September 23, 2025

Outrunning Typhoon Nando and Celebrating Christy Birthday!

Both events were three days long! Christy had a 3 day extravagansa to celebrate her 53rd  Birthday.  First there was the traditional Ship dinner in the Thistle Dining Room on Friday night. Saturday 11 of us got off the Ship, in the Port of Anping and traveled about 30 minutes by Uber, to downtown Tainan, and the upscale Shangri La Hotel. Here the 6 ladies enjoyed Spa services and the pool and the men went out for drinks and foot massages. Then we all had a lovely dinner at the Hotel and ended the night playing CATCH PHRASE in Christy and Gary's Suite. It was a lot of FUN! The next day we had to hustle back to the Ship by 10 am, as the Captain moved up our departure, to start outrunning the effects of Typhoon Nando. For the Birthday Grand Finale we had a sail away pool cocktail party on the roof deck, complete with guest DJ Brooklyn Shanti. Shanti is a good friend of resident Victor and he wanted to do an event for us, while visiting. I convinced him the perfect time would be during this sail away birthday party. It really brought a whole special element to the event, with great music, lots of dancing and a nice big crowd! It was great FUN!!

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Our fabulous Captain kept us well out of harms way and we cleared the path of Nando. We are the blue dot on above map. We had some choppy waters, but nothing that had people getting ill or scrambling to catch falling shelf items. Just some gusty winds and rain. 

THE ART OF COCONUT CREAM - AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 18, 2025
Making coconut cream is such a big part of the Samoan culture I feel compelled to share the 4 step process we were so nicely shown. Every Samoan young and old takes part in this tradition, it is an intrigue part of their everyday lives.

PAGO PAGO, TUTUILA ISLAND, AMERICAN SAMOA

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
The tour today was focused on the National Park but we also got a lot of insight into American Samoa's history and current day life. Our guide was Nini and she is a college student studying accounting and finance and works as a part-time guide.

NATIONAL PARK OF AMERICA SAMOA, TUTUILA ISLAND

By Patricia Patrick • December 17, 2025
Today we took the National Park of American Samoa Tour. It's a unique park - the only one south of the equator and where the U.S. Government doesn't own the land. Efforts to establish the Park go back to mid 1980 over concern about the decline of fruit bats and wanting to protect the tropical rainforests. On October 31, 1988 Congress established the NP of American Samoa. In 1993, a complex arrangement for a 50 year land lease years with seven villages and the Samoa government was signed. We got lucky with our tour - we were expecting an open air bus, but because we were a small group, we got a plush air conditioned van!