Steve's Blog Blogging since 2004, about the significant people, places, sights and sounds of my world. Now dabbling with retirement!

Saturday, 6th May: Coronation Day – Heading Home Our final day here in LA! So, for the last time (for a while)… “Hello, loyal Readers!” 👍 They Think It’s All Over… Well, even by our standards, that was some holiday! They think it’s all over! Almost! Our flight is an overnighter, leaving LA at 10.30 …
Read More

Friday, 5th May:Venice Beach,Los Angeles Good morning, loyal Readers! 😎. This is the penultimate day of our holiday – and the weather forecast, as you can see, is ‘varied’ (polite version!) 😟. It’s our second day here in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, where (luckily) the weather has, so far, defied the official forecast and been …
Read More

Thursday, 4th May:Venice Beach,Los Angeles Morning All! 👍👍. We slipped into dock just after 6.15. It looked like a grey day out there! But here’s hoping! At just after 8.45am, we were back on dry land, having said goodbye to the Regatta. Our next stop? The Kinney hotel, west of Los Angeles, about a 50-minute …
Read More

Sea Days x6: Friday, 28th April – Wednesday, 3rd May Hello you! It’s been a while hasn’t it? 😉. ‘Days at Sea’ are inevitably, part of the whole ‘cruise experience’ and it’s all about making the most of that time away from land. SIX days IS a long period, and it pays to have some …
Read More

Thursday, 27th April: Honolulu (Day 2) – Pearl Harbour Aloha! 👍😎. It’s our final Port day today in Honolulu where our priority is to visit the Pearl Harbour Memorial. Time permitting, we also want to cover the Red Route on the Trolleybus that we postponed yesterday because of the deteriorating weather. The latest forecast shows …
Read More

Wednesday, 26th April: Honolulu, Oahu IslandDay 1 “Aloha loyal Reader!” Guess where we are! Yes, it’s our second day in the Hawaiian Islands and our first day (of two) in Honolulu. We docked around 6.20am (local), 5.20pm (KMT). Our first view wasn’t that impressive, though! 😟 We have two major priorities today: the first? Stay …
Read More

Tuesday, 25th April: Lahaina, Maui Morning readers. Welcome back! After four days at sea and 2000 (ish) miles, 🥴🥴 our journey northwards from French Polynesia to the Hawaiian Islands has been completed. We arrived into Lahaina, on the Northwest coast of Maui Island (part of The Hawaiian Islands) at 10.03am local time  (9.03pm, UK time). …
Read More

Friday, 21st – Monday, 24th April: All at sea, heading for Lahaina, Maui Morning All! 👍👍. For us, a slight change of routine begins today. Yesterday afternoon, we left French Polynesia and we’re now heading north (ish) for the Hawaiian Islands. We’ve got four days at sea (and about 2000 miles!) ahead of us to …
Read More

Thursday, 20th April: Nuku Hiva Welcome back Readers! 👍👍. Here we are, just arrived on the volcanic island of Nuku Hiva, one of the most remote places on the planet. We’re told that the nearest land mass is actually Mexico, some 2650 miles away! Needless to say, we’re closer to the Amazon than we are …
Read More

Wednesday, 19th April: All at Sea! Heading for Nuku Hiva Thanks for letting me know that some of my recent postings are not making the journey to your end! I have no idea what’s going on, but it’s being investigated back in the UK as I write this. Hopefully, things will improve over the coming …
Read More

Tuesday, 18th April: Still Cruising!Rangiroa Welcome back Readers! 👍. The techy issues that began yesterday may not have been completely resolved, but if you are reading this, then things are OK for now. Onwards and upwards ehh?!?! 😉 Today, we’re heading for Rangiroa, north-east of Bora Bora (where we visited yesterday). For a quick summary …
Read More

Monday 17th April Cruise (Day 2) ** I’m getting a few reports that this site is mis-behaving. If you can see this, you’re OK for now! ** Morning all! Another day, another French Polynesian Island! 👍. Here we are in Bora Bora! We’re here until fora fora o’clock this afternoon. 😉 If you’ve just discovered …
Read More

Sunday16th April All Aboard: Cruise (Day 1) For a quick summary of our holiday plans, click on ‘Paradise Found’ above 👍 “Ahoy there me hearties!” 🦜🏴‍☠️ It’s Sunday, 11.45am, local time (12.45am, Kettering Mean Time) and we’ve just said goodbye to the Apartment where we’ve been staying for the past few days. We took the …
Read More

Saturday15th AprilPapeete, Tahiti – Day 2 Morning Readers! Thanks for your continued readership. Today, is our last full day here in the Apartment in Papeete, Tahiti and we’re taking a Ferry trip to the island of Mo’orea (the little one on the left, below!). Looks like the weather is similar to yesterday, but with an …
Read More

Friday 14th April: Papeete, Tahiti – Day 1 Good Morning loyal Readers coming to you live (ish) from our first full day here in Papeete in Tahiti. It’s only 5.25am, and it’s already in the mid-twenties! 🥵🥵 We arrived last night around 8pm and soon settled into our self-catering Apartment (our home for the new …
Read More

Thursday13th April:Papeete, Tahiti Another day, another country – and another timezone! Having said goodbye to San Francisco this morning, we’re now on our way to Tahiti in French Polynesia and the capital town of Papeete. It’s an eight-hour (ish) flight, courtesy of United Airlines, UA115, and there’s another change to our watches. We were -8 …
Read More

Wednesday, 12th April: San Francisco (last full day) Catching up? For a quick summary of our holiday plans, click on ‘Paradise Found’ above 👍 Good morning all! 👍😀. It’s our last full day here in glorious San Francisco. We’ve already taken the Big Bus Tour (Monday) and visited Alcatraz (yesterday) and so today, we’re going …
Read More

Tuesday, 11th April: Second Day in San Francisco For a quick summary of our holiday plans, click on ‘Paradise Found’ above 👍 Welcome back, loyal readers! Thanks for all your comments on yesterday’s Post! Yes, it was a busy one! 🤪. I’m not sure we even had time to think about our jet-lag! This is …
Read More

Easter Monday, 10th April: San Francisco Morning all! 😀 Here we are in San Francisco (population: c815k spread across 232 sq. miles) – and it’s our first full day having arrived at the 252-room Argonaut Hotel last night, after an 11-hour flight from Heathrow. The Hotel is in a good location – Fisherman’s Wharf – …
Read More

Sunday, 9th April: Hello San Francisco! For a quick summary of our holiday plans, click on ‘Paradise Found!’ above 👍 At last, hello San Francisco! It’s 2.30pm local time and we’ve just arrived! Our plane landed 40 minutes early too! It seems like only a few hours ago, we were queuing with the masses (and …
Read More

Sunday, 9th April: Next stop? San Francisco! For a short summary of our holiday plans, click on ‘Paradise Found’ above 👍 Heathrow on Easter Sunday! Morning all! Well, here we are at Heathrow Airport on Easter Sunday. When we made the booking we hadn’t spotted that our travel was over the Easter period, and as …
Read More

Paradise Found! Well, this is the BIG one! Probably the most varied and lengthy holiday we’ve ever taken! As you can guess from the title of this Post, our 28-day jaunt, near and around the Pacific Ocean, involves land, air and yes (a lot of) sea! We had originally planned to do this one a …
Read More

Morning all! 👍. It’s Day 2 of our short break, staying in Holt, Norfolk. Click to catch up with yesterday’s Post 5.55am: Well, it’s still dark outside, but judging by the sound of traffic passing the Pub, it’s going to be a wet one here today! But maybe we’ll be lucky elsewhere? After breakfast, we’re …
Read More

Who goes there? Well, actually, quite a few people, it seems. Holt isn’t a very large town (pop. c4000), but it IS very popular – and it was certainly worth the two-hour drive from ours! 👍. Holt is a Georgian Town full of independent shops and even sports a few 22kW EV chargers too! The …
Read More