We have left the Plague Ship of Death, though not without cost (we both have colds).  The ship has a few more days of incubating viruses before landing in Sidney— if I were Australia, I’d consider evacuating the east coast. We are now in New Zealand, which has, umm, really active geology.

Greetings from the southernmost town in the United States of America. Which is to say, Pago Pago in American Samoa. Which is in a whole other hemisphere from the rest of the USA, but there you go. I have had a day ashore, into which I flung myself like one of those starving mariners washed […]

  Behold!  The smoldering crater at Halema’uma’u on Mauna Loa, which has been in continual eruption for something like thirty years.  During the day it produces poison gasses; by night a scarlet glow.  I was taken from Honolulu to the Big Island by the Celebrity cruise ship Millennium, which is now carrying me farther south […]

Well, so far, so good. Here’s the first view of Waikiki from the hotel balcony.  Gotta say it’s a lot prettier in person. Went walking afterwards, had some Korean street food, bought some wine, watched the sunset.  After hours on a plane, there wasn’t much energy for anything else.