I have always felt like one of the luckiest SOBs on the planet. I spent eight years in the US Navy as a Missile Technician on a guided missile destroyer on the Pacific Ocean out of Long Beach, CA four years of that as an E-6 IE a first class pettyofficer. Being a first class is the sweet spot in the hierarchy of the navy. Not quite a chief and more than a common swabbie. Lots of authority with hardly any of the boring paperwork. I saw many parts of Asia; Japan, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Midway Island and Guam. 

In addition, as a civilian,  I worked at Kawasaki Steel in Kobe Japan and briefly went to sea on a nuclear submarine out of Yokosuka. I worked in Melbourne Australia at a Goodyear plant and spent some time in Seoul Korea. I've been in all 50 states and visited half of Europe half a dozen  times and been to South America. Needless to say, I love to travel. We also bought an Amtrak 30 day rail pass and crossed the USA and back.

We took a cruise through the Panama Canal  a few years ago. We left the port of La and headed south. The  ship stopped in Cabo San Lucas which both me and Jamie had been to many times but we had fun. Next we went to Nicaragua and anchored for a about an hour but the ship's captain decided that the  weather was too windy so we weighed anchor and proceeded to Costa Rica. We took an extended bus tour up in the mountains and saw many exotic tropical critters. We spent about three days at sea on our way to Panama. On our way to Panama we had a Thanksgiving dinner aboard. We have taken a few cruises in the last few years and our trip through the canal on Princess Cruise line was the best. Carnival Cruise line is the Circus Circus of cruise lines. It's cheap and it shows it. While transiting the canal I saw an old friend jutting above the   tree line. I said to Jamie, "See that crane sticking up ahead? That's Herman the German which used to be a fixture of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard".

As usual se said that I was full of shit and expected that poeople would believe any story that I dreamed up. A few minutes later, the captain came up on the 1MC and explained that the sight just ahead was none other than Herman the German which used to be a fixture of the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

Once again, I was vindicated.