Tag: Zaandam
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Flowers the Flat Fellas saw in San Diego
Gazania, aka Treasure Flower.Evergreen CandytuftRose — a beautiful, tight budDay Lily Flower Names… Identifying plants can be hard enough, but many plants have not only a complex sounding scientific name, but also common names – plural. A flower man be known as a bluebonnet in Texas and a Lupin elsewhere for instance. The flat fellas…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley made the most of traveling with a digital camera
Before digital cameras not only was photography a more expensive hobby than it is now, but the time between taking a picture and seeing that picture was longer by a difficult to comprehend magnitude. Not only did you not see the picture within minutes of taking it, but there was a time when a family…
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Overwater Bungalows is one of Bora Bora’s claims to fame – and the Flat Fellas caught a glimpse of them!
The most famous type of hotel room in Bora Bora is an overwater bungalow. The room is on stilts over the water, frequently over part of a coral reef. People who have spent a night in one of the rooms say there is an area with a couch that has a glass floor. You can look through it…
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Bora Bora – the Flat Fellas explored an island so many have heard of
Before heading ashore with Flat Hal and Flat Stanley today we tried to think of why Bora Bora is an island so many people have heard of, and know the name of, even if they don’t know it is in the Society Islands, or French Polynesia. We started our learning with the help of Gemini…
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Vava’u, Tonga shared their culture and community with Flat Stanley and Flat Hal
Many of the ports Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have visited on their cruise have welcomed the passengers with local music, dance, residents in native dress sharing a glimpse of a life different than ours back home and taking time to talk with us and make us feel not just welcome in their community, but…
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Some of the birds in Tonga made an appearance for our cameras…
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal are good sports about respecting the personal space of wild animals, even when we wish we could get closer for better photo opportunities. The birds in Fiji seemed to master the art of blending in with the trees, and staying well away from the sun and heat, but a few…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal visited the capital of Tonga!
This is the fourth capital the flat fellas have visited since we left Texas. Can you list the four? In the past four weeks, Flat Stanley and Flat Hal have made their way to four unique capitals in the Pacific: Honolulu, Hawai’i; Pago Pago, American Samoa; Suva, Fiji; and Nuku’alofa, Tonga. While all are capitals,…
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SOLAS – Safety Of Life At Sea
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal mustered again… this cruise is over 30 days, and it was time for a little reality to come in to our vacation. Here is an explanation, with some help from Gemini AI for why Cruise ships conduct safety drills every 30 days, there are a few important reasons: It’s the…
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Savusavu, Fiji — even on rainy and foggy days there are new discoveries to be made
Flat Stanley and Flat Hal started their day in Savusavu, Fiji before the ship arrived by seeing the sunrise— but that glimpse of a rainbow above Flat Hal was a warning of rain to come, not just a celebration of the rain that had already fallen. Since the flat fellas don’t do well in water…
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Flat Stanley and Flat Hal on a 1.4 mile piggyback ride through the tropical rainforest at Colo-I-Suva Forest Park
Honestly, the Flat Fellas had the right idea. Piggyback ride is how I wish I had gone, but instead I carried our Flat Friends over rugged terrain on a challenging, and beautiful hike through the rainforest. There were times when the trail was narrow, and steep, but it ended in a natural pool everyone had…
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Maui – a day for roaming near the port
Some places have lots of mountains, making it hard to see a great distance away. Other places are wide open, and flat, and like when you are at sea, you can see storms moving across the horizon, and sometimes you can spot bursts of rain in the distance. We were sailing away from the BIG clouds…
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All Aboard! Flat Stanley and Flat Hal are taking a cruise!
There are many ways to travel. Planes, Trains and Automobiles used to be the answer for most people… but more and more are going out on boats, and taking cruises on ships. Flat Stanley and Flat Hal headed straight for an outside deck after boarding in San Diego to get a view of the Harbor. A…
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Flat Hal and Flat Stanley are San Diego bound!
A three hour delay was not a lot of fun, but it meant, as we flew west, we chased the sunset across the country, and had this pretty view for most of our flight. Can you think of a time when something seemed like a bummer, but in the end something fun or exciting happened,…