Sail Away!

Our check-in process on the Viking Sun couldn’t have gone more smoothly, and soon we found ourselves poolside for the Sail Away celebration. There was champagne, music, dancing, and a warm welcome from the captain and crew.

We even had a surprise welcome from Viking owner Karen Hagen, who is as lovely and gracious in person as she is in the Viking commercials. She promised to re-join us in Hong Kong in a couple of months.

Viking owner Karen Hagen

We made our way around the ship to the top deck, where we were rewarded by a beautiful panoramic view of LA, and we stopped to feel grateful for the opportunity to take this world cruise.

Thanks for sailing away with us! And please check back periodically as we hope to share highlights of our journey with you.

Fond Farewells

After many months of planning and organizing, we think we’re just about ready for our World Wonders cruise on the Viking Sun. But before we set sail, we were lucky to be able to spend time with some of our family and friends. In the interest of time and space, we can’t mention them all, but we thought we’d share a few photos of some of these farewells.

Before leaving our home, our grandkids and their pup paid us a visit. Lona, Lewi, and Lucy spent a fun afternoon at our home and Nana Neecie (that’s what they call Denise) made their favorite meal.

Our California kids Bucky and Max traveled from the Bay Area to Long Beach to spend a fun couple of days with us and take us to the ship. Wanting just a few last photos, Bucky got us up close and personal with the ship, raising the interest of the security guards and law enforcement. All ended well, and we said our goodbyes portside.

Our dear friend Karen also made the trek across LA for some coffee and hugs. We’ve been friends for a long time, and it’s always so great to see her.

As we’ve noted before, family and friends mean everything to us. Over the past few weeks, we’ve shared breakfasts, lunches, and dinners with people we know and love. We’ve also exchanged messages, phone calls, and conversations with loved ones, and we will hold these all in our hearts as we make this journey. We are very grateful for their gifts of time!

Our Bags Are Packed

As the old John Denver song goes, “Our bags are packed, we’re ready to go.” On Friday we will fly to Los Angeles to board the Viking Sun for a four month World Wonders Tour. The itinerary is ambitious (52 cities in 28 countries!) and we’ll be sharing one room for four months (interesting!) We’ll be telling you more about the ship in future posts. For now, suffice it to say that we’re very excited, a little nervous, and as much as we’ve been planning and anticipating this trip, it’s hard to wrap our heads around the reality that we won’t see our family and friends for that long. But we’re thrilled about the thought of meeting new people, seeing some of the world’s wonders, eating unfamiliar and delicious food, and experiencing so much of the world! We hope you’ll follow along with us, and add a word or two from time to time. We’ll be back on May 2, 2020, hopefully with some good stories and life lessons that can only come from travel.

Papa Latte Turns Coffee Roaster!

We were delighted to receive an early holiday gift from our California son Bucky and his wife Max…a Behmor Coffee Roaster. But I’m getting ahead of myself…I hate it when I do that!

Let’s just say we love good coffee. Seriously…we love our coffee, so much so that our grand kids re-named Doug “Papa Latte.” For years, we’ve bought fresh, whole beans; ground each shot to order; and indulged ourselves in a really good espresso machine. We even have an Italian espresso machine technician, Pavli, who provides excellent service and keeps our Saeco Royal in top condition. The last time we checked, that Royal has logged in close to 32,000 shots of delicious espresso!

When the Behmor arrived, it was a wonderful surprise, but after reading the instructions, we were more than a tad intimidated. It came with all the bells and whistles, including 8 bags of a variety of green coffee beans just begging to be roasted to perfection. It also came with a host of warnings, videos, safety instructions, and cautions to avoid burning down the house. Papa Latte, our primary in-house barista, selected some green Bolivian coffee beans for our inaugural roast.

Green Bolivian Coffee Beans

Following the pre-heating instructions exactly, he set the roaster for 8.5 minutes. Keeping his eye on the roaster the entire time to ensure that the beans didn’t burn, he watched them plump up, turn a lovely brown, and begin to crackle and pop. Once fully roasted, the beans made a more pronounced cracking sound, and the roaster went into its cool down cycle. The fully roasted beans were quite dark brown and smelled wonderful.

Fully roasted Bolivian Coffee Beans

After discarding the chaff, he loaded the beans into the Royal and pulled the first shot for me…a perfectly balanced, smooth shot of espresso, my coffee of choice. He then made a latte for himself and savored the flavor, with thanks to Bucky and Max for a truly unique and thoughtful gift.

Papa Latte’s Latte

Papa Latte is now our official barista AND coffee roaster! Can’t wait to share some delicious coffee drinks with family and friends.

From Our Table to Yours

Today is Thanksgiving 2019, and I’m up early to put some finishing touches on our table before taking a break to hit the gym….it seems to settle my nerves before a big day ahead. This year our table is a little smaller than I would like. We miss our California kids on holidays, but the rest of the family will be here and we’re grateful for that. As we reflect on the abundance of the past year, we are particularly grateful for the gift of good healthcare, and hang onto the hope that some day everyone in our country will have the same access to it that we have. We’re also grateful to live in close proximity to farmers who have grown/raised/produced the beautiful turkey, vegetables, fruits, grains, eggs, and dairy products that we’ll enjoy. We’re grateful for the people who will work today to keep us safe, and those standing by to care for the sick and infirm. And we’re most grateful for our families and friends who are a constant source of inspiration and comfort. We are blessed beyond measure, and we are truly grateful. So from our Thanksgiving table to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting to Know Us

Here we are walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on a crisp January day earlier this year. We traveled to New York City twice this year, once by plane and once by train, and we truly enjoy a periodic visit to the city that never sleeps!

Doug is a retired entrepreneur, and spends some of his time working at the various medical schools in Cleveland (our home town) as a Simulated Patient Actor. He’ll probably share more about that at some future time. Denise is a retired healthcare administrator, having spent about half of her career on the provider side, and half in healthcare philanthropy. Both of us grew up in and around Cleveland, Ohio, a place we continue to call home. We were educated locally (Doug: John Carroll University; Denise: Ursuline College and John Carroll University). We’ve been married for close to 30 years, and we’re very proud of our family. Between us we have four kids, three kids-in-law, two grand-kids, three grand-puppies, two sisters, one brother-in-law, a niece and a nephew, (both of whom have spouses), two great-nieces and one great-nephew. They will all appear in this blog somewhere along the way, but for now, this is about us.

Doug enjoys downhill skiing, motorcycling, golf, old movies, reading, and of course, travel. Denise broke her leg skiing and uses that as an excuse to stay off the snow in spite of the fact that we live in the snow belt. She’s happiest when she’s cooking, and has recently taken up photography and golf. She also enjoys yoga, reading, and of course, travel. Denise also volunteers on several local boards, and together they support numerous local nonprofit organizations.

Both of us worked hard for a very long time in order to be able to enjoy our golden years, and so far we’ve managed to stay healthy enough. We’re blessed to have access to world class healthcare, and we don’t take that for granted even for a minute.

We’re also lucky to have wonderful friends, many of whom have been with us for decades, and we’re at the stage in life where we’ve had to say a fond farewell to some whom we miss every day.

True to our commitment to diversity and inclusion in all its forms, we live in a politically mixed marriage. Sometimes that works out OK, and other times it results in some stressful moments, but since we’re both contributing to this blog, we thought we’d just put that out there.

So there you have it…a snapshot of us. If you’re so inclined, we’d love to hear a little bit about you, our fellow timeless travelers!

Getting Started

Today we decided to start a blog. With zero experience in this space, it’s a bit daunting to say the least, but we hear it’s a good way to share what’s happening in our lives with those who might be interested. We’re calling our blog “Timeless Travelers” to convey the notion that we see ourselves as travelers through this thing called life, and we’re committed to doing so with as much enthusiasm and gusto as we can muster on any given day. With almost a century and a half behind us, we know that we won’t likely have that much time ahead, but we want to make the most of the rest of our journey. We don’t focus on age…rather, we focus on the opportunities we have to continue to love the ones we love, learn new things, experience interesting places, meet wonderful people, savor delicious food, celebrate the milestones of our family and friends, mourn the losses that inevitably come our way, and when our travels come to an end, be able to look back without too many regrets for the roads we never traveled. At this point, we’re planning to write about the three things that transport us to our “happy place:” travel, times spent with family and friends, and food. So come along with us, and we hope you enjoy our timeless travels!