Dick and Margaret Trueman's Alaska Cruise - May, 2004  

Sunday, May 16

Paul and Ximena Ames, who were also going on the cruise, invited us to go with them in their station wagon to Santa Cruz, from where we were to go by chartered bus to the port of San Francisco. At Salinas, we expected to have dinner at Applebees. But we found that, not only they, but all the restaurants were packed, with waiting times expected to be 30 to 45 minutes. The Ames knew of a nice seafood restaurant in Moss Landing, just about 20 minutes away, so we decided to go there. This worked out well, and afterward, we enjoyed the scenic drive to our motel in Santa Cruz.

Monday, May 17

We met Jim and Shirley Idleman, the travel agents and tour guides, at the bus departure location. They did a great job of organizing members of the Santa Cruz Follies singing group and others as we boarded the chartered bus which took us to the pier in San Francisco. Due to a new restriction, which our tour guides were unaware of, our bus was not allowed into the area where the busses normally unload. Our baggage had to be unloaded on the sidewalk and then carried into the ship by porters. We then went through quite a slow checking-in process, with very long lines. Eventually, we boarded the ship, found our cabin, and then went to the cafe for a late lunch.

Soon afterwards, Tim Potter had all the Advenure Unlimited (A/U) group get together for introductions and announcements. We then went back to our room and unpacked all our belongings into the spacious closets and drawers.

Our table mates for dinner are Paul and Ximena Ames, Roger and Linda Paulson, and Phil and Melody Higley. The latter two couples are from Carmichael and Citrus Heights. We sailed shortly before 5 P.M. We went out on deck to watch the view as we sailed under the Golden Gate bridge out to sea, and soon after, we went to our first dinner in the main dining room.

  

   San Francisco skyline    Approaching Golden Gate    Passing Golden Gate