Author Archives: Serene

We picked up our rental car in downtown Baltimore instead of going to get it at the airport.  The manager offered us a free “upgrade.”   The upgrade was to a mini-van which had lots of room we didn’t need.  … Continue reading →

This writing will combine two of the tours we took in Baltimore.  The first was a Historic Baltimore tour where we saw everything – and nothing at all.   We drove around in a van with a driver who was … Continue reading →

We had mostly enjoyed a wet first day in Baltimore. To finish it off, we had tickets to the Orioles vs. Diamondbacks game that evening.   This board in a restaurant bar inspired us to go forth and cheer for … Continue reading →

Our next excursion was to tour the Historic Ships of Baltimore, each with its own story and docked in the Inner Harbor.   The weather was still rainy and cool but it was easy to walk between the ships and … Continue reading →

The pre-purchased event for our first morning in Baltimore was a sail around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor on the Summer Wind.  When we arrived we were offered a refund, to re-schedule or to go ahead in the rain.  As our next … Continue reading →

This year’s baseball trip was a bit different than our usual because this time we didn’t follow the Seattle Mariners. This year we followed our Arizona Diamondbacks to Baltimore and combined baseball with our desire to finish our map from … Continue reading →

It took several lottery cycles before we were able to get tickets to tour Tovrea Castle, a Phoenix landmark. These tour tickets are described as “harder to get than a permit to hike to Havasupai Falls or a night at Phantom … Continue reading →

As we approached the end of our Northern Lights Cruise we were supposed to have two sea days south to Bergen where we would disembark and head home. We left Alta at midnight and when we woke it looked like … Continue reading →

Alta is about equidistant between the North Pole and Berlin.  The area around Alta held the Nazi’s largest naval base outside of Germany during World War II.  Many thousands of German soldiers were in Alta.   There was even a … Continue reading →

On board the Viking Venus, we had signed up for a phone alert for when the crew see the lights during the night. Some people got the alert at 4:00 a.m. but we had not.  We had been fortunate enough … Continue reading →