RAIN WAS KIND TO STAY AWAY ANOTHER DAY

Anytime you go on a trip, a holiday, or a vacation and can avoid rain, it is a good thing. We didn't totally avoid it, but we came close. Only in San Francisco did the weather thwart our plans.

But when you travel from LA to Santa Barbara to SF to Astoria, Oregon, to Seattle to Victoria and Vancouver in Canada and only encounter one day of bad weather, not counting one lousy day at sea when waves reached 14 feet giving our ship some uncalled for rocking, well you've been fortunate.

Princess, specifically Sapphire Princess was our vessel and is near to the top if not our new favorite cruise line. Service, excursions, of course food, and our room are main reasons. It's the most laid back cruise we've been on. Other cruise lines seem to try to make you have a good time. Constant announcements about a bingo game or dance class or wine tasting or art auction or, worst yet, pool games disrupt me way too much. I'll find something to do. Honestly. So you don't have to remind me with inane announcements.

One flaw we found was they were too laid back when it came to finding your specific tour. There were few if any cruise reps to help you once you got to the pier. I know. Baby needs help there. Well, just a little. The same with exiting the ship Saturday morning. We were delayed because of Vancouver port authorities, but there was no announcement at all telling when we could disembark (I'm always reminded of a stupid Laverne and Shirley show where when Squiggy was told to disembark, he started barking saying "I thought they said 'do some barks'.")

So maybe a little too laid back for me.

An extra day in Vancouver was the perfect touch. We hadn't been to the city for 8 years, enjoyed Granville Island, a hop on hop off, a nice non cruise meal of pizza and salad, some shopping and next morning church services at a beautiful First Baptist Church where next Sunday we were told Slick Willie would be in attendance. A tour bus driver told us that using the former Prez's moniker. No one made mention of it at the church, but hey, I'm glad he's going to attend. I hope he enjoys the worship time as much as we.

Off to the airport where I lost my favorite pair of sunglasses because an airport security guy thought my wife's curling iron a knife. Everything unloaded. But not everything loaded back.

Oh well, a small price to pay, I guess for a great sojourn. And, oh yeah, the Chinese writing spells out RAIN.