Heading Home

We walked from the cruise ship terminal to the train station in San Diego.  I returned home by train and then the bus again.

A Cruise Dinner

 Salmon Dinner

We enjoyed the good meals that were served to us throughout the cruise, especially since there was no cooking, dish washing, or grocery shopping involved on our part.  Just make a selection and it was brought to you.

Dawn, Barbara, and myself at dinner.

The pleasant ladies, a mom and her two daughters, whom we shared a table with each evening.

Ensanada, Mexico

Items for sale in a shop.  They are really in to skeletons from celebrating "Day of the Dead"

This shop had quite a variety of colorful items.  Most of the shops offered silver jewelry, leather goods, pottery, blankets, and all the typical Mexican junk.

Ensanada.

Avalon on Catalina Island, California

Avalon.

The exit from the ship to the tender that took us to Avalon.

A tender next to the Elation.  These little boats could transport 40 passengers.

A view from the tender of the Elation.

Avalon.

 The old casino in Avalon.

Barbara and Dawn.

The central square in Avalon with a group of tourists on segways.

Avalon.

The Ship's Route and Some of the Decor

A map of the route we took.  The first full day was "A Day at Sea" and we were just anchored out in the ocean somewhere between San Diego and Catalina Island.

We were on the 4 day cruise.

 Some art right by the elevators.

 This was on the walls close to the elevators.

TheTowel Animals

Every evening we got a different towel animal left in our room.

The Cruise Ship, Carnival Elation

Barbara and Dawn in our room making plans for our evening.

The ship's upper deck.

 The lifeboats.

 Directions to our muster station.

The Cruise Ship

We went on the Carnival Elation on it's last cruise out of San Diego.

View of San Diego.

 Our room.

 Our dining room.

The 24 hour pizza counter, the one slice I had was not that great.

View from the front upper deck.

 Leaving San Diego Harbor.

My Get Away With College Friends

I attended Pt.Loma Nazarene College years ago with Dawn and Barbara.  We decided when needed to have a reunion cruise together to celebrate our birthdays.  I should have posted this right when I got back, but as you can see life happens and I did not. So I will be posting a series of pictures for my own memories, but I won't back date them like I did some previous posts.

I took this trip at the end of April.  Keith brought me to the Bakersfield Amtrak station and I took the bus to the Union Station in LA.

Then I boarded the train to Oceanside where Linda picked me up.  We enjoyed lunch at Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier.

On Sunday I got to see Benjamin's recent home purchase with Linda and Duane.

Linda then drove me to meet up with Dawn.  I had a wonderful, relaxing time at the Koonce home. I enjoyed seeing friends at church, a Sunday afternoon walk, and a great bed, breakfast, lunch and dinner with Linda and Duane and Jonathon.

Amgen Bike Tour of California

The Amgen Bike Tour of California passed by just a mile down the road from our house.  Nathan and Lorissa got home from college, picked up Renee and I and we rushed down to Cairn's Corner.  We were there for about 5 minutes and the bikers went by.  They were all in a pack so it took about 3 seconds for them to round the corner.  The CHP and support cars with spare bikes took a bit longer to pass by.  It was neat to see, but not much action.