Finally I will update you a little on our adventures on the Africa cruise.

Departure went smoothly from the river boat a nice bus for 22 with just 12 of us onboard. The luggage totalled 22 pieces and we barely managed to get it all packed in. It was totally full not one more bag would squeeze in.

First two nights quite a bit of swell but been super smooth since then with sunshine and not too hot.

Dinner in Prime 7 with Jennifer and John was a wonderful way to start the cruise. We have eaten in Compass Rose each night since and the food has been excellent from my point of view. Lots of familiar faces in the crowd all waiting to be pinned! Dennis the Menace is onboard if any of you know the waiter Dennis you know that is a plus.

Our first port of call was Funchal, Madeira. We had a great guide and the tour was terrific. We stopped at three neat spots with about 30 minutes of free time at each stop. An extremely interesting and fun tour. Then back to a few hands of cards – of course Mark (of Cheron and Mark) rules!

The second port of Las Palma and unfortunately this tour was not great. The guide could not speak English well enough to understand and NEVER stopped talking. The good thing was the island is stunning with beautiful vistas of the town and sea from the hills and all types of plants. I think anything grows here!

This was the night of the free cruise drawing. There were a lot of new faces at the cocktail party and I am looking forward to getting to know them better. Some really nice new people in the group.

We did the preliminary drawing early on in the party and then the final drawing at the end. Meredith ( of Bo and Meredith) looked totally shocked and thrilled all at the same time. Her cute face was just beaming! Every year I am anxious to see who wins and each year we have had a great winner.

The third port was Tenerife. I was so behind on emails and some work related issues that I decided to bail and stay onboard. Everyone one enjoyed their tour here. Cannon Ken and Nikon Ken went ashore and walked for about 2 – 3 hours. They came back with some super pictures that will get posted eventually.

Trivia has been fun a reunion of the trivia tour from a few trips ago. Lots of fun and pretty good questions, not too hard and not too easy. Cards we have played when we have had the time and sister June and I are in the heat of battle on a very high scoring game of scrabble.

We had a lovely tour in Las Palmas. The garden tour, not usually my cup of tea but the guide was great, the gardens had amazing cactus I have never seen, unique trees. To top it off some liqueur tasting my favorite being the Bananna liqueur.

Two days at sea and our next stop Cape Verde.

Great friends and food - can it get any better? We will see some interesting ports are ahead of us.