The Traveling Steve's

This week Steve (DOS) and I are staying four nights at the Hyatt Place Daytona Beach Shores, as part of my gradual recovery to my neck injury.

While the weather hasn’t been ideal, it’s been perfect for our purposes of getting rest and allowing my neck to heal the C2 vertebrae back together. It’s Wednesday afternoon as I write this, and we’ve are staying until Friday, since checking in on Monday.

We have a nice oceanfront room on the 6th floor, overlooking the deserted beach below, and the occasional guest who braves the ‘cold weather’ and gets in the hot tub. By northern standards it’s more like Spring than Winter, but for us Floridian’s, a high temperature of 62 and low of 50 seems a bit to cold to be outside in our swim suits.

It’s been slightly misty and a bit overcast today, but it’s a nice and quiet week to watch the ocean, catch up on a book, surf the internet, take an afternoon nap, go to dinner etc, without a set schedule. Retirement really is wonderful. Now if I can just get this ring around my neck brace taken off I can really enjoy it!

Looking ahead, DOS and I booked a couple major trips this week for later in the year. The first is a trip to Israel and Egypt, the “Holy Land”, which our church is hosting a tour of in early November. We went to a trip overview last Sunday at Church, and booked the trip and airfare the next day. We have been wanting to tour the Holy Land for several years now, and at one point were booked on a cruise there, however the middle-east flare ups in the region caused the cruise line to drastically reconfigure the itinerary, basically causing us to cancel the trip. We are actually very excited to be going with our small Church group, as I think will really enhance our understanding of the area and scriptures, in a way a secular tour would not. Plus we can study up before and follow-up after the trip with help from our Pastor who is leading the trip.

The other trip we booked is for April, which is a 15 night trans-Atlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Rome on the new ship Celebrity Edge. While we used to cruise frequently for years, we got a bit burned out after our last ocean cruise in 2015, switch instead to the more intimate River Cruises which are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The pricing and marketing of ocean cruises has changed considerably since we have last cruised (with prices to match!) and now like the cable and phone companies, the cruise lines are trying to bundle packages together; ie. drink package, gratuities, internet etc, to make the cruise a more all-inclusive package. We actually got a fairly good deal in a Sky Suite aboard the Celebrity Edge, and booked an aft cabin on deck 9. As it is a one way repositioning cruise to Europe, we had to book return airfare, which was a bit of a challenge at first. We ended up using miles on American, for two Business Class tickets from Prague to Philadelphia, and ultimately Orlando. So how do we get from Rome to Prague? We bought a one way Business Class ticket for around $250 from Rome to Prague, and we are planning to stay for 5 nights in Prague to make the first available ‘points’ flight back to the States.

It’s actually a great deal, as I’m going to use my Hilton miles for our 5 night stay in Prague. My brace should be off by March (hopefully!), but if not we will check alternatives then for the late April departure.

Now it’s time for my late afternoon nap. My night-time sleeping is still sporadic, but I can usually nap for an hour or two in the daytime ok. At nighttime you feel like you are supposed to be sleeping, while in the daytime, any sleep you get is a bonus so it’s easier to get some shuteye; at least or me with this brace around my neck.

Until next time, a couple other photos from the week . . . Take care!