Hi All,

Well, I'm home safe and sound from a marvelous vacation. I have a geology story that I will write a considerable piece about later in the week. I took a trip about 50 miles north of Ensenada with the group and a wonderful tour guide named Belen. She added to so much to what seems like an everyday excursion near the Gold Coast of Mexico.

This trip was a marvelous departure from everyday life as most of us know it. I'll remember it for the rest of my life as my first trip ever, alone in a foreign country and without asking anyone if they wanted to do this or that and just doing what I darned well pleased, when I wanted to. This is the ultimate vacation.

I was lulled to sleep each night with the soft rocking of the ship and a view of the star studded sky absent of the city lights. A sight worthy of beholding on any evening. On Saturday morning I awoke just in time to see the ship passing a nearby island chain just off the coast of Ensenada and falling back to sleep I awoke to see the city from the portside view. Its very beautiful.

And just to keep the record straight, the only hits I had on this excursion were the ones in the casino. I entered a slot competion and was the highest winner in the first round, however, those behind me easily made mush of my 4711 points. Darn. But it was fun for sure.

The food was good, but not as outstanding as some prior cruisers told me, but that tropical atmosphere on the Lido deck near the pool and topical bars surely picked up my mornings. The desire to dance from one end of the deck to the next was hard to surpress. I also made sure I got my complement of fruit juice with the appropriate alcohol quotient daily. To say I was layed back and happy is an understatement.

But the travel home was a little odd. On the flight before mine they kicked off 50 passengers stating they had an overload problem and paid each of them $300.00 to get off. There was a lot of confusion when they told them and they ordered about a dozen to go back to the main security area to be rechecked. All of this made no sense at all and of course upset the passengers considerably. All of them were ordinary US citizens just trying to get home.

But at home after a very long day I'm darn glad to be here. Thanks to Don it was possible for me to have this memorable vacation and when I presented him with an unusual gift, he was rather surprised. I brought him an old fashion Conastoga Covered Wagon. So now when he's at home thinking of the old west, he has a little something to fuel the mind.

More on geology later.....hasta luego....Petra