TRAVEL TALES

Young Chang

Everyone had to bend over and check one another’s name tags at the

50-year high school reunion, Ann Knipp said.

The tags had black and white faces cut out of a Newport Harbor High

School yearbook.

“They wore those so you could at least tie the name to the faces,”

said Knipp, a Costa Mesa resident and member of Newport Harbor’s class of

1951.

A few days after the reunion in early September, a dozen of the alumni

continued celebrating their longtime friendships with an Alaskan cruise

that hit several major cities and lasted seven days. Knipp and her

husband, Don, were there, so were Newport Beach’s Norma and Ted Millett.

The four go way back.

Don Knipp and Ted Millett graduated in Newport Harbor’s class of ’49.

Their wives, who met each other in eighth grade, both graduated two years

later. All four attended Orange Coast College, and three moved onto San

Diego State University (all but Don Knipp attended that university),

where the couples lived only a quarter of a block from each other.

Ann Knipp -- who Norma Millett affectionately calls Annie -- was

Millett’s maid of honor 48 years ago. Throughout the years, the couples

moved around, the Milletts even lived overseas, and, now retired, the

quartet finds themselves in neighboring cities once again.

“We’ll probably be friends until we die,” Ann Knipp said. “Our

grandchildren are friends at this point, and maybe our

great-grandchildren will be too. Who knows?”

Friendship, especially the kind that lasts more than half a decade,

has fringe benefits, the two women say. Rain or shine, it’s fun just to

be together. “Drippy” days on the Alaskan cruise proved this to be a

fact, as the northern skies were often overcast while strips of white fog

lay across mountains and waters, the travelers remember.

Though the couples often toured Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan

separately during the day, everyone convened in the evenings for a shared

dinner and talks.

“It’s very special to have a friend that goes back that far,” Norma

Millett said.

Ann Knipp agreed, pointing out that with longtime friends who feel

more like sisters, there are shared memories of each others’ parents, the

worst times and the best times.

“And you kind of overlook things with each other the same way you

would with a sister,” she said.

The Alaskan cruise added yet another shared and scenic moment for

Knipp and Millett.

On a day that sprouted a rainbow from the drizzle of a day before, the

two couples embarked on a canoe trip in Ketchikan. A young man stood in

the back and told everyone to paddle left, paddle right.

“We were kind of floating along,” Knipp said. “No noise, no visible

signs of civilization anywhere.”

It was just them.

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us your adventures. Drop us a line to Travel Tales, 330 W.

Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail [email protected]; or fax to

(949) 646-4170.