1000th post today!…How did we ever come to this?…A fabulous video to share!…Please check it out!…

Today we’re posting for the 1000th time. How did this happen so fast? Where did the time go? When we look back at prior posts we realize that so much has transpired, that we’ve had so many diverse experiences.

Often we noticed digitally enhanced photos of roses with raindrops. This photo is exactly as we took it when we walked after a rain shower a few days ago.

It’s hard to believe that on March 14, 2012, I sat down in my comfy chair in my old life and wrote the very first post found here? In the early days, I wrote sporadically as is the case for most bloggers. 

There are numerous varieties of Anthurium these included.

At that time, I seldom included photos for which I used my less-than-ideal smartphone camera, with little knowledge on how to adequately use the digital camera we had. 

It was only after we left the US on our first cruise that we purchased the first of three digital cameras we’ve since owned, each a little more sophisticated than the other. Finally, I began to learn to take photos and include photos in the posts which has proven to be an ongoing learning experience but pure labor of love.

Apparently, this is a Giant Sunflower, the first we’ve seen in our neighborhood.

There was a gap in time from leaving Minnesota until we first left the US, from October 31 to January 3, 2013, slightly over two months. Originally, when we were completing our paperwork to leave the US, we decided to rent a vacation rental in Scottsdale, Arizona for a few months.

This way, we’d be close to eldest son Richard in Henderson, Nevada, my sister in Los Angeles, and Tom’s sisters who spent the Minnesota winters in Apache Junction, Arizona each year. 

Often ambitious gardeners plant these parasitic type pods to a palm tree in order to grow more orchids.

With plans to get together for the holidays of 2012 with all of the above family members, and more we also rented a vacation home in Henderson, Nevada for a week, leaving behind the rented condo in Scottsdale which had no room for overnight guests. We had a blast, to say the least.

During the remainder of our time in Scottsdale, we kept busy taking care of “paperwork” and other tasks associated with leaving the US; taxes, banking investments, lowest ATM fees, and exchange rate credit cards, new computers, phones, and digital equipment and on and on.

Close up of the orchids growing on the above parasitic pod is eye-catching.

We were busy almost every day of those two months in Scottsdale working on all of the above, taking walks in the neighborhood, going out to breakfast at a favorite local restaurant, US Egg, and fine-tuning our scheduled bookings for the upcoming two years. 

Packing in those days was a nightmare. We had 17 pieces of luggage. Now we’re down to two large, one medium, one computer bag, and a purse, for a total of five items. Big difference. Now, we can pack in 30 minutes. Then, it took days.

A new little palm tree had sprouted at the base of this tree.

After the holidays and saying goodbye, we left Henderson to return to the Scottsdale condo on December 27, 2012, for the few remaining days until we were ready to leave for San Diego, California for our first-ever upcoming cruise which was scheduled to sail on January 3, 2013. 

We loaded everything into Tom’s car and on January 1, 2013, we drove to San Diego to stay with my niece and her husband for two nights. On January 3rd, we drove to the pier in San Diego, spotted our ship, the Celebrity Century and for the first time the excitement kicked in. 

It looks like these are impatiens a popular shady area flower we often planted in Minnesota.

My sister Julie, her partner, and Richard met us in San Diego at the pier. Julie wanted to say goodbye and Richard came to say goodbye and to take the car off of our hands, later to sell it. Wow! How this all worked out so well still baffles us.

The excitement, the trepidation, the uncertainty, and a bit of fear washed over both of us. As the ship sailed away from the pier we looked at one another as we stood on the deck of the ship and Tom said, “Can you believe we did this?”

We were baffled when we spotted these buds unsure of what they’d become.

I shook my head as I looked deep into his blue eyes, “No, I can’t believe we did this.”

In time, the fear wafted away to be replaced by an innate sense of adventure and excitement which remains firmly in place today, 1000 posts later. In 26 days the adventure will continue as we board yet another ship on cruise #11 since that date in January 2013. 

And then, we walked a little further to spot these, and we had our answer, more exquisite orchids.

In eighteen days at sea, we’ll be in Australia, living close to the Great Barrier Reef, the Outback, the ocean, the jungle and wildlife galore, Funnel Web Spiders, Tiger Snakes, and crocs. Now, we’re talking adventure!

Thanks to all of our readers all over the world who have followed us, written to us, challenged us. Thanks to all the contributors to our site. Thanks to all the wonderful people we’ve met in our travels, on cruises, on beaches, at vacation homes, who invited us to social events, and to all of the people who assisted us in one way or another. 

A different arrangement of orchid buds.  We’re looking forward to when these all bloom, hopefully in the next 25 days while we’re still in Kauai.

We are humbled.  We are grateful and most of all, we’re in awe of the world around us. Let’s see what happens over the next 1000 posts!  Whatever it is, you’ll find it here, each day when you turn on your laptop, desktop, iPad, iPhone, or smartphone to see what’s happening, in the life…

Have a terrific Tuesday!

                                               Photo from one year ago today, April 28, 2014:

Houseman Samir warned us about purchasing spices from open containers such as these which were often stale or contaminated. Since Madame Zahra did all of our cooking, we had no use for spices during our period in Morocco. For more details, please click here.