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Blogging Photography Travel

My Carnival Liberty Vacation 2022

And now Week 5 of my 7-week series on my 8-day fun-filled vacation on the Carnival Liberty out of Miami Florida.

If you missed any of the previous weeks of this series then you can click here: Week 1 / 2 / 3 / 4. (If you missed all of them then start with Week 1 and work your way back.)

It’s Thursday January 13TH 2022. It’s Day 6 of the cruise, and we arrived at the port of Willemstad Curaçao just after 7 AM ship’s time (Miami Florida) / 8 AM local time. I had an early shore excursion that morning, and I was one of the first off the ship to get in line for my tour of the island. In fact I was the first in line behind our tour guide.

Of the 3 tours of the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao I think this one was the best, and it was led by the best tour guide. We visited a historical museum, a liqueur distillery, Fort Nassau, and Hato Cave. It was quite the fast-paced tour, and it was a little too fast-paced for some of the participants of our tour. They became a bit vocal on our bus – accusing our tour guide of rushing through the stops. She could’ve gone off the rails and clapped back at the hecklers, but she took it all in stride. She calmly explained that it’s the tour company that determines the stops, the order that they will occur, and the exact number of minutes per stop in order to return to the port at the predetermined time set forth by Carnival.

I think on each of the tours of the 3 islands there were a few – oh – I’ll call them troublemakers – who represented the “ugly American” character well.

Here are 6 photo memories of Curaçao:

With this visit to Curaçao I completed my journey through all 3 of the ABC Islands – one right after the other – in alphabetical order. It was the main reason why I booked this cruise in February 2020. I wanted to return to both Aruba and Curaçao for a 2ND visit, and to discover Bonaire for the first time.

We departed Curaçao at around 4:45 PM (ship’s time), and we began our 61-hour journey back towards North America and PortMiami.

Next #TravelThursday – the journey continues with fun and food at sea.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Holidays Ministry Music Radio Scripture

My Top 10 Hits – Week 261

Every Monday I post my all-new Top 10 Christian hit music chart based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from the previous week. It’s the continuation of a weekly hobby that goes back 40+ years. Here’s this week’s chart:

COUNTUP FOR THE WEEK ENDING SUNDAY FEBRUARY 13TH 2022 WEEK 261
TW LW WKS SONG TITLE ARTIST / SITE
1 1 14 Weary Traveler
[9TH week @ # 1]		 Jordan St. Cyr
2 3 10 Jesus Is Coming Back Jordan Feliz Ft. Mandisa & Jonathan Traylor
3 2 6 River Of Life Mac Powell
4 4 19 Come What May We Are Messengers
5 8 3 See Me Through It Brandon Heath
6 7 3 Holy Spirit Come Patrick Mayberry
7 9 3 Brighter Days Blessing Offor
8 6 7 Walking Free Micah Tyler
9 5 16 In The House Crowder
10 – 1 Sunday Sermons Anne Wilson

# 1 This Week In:
2021 – “Every Step Of The Way” – Cade Thompson
2020 – “The God Who Stays” – Matthew West
2019 – “Maybe It’s OK” – We Are Messengers
2018 – “Gracefully Broken” – Matt Redman Ft. Tasha Cobbs Leonard

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY – (Or Saint Valentine’s Day.) Like most holidays it’s highly commercialized nowadays with cards, candy, roses, hugs, and kisses being exchanged, and restaurants filling-up for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It originated as a church holiday (going back over 1,500 years) – particularly in the Catholic and Lutheran church. Growing up in the Catholic church (and school) as a little kid in the early-to-mid-1970s I remember Saint Valentine’s Day as being quite the event on the calendar. You know I love Christian pop music, as there’s a lot of love in it – even when “Love” is not part of the title or chorus of the song. The overall theme of most of the songs on the radio is love, and the biggest station that plays them all – is K-LOVE. Our God created love. He is love. He commands us to love one another – on this day – and on every day.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice, but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Three things will last forever – faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7,13 NLT)

This blog is # 36 worldwide on the Top 80 Christian Music Blogs and Websites chart. Thank You for including us Feedspot !

This concludes another weekend of blog posts. I’ll do it again this upcoming weekend – with 4 new entries on Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I don’t blog on Saturdays. That’s my day of rest.

Your likes, follows, and comments are always appreciated. Thank You for being part of my online ministry to share God’s Good News and win souls for Christ through His music. I’m also on Twitter and Flickr.

Be blessed my friends !  May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

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Bible Blogging Christian Church God Ministry Scripture

Sunday Scripture

Greetings my friends. It is Sunday February 13TH 2022, and this is the day that our LORD has made. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad in it. Let us celebrate this great new day of believing, following, trusting, loving, and being more like our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

This past week I ordered a bunch of items online. I’ve been doing that more often over the past few years. It’s just so convenient to go online, select items I want to purchase, place the order, and then have them delivered either electronically or straight to my front door within a few days.

I bought a replacement chair mat for my computer workstation. My previous one was cracking and disintegrating in spots. The new one is surprisingly high-quality (much nicer than my previous one). I was skeptical as to what I would receive at my front door, but it turned out to be a great purchase. I also bought a brand-new printer. My previous one – almost a decade old (bought in May 2012) – was making loud grinding sounds when the print rollers moved. It lasted a long time for a cheap printer !

I also bought some electronic study material online for my preaching ministry.

You know what’s available online – absolutely free to include shipping and handling ? God’s Word. The entire Bible is online in every translation imaginable. All you have to do is Google or Bing it, and there it is. You don’t have to pay one cent for it. You can view it. You can download it. You have unlimited access to it.

I discovered the Bible online back during the Summer of 2006 when my salvation began and I heard Bible verses on the radio and I wanted to look them up and read them again and read the verses before and after them.

Yahoo and Google were my on-ramps to the Bible back then. I still look-up Bible verses that way 15½ years later, but I also have electronic and physical Bibles that I utilize daily.

With every means available to us today there’s no excuse to not refer to the Bible constantly if you call on the name of the Lord to be your Savior.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip His people to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT)

If you don’t know who God is, and you want to – I direct you to His Gospel here online. Check it out. You’ll eventually discover that you are indeed a character in His Bible. God is talking about you. He knows you. He wants you to know Him.

If you wish to learn more about the God I know then stay tuned to #SundayScripture. The best is yet to come !

Thank you for reading my blog for this day, and may:

The LORD bless you, and keep you.
The LORD make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp

Categories
1990s Blogging Music Radio

My Top 5 Hits RETRO – 1997

Every Friday I post the Top 5 of one of my classic hit music charts based on personal preference and influenced by radio airplay from either 15, 25, 30, or 35 years ago this weekend (rotating each week).

It’s the 2ND Friday of the month, so I go back 25 years ago. Here it is – for the week ending Sunday February 09TH 1997:

  1. “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” – Madonna
  2. “Spiderwebs” – No Doubt
  3. “I Want You” – Savage Garden
  4. “Wannabe” – The Spice Girls
  5. “I Like It Like That” – The Blackout Allstars

My Top 5 hits a quarter of a century ago were all # 1 hits – 2 formers, 2 futures, and the current. Also – “I Want You” and “I Like It Like That” were 2 of my Top 5 hits for the entire year of 1997.

“I Like It Like That” was an ENORMOUS smash in 1997 here in Miami, but it wasn’t the radio mix of the single. It was the D’Ambrosio Club Mix [Edit] that became an anthem that year in heavy rotation for most of the year from start to finish. Whenever that jam was played on Y-100 I cranked it up in my 8-year-old 1989 Geo Spectrum while cruising up and down South Dixie Highway. (Now that’s retro !)

Next #RetroFriday I’ll go back 30 years ago to February 1992.

It’s halftime my friends. I’ll be back on Sunday and Monday with 2 more blog posts for this weekend. Enjoy your Saturday. Thanks for going retro with me !

All rights reserved (c) 2022 Christopher M. Day, CountUp