Wonders, Waves, and Wings: A Late Boomers Adventure
This is the EWN podcast network.
Cathy:Hello. It's Cathy Worthington.
Merry:And Merry Elkins.
Cathy:Welcome to season 5 and our 5th year of the Late Boomers podcast.
Merry:We will be bringing you exciting new interviews with guests you won't wanna miss.
Cathy:Come along for our new journey.
Merry:We hope you enjoy Late Boomers.
Cathy intro:Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating your 3rd act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Cathy Worthington.
Intro:And I'm Mary Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy intro:Everyone has a story and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started.
Cathy:Hi. Welcome to late boomers. We are back for season 5. We went on a very brief vacation trip that we're gonna talk about. I am Kathy Worthington.
Merry:And I am Mary Elkins, and we are so excited to be back with you again. Our listeners and viewers, I cannot believe we put in all this time, and we've got all these episodes recorded. I think
Cathy:we're 209 episodes into our podcast now. Yeah. And Mary, what And you've
Merry:been with us the whole time, and we're really, really happy to have you here. It's like a party.
Cathy:And if you are new listeners, go back and pick up some of the old episodes. You might find people that really inspire you. We ran recently, we ran a repeat episode with Ken Cragin, and we ran a repeat episode with Sekou Andrews. Don't miss those. They're right at the top of our list of episodes.
Cathy:Check them out, and then we're gonna bring you all all new all new guests this season.
Merry:We are, and we're excited to do that. And but first, Kathy went on this fabulous trip, and I haven't heard about it yet. And I'd love to hear about it. You where did you go, Kathy? Tell everybody and tell me.
Cathy:Okay. I flew to Barcelona, and I had 3 nights in Barcelona. A girlfriend of mine was joining me there, and we met up and had a fabulous little hotel called Cotton House. And we did the sites. We went to Sagrada Emilia.
Cathy:We did the tour because I got the tickets ahead of time. We kept meeting people that went, oh my god. I didn't get tickets ahead, so I don't get to get in. So that's the thing in Barcelona.
Merry:Do that now when you travel. You have to get tickets to everything now. Otherwise, you either stand in a long line forever or you just don't get in.
Cathy:Yeah. They don't like it. More. We went to Park Guell the first day, and that is a garden city designed by Gaudi in back in 1918, I think. He was working on it.
Cathy:And, like, during World War 1, they were working on it. They bought a hillside his sponsor. I forget the other guy's name. And then Gaudi was gonna design it, and there were 60 lots planned out. They're gonna be 60 private homes.
Cathy:So people think it's a park, but it was designed to be a city, which you learn when you take the tour because you can't get into that park anymore without being on a tour with a guide and all that. So it's But what does that look like? Describe it. It's it's terraced up the hill, and he built these incredible roadways that are carvings and gaudy like. It looks like stalactites and stalagmites, and the columns holding up the roadway look like trees, and it's amazing.
Cathy:And it was meant to take
Merry:a lot of pictures.
Cathy:Oh, yeah. Video clips. And I took so much. I have, like, gazillions pictures. You can follow me on Instagram.
Cathy:You can see a few of them. I haven't posted very much, but the top roadway was supposed to be for the horses and carriages. And then underneath is the pedestrians. In a certain area, he did very, very ornate ceiling with these amazing huge sculpture things, and that was the marketplace. That was to be the marketplace.
Cathy:The story of it is, though, and there's a fabulous house that Gaudi lived in on-site. It's so you see the Gaudi house
Merry:designed?
Cathy:Yes. From the outside, you see the house. They don't take anybody in. And he lives
Merry:there. Filled with tiles?
Cathy:I don't know what it's filled with. You don't get to go in, but there's a lot of benches in the park that are like curvy benches, all ceramic tiles and designs, and it's an amazing place. The thing is nobody bought bought the places, so it didn't catch on. Gautti lived there and the other guy, the sponsor guy, had a huge house and he lived there. But the other the other plots never got sold and they eventually made it into a park, I guess.
Cathy:But Gaudi used to walk from there to Sagrada Familia to work every day. He had his office because he was designing the cathedral at the time, so he needed to be across town. Very, very long walk from there, but that was, you know, at the time time frame. How far do you say it is? I don't know.
Cathy:But the time but the city didn't touch the hillside community in those days. It was the hillside community was separate. Now the city goes right up to it. You know, the streets are, like, all attached practically to the park. So that was the beginning of our trip.
Cathy:We had a wonderful time in Barcelona. We hit the classic martini bar, Boatus.
Merry:Mhmm.
Cathy:And we hit the famous seafood place, Boto Fumiero. And we just had a wonderful 3, two and a half days. And then we got on our cruise ship in the Barcelona port. You know, Barcelona is a huge port, and we were on Virgin Voyages. I never am going on any other cruise.
Cathy:I'm gonna sound like a commercial for Virgin.
Merry:You are.
Cathy:I never wanna go on any other cruise because it's adults only. All the entertainment is for adults. All the branding and all the gourmet food is really great. There's not a buffet
Merry:ice cream. Right?
Cathy:Fabulous homemade ice cream. They change the flavors every day. They make it on the ship. And, oh my gosh, the food is so gourmet, and there's multiple restaurants that are all included in your tour. You just have to book reservations.
Cathy:But all the food's included, and the food is so gourmet. There's not a single buffet on the whole ship, which really I love. There's, like, food food stations with people dishing up, like piece pieces of avocado for your bagel and cream cheese and all these things, you know, but there's different stations, but there's people working it. So no one's sticking their hand in and grabbing, you know, and putting bacteria on all the food. You know?
Cathy:It's great. Well, I mean, a lot of people hate buffets. I hate buffets. But, anyway yeah.
Merry:On ships, they're different because everyone's piling up so much food, and you think how come how much can any one person eat? And did they have, like, breakfast beef pre lunch, lunch, pre dinner dinner, and then the midnight?
Cathy:I know. I'm sure a lot of that was going on. We weren't we weren't by any means overeating. So but I did eat a lot at breakfast because there was, like, an egg station and there was, bento boxes of fruit and there were little chia pudding things. And there were, you know, I would always get the a plate of avocado and stuff for breakfast.
Cathy:So it was awesome.
Merry:Well, you have to tell our audience that Kathy is an avocado aficionado. She loves avocado. Oh. As do I.
Cathy:Yes. Yes. You'd be very happy on this ship.
Merry:Yeah.
Cathy:And and my friend, Lana, that was traveling with me, she loves it too. So we would always have big piles of that along with our eggs and whatever we were having. It was really, really fun. At night, the restaurants were to die for. There's an Italian one and a Mexican upscale Mexican and, and several more.
Cathy:There's a test kitchen. That has the little tiny sample, 6 courses, 6 little tiny courses that are set. And, like, you know, if they bring a course that's smoked, there'd be a dome over it with and they pull it off and the smoke comes out of the dome. You know, it's very flashy, fun fun evening.
Merry:Very flashy. Yeah. It's really
Cathy:fun, like set set courses. There's a couple of restaurants in LA that do that too.
Merry:And what kind of activities did they have?
Cathy:Oh my gosh. Everything you could imagine. But the main thing was the first day we were in Marseille. So we went to mar yeah. The very first day we we left Barcelona in the evening.
Cathy:And in the morning, we were sitting in the port of Marseille, and we had
Merry:signed saying it's like magic.
Cathy:I know. And we had signed up for, a tuk tuk tour of Marseille. It turned out, like, you think there'd be tons of tuk tuks because they use them in islands and the in Asia, all over the place. But we asked the our driver how many there were, and he said 3. In the whole city of Marseille, there are 3, and 2 of them were for this tour.
Cathy:There were we met 2 other people that were going on the tour with us. We ended up hanging with these people, the rest of the cruise, as they were a blast. And the and there were 2 more people and another tuk tuk. And they're little like they're just golf carts with, like, an extra seat. Like, they're a long golf cart.
Merry:Tell us about Marseille.
Cathy:Marseille is amazing because it's a Mediterranean seaport. It's also very, industrial, so it's, like, not always a tourist destination per se. But when you get into the little streets like we did in the little tiny golf cart, you can see the little harbors and the little restaurants and the little places you wouldn't get into on a tour bus. So a lot of people, like, took a bus, and the bus brought us to the tuk tuk, but we love and they took us to a chocolate factory for chocolate tasting. They had a tasting, and then, of course, we all bought some to bring home for gifts and stuff.
Merry:Oh, nice.
Cathy:It was really, really interesting. They took us to a soap place because Marseille is famous for soaps and chocolates.
Merry:Really? Really?
Cathy:Yeah. So
Merry:Any any special kind of soap or chocolate, a special fragrance or special
Cathy:No. In fact, I think the soap is not, fragrant. They don't set up soap. They're just famous for their soap. I brought you a little soap.
Merry:Oh, thank you.
Cathy:You'll have a little soap
Merry:later. Oh, thank you.
Cathy:I should've brought you chocolate. You would've rather had that. But No. Why I was bringing
Merry:it soap?
Cathy:I was bringing it for my daughter, so I just brought one thing in chocolate. How much
Merry:Oh, your daughter
Cathy:How much stuff can you put with? Yeah. How much stuff can you put in your luggage when you're traveling?
Merry:And in your carry on. Uh-huh. Right.
Cathy:Yeah. This all had to put in the suitcase. And then we went the second day, we were in Cannes where you have been, Mary, many times.
Merry:Many times. It's old home for me.
Cathy:And it was lovely. We didn't we weren't gonna do a tour that day because Lana, my friend, had never been there. So we were just gonna walk into the town and see it, show it to her. And we spotted this little, choo choo train train. It had a little train looking engine, like a little steam engine, a, you know, little gas operated thing with cars behind it.
Cathy:And Lana said, look. That looks like it's like a little city tour. So we kept walking up and there were there they were selling tickets and the thing was all loaded up. And we got, like, the last two seats and we got on it and had an hour tour of Cannes and went up in the streets and went up to their Notre Dame. They have Notre Dame de Cannes.
Cathy:And it's sitting on the hill, and the letters Cannes are on the hill like the Hollywood sign.
Merry:Oh.
Cathy:There was also a Hollywood sign in Marseille. It said Marseille. We always got pictures of the letters. You'd be writing down Mary because it's like Hollywood sign for you.
Merry:Yeah. Yeah. And then so what did what else did you see there?
Cathy:And what did
Merry:we go shopping?
Cathy:Not really. But but because of the little tour thing, we went all down the big shopping street that people in Saicruadeo Drive, but it goes for blocks and blocks. I was glad we were on the little train because I wouldn't have wanted to walk that whole shopping street. Yeah. And it's all the designers.
Cathy:Yeah. It's it's a lot. What we did was then after we got off the tour bus, we walked over to the sand where all the restaurants are on the beach. And we found a restaurant on the beach and just sat in the restaurant and had a bottle of rose and just watched the people because we were still full from breakfast from the ship. So we didn't we didn't need to order any lunch.
Cathy:We just had rose and watched the waves, and we could see our ship sitting there, the mother ship. It was great. Let's take a break from my tour, and you tell me what you were doing.
Merry:Oh, yeah. Well, I I didn't do half as an exciting vacation as you did, however. But you did. Down to San I did. I went down to San Diego, and a friend of mine and I, went to the Miramar Air Station, which is a marine air station, and we watched an air show, the biggest air show in the country.
Merry:Oh my god. I have never seen anything like that. Planes go straight up like that past where you can see them, and then they stall, and then they come back down and do twirls and loops. And it's astounding that people can actually do anything like that. And these are war maneuvers as well.
Merry:They're training in case of something awful happening in the world where we have to send our military. But these people, I know they
Cathy:There weren't any accidents that day. Right?
Merry:Oh, please. That would be terrific.
Cathy:It always makes the news when there's a big air shield
Merry:or a
Cathy:big accident.
Merry:I know. Well, but the the g force of spinning down. And if you don't come out of your spin at the right time and and level off the plane, yeah, there can be an accident. But I learned a lot of really fun things like we saw the Blue Angels, and they're very famous for their maneuvers. And there's 6 planes, and I watched the first ever female Blue Angel up there.
Merry:She was number 4. And they they fly in these formations, sometimes 18 inches apart. Can you imagine they're flying at these high speeds, and they're flying 18
Cathy:inches inches.
Merry:18 inches.
Cathy:That even possible in space?
Merry:These people are so well trained. Try to
Cathy:drive a car 18 inches from another car.
Merry:Oh, I can't even
Cathy:park me out
Merry:when you're ready. Next to a car 18 inches away.
Cathy:But driving next to it, you know, that's Oh, yeah. Smart yeah.
Merry:You can't. Absolutely. Well, all these people do, I understand, is watch the wings of the of the plane next to them. But they are in perfect formation formation of a v like birds flying or
Cathy:they fly over. Yeah. Yeah. Or because they flyovers for football games and things like that. So
Merry:Yeah.
Cathy:And for inaugurations and for, you know, big things. They do flyovers.
Merry:And and it's interesting. Their their average age is usually around 30, 30 something. So they aren't young young. They've been training a long time. And, also
Cathy:young relatively speaking that spread they don't have that much experience. I'm sure they have to have hours and hours of flying time to do it. But
Merry:Hours and hours and hour. But I also learned something very interesting about the marines and the air station there. The base there is, I think, I wrote actually took notes, and it is, I think it's a quarter or even a half of the air station. Half of the energy at the air base is all recyclable and solar and renewable energy. And the marines are very involved in reclaiming water and protecting wildlife.
Merry:You would think, oh, these are men who are big, strong fighting machines. There's a lot of women marines, by the way. And, these are people that are really stewards of the environment, and I thought, well, how interesting is that? And also, they, they have a a an area there at the air show. They did they had a big, like, a convention center area with technology where they actually are working with industry to improve the technology of the, you know, the military.
Merry:So it's it's it was with yeah. It was really, really interesting, but I think the most fascinating part was watching these planes. It Oh, yeah. Astounding.
Cathy:I've been to air shows before because I've never heard of Riverside. They have March Air Force Base there. And and there were air shows there when I was a kid and kinda grew up seeing some of that. But that's great. What else did you do in San Diego?
Merry:That's pretty much it. We were going to go to, a wine tasting, but then, you know, we were tired. That air show was like
Cathy:We were trying to do all that. Oh, yeah. You can't do wine tasting in the same day.
Merry:Yeah. And we also, go ahead.
Cathy:No.
Merry:Oh, we also, invited a friend of ours who I don't know if our listeners would remember the movie Officer and the Gentleman, but our friend wrote that, the script. And I'm not sure if he won an Academy Award or was nominated, but he has a new book out called An Officer and a Gentleman's Daughter, which is fiction, but it's fun. But it's kind of like a, a sequel in a way. So he came and with his wife, and that was just really, really fun because he had training in that area. And then, of course, one of the best things we did there was go and get that Foster's freeze ice cream.
Merry:It was so good.
Cathy:Oh, you mean
Merry:You know, the swirls. Smoothie. Yeah. Yeah. Soft with soft serve.
Merry:Soft serve. Soft serve. Yeah. It's different in every country, I think.
Cathy:Oh, I bet my ice cream I bet my ice cream on virgin voyages could top that. I bet it's tough.
Merry:Love it.
Cathy:It's like eating gelato.
Merry:Yeah. Well, well, tell us.
Cathy:Back to the ship, then we went, and we had a day at sea. And the one day at sea, it was a little chilly, a little cloudy. So we wanted to lie out by the pool as it was kind of jacket weather. You had a bathing suit on, but you kinda needed a jacket and some pants over it. But it was really pleasant, and and we had a wonderful day.
Cathy:A lot of things you know, just being on the ship is really fun. And then we had then we were the next day in Palma de Mallorca, which is a place that you're supposed to buy pearls. So I bought pearl necklace. I I have it on.
Merry:R t c on your blue. Can you hold it up a little bit more?
Cathy:Oh, I've got 2 necklaces on, so it's confusing. There it is. Yeah. It is. It's got
Merry:2 pearls. Pretty. Pretty pretty.
Cathy:It's got 2 pearls and,
Merry:you know Right?
Cathy:Yeah. They're the black pearls, which come off like blue. So we did find a pearl place, but we were on a tour where the bus took us and the guide guide walked the whole bus of people all up to the main cathedral there that's right on the harbor. So it's directly across from one of the ship docks. They took us on a and then we walked miles and miles around this antique city and around the cathedral.
Cathy:I was really disappointed because the tour showed you the cathedral, but didn't include tickets to go into the cathedral. So it was like, that was kind of a jip. I thought I wouldn't include tickets into the cathedral, but it did not. And we walked all through the city and then they were gonna give us a pastry at this place. And I said, excuse me, I'd like to skip the pastry and go shop for pearls while you break for the pastry.
Cathy:So the guide took us over to a jewelry store that, of course, he's connected with because that's how they that's how they do tours. Yeah. They're connected with all these shops and stuff. And so he took us over there and and went back and got the rest of the people after they had their pastries. And we had, therefore, less than a half an hour to shop.
Cathy:But I wanted to get something for my daughter, and it was just fun.
Merry:Did you get her a pearl for 2?
Cathy:Yeah. I got her necklace like this.
Merry:I got
Cathy:the same necklace.
Merry:I bet she loves it.
Cathy:Once I found one that she would wear, I thought I'll just buy myself the same one because there wasn't really enough time to start trying on a bunch more. It was great. Mhmm. And,
Merry:always Spanish. You were studying Spanish.
Cathy:Well, don't forget. Well, yeah, I was studying some Spanish. I I used it a tiny bit. Most people I don't have enough Spanish to carry on a conversation if someone doesn't know English, but I would always make an attempt to greet them and stuff in Spanish.
Merry:But Like, where is my suitcase and where is the hotel?
Cathy:I know those things, but luckily, I didn't lose my suitcase and I didn't lose the hotel. So there were a lot of things I didn't need, but, you know, I I know you're doing Duolingo too. Duolingo is great. So Yeah. Then the last stop on the tour, we had another day at sea, I think, in there.
Cathy:And then we went to Ibiza.
Merry:Ah, tell me about Ibiza. All the rock stars go there. And and now it's royalty. Princess Margaret used to have a house there and Mick Jagger and others.
Cathy:Yeah. I know. A lot of people apparently have places there, and it's known to be party central. So a lot of people go on the cruise for the purpose of going clubbing in Ibiza, which wasn't our thing. But we did have dinner on the ship that night, and then they were running shuttles from the port over next to the Walled City.
Cathy:It was an antique Walled City with a castle and everything. So we were really happy that we took the time because the other three people, we were hanging out with this other couple, and the other three people were all like, oh, it's kinda late. Do we wanna go? I said, we need to go into the city to say we were in Ibiza. We're gonna go on a tour tomorrow during the day, but that's not gonna take us there.
Cathy:So we walked up this big castle thing, and the street inside the castle is all little restaurants, and it was such a busy nightlife. And we didn't even get there till after 10:30, and it was really cooking because the clubs don't even open till 12 or 1. And then the DJs you mean? Or Oh, yes. Midnight?
Cathy:And the yes. The DJ the club the main clubs, there's 2 big clubs. 1 of the clubs always features this big DJ, and the season ended, like, right after we were there. The club season ends in Ibiza, and they were gonna feature this DJ. Usually, he doesn't come on till 6 AM because that's so no one will leave.
Cathy:And there's
Merry:other stuff all day in the sun? What do they do? I mean, no.
Cathy:People sleep all day in the sun? No. On that same day on the ship, people were partying at on the ship in the pool, like dancing and drinking, and and peep we were saying, how can they like, they're not pacing themselves if they've gotta be up all night. But those same people that liked partying in the pool were the ones that I'm sure that went to the clubs and partied all night, and then the ship is pretty deserted in the morning. But then all the all the wonderful old fogies that wanna go on the day trip in Ibiza.
Cathy:You know, we were all there for breakfast, bright and early, but we because
Merry:we had calling yourself an old fogie?
Cathy:Well, I was in the Walled City till, like, after midnight by the time we got back. But, yeah, we were up early because we had a a 4 by 4 tour. They crammed 5 people in the back, and I got the front seat, which was great. And we had crazy drivers that our driver was the craziest because he's trying to put on a 4 by 4 show. So every time we got onto a dirt road, he would be, like, screeching around corners, and the people in the back are riding sideways.
Cathy:And they're all going, oh my god. Oh my god. They're, like, kinda complaining. But he's the driver's loving it because he's putting on a show. You know, he's the youngest guy.
Cathy:And there were, like, 7 vehicles that all went together. And then you would stop someplace and you'd all walk out to the point. It was a tour of all the coves. Well, Ibiza is just stunningly beautiful. There are like mesas and there are rocks offshore.
Cathy:There are beautiful coves and the waves are crashing in these tiny little coves. And then there's a cove that has a bunch of fancy houses. We went past a lot of gated estates that you can't see into at all. You can't tell who's who or where they are. It's very private.
Cathy:I could see why major stars would like it because they can arrive by boat and and be taken by a little vehicle up to their house and just be private if they want to. Yeah. Very interesting place. I'm glad I went. I don't know if I would need to go back because I feel like I saw it.
Cathy:But for any
Merry:back to any of the places?
Cathy:Oh, well, probably all of them. If if the ship itinerary overlapped, I will definitely go on the cruise line again. It was really, really a good experience, the cruise line.
Merry:Did they have a lot of great entertainment on the cruise?
Cathy:Yes. Every night we would sit in the bars and listen to these groups and they would alternate which group was playing which set at which time. So you'd usually end up if you were like me and checking it out every night, you'd end up seeing 1 group, like, 3 times, then you'd see another group 2 or 3 times, and then you'd see another solo singer who would do tracks with his feet, accompany himself. And they were there's the entertainment is exceptional. Everybody's good.
Cathy:They're just like they're all different, Different types of groups and different types of music. And, oh, the diva that travels is fabulous. It's a drag queen. She calls herself the diva. She also calls herself a woman named Carlos.
Cathy:She tells you her name is Carlos.
Merry:It's like like Johnny Cash, a boy named Sue, a woman named Carlos.
Cathy:Yeah. She's charming, and she does a fantastic show called Around the World in 80 minutes with the diva. Also, when you play bingo on the ship in a great big showroom, you buy the cards ahead of time. She hosts it, and she makes it crazy. Oh, they have a casino.
Cathy:We never went in the casino, but we walked through it constantly. They put it right where you have to walk through it to get anywhere.
Merry:Virgin Airlines ought to sponsor this, episode. Or excuse me. Virgin
Cathy:No. Virgin Voyage. Voyage is yeah.
Merry:Virgin Voyages.
Cathy:I know. Virgin Voyages. I know. We need them for a sponsor.
Merry:Yeah.
Cathy:Yeah. I I you can't have a better vacation than on Virgin Voyages. I'm just saying it. They're not they're not they're not paying me to say that, but maybe they will soon.
Merry:Yeah. Right. They should. Well, it sounds like he had a fabulous time. Just great.
Cathy:Yeah. I mean, I look tired. I'm still tired, but I'm glad I'm back, and we're gonna start we're gonna bring you some interviews in our next episodes. It won't be us yacking our heads off. It will be more organized like we usually are and good interviews with fun people.
Cathy:And, yeah, we'll see what happens in the upcoming weeks.
Merry:It's, it's all new and exciting for us too, and we learn so much from you. And all of your the information and and that you send in to us, we love and we look at, and we would love to our for our listeners and our viewers to send us notes and tell us what they like about our episodes and what they'd like to see.
Cathy:And please always when you're listening to us, please subscribe, and please give us a 5 star review. When you have a special episode that you love, please log on and give us that review. It means everything to us. We love you. We'll talk to you soon.
Cathy:Wanna say goodbye, Mary?
Merry:It's it's great to be back, and, I missed you, Kathy, and I missed our listeners and viewers and talking to all the new and exciting people that we get to interview. What a privilege.
Cathy:So join us on Late Boomers next time. Bye.
Merry:Bye.
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