A New Hat

I know you remember all about 'The Hat.' I love my Nordy's hat and I love it even more since they replaced it when some of the stitching broke down. That shocks me to this day that they would do that, but anyway, I decided not to risk taking it on the upcoming trip. Putting it in a suitcase may have been the culprit to the tear and I'm not willing to risk it again.








So off to that other famous store, Target, for a new "Hat." OK, it is straw and has a sort of bow on it, but the only real resemblance to the other hat is the color.

It is smaller and not near as cute, but cute enough and I can put it in the suitcase! $15 is a deal and if it falls apart, I will not fret. What do you think of this hat? It should do in a pinch. I also had to get new glasses because my purple ones broke and couldn't be fixed. Bummer. So these are brown and bigger. Very comfortable.

Travel to the "Land Down Under" Comes to an End

On our last full day we had a wonderful tour of Northern New Zealand. We are at the top of a bowl created by volcano (much like Hawaii) overlooking the Auckland Harbor. We are standing on Mt. Victoria. It is quite windy, but gives you a 360 view of the city. Our hotel was actually very close to that space needle you see in the distance.

In all we were gone 23 days. Fourteen were spent cruising with the remaining days spent touring by land. The group was fun to be with and we sure want to thank Carol our wonderful travel agent who put together all the specialty tours we went on. We all felt like we saw so much more than what the cruise line could have offered. New Zealand was an amazing place to look at, to be in the company of its people, and to see what life "down under" really is like.

What a blessing that we were able to take this trip. But hang on, in just 8 weeks we leave again on another 23 day trip. This time we head for the Baltic region of Europe and Scandinavia for 2 weeks on the Azamara Quest and then a full week in France via land explorations. There will be 8 of us instead of 12. We will be with the same group we went to Asia with. It should be some reunion!