Potpourri 4

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Caroline with a wallaby at the end of a 50 K bike ride in Port Douglas, Australia.
We've returned to Logan, Utah, after 5 months on "the road" (mostly, the sea).  Let me apologize in advance if I pause before trying to answer the question, "How was your trip?"  It is a lot to process, and I am trying to articulate a coherent response.  It's funny how it is easier to comment on 1 specific event than on a trip in toto.  But as I sit in my usual seat in the North Logan Starbucks, I'm having fun reviewing some of the photos from this adventure.  Here are some that haven't found a home, from a mixture of locations.
This is the last time we got to meet our dear friend Micki, who passed 2 weeks ago from pancreatic cancer. We were attending the annual meeting of Friends of Hanauma Bay.

Caroline at Turtle Bay, North Shore, Oahu.

What be this, you may ask?  It's a public urinal in Fremantle, Australia, and a common design down under.  Men, just pee against the wall!  No missing!

The perfect ending to a long day of cycling!  A free sample of a massage on the Celebrity Solstice.

WhatsApp made it easy to keep in touch with our kids.  Wesley sent us a photo of his new business card.  He's moved from La Peca (population a few hundred) to Chachapoyas (population about 20000).  He now has a hot water shower!

Eventually, we learned there were 3 menus on the Solstice... the regular menu, a vegetarian and Indian menu, and a vegan menu.  We mixed and matched!

The Tasman Sea at sunset.
Our traveling companions in Dunedin, NZ.  We loved playing card and dice games with Deb, Paul, Ron, and Mary, even though Deb won enough times to make me suspicious... look at the photo below.  She's the one hiding a hand under the table!



Caroline checking out a stainless steel hammock in Akaroa, NZ.

In the building next to the hammock was this bit of art.  And notice the boot planters below!

Trekking in Akaroa, NZ.

I found this half of a mouse (Mus musculus) on our walk.  The path was too compacted to see any tracks of the predator.  Stoat or cat?  We may have surprised the animal while feeding, chasing it away with a mouthful of the other half.




Loved this sign!  I THINK it was a vacation rental van.

You know how, when people are looking to the sky, you just have to look up as well to see what they are staring at?




The pools (3) on the Solstice were small, and rarely was there enough room to swim laps.  People like to get in the water and stand in the middle, whether there is a swimmer or not.  So we would spy out times when the pool was open, and swim 100 lengths in 30 minutes.

Sharing a brew with Deb and Stuart in NZ, in an authentic Irish pub (well, as authentic as you can get from half a world away).

Notice the Cheshire Cat in the tree?  Dunedin, NZ.


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