Author Archives: joehawkins80
Down Under Part II — 3 Weeks in Australia
March 2023 Trip Notes & Itinerary Overview: Melbourne (3 days) > Kangaroo Island (4 days) > Adelaide (1 day) > Byron Bay (3 days) > Sydney (7 days). Bottom Line: From the land of Kiwis to the land of Aussies. … Continue reading
Down Under Part I – 4 weeks in New Zealand
February 2023 Trip Notes & Itinerary Overview: Our first visit to New Zealand was a four-week road trip by car, with 8 days in the North Island and 18 days in the South Island. After our last night in Queenstown, … Continue reading
Bareboating the British Virgin Islands
Thanksgiving Week 2022 Itinerary & Trip Notes (and highlights from past trips) Overview: This was a seven-day bareboat sailing adventure on a 45′ Nautitech Fly catamaran we chartered out of Nanny Cay, Tortola, with Horizon Yacht Charters. I skippered the … Continue reading
2+ Weeks in Alaska
This was our first trip to Alaska, the 49th State, and we needed to keep the total duration under three weeks. The Kenai Peninsula and Denali were at the top of our list and did not disappoint. Continue reading
4 Weeks in France
We had been to France twice before, first for five days in Paris over 30 years ago and then for three days in Strasbourg just before Christmas 2019. I had the stereotypical impression that the French didn’t like Americans and weren’t particularly welcoming or friendly. This trip completely changed all that, entirely for the better. If you’ve got 4 weeks, this itinerary was just about perfect. Continue reading
2 Weeks in Belize
Belize is all about being on the water, where snorkeling and diving the world’s second largest barrier reef with its spectacular marine life is out of this world, and the wonderful Belizean people who are proud but extremely friendly, welcoming and eager to share their love of the sea. Continue reading
Croatia – Slovenia – Italy – Switzerland
September 2021 Itinerary & Trip Notes Overview: Dubrovnik (4 days) > Split (1 day) > Adriatic Coast Sailing (7 days) > Plitvice Lakes National Park (2 days) > Ljubljana (3 days) > Lake Bled (2 days) > Soca River (2 … Continue reading
Christmas and New Years: London > York > Edinburgh
2019 Itinerary and Trip Notes This is the first of what I hope will be many future posts on fun, exciting and educational trips we’ve taken that help answer the frequent questions that usually accompany returning home. Like: Where’d you … Continue reading
Time for a Change
An old friend, former colleague and one-time boss of mine once said: “Change is good. The absence of change usually means your dead.” I appreciated the sentiment at the time and it always stuck with me, and in fact it’s … Continue reading
Ray Ozzie’s “Dawn of a New Day”
Today, Ray Ozzie published a memo he wrote to the staff at Microsoft, the company he has been with for five years and is now preparing to retire from. It’s bound to be a classic. By now — even though … Continue reading
Once in a while you get shown the light... 