TheKingD

In the My Bookings it says 7 nights, and in the Reservation Documents it says 8 nights. I had not noticed the 8 nights until you mentioned it. I'm glad you will be on too, and I'm looking forward to meeting you. Here's a toast to a great trip and fun, new friends!

We're boarding July 2, but we will arrive in Vancouver late on June 29, so if they will let us on a day early we're all in!

The Picasso Museum in Paris is also nice and easy to visit. Paris has some really great cemeteries too. You might be too young to feel the need to go see Jim Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise, but other very famous people are there too. The Montparnasse Cemetery is really special too. It is very peaceful and on a nice day would be great to walk around.

A much more fun word to talk about is Dagnabit! Or Pshaw!

Thanks so much @BEAV and @TER777. I looked at their website and they are exactly the kind of florist I had in mind, and I knew you would know who to recommend. I'm going to call them in the morning and figure out if we can work something out, or if they have a connection with a similar artsy florist closer to Fremont. I was actually hoping you were a florist, but this is a close second! 🙂

This is a random request of @BEAV - totally off-topic. I think you are near San Francisco, and I am looking for a special florist in the Fremont area. We are in NC and our son is eloping next week in Santa Barbara and then they will be with his new bride's family in Fremont for Christmas. I have in mind to send a really nice flower arrangement to her family's home that would maybe have a combo Christmas/wedding motif. I know I can call my regular florist here and they will arrange for it through their network, but you rise above the crowd with your class-act, so I figured it was worth asking, just in case you have a recommendation. I'm not much of a search-online gal for something like this, and I much prefer an actual recommendation. No worries if not! Thanks, Cindy

I was in the 4th grade, and our school was trying to figure out what to do about telling us, and the mother of one of my classmates called the school and insisted on having her daughter called to the office, so that girl knew and came back to class with the news. I think they let us out of school early, and by the time I got home, my mother was distraught. She never watched TV during the day, but she had the TV on, and the draperies were closed so the picture would be clearer in the otherwise bright room. It was a very sad day.

@BEAV, you are correct. I didn't mean to attach my picture as a pdf, but here it is again - sideways - sorry! The US route is fairly new, and the trips are less expensive than the Canadian routes. We started in Salt Lake City, and they flew us in a 10-person plane to Moab so we saw a lot of the Utah landscape from that plane. We did our own excursion into Arches National Park with a hired driver, but everything else was arranged by RM. It was top-notch all the way, and I highly recommend it.

I am following @BEAV with a totally off-topic tidbit. I think you were the person who raved about a train trip between Denver and California earlier this year, and that, plus Roy's train adventures, motivated me to look into a train vacation. We just got back last week from a Red Rocks to Denver train trip that was great. We were not in a private train car like you were, but we still had a very luxurious trip with great food and libations and interesting people. I wanted to give Crystal a bit of time before I booked a cruise, so I'm considering that for next year! View from train.pdf

I'm here too - mostly enjoying reading where others have been. And like @jpalbny, work is crazy, and I'm ready for a trip, but not ready to head to Europe just yet. We have a train trip booked for right after my October 16 deadline at work, and we will start in Utah and head back to Denver on the train and fly home from there. We are less adventuresome than @ural guy, so we booked a package trip so we can relax and avoid taking care of our own logistics. We can fly direct from Charlotte and back again, and hopefully we will avoid any flight drama. I hope I will have at least one more River Cruise in the future, but this suits us better for the time being.

Thanks for posting the live information @SteelCityCruiser10. One of our friends was supposed to be on your cruise with his brother and four other guys on a "bachelor party" cruise in advance of the brother's upcoming wedding. I don't know if they stuck with the cruise or if they changed their plans, but if you see six 30-ish-year-old guys celebrating (hopefully with more clothes on than shorts and flip-flops!) they deserve a toast - Cheers from Cindy and John! I hope you all have a great cruise.

Roy, I hope you can make this all work out so you can cruise on the Serenity. I have followed your postings for several years now - going back to your trip on the Bach, because we were going to be on the Debussy soon after your trip. I have looked at the fall trips on Serenity, and I cannot make any of them work for me this year, but I might be able to in 2024. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you about this!! Cindy

To the Crystal fans of Portuguese Tarts, this morning, CBS had a little story about a Lisbon bakery famous for its tarts. It is worth a quick view, and it will make your mouth water and give you a suggested pit stop if you are in Lisbon.

For @Keith1010 and any other Beatles fans, NPR had a nice interview on this morning with Paul McCartney about his photos. It is short and light-hearted and his cute personality shows through. Cindy

Thanks to everyone here for the positive energy through these difficult years. I read every day and even though I have never been on Holland America cruises, I have found this group to be sincere and kind and like a breath of fresh air. I tracked @rafinmd here after reading his comments on a thread for Crystal River Cruises, and was lucky enough to settle in when so many other threads were "wound too tight" and I am grateful to you all for providing such a nice Daily break. This group is legendary in my world. Thanks for being there. Cindy