Betty and I are about to return to our home in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA after our yearly 14 day vacation. It all began towards the end of April, when we jumped aboard the Celebrity Eclipse for a cruise around Maui and Big Island, and then five days at sea traveling to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Three days there and it's back to Honolulu. 

This is our fifth cruise and our first with Celebrity. Our first four were with Carnaval from Los Angeles or San Diego to Mexico, and our fifth was with Princess. The best of Carnaval was the family vacation atmosphere including the water slides. Princess wasn't our favorite primarily because of the constant marketing on board, always costly; if one took advantage of even half, the cost of the cruise would easily double. The best of Celebrity was the adult atmosphere and specular shows. The food was outstanding and the service beyond imagination. We like to ballroom/latin dance and while there were many dance bands and venues, they mostly weren't partner danceable. All in all, we made many friends and thoroughly enjoyed the Celebrity cruise, though we had to tuck away our dance shoes for much of the trip. 

Our three days in Vancouver proved exceptional with sunny, cloudless weather every day (it got cold and cloudy today, returning to more typical Vancouver weather, I guess in goodbye). We checked out the city, Victoria and Whistler. High tea at the Empress Hotel in Victoria was a real high point. We took a jeep trip up the top of the mountain at Whistler, and saw snow for the first time in years. Oh, yes, and several bears, seals, eagles and squirrels, none of which are common to Hawaii.