February 6, 2014. San Francisco, Ca. The Queen Elizabeth.

Today we board The Queen Elizabeth, the Cunard Line ship that will take us to New Zealand. My brother Dave tells me that the ship will be different than the last two ships, but we will see. We were perfectly happy with the past cruises. It will certainly be different in some respects. The first four days we will be at sea, heading to Hawaii. Then we spend five more days at sea getting to Samoa. We are told that it is more formal in tone. Ken has brought a dark suit while I have three silk outfits suitable for formal wear. No matter what, we will have a good time. We are packed and ready to leave San Francisco. The city seem energetic and lively. Also dirty and old. There are not as many homeless people sleeping on the streets now, but I do not want any people living on the streets. We have enjoyed the restaurants even though we did not venture many blocks from our hotel. Our task here was to finish up some business affairs and e mails while here and we have accomplished our jobs. We leave at peace, leaving Christina to the mail. This will be the first time for us to sail across the Pacific Ocean and the first time to cross the Equator and the International Date Line. Fortunately we have a balcony so we will be able to watch the sea. We are keen with anticipation.