August 11, 2025

Rain can't stop us from exploring! 8/11 is Japan's Mountain Day!

This is the Birthplace of CupNoodles! Invented by Momofuku Ando  at age 41, an entrepreneur who was broke and needed a new idea. Got idea to flash fry noodles, dry them out and reconstitute them with hot water after watching his mother tempura vegetables one night for dinner. Idea for placing in cup came after trip to USA and seeing American cutting noodles and eating with a fork in lieu of bowl with chopsticks. Simple idea, that has feed so many! We had a fun afternoon walking around the port area.

The rain held off most of the afternoon for us and we came back on the Ship to celebrate Sherrie's 70th Birthday, which we were all surprised to learn about, just this morning! Luckily, I had some decorations handy and we can always count on the ship staff to help us !

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHERRIE!! Saw this quote today and I think it's perfect for a 70th Wish!

HONIARA, SOLOMON ISLANDS

By Patricia Patrick • November 16, 2025
Another great day exploring the South Pacific ! Today as soon as our ship docked in Honiara , and we were cleared by customs, I was off with 9 other residents, to get in 2 small speed boats and head out to Simon's Nature Reserve in the Solomon Islands . It was about an hour long ride across the Iron Bottom Sound but so worth it to experience this special place!

ALOTAU, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

By Patricia Patrick • November 14, 2025
Fun fact - Papua New Guinea is the most linguistically diverse country in the World! It is estimated that there are at least 826 Papuan languages. Some are spoken by just a handful of people, while others by 100,000. (Thanks - Basia & Wikipedia for sharing this information).

TULLY RIVER, WHITE WATER RAFTING, AUSTRALIA

By Patricia Patrick • November 12, 2025
Tully is a small sugar mill town about 2 hours south of Cairns and we traveled here with a group of about 20 other residents to go white water rafting in the Tully River at the Gorge in the National Park. It is the beginning of the wet season and the river was running at a high level, so the rapids were class 4 out of 5. We had some trepidation, but were excited for the adventure! OMG so much FUN!!