Category: Photography

30 Years Of Cruisin’

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 19, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit the Western Caribbean via cruise ship. Exactly 30 years ago this morning – August 19TH 1991 – I awoke on a cruise ship at sea for the first time ever.

My Mom and Dad asked me if I wanted to go on a cruise with them and my little brother earlier in 1991, and (not knowing much about cruise ships at the time) – I said “YES !”.

They all flew down to Miami from the Washington D.C. area, and I drove up from 30 miles away. (I live in South Florida.) We embarked on the Norwegian Seaward – a fairly-new 3-year-old ship at the time. I believe there were 4 ports-of-call on the itinerary in the Bahamas, Grand Cayman Island, Ocho Rios Jamaica, and Cozumel Mexico (don’t remember the exact order). It was a 7-day cruise, and I pretty much fell in love with cruising during that week.

Ocho Rios stands out the most from that cruise. I remember doing a shore excursion with my family on a boat or a raft from the top of a hill, and we sailed slowly down a lazy river back to sea level as our host / guide sang to us. I always thought that it was Dunn’s River Falls, but you can only walk up and down those steeper falls – you can’t be on a boat or a raft on it. That trip down a river was likely part of a larger full-day coach tour of the island. Of course this was 30 years ago, so I don’t remember everything about it.

Ocho Rios also stands out in that I haven’t been back since on any other cruise or otherwise. I’ve been to the Bahamas, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel Mexico many times since that first cruise. I’ve been to Cozumel more than any other cruise ship port (by far).

My first 3 cruises were on Norwegian Cruise Line from 1991 to 1995. I then went on my first of 14 Carnival cruises in 1999. I’ve also been on Royal Caribbean and Disney.

I wrote about my 10TH Anniversary Carnival Imagination cruise in September 2009. Read it here.

I’ve got my 15TH Carnival cruise booked, and it’ll be my 23RD cruise overall. I’ll be visiting the “ABC Islands” – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao.

I had two back-to-back poor cruising experiences on Norwegian in January 2013 and Carnival in May 2014. After those two cruises – I kind of decided that it would be the end of the cruising era of my life. They were my 19TH and 20TH cruises, and I thought that perhaps I’d “retire” after 20 and rediscover Florida and America rather than the Caribbean.

I actually lost my desire to cruise for a few years after that. But that didn’t last long. My brother and sister-in-law invited me to be a part of a short 4-day family cruise on Disney out of Miami, and I said “YES !”.

It was my first cruise in nearly 4 years, and my 21ST cruise overall. It was also a fantastic cruise that greatly exceeded my expectations for a Disney cruise. The food was outstanding, and the entertainment was a lot of fun. I also relived my youth (OK – 30s) out on the dancefloor on that cruise !

9 months later – I was on my 22ND cruise – back on Carnival. I booked it 2½ weeks after I returned home from that Disney cruise. Unlike my previous Carnival cruise nearly 5 years earlier this one was a fantastic one.

So now I have my 23RD cruise booked – also on Carnival. I actually booked it 11 months in advance about a month before COVID swept the world, and it was ultimately canceled, so I rebooked it. I’m so looking forward to visiting the “ABC Islands”. I’ve been to Aruba and Curaçao before (on a Carnival cruise in October 2012), but I’ve never been to Bonaire.

I still plan to continue to rediscover Florida and America in the years to come – particularly post-retirement, but I won’t rule-out cruising. I’d like to take another TransAtlantic cruise in the future. My cruise from Rome Italy to Miami Florida in 2007 (on Carnival) remains as the greatest of all of the cruises I’ve experienced.

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

They keep you safe on your way, and your feet will not stumble. You can go to bed without fear. You will lie down and sleep soundly. You need not be afraid of sudden disaster or the destruction that comes upon the wicked, for the LORD is your security. He will keep your foot from being caught in a trap. (Proverbs 3:23-26 NLT)

Tags Caribbean, Cruise, Travel

Blogging Driving Nature Photography Scripture Travel

Skyline Drive + Blue Ridge Parkway

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date August 12, 2021

#TravelThursday continues, and in this edition we visit 574 miles of scenic roadway up in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina.

Several years ago I planned (via Excel spreadsheet) a road-trip that encompassed both Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was a very ambitious itinerary that – looking back upon it – is almost undoable. It had me flying-in to Washington Dulles International Airport and renting a car there. I’d get on the I-66 westbound, and I’d take that to Front Royal where I’d spend the night.

On the morning of Day 2 I’d begin my mountain adventure and embark on Skyline Drive – the 105½-mile slow and curvy road that runs near the top of the entire length of Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. I’d visit Luray Caverns on this day. It’s 11 miles off Skyline Drive. I remember a long time ago – sometime in the mid-1970s – visiting this place as a little kid with my parents. I need to visit it again to enjoy it as an older adult. The area has grown-up a lot since then, and the caverns are surrounded by other museums and attractions.

I’d spend my 2ND night of this road-trip in Fishersville Virginia – located in-between the south-end of Skyline Drive and the north-end of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Days 3, 4, and 5 were quite ambitious in that I would drive the entire length of the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway from Virginia into North Carolina (with various attraction and hotel stops along the way). At the end of the 5TH day I’d end-up in Gatlinburg Tennessee on the other side of the Great Smoky Mountains. I suppose I would’ve spent several days and nights in Gatlinburg exploring the area. After that I would’ve turned-in my rental car, and flown back home to sea level in Miami.

So while I extensively planned that road-trip – I never took it. I’ve not lost interest in taking that trip, and I probably will take it in the next several years – early-on in the next chapter of my life – post-retirement. I think I’d eliminate the Gatlinburg Tennessee portion of the future trip, as that’s worthy of its own trip by itself. Me and my little brother visited Gatlinburg for several hours back in August of 1992 – a few weeks after a horrible fire consumed a portion of the downtown attractions district. I remember that it still reeked of smoke some 3 weeks after the fire. I’d really like to spend about 4 days and 3 nights in and around Gatlinburg enjoying all that the area has to offer. I’d really like to visit Gatlinburg with my family (who live in North Texas), but I don’t think that it’s a destination that my brother, sister-in-law, and two nieces would find as much fun as me. They are not “mountain people”. They are “beach people”.

Now the Skyline Drive + Blue Ridge Parkway road-trip – that’s definitely a solo trip. Perhaps I’ll do it in reverse – from south to north – over the course of maybe 10 days instead of 5 – adding more stops for sightseeing, photography, attractions, and good mountain dining and lodging. Of course I’d drive my own car for the road-trip. It’s about 830 miles to drive from my current home in South Florida to the south-end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina. Once I hit Front Royal Virginia (at the north-end of the 574-mile parkway adventure) I’d take more traditional roads back southward, and the Andy Griffith Museum and the Billy Graham Library would be key stops along the way through the foothills of North Carolina.

I think it’s time to start redoing that itinerary (via Excel spreadsheet) so that it’s ready to implement in about 3 to 5 years. I’ll have over 2,500 miles to cover !

Join me next #TravelThursday as we visit another location on the face of this earth.

Tags Appalachian, Blue Ridge, Gatlinburg, Great Smoky, Mountains, North Carolina, Shenandoah, Tennessee, Travel, Virginia

Blogging Driving Food Photography Travel

My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 22, 2021

It’s Part 7 of my multi-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). It was my first extended visit ever along Florida’s Treasure Coast. While there I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River.

I awoke early on Day 4 – Saturday June 05TH 2021 – my 54TH birthday. In the weeks (even months) prior to this road-trip I had planned to enjoy a free birthday Grand Slam® breakfast at Denny’s, but they’ve actually changed things up over the past couple of years. Instead of simply walking-in to any Denny’s on the exact day of your birthday, telling them that it’s your birthday, showing them proof via your driver’s license, and then enjoying a free birthday Grand Slam® – now you have to be a part of their Rewards program, and receive a digital coupon for a free birthday Grand Slam® that you can utilize once anytime during your birthday month.

I decided to save my digital coupon from Denny’s for later in the month. Starbucks gave me a reward for any item on their menu free – good only on the exact day of my birthday – so it was off to Starbucks of Vero Beach for a quick small Breakfast.

After that it was a mostly uneventful drive home – down U.S. 1 – onto Florida State Roads 713 and 70, into Okeechobee County, around the eastern edge of the big lake, and then southward onto U.S. 27 and back into Miami-Dade County. I drove 180.2 miles home, and the total miles of the road-trip from start to finish was 471.8.

This was a fun yet well-planned road-trip. I planned it back in early-2018, and I scheduled it for the first week of June of 2018. I had to cancel it when a work-related road-trip to Georgia took precedence. Early this year I decided that this would be the year to take that road-trip, and so I scheduled it for the exact same 4-day / 3-night part of the first week of June. Most of the places that I visited were on my original 2018 itinerary. This was a road-trip where I wasn’t looking for potential part-time volunteer or employment opportunities post-retirement. I wasn’t driving around looking through potential future neighborhoods. I just wanted to visit new places that I’ve never been to before in my life, meet interesting people along the way, and enjoy some great food. I accomplished my mission.

Inside the Indian River Citrus Museum in downtown Vero Beach Florida

There are a lot of hidden treasures along Florida’s Treasure Coast – mostly along or within a few miles of the Atlantic coastline and the Indian River shoreline. I’ll definitely visit the area again to explore more. So far I’ve captioned and posted about 35 photos of this road-trip over on my Flickr site. I’ve got dozens more still to post, so I’ll be doing that for at least the next month. Check my Flickr often to see the newest photos.

And now it’s time to announce my next great Florida road-trip that begins in less than 100 days. It’s all planned-out. I’ll be driving up the spine of Florida along U.S. 27 up to Florida State Road 60, and then I’ll be heading westward into the Tampa area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward along U.S. 41 (Tamiami Trail) into the Fort Myers area for one night. From there I’ll be heading southward and then eastward back into South Florida. I’ll be spending one night in Northwest Broward County before I return home on the afternoon of the 4TH day. It’ll be a nearly 650-mile road-trip from start to finish, and I’ll post all about it for many weeks after.

This concludes my 7-part series on “My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip”. Actually it was an 8-part series, as I introduced it on the June 06TH 2021 edition of “Sunday Scripture”. You can utilize the calendar feature down at the bottom of this site to click on a previous Thursday if you missed any of the parts.

#TravelThursday continues next Thursday, as I plan to blog about Reykjavik Iceland.

Tags Florida, Travel, Vero Beach

Blogging Driving Food History Nature Photography Travel Weather

My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date July 15, 2021
1 Comment on My Summer Vacation 2021 Road-Trip

It’s Part 6 of my multi-part Thursday blog series on my recent 77-hour / (4-day / 3-night) / 472-mile road-trip spanning Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee Counties (in that order). It was my first extended visit ever along Florida’s Treasure Coast. While there I was always within about 5 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and the adjacent Indian River.

Last Thursday we left off at one of the city beaches owned and operated by Vero Beach. The city enjoys about 4 miles of beachfront property along the immediate Atlantic Ocean coastline. Indian River County extends about 22 miles along the coastline.

On my final full day of vacation I mostly stayed within the city limits of Vero Beach, but I took a few side-trips. I visited the southern extent of another Florida State Park – Sebastian Inlet – right along State Road A1A. I visited the McLarty Treasure Museum, and it was the northern-most point of my vacation at 27.83° north latitude. The museum was very educational and informative. I watched about a 45-minute video in their theatre that tells the story of the 1715 Treasure Fleet – treasure that was headed to Spain, but didn’t make it very far off the coast of the present-day museum due to a hurricane.

From there I traveled southward back through Vero Beach to the McKee Botanical Garden. It’s been open as an 18-acre Indian River County attraction for the past 20 years, but for 40 years from the early-1930s to the mid-1970s it was a much larger (80-acre) roadside attraction right alongside U.S. 1. Known as McKee Jungle Gardens back then – it was very popular during the 1950s and 1960s (pre-I-95) – boasting 100,000+ visitors annually. My favorite part of the botanical garden was actually the part where the main entrance / footprint of the original park was maintained and honored. Admission to the botanical garden is $15 for adults, and slightly less for seniors, teens, children, and military.

My next destination was the 14TH Avenue district of downtown Vero Beach for a number of stops along a walking tour. First-up was the Indian River Citrus Museum at the Heritage Center. It’s a very small museum, but it’s packed with fascinating citrus memorabilia. I walked over to the Indian River County Historical Society which houses a museum in the old railway station building. They were closed (“indefinitely”), but I got some good photos of the exterior. I would have loved to talk with someone inside the building (as I’ve done in other small towns nearby), but maybe I can do that on a future visit to the area. I enjoyed a nice late-Lunch / early Dinner (#LuDinner) at Italian Kitchen (across the street from the citrus museum). I had their “Combo Special”. It was a lot of good food !

I probably would’ve spent a little bit more time walking the streets of downtown Vero Beach (working-off my big meal), but it was really hot on that day (Friday June 04TH), the area wasn’t as pedestrian-friendly as I envisioned it to be, and I didn’t feel as safe as I wanted to be. I kind of stuck out walking around solo as perhaps the only tourist in the area. Even a cop drove by slower than normal looking over towards me to see if I was up to no good. I got back in my car, and I headed back to my hotel room. I did go out a few hours later in the afternoon to Sweet Kiss Ice Cream for some banana gelato.

Day 3 of my road-trip is now complete. I drove 40.1 miles on this day. That brings the total thus far to 291.6 miles.

Next Thursday I’ll conclude this road-trip recap with Part 7 and my birthday drive home from Vero Beach to Homestead. I’ll also reveal the destinations of my next Florida road-trip that I’ll take in a few months.