We are at sea for a good number of days so I will not be posting much in the way of pictures of sites. So….will be sending info gleaned from lectures on board. I hope you aren’t too bored. A lot of the info I already knew but maybe for you as well, it will be all new.

Hawaiian Islands are the most isolated island group in the world…is north of equator 

The Pacific Ocean is 70 million square miles. It is 16-18,000 ft deep around Hawaii. 

It consists of 132 islands and atolls. 

The island of Hawaii was the last of the 8 major islands to be formed. 20 miles east is new island being born but has not yet pierced through surface of water.  

Volcanos in Hawaii are called shield volcanos. Kilauea volcano when it blew…. Spewed 30,000 ft into air. 

If lava is liquid, the flow is still full of gas. If the “lava” is crumbled yet moving, the gas has been dissipated. 

A sea cliff is a sign of catastrophic land fall. 

Kauai is oldest at 5 million years old. 

Oahu has over a million pop. 

Tsunamis travel at 500 miles per hour

Midway Island is under the protection of federal government 

Annual rainfall ranges from 175 inches at the mountains to 9 inches at shore  per year. It never drizzles for days but in short showers. 

They use no insulation or heating in their homes. 

The ocean temp ranges from 76-78 F. (24.5-25.5 C) year round. 

Mark Twain described the Hawaiian Islands as “The loveliest fleet of islands that lies anchored in any ocean”. 

9 stops- 2 hours

Marriott Marquis

1867-San Diego was referred to as Rabbitville. Alonso Horton paid $240 for 640 acres down by the waterfront that nobody wanted cuz all there was there was cacti and rabbits… 10,000 rabbits for each person

Gas lamp quarter … used to be bad part of San Diego

San Diego-Coronado Bridge is 248 ft high-2.4 miles long 

Naval base on the island. 27,000 population. There is no fresh water on Coronado Island. They have to pipe it in from San Diego. 

3.3 m dollar for the average home. 

1888 Hotel Del first all wooden, all electric hotel in North America

All shops storefront have to be different… quite cool. 

All navy seals have done training on this base. It was first for a whole lot of things aeronautical. 

Balboa Park – Kate Sessions schoolteacher turned master gardener known as the mother of Balboa Park. She asked the city for 30 acres to build greenhouses on the promise that she   would plant 100 trees per year. 

2,000,00 people showed up in San Diego for celebration for opening of Panama Canal at the 1915 Exposition. They were only expecting 600,000. Most never left. 

Average year round temperature is 78 degrees 

3 million pop. Average price of houses is almost 1 million dollar making it most expensive in America. 

Lindbergh Field is the name for the international airport. It only has 1 runway. It also has curfew…11:30pm to 6:30 am no planes can take off out of respect to the residences nearby. 

10 year waiting list to anchor sailboat in the harbour. 

Today we are doing a bus tour over the Golden Gate to Sausalito and later a ferry ride and tour of Alcatraz.

In the early days San Francisco, it was predominantly Catholic. Fishermen’s Wharf was run by the Italians. 

If there is any flat land, it is made of sand/silt. 90% of the city was destroyed in the earthquake of 1906, not by the earthquake itself but mostly it was from fires. They used fill from the rubble from earthquake to level ground to make the worlds fair of 1915. 

Tunnels are not through mountains but are bridges for wildlife to cross over the highway. 

As we cross the Golden Gate Bridge, you cannot see the top for the fog. The colour of the paint of the bridge by the way, is called “international orange”. It is actually primer & so is rust proof. Good thing cuz of the dampness from the fog most days. As we “turn the corner” from the bridge toward Sausalito, there is not a stitch of fog to be had… just beautiful blue skies. How can that be!!!

Sausalito originally was started as a Portuguese fishing village because the Italians wouldn’t allow the Portuguese into SF. The village is built on the hillside. It was built using steel pins driven into rock so the houses were safe from earthquakes. 

There are a lot  bikes lanes along the  Marina. It has a reputation for being kind of like bohemian place … it’s always been a place for artistic and adventurous types. Artistic types would come to Sausalito to escape the strait jacket of San Francisco culture. In the 60s people could live for free along the shore as long as they were sleeping on something that floated.  They would use wooden stoves to cook with on the floats. There were horrific fires, in one fire, 1210 vessels were destroyed.  To solve the problem they made water lots that they gave to the people. Some people, when presented with the opportunity to become a landowner, sold their water lots and made money. Once you owned the lot then people would have to have floating dwellings built that were up to code. Portuguese descendants are still involved in the building and the repairing of boats.

There is a big sandy beach, next to the old hippie beach that back in the 60s and early 70s was a nude beach. 

Coming back across the Golden Gate Bridge, that was still shrouded in fog, you can see the Palace of Fine Arts… the only building left from the Worlds Fair. It actually has been totally reproduced to the millimetre but is now 100% earthquake proof. 

The cable cars of Nob Hill ….were built for the really steep hills   By the late 1870s when it became fashionable to for the richest and wealthiest people to build at the top of Nob Hill, it was no longer fashionable to have quarters in your mansion for the help so they had to have some way to get there.  There were at one time, 17 different cable car lines.  One company didn’t care if they made any money on fares because they were making all the wire rope for all of the other cable car lines.  The cable cars are just simple old-fashioned mechanical are now at only two different locations in the Fishermans wharf district area. Those cars are pulled by one continuous loop of steel cable, a half inch thick, that only last for three months….. very costly. But, a politician can’t afford to suggest getting rid of them or they will lose their job. Third rails cable car Golden Gate Bridge

Then to Alcatraz Island. 

It was the first permanent harbour fortification  on the West Coast. From 1861, it was used as a military prison up until 1934 when it became a US penitentiary. It was closed in 1963 by A.G. Robt. F. Kennedy. 

As if it wasn’t bad enough that I was going to have to get up before the birds got up, I awoke to rain making a hell of a racket coming down the downspout…. at 2am. Well we won’t be seeing much of fall weather for the next 8 weeks. 

History of Capt. Cook- a presentation that we went to hear. 

Cook the 2nd of 8 children, went to live with a family of Quakers then lived his life as a Quaker, lived it as a good person, never swore, was meticulous & allowed no drinking on his ship. 

The very detailed maps of the St Laurence River that he had developed, are said to have helped the British win the battle of Plains of Abraham . He circumnavigated NFLD for 4 years…..was a fabulous map maker. 

He questioned that scurvy that sailors were dying of, was caused by lack fruits and vegetables in their diets. On the journey from England to Tahiti, a journey that took 8 months, he brought fresh fruit and vegetables …. and pickled cabbage… no crew died from scurvy. Cook was very concerned with well-being of his crew. 

He learned to measure longitude ….for the benefit of the safety of sailors. 

To many of the South Pacific Islanders, European boats brought fear because with them they brought death from disease. 

He circumnavigated Antarctica, also found Easter island and Marquesas

Sailed thru from Tahiti… (Raiatea was his favourite), then headed north to Kauai, one of the Hawaiian islands(called the Sandwich islands at the time) that had  not been yet discovered. From there he went to California, Vancouver island,  and north to frozen Berring Sea to find the North West Passage. Unlike some of the Polynesians, Hawaiians were not cannibals. 

He returned to Hawaii after being unsuccessful at finding the northwest passage. Cook was not received well after returning and was in a confrontation with the inhabitants, running to get away. Some say he was murdered but actually drowned. He was 50.

Elizabeth Batts, his wife, burned all his papers just before her death. All his 6 children  predeceased Cook. 

Just so you have a clue as to where I am headed to.

I am doing a test run because it seems that some people that apparently signed on to receive email notifications when I post, are not showing up on my system.

If you received this, would you please send me a message by text or email. It is much easier for me to respond through either than through this website. Please, the same applies when I am on “tour”.

Thanks Gail

Bucerias-Feb 29-Mar 2/24

I went to Bucerias for the last 2 days in Mexico and stayed at Ross and Greg’s “Casa Mexi-Cana”. If you want to stay at very nice place in Bucerias, Nayarit…..check it out. It has amenities that you don’t normally get in Mexican accommodations…..plus it is pretty! I had posted other pictures of the outside seating areas from when we were PV at the beginning of February.

Scenes from Bucerias

I am home now. I expected that I would have a short 5 hour journey home on a direct flight. Not! Because of freezing temps and snow in Calgary, the plane was delayed by 3.45 hour on coming to pick us up. I returned to spring flowers and sunny skies only to have on 2 separate days, have it turn to hail and snow. It is still good to be home 😅!

I apologize in advance if you get multiple editions of my posts. I have heard that when wifi is very poor that it sometimes will do that. And the wifi here is very poor. I have also heard that there is a glitch with Microsoft. Who knows.

Below are at a fundraiser put on by Hinde y Jaime in La Penita

We arrived back in Puerto Vallarta after a very long bus ride on a very winding “highway”. Although the bus was quite luxurious, after all it had 2 toilets, it was extremely treacherous to find your way back to the bathrooms without falling into someone’s lap or flat on your face.

This time we stayed for 3 nights at the Comfort Inn instead of the “One”. It has nicer accommodations and lovely pool, the breakfasts were not much better. The first evening we just strolled around the Marina area. It is very nice but OMG so many people.

Next day we went out to see a friend who has along with a business partner from Victoria, opened a small hotel. It will have seating for 150 by next year with all the outside seating and upstairs “Nickel” country Bar named after the Canadian nickel. It’s called Poncho Beave’s. The job they have done on this place is absolutely amazing. Below are pix of the Casa Mexi-Cana

The following day we took the Hop on, Hop off bus around PV. It certainly worth it.

Saturday the 3rd, we travelled by bus again but that was not nearly as zigzagging……to Rincon de Guayabitos. We are here for +/- a month.