It has been a fun summer; but hot! Ah, Texas in the summer time! It makes you want to go somewhere cold, like Alaska; we did that last year, or maybe tropical where the palm trees sway and the sand is white with clear water and world class snorkeling and diving. Hey, let's go to the South Pacific!
Despite our best efforts, this is going to be an early fall trip and not one to let us escape the heat of August. We leave on September 18 to fly out to Southern California, Orange County Airport, for a few days exploring the San Diego area. Then, on September 22 we board Holland America's ship "Rotterdam" for 31 days of exploring four of the Hawaiian Islands, Fanning Island - Republic of Kiribati, Rarotonga - The Cook Islands, and seven islands in French Polynesia. Of the 31 days on the ship, 19 will be sea days with no scheduled stops. We love sea days! The longest stretch at sea will be the last six days on our way back to San Diego, arriving on October 23.
Over the summer, we have taken our SCUBA regulators and BCs in for service, procured DIN adaptors so we can use our yoke style regulators if we run into DIN type tank valves and have checked out our masks and fins. Carolyn, our in-house travel guru, has made all the reservations and has produced, so far, a 15 page detailed itinerary which, if history is any indicator, will have no resemblance to what actually happens on the trip. Although, since this is just a long cruise, we stand a much better chance of following the itinerary than we do when we are ashore and have a car and no reservations.
