July 8, 2024

Experiencing Lake Life

My good friends and newlyweds Dina (Miller) & Ed Szwarc invited me to their Lake House, for the long 4th of July Weekend. We drove up to Sussex County, NJ, Lake Culver on Wednesday night. It took a little over 2.5 hours from Philadelphia, on roads with very little traffic and we stopped for a nice dinner on the way. Once there, I found accommodations to be quite POSH ! I got the Americana suite and scallop edged Charmin toilet tissue - a first for me ! Only the best in Sussex County!

Thursday the 4th started with a visit from the resident Swan family - Mom, Dad and 9 newborns. They are about 3 months old and have not learned to fly yet. Ed's son Chris caught a catfish, weighing just under 7# very quickly from the dock and released. Then we all boarded their pontoon boat and went to watch all the lake activity; including the annual water skiers parade around the lake.

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Lake Life is easy to get used to - just drop anchor - or tie up to friends and Float!

The lake is surrounded by all different style and price point homes. Here's some of the top priced to fixer uppers! The last one is currently for sale - a simple boat house complete with a porta potty since it has no septic or indoor plumbing, a mere $500,000 !

We enjoyed amazing food all weekend including a 19 hour smoked brisket, compliments of Chef Chris and his trusty smokemaster  ( a.k.a. Dad) Ed. Yummy desserts included my raspberry, whipped cream and meringues, blueberry, Eton messes and Italian donuts called Zeppoles.  We also got to see Fireworks three nights in a row.

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    19 hour smoked Beef Brisket

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    Father & Son Master Chef and Smoke Master

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    Eton Mess

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    Zeppoles

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  • Slide title

    19 hour smoked beef brisket

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KOTA KINABALU, SABAH, MALAYSIA

By Pat Patrick • May 25, 2026
We only had about 8 hours of port time in KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia today, due to Port operations. I went out with Delia to see one of the most notable buildings in town, the floating mosque or Masjid Bandaraya. Our GRAB driver actually took our picture when we asked him to wait for us, and then take us to the mall afterwards.

SANTUBONG RIVER, SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

By Pat Patrick • May 23, 2026
MALAYSIA , on BORNEO ISLAND made palm seed oil their biggest export back in 1966 and was the top global exporter until 2008, when Indonesia surpassed them. Sadly, the resulting tropical deforestation has created major habitat losses and population declines for the Borneon Orangutans, Pygmy Elephants and Proboscis Monkeys . Many of us on the ship took tours to see these amazing creatures and I wanted to share some of their amazing photos too.

KUCHING, MALAYSIA - BORNEO ISLAND

By Pat Patrick • May 22, 2026
BORNEO ISLAND is a fascinating place, that I had honestly only heard of from the reality tv show Survivor. I'm still learning so much, but I had no idea it is the largest island in Asia and 3rd largest island in the World! It is a mini continent, with 3 different Countries sharing the island's land mass ( Indonesia 73%, Malaysia 26% and Brunei 1% ). We are only going to 2 ports in Malaysia now, one in each of the states of Sarawak and Sabah . Below is a video that highlights and explains thing well.