#434 The Joy of Packing

Our packing for the spring voyage is based on cool temperatures on the ship, warm temperatures in port, and shoes for every occasion!

Destination	Arrival	AvgHigh
Nassau, Bahamas	12-Jan	71
Roseau, Dominica	16-Jan	84
Manaus, Brazil	23-Jan	86
Takoradi, Ghana	6-Feb	88
Cape Town, South Africa	17-Feb	80
Port Louis, Mauritius	27-Feb	84
Chennai, India	6-Mar	89
Singapore	16-Mar	88
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam	19-Mar	93
Hong Kong / Shanghai, China	26-Mar	77
Kobe / Yokohama, Japan	4-Apr	64
Hilo, Hawaii, USA	17-Apr	79
San Diego, California, USA	24-Apr	68

Yours in making it all fit,
Mary

#433 Mappy Voyage!

We're off on a thrilling adventure - sailing with Semester at Sea on the Spring 2011 voyage.

At last count, we'll be sailing with 605 undergraduate students representing 250 schools, 77 faculty and staff, and 54 lifelong learners.

With so many new ports of call, we don't know which we're most excited to visit.  Some early predictions include our 1,000-mile trek up the Amazon River to Manaus, Brazil and our safari near Port Elizabeth, South Africa.   

Yours in circumnavigation,
Mary

#432 Christmas is all around

From Strasbourg, France (the capitale de Noel)...

to Washington, DC...

we've found that, in the immortal words of Billy Mack, "Christmas is all around."

Yours in believing in the magic of Christmas,
Mary

#431 White Christmas

What's better?  The movie White Christmas or the musical White Christmas or an actual white Christmas?

This year, we were lucky enough to experience all three.

The 1954 movie White Christmas has long been my favorite Christmas movie.   I watched it again this year to make sure Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye could pull off the Christmas miracle and save General Waverly's inn in Vermont from bankruptcy.  And yes, with lots of musical numbers and romantic hijinks, they are able to do just that.

The musical White Christmas is new to our Christmas traditions.  Though it premiered in 2004, we just got around to seeing it this year at the Empire Theatre in Richmond.  Though the story lines differ a little, the live production featured vocal powerhouses in the leading roles, fun song-and-dance numbers, and snow showers over the audience at the conclusion.  Our expectations were high and we were not disappointed.

But driving home through the snow-covered Charlottesville streets on Christmas night after a fun afternoon and evening with friends wins the White Christmas contest in 2010.

Yours in White Christmas heaven,
Mary

#430 Changing Time

Last night we enjoyed an annual fall rite of passage.  We set our clocks back one hour.  We fell back.  By convention, we choose to apply the time change overnight so we get an extra hour of rest.  I suppose we'd all be even more confused if we turned the clocks back in the middle of the day when folks are up and about.

Changing time is all about the math.  We've divided the Earth into 360 degrees of longitude.  That means the earth must spin 15 degrees every hour to make a complete turn of 360 degrees every 24 hours.  At the equator, each degree of longitude spans about 70 miles, so time zones are about 1050 miles wide. 

Let's say you're traveling westbound around the world on a ship.  Every couple days you'd grab a bonus hour of sleep as you move your clock back at each time zone crossing.  But if you're eastbound, many 23-hour days you'd meet, setting your clock forward with each time zone crossing.

Yours in soon meeting 23-hour days head on,
Kelly

#429 Our Blue Ridge Tunnel

On Halloween we hiked nearly a mile into an abandoned rocky tunnel under the Blue Ridge Mountains stepping over piles of fallen debris in the dark while bat colonies roosted silently overhead and water dripped slowly from the soot-stained ceiling.

Yea, that was fun.

Built before the Civil War and before dynamite, this engineering marvel was once the longest tunnel in the United States at 4,263 feet. Now the west entrance to the Blue Ridge Tunnel lies in a woodsy grotto at the end of an unmarked trail a short hike off the beaten track and unknown to the hordes motoring Skyline Drive and walking the Appalachian Trail overhead.

Locals plan to refurbish the arrow-straight passage as a rail-trail connecting the Shenandoah Valley with the Virginia Piedmont. Until then, it's our dank hidden gem.

Yours in finding the light at the end of every tunnel,
Kelly

#428 My first Purple Martin field day

For sixteen years now, Purple Martin groupies in central Virginia have congregated each summer to hear about their favorite feathered friends.

Lance Wood leads the field day cheers.  Orating from beneath shade trees with 120 nesting martin pairs as a backdrop, Mr. Wood explains the diligence required of humans looking to be successful purple martin landlords.  In two hours he hit the highlights and answered every question from the lawn-chair crowd of veterans and wanna-be landlords.

My take-aways...passive landlords need not apply... bring ingenuity, fortitude, and commitment to be successful.  Without attention to detail we humans are luring martins to their demise inside our carefully manufactured martin houses from predators like snakes, raccoons, and owls.

So it's not all fun and games at the PM field day, but the birds sure are fun to watch.  Mark your calendars, June 25, 2011 for Purple Martin Field Day 17. 

Yours in admiring successful landlords everywhere, 
Kelly