What the heck?

I follow quite a few bloggers who publish every day or so. I just cannot imagine how they manage it.  I guess I could take a photo of our dog and post him every day but, well, how dull!  Earlier in the year I could have taken photos of the weeds flowering across the road but, again, not actually exciting.  

Now yesterday I got all excited looking at cruise line ideas.  We do love cruising.  We went on a Caribbean cruise way back in the day (1997) but that was really because the old SS France had been renamed as the SS Norway and was clearly on it's last legs.  I don't know but she was somehow important to me so I talked my wife into taking this little cruise.  I don't know if we were just being cheap or if we were just slow but we got a cabin way up in the bow of the ship.  The sides of the cabin were, yeah, curved up just like the bow on the outside!  The ship was a deep water vessel so couldn't go into many of the ports and had to anchor out.  Of course being in the bow we got to hear the anchor chain quite well!  This was back in the day when you had to dress for dinner; I don't even own a suit any more!  

In 2002  we cruised to Mexico on the Statendam to celebrate my wife's parents wedding anniversary; I'm thinking it was 40 years but don't quote me on that!  It was a family cruise so the ship was kind of secondary.  

Then we kind of stopped sailing.  We had a trailer and starting checking out the United States.  Eventually we traded that trailer in for another one but between the two of them we think we towed them about 80,000 miles - all in the U.S.  One of the reasons we were land-bound was that we'd adopted a dog from the local pound.  I don't know why but having a dog and leaving it in a shelter while we cruise is just tough.  (We've had five dogs over the years & they were all shelter dogs.  I cannot imagine spending money on some dumb purebred!  Actually, our current dog is 100% Shar Pai (our daughter had his DNA tested) but he was abandoned out in the desert and we got him from the shelter.)  However, our dog died in 2014 and we went on a binge!

We discovered Viking.  The Viking Imperial Jewels of China cruise to be specific.  It's no longer offered and it was less of a cruise but it was a hell of a trip!  We landed in Shanghai the flew to Wuhan.  Then we cruised up the Yangtze through Jingzhou, the Three Gorges Dam, Shibaozhai and Chongquing.  Then you fly to Xian and finally to Beijing.  I've no idea why they aren't doing that tour any more.  Maybe it became too expensive to visit all those fantastic, iconic places.  Since then we've done many Viking cruises.  We are just taken.  No dressing up; no children; no casinos; just comfortable rooms, good staff and great places.  

Ok, I'm going to shut up.  Nothing to say and all day to be boring.  Take care & try to be safe!