One of the joys of retirement is that we can take quite long holidays, which enables us to reach parts that work never allowed. So Oct/Nov 2010 saw us on a month long trip to the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, on the P&O ship 'Aurora'. The main objective from Paul's point of view was to visit New Orleans, or nawlins as it's spoke. This turned out to be a barnstormer of a destination. We had two full days there, and lapped up the wonderful colonial and plantation architecture, the cuisine, and - most of all - the music, which seeps out of every bar, and from the buskers on every corner. VIDEO HERE. Here's a quick post of a few shots, until we get time to put up a proper account. In each display of thumbnails, click to enlarge a photo, and you can then click to play a slideshow too.

The Azores

The Azores seem exotic and remote, but they are only four hours flight from the large ex-pat community in Boston, Mass. And there's a weekly flight from the UK. It is agriculturally wealthy (the climate allows four crops a year), mainly dairy, beef and pineapples. There is a university, and it is basically part of Portugal. It's a good place for whale watching, but alas we didn't see any. But we enjoyed a stroll through the beautiful capital, Ponta Delgada, where the pace of life is a laid back to say the least.

Miami, Florida

Art class, not class art!

We had three stops in Florida. At the second, Port Everglades, we took a trip to Miami. As well as seeing the art deco South Beach, and the upmarket homes of the well heeled, we also visited Vizcaya, an early 20C mansion. This was formerly the home of a rich tycoon, stuffed with art, sculpture, furniture etc from Europe, in the style of a Renaissance Villa. It is now a municipally owned attraction.

We went to art classes on the days at sea, and also entered a couple of photography competitions. See more of our faltering efforts at creativity HERE

Key West, Florida

This was an unexpected delight. The whole town is a treat of low rise colonial architecture, much of it copied from the Bahamas, with wooden construction and gingerbread detailing. Key West is connected to Florida by a series of road bridges running hopscotch up the chain of islands called the Florida keys. Key West is the most southerly part of the USA, 160 miles from Miami. It's basically a Caribbean island, surrounded by coral reefs, and as pretty as a picture.

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