The Freyder Five

Life is an Adventure
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Let's Go Round the World

Leaving Our Comfort Zone

Seeing (Scarlet) Red

Virgin Voyages Day 4. Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Back at sea.  We are on our way to Bimini now.  We had a pretty full day yesterday so a lazy morning is in order. We have nothing on today except dinner reservations at Gunbae, the Korean BBQ joint.  Tonight is the big, ship wide Scarlet Night.  It’s an extravaganza of red and I’m really looking forward to it.  We haven’t made it to Noodle Around and their udon bowl looks delicious.  Noodles for breakfast it is.  The wind is kicking up a bit and it’s cool this morning.  Hot noodles should hit the spot.  AAACK.  The udon is served with shitake mushrooms and spinach and it tastes like a shaker of…

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Taino Bay Puerto Plata, DR

Virgin Voyages Day 3. Tuesday December 21, 2021. Wow it’s just 4 days till Christmas. Woke up this morning for an early-ish breakfast.  Ate a so-so omelet and funky round hash brown patty from The Galley on Deck 15.  Brrr. It’s cold this morning.  Had to get a cup of hot tea to warm my hands.  Today is a shore day in Puerto Plata, a port town in the Dominican Republic. We are the FIRST Scarlet Lady cruise that gets to dock at the brand spanking new Taino Bay port. The other scheduled DR cruises were diverted elsewhere in the past few months because the port was behind schedule and unfinished.   But first, it’s time for our private bungee…

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Scarlet Lady Food Review

Dining on Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady is a different experience from your “regular” ocean-going ships.  Each restaurant is included with your trip so there’s NO extra cost to dine anywhere. No.  A few items on the menus do have an upcharge, such as lobster or wagyu beef, but that’s an exception.  Typically, the most difficult part about dining on Scarlet Lady is deciding what to eat.  There are six specially themed sit-down restaurants.  We were on a 5-night cruise which meant that we had to leave one restaurant out.  The way reservations work on Scarlet Lady is that you are allowed to make one reservation per restaurant.  If you want to re-visit any of them you can show up and…

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MyBeast on Scarlet Lady

Day 2 on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady ship. It’s Monday, December 20, 2021. Sunrise yoga and meditations? Break of dawn mimosas and crisp fresh air? Nope. Sleeping in feels so nice. I looked at the clock briefly at 7:30am and thought about getting up for yoga.  Then promptly pulled the covers higher and forgot about it. My first scheduled activity today is a MyBeast Fitness class at 2pm.  Hahah. Why torture yourself on a cruise?  Idk.  In the morning we wandered around looking at the ship and taking photos.  Then we went to The Wake for brunch.  This is the one restaurant I didn’t make dinner reservations for because it’s a steak and seafood place.  Since my friend and I…

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Scarlet Lady is a Diva

I just realized I haven’t blogged since I went to Iceland in November 2019. That’s pretty much what the pandemic has done to me. I logged on and saw that I had some half done drafts from a cross country RV trip to 4 states in Summer 2020 and then a half-draft for my trip to Toronto in September 2021. But none of that made it to the final stage. It is now December 19, 2021. I’m on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. I boarded this afternoon and it was already a full day of activities. I am going to pack everything in that I can so that if anyone asks me about this brand new ship I’ll be able to…

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Iceland in Rearview

This is a summary of INCREDIBLE ICELAND told in photos. This post is for my brother and anyone else who would rather see more pictures and read less writing. First photo is Fjallsárlón glacial lagoon. It is located to the south of the larger and more famous, Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. The glassy surface is a perfect mirror for icebergs and glaciers. At this time the lagoon was frozen solid. We picked up rocks and flung them forward. They hit the frozen surface like thick glass and made a sound like a musical instrument. It was a hollow, clear sound and it had a twang. I can’t even put it into words. When someone threw a rock it skimmed across the…

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Aurora Disco

Did I see the Northern Lights?  Check it off my bucket list?  The lightshow in the sky was the whole motivation for braving the Icelandic winter.  Why not go in summer when the weather is nicer, the days are longer, and you don’t have to see the countryside in a 6-hours of daylight whirlwind timeframe?  To see the Aurora Borealis of course.  Everyone on my tour came as an Aurora hunter and it was pretty much the only “must do” on our collective wish list.  On the first night, when our G Adventures CEO (Chief Experience Officer) Oliver was going over the itinerary, we were all thinking, cut to the chase, get to the part about the Lights.   YES,…

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Solheimar Ecovillage Iceland

As a G Adventures Ambassador of Change one of my roles is to share the story of G Adventures and their non-profit Planeterra Foundation, and the good that they are doing together in the world.  Planeterra connects local communities with global travelers.  G Adventures supports Planeterra financially and also provides the structure for bringing travelers to Planeterra projects around the world. This is their vision: “A world where people create their own economic opportunities, places are protected, and cultures are celebrated through travel.” In Iceland, Planeterra has a partnership with the Solheimar Ecovillage.  This inspiring, self-sustaining community is a place for disabled and non-disabled people to support each other and live together in harmony and mutual benefit.  It sounds like…

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G Adventures in Iceland

I’m on my G Adventure in Iceland.  November 16-November 24, 2019 I’ll be captive to a mini bus, my CEO and 11 other adventurers from around the world.  I say around the world, but 6 out of 12 of us have come from the US and out of that, 4 people are from Chicago.  The rest are from the UK, Canada and Croatia.  We all have one thing in common that gives us an immediate shared experience and camaraderie.  We all love to travel. Our G Adventures CEO (Chief Experience Officer) is Oliver.  He is a young German man who came to Iceland years ago to live and work here.  At one point he might have thought it was temporary,…

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Silfra Fissure Icewater

The Silfra Fissure is for real.  Today, November 15, is the first time I snorkeled in 3 degrees Celsius.  First time I swam inside a crack in the Earth.  First time I put on a dry suit.  I keep saying Iceland is a Land of Fire and Ice but yesterday I was in a geothermal pool of warm, milky blue, saltwater in a bathing suit and today I was in ice-cold fresh glacier melt in a dry suit.  And both were natural temperatures! It sounds impossible but you can dive and snorkel in ICE-land.  In fact, it’s supposed to be one of the top dive sites in the world because of the uniqueness and the incredible visibility.  100+ meters! That’s…

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