"Available" means what? Looking for sexual romps or just available for adventure? Fess up, Nords!
Maybe one of them hit on your FIL and MIL wasn't digging it. I did not find the "availability" thing to be an issue. That being the case ya gotta watch the married folks trying to do the nasty on the down low. Ya know what I mean?
I believe the answers to your questions are "Yes".
MIL stewed about that Elderhostel cruise for months. One woman was described as a lonely widow of a senior Navy officer who was very particular about how much money the men appeared to have but who also didn't hesitate to jump in any available lap after a drink or two (in her, not in the laps). She was social in a "ladies who lunch" way with the women but she seemed to be more predatory with the men. I'm sure she was just as interested in "romping" as in remarriage but the men were a bit concerned about the nature of her first husband's demise.
That description & stories came from my MIL. My FIL just smiled.
I will check out Elder Hostel. Never heard of it before. As usual, you guys give me alot of great ideas! Thanks!!!
My PILs swear by it, especially for Civil War battlefield tours. It's a lot of group/bus travel but the speakers, hotels, & sites are top-notch. You'll also get to places that you might not otherwise discover on your own or with a cab driver. (I really envied the "Aloha 101" Elderhostels they've attended here.) Spouse and I don't enjoy groups or buses at this stage in our lives but if we were in our 70s and challenged by driving in strange locales then we might feel differently.
We were told that New Zealand won’t allow our Navy ships to dock in NZ ports (Nords is this true?) and yet, if they were to become ‘invaded’… wouldn’t we respond to help them out?
I don't know if NZ is still part of the U.S./Australia/NZ Cold War treaty organization but I've never ever worked with a NZ ship. (I've worked with plenty of ships from just about every other country in Asia, whether they were aware of that or not.) NZ went on a big anti-nuke kick in the 1980s and required visiting foreign ships to state whether or not they were carrying nuclear weapons. U.S. doesn't play that game (even though nuclear weapons are no longer carried aboard) so NZ dropped off the liberty lists.
Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong liberty is a lot more fun anyway. Maybe the "scenery" isn't completely "natural", but it's everything that most teens & 20-somethings are interested in viewing. Australia, in particular, led to more overstimulated sailors dragging their exhausted carcasses aboard after hours (or even days) of extremely affordable liberty than even in Subic Bay. And the Aussie military's liberty behavior in Hawaii is legendary.
I can vouch for NZ's discrimination against Maori. Our local HawaiiThreads.com board has a few Maori with family back in NZ who are perpetually struggling with civil disobedience issues. NZ seems to be a generation behind Australia in that regard, let alone a couple behind the US.