Half Way Home

 Are we halfway gone or halfway home as we have reached day 76 of our 150 day world cruise?  We have logged more than 21,000 nautical miles.  From Kool and the Gang in Miami to Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand, it has been a wondrous journey of discovery in this big wide, wonderful world.  Our love continues to grow in new ways with so many different experiences.  We feel comforted by face time with our family, and our friends taking care of our cat and our home.

Adjustment was essential as we sailed off to a five month vacation with five hundred fellow passengers.  Our travel consultant, Richard, figuratively held our hands in the beginning to help us transition from our customary private vacations and tours to sharing our adventures with others.  We are social and have enjoyed meeting and talking with other voyagers.  Nonetheless, we also like our solitude, privacy and couple time.  It is interesting to converse with those from different walks of life and we have become better acquainted with a few couples.  We were developing a friendship with a couple from Florida but they had to abandon the cruise for medical reasons.  

Nearly all of the passengers on this ship are older couples.  We very seldom see anyone holding hands while Ruth Ann and I continue to hold hands after fifty-three years together.  We can feel the love of each other through the touch of our hands and we want to hold on to each other for as long as we can.  Additionally, as we have aged, we help steady each other as the ship pitches and rolls and when we're walking on uneven surfaces on land.  Young lovers hold hands and overuse I Love You.  We are mature young lovers.  

Every place and every adventure has been special.  I very much live in the moment so my favorite is usually wherever I am at the time.  Antarctica has been the most spectacular and unlike anything else we have experienced.   South America seemed to go on and on since we had so many ports of call.  For us, South America had an alluring grittiness to it- the music and rhythm, exotic fruit and vegetables, wild Patagonia, the Andes Mountains and Chilean fjords.

French Polynesia boasts their own kind of laid back beauty.  We love the coconuts and other tropical fruit along with the relaxed vibe of island time.  After a while, the islands began to all look and feel the same to us except Fiji with its heavy Indian influence.  If we spent more time in French Polynesia, the nuances of each island would distinguish them more clearly to us.

Our voyage will become much busier once we reach Australia and on to Indonesia and Southeast Asia.  The ports of call will be much closer together so there won't be as much time for rest and reflection.  

New Zealand exhibits a unique beauty with its volcanic structure.  We arrive in Sydney, Australia tomorrow morning and will attend the opera tomorrow night at the Sydney Opera House.

This is an incredible journey with countless adventures awaiting us as we sail on.

• “Will you give me yourself? Will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?” – Walt Whitman