Six Destination-Oriented Special-Interest Lectures (Celebrity Millennium)

My most recent cruise, a 12-day voyage on Celebrity Millennium from Hong Kong to Shanghai, China, via Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and South Korea, marked the 10-year anniversary of my serving aboard ships as a lecturer. Over the past decade I have worked variously as a destination speaker, a special interest speaker, and, most recently as a destination-oriented special-interest speaker, giving talks tying in with the cruise itinerary and intended to help enhance the trip for attendees. 

On this one I gave a series of six thematic presentations, on an "Incident in the Gulf of Tonkin," "A Maritime History of the Philippines," "Exploring the Dragon's Triangle," "Taiwan:Cradle of the Pacific," "The Pueblo Crisis," and "The Korean War at Sea," all of which appear here. Suffice it to say that I am grateful to the cruise staff for shooting these terrific videos of my presentations, which aired on the ship's closed-circuit television network after I gave them in the theater, and to graciously providing copies of them to me. Very much hope you enjoy them! And please subscribe to my YouTube channel to keep track of everything I post there.

Greece, the Ghosts of South Texas, and Trips Past

CANYON LAKE, TEXAS -- Am at home writing this as I try to complete a current project, prepare for an upcoming trip, and reflect upon my most recent big adventure. 

* As many of my friends know, I am the editor of Clerisy Press's America's Haunted Road Trip series of travel guides to reputedly haunted places people can people can visit and am also the author of three of its titles. Two of those, Ghosthunting Virginia and Ghosthunting Maryland, I wrote some years back, and the third, Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country, I am fervently working to finish up now. While this latter book has involved a considerable amount of travel I have not posted too much about it here, as it has got its own dedicated blog (and I have updated it 10 times this month alone!). I have spared no effort on this book and anyone interested in haunted or historical sites in South Texas should do themselves a favor and check it out. (Shown at right is the tower at Comanche Lookout Park in north San Antonio.)

* In less than two weeks, my wife Diane and I will also be leaving to spend a month traveling to several locations on Greece! We will be starting off with a single day in Athens and will be doing something fun but yet-to-be-determined with my friend Dimitri Kremmydas, who lives there. Next morning we will be flying to Crete for six days and, among other things, are planning on visiting the Minoan ruins at Knossos, the Samaria Gorge, and the cave where Zeus was believed to have been born. We will then move on to the island of Santorini, site of the largest volcanic eruption in human history and known in antiquity as Thera, were we will spend 10 days, a week of it with our close friends Richard and Laura Allan, who will themselves be flying down from Scotland (Hotel Atlantis, the place we will be staying, is the large rectangular building in the picture below). We will then travel by ferry successively to Rhodes, Kos, Nisyros, and back to Kos, where we will spend a couple of days with my friend and colleague Brendan Cass and visit some of the sites I have featured in my "Swords of Kos" fantasy fiction novels. Then, we will fly back to Athens for a day and, from there, return home! 

* In the midst of everything else I am have also been trying to finish posting to this site the journal I kept during my voyage last September and October from Hawaii to French Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia on board the Royal Caribbean vessel Radiance of the Seas, for which I served as the cruise lecturer. 

More to come as I complete one project, finish talking about another, and embark upon the next! 

Radiance of the Seas Cruise Log, Day 14 (October 7/Monday)

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- Arrived in port here c. 10 a.m. Cold and windy and I am still under the weather; slept OK, but had weird dreams as with last several nights and woke up a number of times coughing. 

Breakfast in Windjammer; had congie, vegetable fried rice, scrambled egg, coffee. 

Finished reading The Bounty! Did not get read as many of the articles on regional matters I brought with me, mainly because I have also been trying to write, but have overall done a pretty good job with my reading list (especially when one considers how many other things we have been doing and how slowly I read). 

Visited the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand and viewed exhibits on natural history and Maori culture, the whare, or huts, and greenstone weapons being high points for me. 

Discovered that food is, indeed, very expensive here; had lunch at a nice but relatively modest cafe across from the visitor's bureau and city hall called the Lido and had a dish of lamb stew, a bowl of soup, and a glass of wine, which came to NZ$41. 

Boarded bus for 2:30 tour of Lord of the Rings filming sites in and around Wellington, especially in the Mount Victoria parks. Then went to Weta Studios and got a behind the scenes look at things it has done and has in the works, its prop and model creation methods, etc. Wellington Movie Tours owner/guide Ted Guise did great job and graciously drove tour attendees directly back to port instead of just visitor center. (See "On the Trail of 'The Lord of the Rings'" for more details and photos!) 

Dinner in Windjammer; nice coconut curry shrimp, Indian vegetables, OK Manhattan clam chowder, sugar-free/taste-free rice pudding. Ordered bottle of Charles Krug Merlot, thanks to recommendation from Kevin Furness and had one glass each (and am having another as I write this). Furnesses and John Robson came in while we were eating and joined us. John and Kevin each told a joke and I followed up with a hilarious one about CIA agent trainees that I think I first heard from Scott O'Connell. 

Agreed to meet K. and J³ Furness and J. Robson at Champagne Bar at 6 p.m. and to bring our bottle of champagne.