Panama Canal cruise 2011

It’s been awhile since we took a cruise.  Colleen is done with her work for Princess Cruises for the year.  The Alaska season is finally over and now it's our turn.

We are going through the Panama Canal on the Coral Princess, leaving Ft Lauderdale on October 11^th and arriving in Los Angeles (then straight home) on October 25^th.  We went through the canal in 2001, just three weeks after 9/11.  The cruise line had scuba divers checking the underside of the ship for bombs back then.  The fear was that terrorists would try to clog up the commerce of the US by sinking a ship in one of the locks.  There was a bit of tension then that we shouldn’t feel this time!

This has been a fun summer.  On June 11^th, Jennifer married Nick, so now we have a great son-in-law.  The wedding was in West Seattle and everything was wonderful.  Jen and Nick did all of the planning for both the wedding and reception, which had 250 guests.  It was a great party.  They had a photo booth that was a huge hit!  Lots of food, music and dancing.  Jen wanted us to stay until the end of the event, so we saw the far side of 1am for the first time in years.  They are living in his condo in Burien, south of Seattle.  They had a honeymoon booked in Costa Rica that had to be delayed as he had a great new job offer that he accepted even though it started the week after the wedding.  So they took a ‘minimoon’ after the wedding, and will be on the real thing in Costa Rica while we are on this cruise. 

We will post next from the ship.