Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Panama Canal Cruise March 26-April 10, 2012
The cruise of the Panama Canal was great. Wonderful weather, delicious food, fun activities, interesting shore excursions - and fantastic dinner companions! We had the best time!
After checking in at Hawthorn Suites in the afternoon of March 25, we left the car and took the red-eye to Fort Lauderdale, stopping to change planes in Houston. We weren't the only ones headed for the cruise.
Once in Fort Lauderdale it was a waiting game. The Coast Guard had to make an inspection of the ship before any of us could go aboard the Celebrity Infinity.
We first went to our room 8185 in the rear of the ship with a great view of where we'd been.
Then it was off to the buffet. We certainly know the drill by now. Interestingly, I think that was our only lunch at the buffet. And, we only had a few breakfasts there when we had shore excursions that left very early.
Dinner that night found us seated at a table for 6. Our dinner companions were Diana and Ron Bray from the St. Louis area and Graham and Chris Harper from Chester, England. Much more about them later. We all decided it was Fate that brought us together!
Wrapping up the Caravan
After many months, I find myself WAY behind on my blog. Dealing with photos on two separate computers isn't easy, especially when we don't have hi speed internet.
That being said, the caravan was absolutely wonderful, start to finish. Our out-of-state guests all joined Nor Cal as affiliate members. They want to be able to participate in future caravans, they had so much fun!
After the winery stay we traveled to the Solvang area where we spent a few days. Some went into Santa Barbara, others stayed in the Solvang area. Larry and I ventured off into the hills to see some cave drawings above Santa Barbara.
It was off to Long Beach after that. The drive through LA wasn't that bad, although I don't have a lot of respect for the LA drivers. Merging into traffic seems to be an art they haven't yet mastered.
Catalina Island was picture perfect and we all enjoyed our visit there. From Long Beach we took off for San Diego, stopping to see sights along the way. The Leaches, Warrens and Beardshear/ Zimmermans especially enjoyed our stop for lunch near Doheny State Beach.
In San Diego we toured the USS Midway, visited the San Diego Zoo and ate at several delicious eating establishments.
From there we headed to our last destination - the desert. Before we got there, however, we stopped at a great restaurant and bakery. It's a good thing we were close to the end of our trip so we had room to store the goodies we purchased.
We ended the caravan in Anza Borrego Desert State Park.
After our closing banquet at lunchtime (so we could watch the Super Bowl in the afternoon) several headed off to Blythe for the Hobo Rally.
Pictures will follow.
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