Meet the J’S:

Jacob James: The kid’s perspective

Our favorite little J, Jacob is our 8 year old grandson, a seasoned traveler in his own right, and the biggest geography nerd that you have ever met If you show him the outline of any country on earth, he will identify it and pick it out on a world map. If you show him the flag of any country in the world he will identify it and wave it in your face. .

On a recent cruise we took him to play in the Flag Trivia event. He competed against 8 teams of 5 to 6 adults and beat all of them. The cruise director displayed 26 flags for the teams to identify. He got 24 of them right, (and was very close on the other two), and the next best team of adults only got 21.

Jacob has been travelling with us since he was born. He has been all over the U.S., with several trips to Mexico and Canada, and several cruises. He will be travelling to Europe with us this year. We are all very excited about that. He will join us on a number of cruises. So if you go to any geography trivia on a cruise and see an 8 year old boy beating all the adults, it will probably be Jacob.

Joel and Jeanne: Senior travel, cruising, travel tips and tricks

Jeanne and I have been travelling the world together since we first met over forty years ago, and our passion for travel has only gotten stronger. We have travelled extensively in Europe, the U.K., the U.S., Mexico, and the Caribbean and have had a number of trips to Canada, China as well as Central and South America.

We have learned a lot about travel over the years and since we are now retired we have decided that it is time to share that knowledge. We want to share our favorite destinations along with tips for booking flights and hotels, finding the right itineraries, and the keys to finding low cost, or even free travel options.

As we get older our choices have been changing a bit. While we still do planes, trains and automobiles, we have been moving more and more toward a less rigorous form of travel: cruise ships. We will be writing about how cruising offers a chance for seniors with mobility issues to continue to see the world. We will be traveling to exotic destinations that are most easily accessed by cruise ship. And we will be sharing our secrets on how anyone can cruise at a very low cost, or even free.