Finally getting a chance to update the blog now that we're home. Actual dates
for the cruise were Friday Sept. 27 to Friday Oct. 4...
After nine days of living out of our suitcases, we packed up
and left Napa to drive to San Francisco and board Grand Princess.
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| From the Oakland Bay Bridge our first glimpse of Grand Princess and downtown San Francisco |
We had dropped our bags with the porters at the Cruise Ship
Terminal, then Larry and Barb went to drop the van off at the rental agency.
Norm and Monica got a little hot and tired of waiting in the sun so they set
off to find someplace for lunch. Instead of walking toward Pier 39, they went
the other way down the Embarcadero to the Pier 23 Cafe. This little place has
been around for a long time and along with being noted in the local 'Where to
Go/Eat/Shop' guides, it has also been visited by Guy Fieri of Food TV's
'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' show. Once Barb and Larry got there we had a
delicious lunch on the patio overlooking the bay.
Pier 23 Cafe was just the next pier down from the big
America's Cup Plaza, where the spectators, boats, and shops were located. In
the three days that we were in Napa, they'd run the last race, done the
celebrating, dismantled (we assume) the boats and sent them off to their next
destinations. The only thing left was the shop, where most of the merchandise
was at fire sale prices. If we'd known anybody who was a huge sailing fan (and
if we missed someone, please accept our apologies), we would have stopped in
and bought a t-shirt or something. We had heard that the spectator building is
supposed to become the new cruise ship terminal. It certainly would be nice,
since the current one really isn't set up for the purpose and there are more
and more cruises every year using San Francisco as an embarkation port.
After lunch, when we figured the worst of the lines would be
over, we wandered back to Pier 35 to check in. In July our British Isles cruise
was on Caribbean Princess, one of her sister ships in terms of size and design,
with a few small differences, so it didn't take much time to familiarize
ourselves with the ship. Norm and Barb had also cruised on her in January of
this year so we didn't have to spend any time at all in finding our way around.
The only problem we had was that we had already been noticing that a large
proportion of the passengers was in the over-65 category, and of those there
were quite a few walkers, scooters and canes. So we knew we were in for a week
of shuffling along behind walkers and dodging out of the way of canes.
The big event of the day was going to be the sailout under
the Golden Gate Bridge, so we made sure we were at the aft pool as we left San
Francisco behind.
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| The view from our balcony |
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| No, the ship didn't leave without us! This is Star Princess who was docked on the other side of the pier, on her way out |
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| The Skyline including the Coit Tower on the hill in the middle,the TransAmerica Pyramid on the right, and Pier 39 in the front. The famous sea lions are on the flat rafts just behind the wooden breakwater of the marina. If you zoom in on the picture you might see a few! |
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| Larry, Barb and Norm just as we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge |
Our first port stop on Sunday was Santa Barbara, where we
had stopped for lunch on the rainy Saturday of the week before. This time we
had booked a trolley tour of the city to see what was there outside of a block
or so from the highway. It is a beautiful city, more residential than big
business. There are no high buildings in town, mainly because of a law that was
passed when a wealthy resident left some land for a seaside park. The land was
already planted with some palm trees, and when she donated it, she stipulated
that no buildings in town could be higher than those trees so that the
residents would always be guaranteed a view of the ocean.
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| Part of the City Hall. The building and grounds are so beautiful that it is a very popular venue for wedding photos and other celebrations. |
The Mission Santa Barbara is probably the oldest building in town. As you know from your history, California was once a Spanish holding that was sold to the United States. Spanish missionaries were sent along the coast to establish settlements, and as a result there are numerous missions all along the coast, and the cities have names like San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco. They say that the missionaries decided to establish new missions only a day's walk apart from each other as they proceeded northward. This road is now known as 'El Camino Real', and has also become Highway 101, which we drove along from Malibu to Monterey (and through San Luis Obispo - see the pattern here?) The route is easily identified by posts along the side of the road with bells hanging from them, whether or not it is part of the highway.
One of the main attractions of the waterfront is
Stearns Wharf. This wharf has also been around for quite a long time and has
shops and restaurants, although not as many as the Monterey Wharf or Pier 39 in
San Francisco. Thinking about it, we could call this tour the 'Piers of the California
Coast', since we visited 4 of the most well-known in the south over the course
of our trip.
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| One of the locals. And that's a piece of seaweed beside him, NOT pelican poop! |
After our trolley tour, we wandered around a little and
found a nice Mexican style restaurant for lunch. Of course it was literally
around the corner from the parking lot where we had left the car during our
drive.
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| The outside patio at the Roadhouse restaurant |
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| Norm said he wanted oysters. Take a look at the size of this one!! |
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| Chocolate ice cream AND chocolate pudding, anyone? |
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