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Cruise to Mother's Day - 2009

Another cruise? We wanted to visit my Mom in Puyallup for Mother's Day and Leanna accidentally (yeah, sure!) found a really inexpensive Holland America cruise from San Diego to Vancouver B.C. It was a 4 day cruise that visited Avalon on Catalina Island and arrived in Vancouver the day before Mother's Day. The cruise and flights to San Diego and back from Seattle were so cheap the whole trip cost about the same as driving our car and was a lot more fun! Plus, for $25 we upgraded from an inside room to a veranda. How cool is that? The ship had gone through the Panama Canal and was supposed to hit several ports in Mexico but, due to the Swine Flu, it went south to some Central American ports and then directly to San Diego. Our part of the cruise was a lot of fun and the visit to Puyallup was excellent with lots of sun. It was the first time in ages that my brother Keith (and family), sister Yvonne, Mom and I had all gotten together.

Meeting Arturo At The Airport

While waiting for our flight from San Jose to San Diego, a person with two saxophone cases sat down about two chairs away and then some more people arrived and were talking about sound system setups, experiences with certain nightclubs, their upcoming San Diego gigs, etc. I took notice thinking that this must be a pretty serious band if they were flying to San Diego to play some gigs. And then another person shows up wearing a “World Tour” cap and carrying a trumpet case. He looked a bit like Arturo Sandoval but I didn't think it was him. He was talking on a cell phone so I went over to the sax man and asked what band this was. He said it was the Arturo Sandoval band and had I ever heard of him. I said “You mean one of the world's best jazz trumpet players – of course I've heard of him!” Arturo got off the phone and introduced himself and wondered if we'd get a chance to hear them play in San Diego. Unfortunately we were immediately getting on a cruise ship. I did tell him that I'd seen him some years ago at Kuumbwa and Flint Center in Cupertino. He told me that they'd just played Kuumbwa the night before (which I already knew). The flight got called and off we all went.
How cool is that?

Visit to Puyallup and Seattle and Mexican Riviera Cruise in 2008

September 2008. Our three week trip to the Seattle area and Sunriver was amazing. NO RAIN! Having three weeks was much better than the normal whirlwind trips we've done in the past. Larry's 50th high school reunion was a lot of fun. Got to visit with many old friends I hadn't seen in many years. Sunriver friends and golf was fun too. We had some frost delays but the temperatures when we played were always warm enough for shorts.

November 2008 We had a grand time on our cruise to the Mexican Riviera. The cruise was round trip out of San Francisco - no airplanes required! We left on Halloween and some of us wore costumes all day. Our cruising and golfing friends Bonnie and Dave joined us along with first time cruisers Max and Jacquie. Max and I have been friends since we met while working at Digital Equipment in the late 60s. We also saw high school friends Doug and Linda in Puerto Vallarta. They live near there several months of the year and met us at the ship. It was wonderful seeing them again and having such experienced guides for the day.
The photo page has videos of the Acapulco cliff divers and a slide show of our best photos.

Cruise from Rio de Janeiro to Athens - 2007

For our 25th anniversary we cruised from Rio to Athens and then spent a week in Athens. Our cruising friends Bonnie and Dave joined us on this trip too. The entire trip took 5 weeks (4 on the ship) running all of April and part of May.
The photo page has several slide shows -- check them out!

Cruise To Barcelona and Tour of Spain - 2005

We got back May 27, 2005 from our Florida to Barcelona cruise followed by 2 weeks of touring in Spain with our friends Dave and Bonnie. We had a fabulous time and we are all still friends.
You can read all about it here
Check out the cruise photos on our photos page. There are only 230 of them!