Author Archives: Shannon
Working 9 to 9 (am to am)
We want to devote a blog post to the crew of the MV Explorer, the hardest working crew on the seven seas. First of all, let us clarify–we Bloomquai are not on the ship’s crew. We are staff, so we do not wear uniforms, but we do still answer to Captain Roman–ultimately everyone on board […]
Saying Goodbye and Summing Up
Since we’ve been back home in Indianapolis, we’ve had lots of questions from our friends and relatives about our trip. We love to talk about our experiences, but it’s really difficult to sum them up concisely. We didn’t have one favorite country–we loved them all in different ways. Belize’s vim and vigor stole our hearts. […]
Animal Welfare in Latin America
Much of our Latin American voyage has been fascinatingly, breathtakingly beautiful, but there are a few things we saw that broke our hearts. One is the living conditions of animals in nearly every country we’ve visited. When the people themselves are struggling to eke out an existence, animals get bumped down on the priority list […]
Life’s a beach.
Life on the ship was crazy busy during the last couple of days of our voyage, so we had little time to blog and reflect. Good thing we missed our connecting flight to Indy thanks to rain delays in Fort Lauderdale. We finished the Belize post! Good thing our bags didn’t make it on the […]
Rolo is numero uno
Back in elementary school when I learned that Costa Rica means “rich coast” en Español, I never dreamed I’d spend my 31st birthday there. Sam and I shared May 21st with our favorite tour guide in the whole world, Rolando, with whom we’ve been lucky enough to enjoy two full tours and several chance meetings […]
Slow is Beautiful
In 1722, a French naturalist named Georges Buffon wrote, “These sloths are the lowest form of existence. One more defect would have made their existence impossible.†Buffon was not alone in his opinion. Sloths have been seen for decades as primitive animals incapable of adapting–lazy, stupid, and inept. One of the seven deadly sins, the […]
Happy Mother’s Day!!
We aren’t with Shannon’s mom Claire today, but we are thinking about her with Mother’s Day coming up tomorrow. Claire, we love you, we miss you, and we wish you a happy day. We look forward to giving you a call when we are back in the states and a big hug when we are […]
Goodbye, Indy!
Sam and I have embarked on a month-long voyage through Central America with Semester at Sea. We will miss the month of May in Indy, which is sad since May is probably the best month of the year for Hoosiers. Sad, yes..but it’s a small price to pay for some high sea adventures. More about […]
“This is a courtesy call…”
The Issue at Hand First of all, my apologies for neglecting this blog over the past few months. But there’s nothing like a “courtesy call” recorded eons ago and played back as soon as some schmuck (namely, me) answers the phone at 6:30pm on a weeknight to help me remember that I have a wonderful […]
New Low Price for Identity Theft
Our neighborhood, Irvington, is wonderful and we love it. But the truth is, outside of our cozy little block of historic two-bedroom bungalows, the east side of Indy is littered with payday loan stores. These are only outnumbered by gas stations, pawn shops, and rent-to-own furniture stores. Every day, I drive by a cash advance […]