St. Maarten Day 5, Wednesday, December 2, 2015 I needed to fortify myself with a good breakfast in preparation for shopping, so I ate another omelet with roasted potatoes, bacon, rye bread, and fresh pineapple. St. Maarten is my favorite island to visit. I went out on deck to watch our approach. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYqAMzP6BKY] … Read more
Gustavia, St. Barth (Saint Barthelemy) Day 4, Tuesday, December 1, 2015 St. Barthelemy is a tiny French island in the Caribbean. All prices are in Euros and the language is French. Here we are on the tender ride from the Celebrity Constellation: We strode along the main street lined with shops, which are mostly expensive … Read more
Celebrity Constellation: The Food, Part 2 Eating while someone else cooks and does the dishes is the best part of a cruise. We are continuing with Day 3, when we dined at the Ocean Liners specialty restaurant, courtesy of our travel agent (Adam Wolf at The Cruise Web). The three of us (I traveled with … Read more
Celebrity Constellation: The Food, Part 1 The coffee on this cruise was the best I’ve ever had on a ship. It was hot and strong with flavor and body. Since I’m a Starbucks fan, this is how I like it. The initial creamer cups they put out were skimpy little things that were hard to … Read more
Celebrity Constellation 9 Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Although the Celebrity Constellation is a smaller ship than most of our recent cruises, we enjoyed our experience very much. Everything was super clean and well maintained. Our ocean view cabin seemed smaller than most, with a bed, nightstand, desk, and loveseat taking up the space. However, … Read more
Day 1, Saturday, on the Celebrity Constellation There’s nothing like the exhilaration you feel when sailing away from land and knowing you are escaping reality for a week or more. We set sail from Fort Lauderdale for a ten day cruise on the Celebrity Constellation. Here is my shaky video of the sail-away: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w59F9y5T97s] … Read more
Located in downtown Bradenton, Florida, the South Florida History Museum offers two levels of exhibits. Short on time, we bypassed the Bishop Planetarium which is included in the admission price ($19 adults, $17 seniors). Our first stop was the Parker Manatee Aquarium, where a guide demonstrated the qualities of several manatees under their care. These … Read more
I was invited to give a talk for the Manatee Arts and Lecture Series in Bradenton, Florida, followed by a high tea, on Wednesday, October 21. https://youtu.be/_hRX_Pt18LY We arrived the day before at this surprisingly large town on Florida’s west coast just north of Sarasota. After crossing a bridge spanning the Manatee River on Business … Read more
Coming home from Bouchercon, we took the western route as I-95 hadn’t fully reopened after the flooding in South Carolina. This gave us some lovely hilly vistas before we descended to the lowlands with their cotton fields and other crops. I got to shop for pecans along route I-75. I use pecan meal to … Read more
Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015 at Bouchercon in Raleigh, NC began with author speed dating. This meant authors hopped from table to table giving a two minute pitch for our books. We went to 15 tables and repeated our spiel at each one. It’s intense but a great way to meet readers and tell them about … Read more