We got all checked in on the boat and unpacked. These cabins are much swanky! Our window DOES have a view! Not just a view of the life boat.

We were medically screened as we got on the boat. Seems someone brought the Norvo virus on the ship from New York, so the boat has been scrubbed down and has probably never been cleaner. Every time you enter a food venue you get a squirt of Purrell. Of course I did a once over the entire cabin with good ol' soap and water on the door handles, phone, TV control, handles, etc. The cabin has now passed the Sandy test. No one seems to be sick, so I think they nipped it in the bud.

We were delayed leaving San Fran due to the fact that they could not locate a crew member. Let's hope they wait on us if need be! Passing under the Golden Gate Bridge was really neat. Something about ships that brings people out of the woodwork. Plenty of people waving to us from the bridge! Felt like we could have just reached up and touched them.

Well just as we had suspected, we are outliers on this boat. Some of these folks are old. I think I need to brush up on my CPR, if you know what I mean. Candice went to the under 30 get together yesterday and there was one other girl named Trisha there. Our DJ, Graham Cracker, hosted that party. He says when we pick up the Aussie's it will get wild since they advertised the trip as a pub crawl. We'll have to see if Graham Cracker has any Lady Gaga on hand. You know, shake things up a bit. The average age right now is 60 and the other day some couple in the elevator thought that Candice and I were some of the violinists on the boat.

We got a special invitation to the full world cruise dinner with the President and General Manager of Cunard Cruise Lines, Peter Shanks, and the Master and Senior Officers when we are in Melbourne, Australia on February 22nd. It is a black tie dinner starting at 7:00 p.m. and they are arranging the carriage for us. Oh those British, they can make transportation sound so glorious! Our itinerary stated that we were going to be leaving Melbourne at 6 p.m. but apparently they changed it to midnight to accommodate our dinner. It will be held at the National Gallery of Victoria. I had read that we would be getting a couple of special dinners but I had no idea they would be held off the boat! So THAT is something to look forward to. If the dinner lives up to the standards of the invitation, we are in for a BIG time!

Cunard has a museum on board and it's interesting to find out that the cruise line was inspired by Samuel Cunard who started delivering mail across the Atlantic 165 years ago. So, that means there is hope for the United States Postal Service! Can you imagine sailing the USPS? The first Cunard cruise had 450 passengers and 300 of them were millionaires and their staff. My how times have changed!

First day at sea was cold so I decided to get two loads of laundry done. Launderettes are on our floor, the fourth, through the eighth floor. I went down the hall three times and kept coming back to more people in there using three washers and three dryers. I guess everyone had the same idea. I decided I had to outwit this system and concluded that everyone below us was coming up to our floor to use the laundrette so, I needed to head up to the more expensive cabins on floor 8. i figured those people wouldn't be doing their own laundry. I was wrong and on top of that there are only two washers and dryers up on that floor. Cunard is thinking the same way I do. So, I finally got laundry going on the 8th floor and the 7th floor.

It's amazing who you can bump into doing laundry. I met a lady from Wales and she told me that she and her husband owned a boat that is docked in the Mediterranean. They spent the entire month of October in the Maldives and then sailed to Portugal, around to Spain and over to France. I also saw men ironing and doing laundry duty too! Wow, where have all the good men gone?

There is a web cam on the Cunard site, www.cunard.com click on Queen Victoria and you will see the link for the web cam. Won't see much while we are at sea but when we are dock you should be able to see something.

Got to listen to an Apollo 9 astronaut on Friday, Russell L. Schweickart. He was one of the first astronauts who tested the process of transferring astronauts in space from a lunar space craft to their command center. He also was in charge of and tested the solar panels in space for the Skylab station. One solar panel tore off when they lifted off and he said that was a 21 billion dollar mistake. Doesn't count like much today but back in the 70's that was the 'b' word. Now we're using the 't' word. Cunard has two or three lectures a day. So, it's vacation with a little bit of expanding your knowledge!

Going ashore on Lahaina today and will post some pictures.

Sandy