December 28, 2024

Origami Christmas Tree Class #2

This class was so fun and missed by quite a few enthusiastic friends, that they asked me to teach again. So, I solicited a few key helpers, and we did round two! We had a couple who were paper folding challenged. They didn't like it when I crumbled their first efforts up and gave them a new sheet of paper to start over, but we worked through it!!! Lots of Laughs!!!



Class participants left to right, bottom row: Clare, Kelly, Delia and Tom.

Back Row: Cindy, Angel, Me, Jimbo, Wendy, Lauren, Terry, Christy and Gary. 


Note: I asked the group if I could hold onto some of their trees until later that night, to use in my room as decorations for the Christmas Cabin Crawl, and they said I was just using them for cheap labor, and they were going to unionize! 

ENTERING HONG KONG HARBOR

By Pat Patrick • September 1, 2026
On Saturday August 29, 2026 we achieved another historic milestone on this circumnavigation of the World , we cruised into Hong Kong Harbor. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The land encompassed by Hong Kong is confusing. It includes part of the southern coast of mainland China, just below Shenzhen, Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories . Looking at a map helps, but the rules changed so many times! I asked my buddy Chat several times, to tell me if what I was looking at was the Hong Kong that the British had owned for years. The answer was never straight forward!

HA LONG BAY, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 31, 2026
Ha Long Bay in Vietnam is one of those bucket list places I have had in my sights for years. It's the iconic picture in my mind's eye, whenever I think of Vietnam . We had made plans to go with 8 others on a brand new, swanky Red Dragon Junk boat for a harbor cruise and overnight stay, but sadly the weather did not cooperate the whole 4 days we were in port. No ships were permitted to sail, per the local government. Many of us were bummed! This is typhoon session and there was a lot of rain and high winds our first couple of days - we were hoping it would blow out the last day and we could at least do a day trip but no luck! 

HAI VAN PASS to HUE, VIETNAM

By Pat Patrick • August 30, 2026
To get to the final stop on our Vietnam FUN Tour in Hue, we had our driver take us on the scenic route called the Hai Van Pass. This 3 hour drive took us back through Da Nang and then into mountains and along coast for what is generally a very scenic route. Unfortunately for us, it was mainly covered in clouds and fog.