On Wednesday, September 10, a group of more than 80 local residents met at Riverpark Center on Imola to embark on another wonderful trip arranged by Napa Valley College Senior Tours — this one to Santa Cruz on Monterey Bay.

We senior citizens have done our share of driving in our lifetimes, and on these trips it’s time to sit back, enjoy and leave the driving to someone else.

In two buses, our expedition embarked on a journey through beautiful mountains and valleys, and I realized first-hand how this place they call God’s country earned that title.

Another perk on these trips is the people you meet. People who have come through hard times and yet could smile and appreciate every bit of our journey. People like Lois and Bob Biniek, our across-the-aisle bus mates and the same folks who were recently honored at Hands Across The Valley for their many years of service helping others by delivering Meals on Wheels.

The tour began at 8 a.m. and ended back at Riverpark at 6 p.m., exactly the times announced in the program. But during those marvelous 10 hours, enough pleasant memories were gathered to last a lifetime.

Our destination was Santa Cruz and for openers the Crow’s Nest restaurant on Monterey Bay, where we enjoyed a fine lunch surrounded by good people. The entrees were Angus steak, char-broiled chicken breast or tilapia with bay shrimp. My choice was the steak because I’m up to here with chicken. I didn’t know what tilapia was and didn’t want to find out.

As the waitress poured the coffee and kept filling my cup (my kind of woman) we dined in style and watched scores of fishing boats pass by our window — headed to or returning from Monterey Bay and the ocean beyond.

After lunch, the two buses took us to old Santa Cruz city, where at the Civic Auditorium we joined folks by the hundreds from other tours, all ready and eager to enjoy the Santa Cruz Follies presentation of “Lullaby of Broadway.” In just a little while, Jeanette and I, both New York City kids, were back home where it all began for us.

The colorful troupe of entertainers, singers and dancers brought back old and dear songs and memories with Rodgers and Hart’s “Manhattan” and “Sidewalks of New York”, Harry Warren’s “Lullaby of Broadway” and “42nd Street” and, of course, the one and only George M. Cohan’s “Give My Regards To Broadway” and “45 Minutes From Broadway.”

What memories returned! Jeanette and I recalled every word and mouthed them silently as the show went on.

All in all it was another magic tour made possible by Napa Valley College. Back home that night I found myself singing (badly) “Give My Regards To Broadway.”

I’m a collector of old theater bills and sports programs and tuck those treasures away. But I must admit I’m a terrible archivist and spend considerable time trying to find my collection. This time it took me two days, but when I did recover the folder with materials from previous Napa Valley College trips in a Kinko’s cardboard box in the garage, I perused the programs and literature and sweet memories returned.

On a trip to SBC (now AT&T) Park, our tour guide and number No. 1 Giants fan was Alice Moreno, who took us onto the field, through the visitors’ dugout and clubhouse and those private suites for swells who may or may not understand the game. That was the day we met Bernice and Bill Clarke, as well as Pat Selsor (Bernice’s sister) and her husband, Jack. We also met Ray Nasuti, a great guy and Napan. Ray was the guy who, when we reached the Ferry Terminal, informed me to my dismay that the Hog Island Oyster Company had run out of oysters.

Then I found the literature on a Roaring Camp visit on a Mother’s Day a few years ago. Jenny Sercu led the tour on our trip deep into the Sierra Nevada mountains. That day we rode the steam engine through redwood forests where once the great American writer Bret Harte wrote about the gold miners and lumberjacks who opened the doors to the golden west.

That’s the day two city kids got our first chuckwagon meal, something we thought only Gabby Hayes — in those old black-and-white movies — knew how to prepare. Again it was the good people who made that Mother’s Day a day to remember — folks like Ann Crain and Joe and Jean Crozier.

Let’s not forget Garbeau’s Dinner Theatre in the Sacramento area, where after a great lunch topped off by a pastry filled with cream and chocolate we sat back and watched the local troupe present “Oklahoma.” The play took us back to Broadway in 1953, when Rodgers and Hammerstein gave us a musical marvel that would run on Broadway for more than 2,400 performances and is still presented to audiences coast to coast more than five decades later.

Thanks to the Napa Valley College for its senior tours and to great tour directors we’ve met like Jenny Sercu, Alice Moreno and Vicky Altamura-Dezell, who make pleasant days memorable ones.

Ev Parker can be reached at evjenpar@mailbug.com or 224-9956.