“All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of business. What people like about me is Indianapolis.”  —-Kurt Vonnegut, Indianapolis’ most famous 20th century writer and author of Slaughterhouse Five After our morning at the…

We are leaving the ship this morning and heading home. Captain is staying on. Captain lives on this ship. No, no. I am not referring to the captain who is currently up on the bridge, although he lives here too, but he gets off after his tour of duty ends and goes home for a…

“This is the origin of the game, golf in its purist form, and it’s still played that way on a course seemingly untouched by time. Every time I play here, it reminds me that this is still a game.” —Arnold Palmer on the Old Course at St. Andrews I know very little about golf. Several…

It was a classic conrundrum. We could not decide. At the last minute, we went with Perez. We so enjoyed the BBC One series, Shetland and we really wanted to see Jimmy’s house, not to mention the entire town of Lerwick. Jimmy’s house looked incredible on the show for good reason. It may be old, but…

The ship’s horn blasted and we are sailing out of Kristiansund. This was our last port of call in Norway. The ship’s coordinates are set for Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. We have really enjoyed Norway. It is such a beautiful country. The people are very nice and we have felt welcomed in every port.…

If you suffer from the fear of crabs, or kabourophobia, you probably need to stop reading right about now. If you proceed, you should consider yourself forwarned. OK, then—here we go. Today’s topic of discussion is king crab: or actually, more precisely, the three Cs of king crab—catching, cooking, and consuming. We did all three…

Saturday was our eleventh day on this ship. I was feeling a little “boozed out” after so many days of enjoying cocktails before dinner and wine with dinner. OK, OK, I did have wine with lunch a few days. OK, OK, make that most days. That night, I took the evening off. “Enough!” I exclaimed.…

Our ship was the sixth and last cruise ship to tie up at the dock at Murmansk, Russia this year. Although it is not quite mid-August, here summer has peaked and fall is around the corner. It is true that this port is ice-free all winter, thanks to the gulf stream, but it is nontheless…

A mighty gale force wind was blowing the cold winter night of 23 January 1904 in Alesund, Norway when a fire broke out in the butter factory and swept through the town destroying 850 buildings in sixteen hours. Ten thousand people found themselves homeless with only the clothes on their backs. Surprisingly, only one person…

About one morning every week, my inbox greets me with an email from Pinterest. “We found 18 travel pins that might be right up your alley,” it proclaims. That Pinterest—always thinking of me. Needless to say, I click immediately. That’s when the trouble starts. I cannot even begin to list all the places and things…