Month: January 2017

January 26, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 22 of 111. Hilo, Hawaii The Hawaiian Ambassadors did a chant and dance ceremony when we arrived into port at Hilo. Unfortunately for them, this came at 6:30 a.m. It was still fairly dark and cool out on deck. It rained briefly, but the young people were undaunted and they did a great job….

January 25, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 21 of 111. Getting close to Hawaii We finished our marathon walks and saw another dramatic sunrise. We collected our certificates and patted ourselves on the back for setting a goal and completing it. We had a hands=on cooking class today wth recipes from guest chef, Denise Vivaldo. You can see her with three…

January 24, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 20 of 111. 537 nautical miles from Hilo, HI Day four of our walking marathon. We are getting close to Hilo, Hawaii. One of the benefits of walking each morning is the changing sunrise views on the port side of the ship. At one point there was a glorious scene with streaming rays of…

January 22, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 19 of 111. Halfway to Hawaii Marathon to Hawaii–Day 3 Ron has successfully completed the third day of the marathon (20 laps around the ship). Paul is only doing a half-marathon (10 laps per day). Walking this morning was very interesting because there was some rain off the starboard side, but the sun was…

January 21, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 18 of 111. Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean Hi everyone. It’s Ron again. We just finished day 2 of the Marathon walk to Hawaii this morning. 12 miles down, 14 more to go. We start at 6:30 a.m.and finish about 8:00 a.m. Sunrise is around 7:00 a.m. So it’s really beautiful to watch the…

January 20, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 17 of 111. Pacific OceanHello everyone. This is Ron and I’m putting my two cents into the Blog.We have five sea days between San Diego and Hawaii. Today we started walking a marathon for the next five days, by then we’ll be at Hilo, HI. We’ll walk six miles each day (20 laps around…

January 20, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 16 of 111. Leaving San Diego This is the first segment of the Grand Voyage World Tour. About 90 passengers debarked the ship in San Diego and were replaced by a different 90 passengers. They just had THEIR lifeboat drill and are about to have their first dinner. You can see on our map,…

January 20, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 16 of 111. San Diego, California Next to the Midway museum is a huge statue that captures an iconic photo that was on the front of Life magazine after the war. Our trolley guide told us that the statue was called “Unconditional Surrender”. The real name was posted under the statue… “Embracing Peace.” The…

January 20, 2017 Paul Groves

Day 16 of 111. San Diego, CaliforniaWe signed up for the Old Town Trolley Tour in San Diego. I thought it would be kind of dull since I have worked for one week each summer in San Diego for the past four years, but it was really great. We had a special charter trolley and…

January 19, 2017 Paul Groves

On the Sea Day, there was a cooking competition between two teams of crew members. Two of these guys were British and two were Norwegian. The judges were the captain (waving), the head chef, and the chief engineer. The two teams had 25 minutes to cook and each came up with creative dishes. The twist…