Time Flies When You’re Having Fun...

...as the saying goes. If I could sum up the flurry of the past three days, that would about cover it. We all got to LA safely, managed to find the shuttles, got to the hotel (some more efficiently than others - again the shuttles), and Tom and I even rented a car, zipped down to visit with Dad who is doing pretty well, and is on the upswing again, and then returned to the hotel via only two Sigalerts. (You have to have driven in California for a day or two to understand that one.)

Our group of five finally met up over club sandwiches at the hotel and we pinched ourselves knowing the ship was on its way. We confessed to several overstuffed bags, but figured we could get all five of us to the pier in our own shuttle car before returning the rental. And we did. Tom was the heroic shuttle driver who got everyone safely to the port, dropped us off and we managed to all get onboard within a few minutes of each other.

Of course, there was a serendipitous event first. Jackie and I had agreed to sit and wait just outside the entry doors until Tom was able to join us after gassing up the rental car, returning it and walking back to the pier. Because Jackie and I can sit and talk just about anywhere, this was easy. And as we sat and talked, we looked across the broad sidewalk and saw this group of men in blue suits who were guiding guests to the doors and assisting those who needed wheelchairs. During a lull, I looked across at them and said, “Do any of you gentlemen know Peter Wyrick?” Whereupon one of them said “I’m Peter...” but he left unsaid the “who the heck are you? ? ?” part. Well, Peter B. Wyrick was one of Tom’s commanding officers in the Marine Corps, with the VMA-214 Blacksheep. We had heard he had started working at the Los Angeles Harbor as a greeter....and we had found him. After we tried to have Peter sneak attack Tom (Tom recognized him right away) and much catching up of what happened over the last 35 years, Peter escorted us through check-in and we walked right on to the ship.

Since then we have been exploring the ship, eating and drinking at nearly every opportunity, getting turned around and lost on a nearly hourly basis and laughing all the way. We are very pleased with the size of the Coral Princess and the mix of passengers. A very nice change from what we encountered two months ago on the Emerald. This ship only holds 2000 passengers, but has nearly the same amount of public spaces. Meaning there are few crowds, one can always find a seat in the venues AND the buffet, and we have yet to encounter any of the boorish personalities we saw on a too-regular basis on the last trip.

Today is our second sea day, and we already have too many things to do and not enough time. The sun has just risen at 8 a.m. Tom, Pam and Gene have met for deck walking (lovely wide promenade on one deck) and some weights in the gym, while I write this and listen to a wonderful presentation ( History channel production maybe? ) on the construction of the Panama Canal while also deciding what we want to do during our first port visit tomorrow in Puerto Vallarta. One thing we do have on the agenda for PV is visiting with one of our Corrales neighbors who happen to be on vacation there. Oh, and a slot pull tournament. And a luncheon in the dining room today. Oh, so much we want to do and then sometimes we decide it is just more important to sit and watch the ocean drifting by.

This is turning out to be one of our favorite cruises already.