This is our first major adventure since the covid-19 lockdown began in March 2020 and Dan and I are really excited to be back out exploring the world once again.

San Diego is where we met up with our cruise buddies: Hettie and Ronnie from Maryland, Cyd from Arkansas, and Ricky from Iowa. We all chose to fly in a day early to eliminate the stress of delayed or cancelled flights, nasty weather, and other possible surprises. Hettie and Ronnie, our cruise gurus, chose a hotel directly across the street from the pier, so it was no problem at all to pull our suitcases across the street this morning for our noon check-in. Besides the preliminary paperwork we had all done online there was a brief health screening on site that included showing our two-day-old negative covid test results.

The only downside to our trip is the last minute pullout of our trusty cruise pals Cleone and Walter. Cleone had not been given the all clear from her too-recent case of covid and Walter was chasing a kidney stone, plus he had been with Cleone (and thereby recently exposed) throughout her recovery.

Once on board, the first order of business was to beat everyone else to lunch, which was pretty much a total success. Then we confirmed our dining reservation, settled into our rooms, unscrambled an excursion debacle, and figured out, with all six brains working at full capacity, how to access Wi-Fi

We began our first of 15 triple dates with cocktails at 5:00 followed by a delicious four-course dinner! Not a one of us had a single complaint. We had cursed Cleone for not being with us to figure out Wi-Fi for the group but remembered her fondly when the breadsticks arrived. Walter had done a bang up job of seating arrangements cruises past, so we thought of him when we just sat willy nilly with no direction.

Tonight’s entertainment: Sam Fedele, former Marine and entrepreneur turned comedian.

Pop quiz: Did Dan go to the casino between dinner and the show? How much did he lose?

Big surprise: We were told we’d travel far enough east overnight to enter a new time zone, so we set our watches ahead one hour before turning out the lights.

For What It’s Worth…..

Over 200 cruise ships berth in the San Diego harbor every year.
The top employer in the city is the United States Navy.
The iron-hulled Star of India, the world’s oldest sailing vessel (built in 1863) still in
operation, resides in San Diego Bay.

Cameron Diaz, Tony Hawk (May 29 is Tony Hawk Day), RuPaul, Ted Danson, Tony Romo, Mario Lopez, and
Adam Driver were born here. Dr. Seuss spent the last four plus decades of his life here.
(San Diego’s Geisel Library in La Jolla is home to the largest collection of original Dr. Seuss manuscripts.)

San Diego produces more avocados than any other place in the country.

WD-40 was invented in San Diego by the Rocket Chemical Company in 1953.

The first drive-in restaurant in the United States was opened in San Diego by the man
who later founded Jack in the Box in 1951.