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| Once again, we'll be chasing the Northern Lights. Our success over the years has been limited. This is about as good as we have done in the past. This picture was taken near Fairbanks, Alaska on March 13, 2022. |
We returned to Florida from New York on August 27. Since that time, we've enjoyed visiting with family and friends. As always, many of our favorite visits have been with Beth's mom (NaNa). There is a "Golden Rule" about visiting her............bring treats! We often ask her if she'd want us to visit her if we showed up empty handed. Let's just say we're better off bringing goodies!
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| Ice Cream..........one of her favorites! |
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| I enjoyed a fishing trip with Beth's cousin (Brian Bustle). He's a great guide! We caught and released about 40 bass! My #1 rule about fishing..........if you don't know what you're doing, go with someone who does, and Brian really knows what he's doing! |
Next Tuesday (September 24) will be a very special day for NaNa. We'll be celebrating her 96th birthday and you can rest assured that there will be plenty of good food, laughter and singing. She was born in 1928. Calvin Coolidge was in the White House, Babe Ruth was leading the Yankees to their 3rd world series title and the first all-talking film "Lights of New York" had been released just a few months prior. If you're a movie buff you are probably thinking to yourself, "The Jazz Singer" was the first talking movie. You wouldn't be wrong, it was the first "talking" film, however it only had limited sound. AI strikes again! Needless to say, she's seen a lot of changes over the years but one thing that has been unwavering is her kind spirit. It'll be a grand celebration!
After the birthday party Beth and I will be heading directly to the airport. We'll fly first to Chicago and then on to Reykjavik, Iceland. Just like on Anna Maria Island, it will be early fall in Reykjavik, however fall has a different meaning in Iceland. We'll be leaving behind tropical fall temperatures that are hovering around 90 and stepping off the plane to a temperature that will be around 40 degrees. After the heat and humidity of Florida, it'll be both brisk and refreshing.
We'll have one and a half days in the Reykjavik area. We have a car rented and are looking forward to touring the Golden Circle. This circular route is approximately 190 miles in length and includes a number of southern Icelands most popular sites, including Thingvellir National Park, Gullfoss (waterfall) and several geyser areas. We've driven the Golden Circle Route one other time, but it was around 20 years ago. Ben and Sarah were teenagers at the time. We enjoyed it then and I'm sure will enjoy it this time around.
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| The Golden Circle |
After our day of enjoying the Golden Circle, we're hoping for a little nighttime magic...........I'm talking about the Northern Lights! We've caught a couple of glimpses of them a few times over the years, but we've never hit the jackpot. Hopefully this will be the time that all the conditions align and we get a great show. Time will tell!
The next day we make the short drive to Reykjavik, drop off the rental car and head to the port. We'll be embarking on back to back cruises that will follow a not quite direct route from Iceland to Galveston, Texas.
The first cruise is on the Norwegian Prima. It will take us to a couple of ports in Iceland before heading for Norway, Amsterdam, Belgium and ending in Southhampton, UK ten days later. Once we disembark in Southhampton, we simply walk a short distance and check in for the second cruise which will be a 21-day transatlantic cruise on the Regal Princess. We'll visit a couple of ports in France and Spain and make one stop in the Azores (Madeira), before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. After eight consecutive, relaxing sea days we'll have three Caribbean ports (Antigua, St. Thomas and Grand Cayman before disembarking in Galveston on October 27. There's faster ways to get from Reykjavik to Galveston, but those ways are for folks in a hurry. We’ve got plenty of time on our hands!
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| Cruise 1-Ten Days on the Norwegian Prima |
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| Cruise 2-21 Days on the Regal Princess |
I'm not planning on taking my laptop on this adventure. It's a dinosaur that weighs a ton and downloading pictures on the ships Wi-Fi is difficult. I'll try to post a few blogs along the way............It’s getting close to time to pack the bag with a few cold weather clothes and a few warm weather clothes. Iceland and the Caribbean, one carry-on and one backpack each!
