We all know Muggins the cat from an earlier posting, but someone you might not know is Dexter the cat.  He seems enjoy the camera a little more than Muggins, so here he is.

Quite a while ago, I found out that there would be a cruise in my future.  Call it a final coup de gras of the family, a last big event where all of my family would be together for one big party.  Topping that off is the chance for me to visit many new countries and experience new foods, new sights and new peoples (along with collect a hand-full of new stamps in my passport)!  The name of the cruise (for those of you who want to look it up) is the “14-Day Black Sea & Egyptian Explorer” cruise.  It goes from starts and ends in Piraeus, Greece and travels all throughout the Black Sea in the Mediterranian.

• Day 0 – Piraeus, Greece, Depart at 5PM
• Day 1 – At Sea
• Day 2 – Varna, Bulgaria:  Arrive @ 7AM, Depart @ 4PM
• Day 3 – Sevastopol, Ukraine: Arrive @ 8AM, Depart @ 5PM
• Day 4 – Sochi, Russia: Arrive @ Noon, Depart @ 8PM
• Day 5 – At Sea
• Day 6 – Istanbul, Turkey: Arrive @ 8AM
• Day 7 – Istanbul, Turkey: Depart @ 11AM
• Day 8 – Kusadashi (Ephesus), Turkey: Arrive @ 7AM, Depart @ 8PM
• Day 9 – At Sea
• Day 10 – Ashdod (Jerusalem), Israel: Arrive @ 6AM, Depart @ 8PM
• Day 11 – At Sea
• Day 12 -Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt: Arrive @ 6AM, Depart @ 11PM
• Day 13 – At Sea
• Day 14 – Piraeus, Greece: Arrive @ 7AM & depart back to the airport and fly back to Japan

So that’s the general idea of the cruise and where all I’ll be going.  Feel free to post any image requests up here as I’ll be heading there in the next few months (I’ll update with the actual time/date later on).  For those of you who are interested in going on a cruise, here’s a list of some items to bring with you.  In an upcoming post, I’ll go through each to explain why they are each a good idea to bring along.

Duct Tape, Compact Binoculars, Camera (with extra batteries and memory cards), Highlighters (one yellow, one blue), Post-It Notes, Power Strip, US $1 Bills (for tipping), Night Light, Travel Alarm Clock (there’s no clock in the ship cabins), Pop-Up Hamper for clothing, Zip-Lock Bags, Travel First Aid Kit (Bandaids, polysporin cream, tylenol, bonamine, imodium, tums, pepto-bismol), Lanyard or Belt Clip, Over The Door Shoe Holder, Small Back Pack (for shore excursions), Nalgene Bottle (1 each, or pay $3.50 for one in your cabin), Shout Wipes (for stain removal), Bubble Wrap (for your precious souveniers), Hanging Air Freshener (no candles!), Package of Tissues (also for shore excursions), Ear Plugs and/or Sleep Mask and finally Colored Cable ties.  That’s all for now folks, I’ll post more up later on!

Back in March, my friend Kerrie informed me of a very large grass/field fire that was taking place outside of the city limits.  I picked up my camera equipment, made sure I wasn’t wearing anything overly flammable and took off out West to snap a few photos.  Sadly none of the photos are all that impressive.