USA

Getting ready!

To all our family and friends who virtually "travel" with us, Happy New Year! Welcome to our 2019 travel blog. For anyone new to our blogs, let us introduce you to Hästa, the little Swedish horse in this photo. Hästa comes along for the ride, and tends to appear in our photos around the world.

Hope you enjoy checking in with us from time to time!

Our 4 days in Redondo Beach have gone quickly! Thursday evening we enjoyed a "magical" evening with friends at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. A different magician from the Magic Castle performs close-up magic on each segment of the world Cruise, so we have been hearing about the Magic Castle for several years. Actually being there for a meal and shows was amazing!

Friday was clear and sunny, a good time to explore Redondo Beach Pier and have lunch at Old Tony's!

Whoa! We're not in New England anymore!

This morning we worshipped at Christ Lutheran Church with good friends and now we repack to board the Crystal Serenity tomorrow. So excited to see old friends and to see all the changes in the ship that were made during drydock last Fall!

World Cruise 2019 started in Los Angeles and will end in April in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This map shows our route for the first of the four segments of the cruise.

Crystal "kicked-off" the cruise with the University of Southern California Marching Band (no chance to march, stuck inside because of the LA rains).

Later, a welcome from Captain Giske..

... and the countdown and dropping of 7000 balloons!

Cruising from California across the Pacific to Hawaii takes five days, every day full of activity.

Plenty of days at sea to prepare for the Grand Gala Buffet!

The busy days "rolled" by on the high, but not unpleasant swells.

We still haven't missed a day of walking in four years!

Early Sunday morning - the full moon over Honolulu

Diamond Head beckons.

A morning tour of the USS Missouri was a special highlight of our day in Honolulu.

The main battery – a tour of the deck…..

And also below decks……and many ladders

The Missouri battleship was the site of the Japanese surrender ceremony and the end of World War II.

Looking toward the Arizona Memorial (currently being repaired)

Later in the day, after our late afternoon Sunday Worship Service, we waited to see the lunar eclipse….

Which, in Hawaii, was total at 7:12pm.

Not to be eclipsed by celestial events, or the Patriots game 😊, local Hawaiian dancers entertained guests before the Serenity pulled away from the dock at midnight.

MAUI'S WHALES

With our ship anchored in the bay we tendered to shore and booked an eco tour company to take us whale watching.

We had seen many Humpbacks already, as the captain brought us in slowly this morning.

These warm waters are breeding grounds for Humpback whales. They take the long swim from Alaska every year to mate and give birth the following year.

They are the only whales with these long fins.

Going up!

Once, we were right in the middle of a group.

These tail slapping pictures are from our video of one whale that kept repeating the behavior more than 20 times!

This was not photo shopped!

And a wave goodbye.