They gave us a tour of the area!

After a couple days we head north to visit with Elee’s cousin on Anna Maria Island near Sarasota. Unfortunately, Karen was marooned up north due to the heavy snowstorms up north so John was a fantastic host who showed us around for a couple days! We also visited Brother in Law John and his partner Andrea who were both gracious enough to let us use their house! Thanks!

Then we were off to Orlando where we stayed at a Hilton (That we would never stay at again!) in the Disney World area. We did get a great deal on the room in exchange for attending a 2 hour Vacation Presentation (thinkTimeshare). Of course we were told there would be no pressure, LOL. But the presenters, sales persons, closers & check-out people were all clearly angry when we turned them down!

Our room in the hotel was next to a vertical shaft that went all the way to the very noisy Lobby where the sound carried to every room! We did have a view overlooking parts of Disney World and the Lazy River that belonged to the hotel. We did spend a couple hours prior to the presentation relaxing in the Lazy River!

Next, we were off to “The Villages” to visit another shipmate friend from our Round The World Cruises, Ron and his girlfriend Linda! It was fun catching up Guys! They took us to an outdoor Country Concert. It seems that The Villages has entertainment happening somewhere almost every night so it doesn’t matter which night you want to go out! There is always something happening!

On our way back to Orlando that evening, we even were able to pull over to watch a launch from Cape Canaveral! This was probably the most disappointing shot with the new iPhone 17 as the phone wouldn’t focus well on the rocket flames!

The next morning we check out of our hotel at 11 AM. Our flight doesn’t take off until 9 PM so we take a leisurely drive back to Fort Lauderdale. We find the Riverwalk and spend a couple hours there.

There will be an upcoming post for something we also did in Sarasota, but was a separate side trip. See you again soon!

Florida 2026, Day 08

Day 8 (6 on the ship), At Sea

We sleep in today. Breakfast consists of the “Windjammer Marketplace”, aka the buffet restaurant. One of the waiters was always dressed in some kind of ‘cow’ theme!

We hang out lazily today and listen to jazz music outside our window, coming from somewhere down in Central Park. We do find the walking track on Deck 5 that goes around the ship and I walk 5 laps, the equivalent of 3 miles! We walk around and find the “Bionic Bar” and I get a “Mother Pucker” just to watch the robots work.

We watch a few minutes of a Crew vs Passenger Volleyball game where the Crew dominates.

In the afternoon we watch a production of “Cats” in the theater. As well as it was performed, we’re glad we didn’t pay for Pantages tickets.

Then for dinner we visit Port Side BBQ and have brisket and pulled pork, smoked long and slow.

We attend a game show called “The Perfect Couple”, a hilarious adults only show. Then it’s off to bed and pack up our belongings as the Cruise ends in the morning.