uesday 6, February, 2018 Approximately 450 nautical miles NE of Los Angeles.

Dear Loyal Readers,

I am certain that you must think I have forgotten about you, but the time on board is so busy, and our stop in San Francisco was incredibly active.

We last spoke after rainy Cabo San Lucas. Our journey north to San Francisco was two days in length and we were fortunate to have smooth seas. I know I posted a photo of the activities, but I believe it was blurry and too difficult to read. So here is a typical day on board:

6:00 am Good Morning Queen Elizabeth with Entertainment Director, Jo Hailey. This is repeated throughout the day. What they don't want you to know is that it is pre-recorded the day before at 3 pm in the afternoon. It repeats continuously throughout the day.

7:30 Stretch and Relax, Fitness Center

9:00 Crossword Puzzles and Quizzes available in the Library

9:00 Queen Elizabeth's Sport Deck opens offering croquet, short mat bowls and paddle tennis. The croquet course is particularly nice.

9:30 Beginner's Bridge Lesson

9:30 Introduction to Skype

9:45 Line Dancing Lessons

10:00 Port Presentation

10:00 Arts & Crafts Class

10:00 Shuffleboard Tournament

10:00 Watercolour Art Class

10:15 Morning Trivia

10:30 Solo Travelers' Gathering

10:30 Social Croquet

10:30 Intermediate Bridge Lessons

11:00 Art Talk

11:00 Celebrity Lecture (today's speaker is Jeffrey Weinberg speaking on “The View from the Oval Office. What are the “tools” available to the President?”

11:15 Killer Darts

11:15 Table Tennis Tournament

12:00 Noon Navigational Announcement by the Captain

12:15 Insights Lecture. Today's is Katie Lam speaking on “From Page to Stage, an Introductionto Adaptation.”

12:15 Piano Entertainment with Robin Rose

12:15 Live Music with Synergy

12:15 Ballroom Dance Class: Beginner's Cha Cha

1:15 Singers at Sea Rehearsal

1:30 Complimentary Gaming Lessons

2:00 Classical Concert Pozansky-Tanner Duo

2:00 Arts & Crafts Class

2:00 Watercolour Class

2:00 Golf Putting Class

2:00 Movie

2:00 Duplicate Bridge Tournament

2:00 Social Bridge, Whist and Chess

2:30 Guess the Melody

2:45 Social Paddle Tennis

3:00 Snowball Jackpot Bingo

3:15 Deck Quoits Tournament

3:15 Host Corner: Needlework & Knitting

3:00 Adobe Photoshop Elements Basic Repairs

3:30 Afternoon Tea in the Queens Room

4:15 Afternoon Trivia (when we play!)

4:30 Bowls Tournament

5:00 LGBT Social Hour

5:30 Tiffany String Quartet

6:30 Cocktail Pianist Campbell Simpson

6:30 Ballroom Dancing Latin Dancing

7:30 Harpist Lara Szabo

7:30 Piano Entertainment Clarolyn Maier

7:45 Tiffany String Quartet

7:45 Ballroom Sequence Dancing

8:00 Wipeout Trivia

8:30 Showtime (tonight's entertainment is Allan Stewart)

8:30 Ballroom Dancing

9:15 Piano Entertainer Robin rose

9:15 Live Music with Synergy

9:15 Ballroom Dancing

(multiple musical outlets with piano and string quartet performances)

9:45 Landslide where the majority determine the right or wrong answers

10:00 Disco Music and More with DJ

10:30 Showtime

(additional classical music in multiple venues)

Additional Fitness Classes:

8:00 Foot Fitness

8:30 Pilates

4:00 Boot Camp Circuit Training

5:00 Fitness Bodyworks

Phew!!

I think I am most impressed by the Sequential Dancing. Everyone does the same step at the same time. Very impressive to watch.

The two sea days to San Francisco passed quickly. We have been attending the lectures, participating in Trivia, and generally relaxing by reading, playing Hand & Foot, and visiting with friends. I'm now on my 4^th book and I'm thrilled with the library, especially the extensive mystery collection. There are many British novelists that are hard to find in the US.

Although we have 20 pieces of free laundry per week, we still have to suffer the indignities of the dreaded “Guest Launderette!” Unfortunately, the launderette on our floor has only 3 washers and 3 dryers. The width of the room is only approximately 7 feet, so it gets very tight with folks waiting for their washer or dryer to be finished. So far, no great drama or interesting events have occurred when we were there, but I'm sure I will have launderette news to report at a future date.

San Francisco arrival was perfect! We passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 8 am in sunny weather without any fog. David and I both got some great photos of this special bridge. We were two hours late in arriving in San Francisco, Pier 27 due to tidal conditions, and were anxious about how long it would take us to go through Immigration, because we had exciting plans. As US citizens, we had only about a 10-15 minute wait. As we were waiting for our Uber, we saw our friends Evana and Alan who were boarding on the second day. They came to see the ship just to make certain it was actually there, since Evana and Alan had had a great deal of confusion regarding their booking.

We took Uber to the InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel to meet our dear friends Brian and Gary. They live in Walnut Creek, a suburb of San Francisco, but booked two nights in San Francisco to spend time with us. They were in the lobby and we had a great hugging reunion. We waited a few minutes until our son, Ben, arrived at the hotel. He had spent the night with a friend, but checked into the hotel. We all Ubered to Yank Sing for delicious dim sum with our dear friends, Patty and Michael Wong. We hadn't seen them since they stayed with us in Nova Scotia about 6 years ago. All of these spec ail friends, and our friend Chuck, who arrived later from Palm Springs, are all close friends from our Crystal cruises. We refer to ourselves as our “Crystal Family.” It is amazing how cruising brings people together. The dim sum was delicious and we enjoyed a huge variety of dishes. It was so good to catch up with friends.

After dim sum, Ben, David and I set off on foot to find a Target—many steps away! I needed a hair dryer since Cunard's hair dryer is in a drawer---and it's really hard getting in that little drawer!! Armed with supplies, we Ubered back to the hotel and had some time to spend with Ben. At 6 pm we went for drinks to the Top of the Mark. Chuck had arrived by then, and joined all of us. This iconic nightclub has been around for many, many years, at least from the 30's and 40's. It offers amazing views of all of San Francisco and the bridges. This is our second time visiting the Top of the Mark, and it has always been special to me. When I was a child of 7 or 8, a friend of my mother's visited the Top of the Mark and sent her a postcard illustrating the view of a turquoise sky and sophisticated people dining on martinis and smoking with cigarette holders. I appropriated the postcard, and still have it, because it was quintessential sophistication. I told our waiter about this postcard and he presented me with a packet of vintage postcards. Very sweet of him.

After drinks, (thank you Brian and Gary!) we all Ubered to Ristorante Milano for a delicious Italian meal.

Our second day in San Francisco was special. I was able to get permission to bring Ben, Brian, and Gary on board for a tour. Chuck was able to join us when he left his travel agent tour. We showed Ben and our friends the beautiful Queen Elizabeth and a lunch in the Lido. Unfortunately, the time of our tour was only from 10:30-1:00 pm. Ben actually had to leave at noon in order to make his 3:05 flight back to LAX. Chuck had a 4:05 flight back to Palm Springs, and Brian and Gary went home to Walnut Creek. David ran out for a short trip to Trader Joe's for wine and water. We had such a wonderful visit with Ben and our friends, it was just too short.

Our sail away from San Francisco was beautiful at sunset. We passed by Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge again. As soon as we left the shelter of the harbor, we began rocking and rolling. So much so, that we decided not to meet our friends Randell and Bobby for drinks at the Commodore Club, which is on Deck 10 very far forward. Instead, we met in Cafe Carinthia, where I was able to introduce them to our table mates Lin and Bryan and Pam and Peggy. Randell and Bobby are good friends from Sarasota, who joined the ship in San Francisco. They will be with us all the way back to New York.

This morning we awoke to a special surprise: A letter telling us we were now Diamond Level! A very nice achievement that comes with 8 hours of free internet!

The Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle was held at 11:45 am in the Commodore Club (it is calmer today). It was great to put faces to names from the roll call on line that began so long ago.

Off to Trivia, and stay tuned for our next installment. I promise to take some food photos!