How to fill time in retirement

 Well the cruise was half over and now we were entering new territory for me on a cruise ship. I had been to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands before, but now we were heading toward the country of Honduras. Specifically, an island on the North coast called Roatan. As we approached the island in the morning, I could see another NCL ship heading to Coxen Hole, our port of call. Sorry the photo is hazy but there is a lot of moisture in the air, some people call it humidity. Above, we were heading West, and then we would swing around into a channel and head back East toward the dock. This island was very exotic with jungle looking areas and nice homes along the water. There was also a church. The other NCL ship docked first of course, and we being a bigger ship headed toward a bigger dock. Under new construction, there was a large Port of entry. The front side was full of stores and eating places, you could visit Honduras and never actually enter into the country. The back side was full o...

 Continuing our cruise aboard the NCL ship Norwegian Breakaway, Day 4 would bring us to Jamaica, my second visit to the island nation. This would be my first visit to Ocho Rios though, which translates to eight rivers. There are not eight rivers here. They think the name is a British corruption of the Spanish name "Las Chorreras" or "the waterfalls". This was the village name because it was near the famous Dunn's River Falls. Here is Tom next to the ship upon our arrival and disembarkation. I did get a photo of the village of Ocho Rios as we were docking. The sun had just risen and there was not a lot of activity on the water yet. It would be booming later as a few thousand people from our ship went ashore, including Tom and I. I took this photo of the Breakaway behind the sandy beach and swaying palm trees. Since we had gotten off early, a lot of people were still setting up their wares for sale to the tourists. Back then I still had a bucket list goal to hit a...

 I know it has been almost four years since my brother Tom and I went on this ten night cruise through the Western Caribbean, but I wanted to add it to this BLOG so I have a record of it with a few notes. Think of it as a historical record. Yes, Tom had just turned 65 and I figured a cruise would be great for him and for me too. Normally, I go on Royal Caribbean (RCL), but I found this unusual longer cruise departing from our local port Cape Canaveral. I had been on a few 7 night cruises but never a 10 night one, and Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) was sailing the Norwegian Breakaway from January 22 to February 1, 2020. These ships that are 16 decks and holds a few thousand passengers have a lot of places to visit. I wished I had kept a diary of things Tom and I did but all I have are basically the photos here and a folder of the daily cruise line handouts. of course, checking out the ship is always a high priority for me and even before we left the port, we found the 18+ Pool bar on ...

 I may as well end the year with three fiction books by some of my favorite authors and one non-fiction book that put me to sleep. I barely reached my goal of 36 books for the year, finishing the last one ( Holly ) on December 30. I started using the website Goodreads back in December of 2019. I like it because it allows me to keep track of books I have read, books I want to read, and follow friends and authors to see what else might be out there to read. It also keeps statistics and you know how much I love that. For instance, I have read 36 books this year and read 38 last year. I had 17 in 2021, 37 in 2020, and 19 in 2019. But, I read 14,511 pages this year compared to only 14,440 last year.  More pages this year by 71, which I guess is not that many. The novel  War and Peace probably helped this year's page count. My record is 15,948 pages in 2020. If you want the page counts to be accurate, you need to make sure you have the correct edition of the book. The local li...