Blue Planet Journey

Playing our ukuleles on the intact Renaissance-era city wall surrounding Lucca, Italy.   Ci ty wall surrounding Lucca , Italy. One of the joys in playing the ukulele is that, because of its size, you can take it with you when you travel. So far, airlines have been good about allowing us to bring our ukuleles on board, placing them in the overhead compartments. We use soft cases, so the space used is a bit more flexible than when using a hard case, although we have to be careful that they don't get smashed when a heavy roll-away is thrown in the same compartment. Caroline started playing the ukulele soon after the Covid-19 pandemic shut everything down in 2020.  I started playing the guitar again, to accompany her, but a few months later I picked up her uke and I was hooked. Wesley started soon after, followed by Mignon. Caroline begins to play the uke, March 2020. Initially, I accompanied Caroline on the rhythm guitar. By December, Caroline, Wesley, and I were all playing. In ...

  There are a lot of places to visit on this planet, and I've thought that revisiting a site is of lower priority than exploring new ones. However, sometimes opportunities arise for traveling to a location for a second time. In this case, it was for a wedding in the Western Cape. My first visit was after a month of safaris in Zimbabwe , Zambia , and Botswana . After a month in bush camps, the civilization of South Africa's second largest city was refreshing.  That first visit, we stayed in a hotel. This time it was Airbnbs, and no safari. The daily power outages were problematic, especially if you had bought ice cream for your freezer. On the other hand, Uber was easy to use and convenient, and food was a great price. The rand (SA currency) is 18 rand to the dollar, and paying 40 rand for a latte ($2) or 100-150 rand for lunch (about $5-7) is a bargain for the traveler.  One place I frequented regularly (Bootleggers) had happy hour draft beer (Jack Black) for $1.50, and ...