Sailing day minus 2 ............ September 23, 2008

The trip down the California coast to catch the ship (Sept. 22 - Sept. 23)
  • Highway 1 down the coast
  • Fire scars in the Big Sur
  • Elephant seals
  • Morro Bay State Park RV campground
  • RV park in Anaheim, CA, with WI-FI
Cruise Picture Took the coast highway from Monterey south and experienced all the rugged coastline (with its meandering horseshoe curves). As we passed through the Big Sur forest area, the evidence of the fires which plagued the area were very much in evidence. Near the Hearst Castle we stopped at an elephant seal rookery, which seemed to be populated with year-old pups (of quite signficant size). Our overnight stop was in the RV campground of Morro Bay State Park.

In the morning stopped at the Scandinavian community of Solvang to breakfast on their famous pastries.

Anaheim is our intermediary staging area before jumping onto the ship.

Sailing day minus 8 ............ September 17, 2008

San Jose, California, and INFOBLOX (Sept. 17 - Sept. 21)
  • At INFOBLOX (at the secret door entrance)
  • A genuine Russian dinner with Russian emigres
  • Martinez, CA, with my nephew Don
Cruise Picture Arrived Wednesday night; visited downtown San Jose on Thursday and INFOBLOX on Friday

On Saturday had a wonderful Russian dinner at the home of an INFOBLOX employee who is originally from Moscow

On Sunday Stuart, Beth, Max, Gen, and I drove to the home of my nephew Don, whom I had not seen in almost 50 years; my brother Jack met us there and we had a most wonderful mini family reunion.

Sailing day minus 9 ............ September 16, 2008

Madison, Wisconsin (Fly Day minus 1)
  • The UW Campus
  • The Wisconsin Capitol Building
  • Lake Monona
  • MAD SAILS Sail Loft
Cruise Picture Arrived in Madison on Sunday, escaping from the torrential rains in the Chicago afrea (with water in the tenants basement). Had lunch with Bette Barnes on Monday and Lydia Kalaida on Tuesday--what fun to reminisce about the good old days as a graduate student in Madison and to speculate about the fun of the upcoming cruise.

Sailing day minus 19 ............ September 6, 2008

The Bon Voyage Party organized by Tacia and hosted by the Brooks on Sunday, August 31
Cruise Picture It is hard for me to believe that this event is really almost here. This week I will have to ponder on what clothes will fit into which pieces of luggage. The plan is to go to Ryan's on Sunday, the 14th; then he will take me to the Milwaukee airport on Wednesday, the 17th.

Sailing day minus 30 ............ August 26, 2008

A view of the Northwestern landfill from the jetty at the Evanston boat ramp
Cruise Picture "What to take" considerations -- A new camera: my old Minolta SLR camera and simple digital camera did not seem up to the task, so with my "economic stimulus" check I went out online and purchased a new Panasonic DMC-FZ18 camera which boasts an 18x optical zoom with Leica lenses. In addition, it has all kinds of automatic features, all of which I may not ever comprehend. In order to assure optimal use, I got an extra battery and a second flash memory storage chip. I hope the ensuing results will justify the purchase.

Sailing day minus 32 ............ August 24, 2008

The dog days of Evanston
  • Weather
  • "Gearing" up for the cruise
Cruise Picture Compared to our very brutal winter, Evanston's summer has been most pleasant. Today, for example, the termperature is is the 70's with a brisk northerly breeze. Good day for biking up to Highland Park and back.

What does one consider taking with them on such a long cruise? Well over the next few days I will share some of my own considerations.