The next great adventure ...

Several months ago Jaz and I decided to do a Panama Canal cruise.  We’d made our arrangements, booked our excursions, and talked about it lots … which is half the fun. 

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, I left Anchorage flying on Delta passes (thank you, Hobbs).  The flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis is usually a hard one to get on, and always crowded.  It was a breeze.  Then there were multiple flights to either Salt Lake City/San Francisco, or direct from Minneapolis to San Francisco.

It seems like I often have problems in Minneapolis.  I was trying to fly direct to San Francisco, but the flights were all overbooked due to bad weather in other areas.  I tried to fly to San Francisco, then Salt Lake/San Francisco, back and forth, back and forth.  It just wasn’t happening because there were too many people trying to get somewhere. 

I found a flight to San Jose that was only oversold by a few and decided to try that.  I was number 2 on the standby list.  Yay, I got on. 

Jaz was there to pick me up.  My baggage did not arrive.  Oh no.  I don’t want to buy new stuff yet again (like when I went to Michigan in October).  We checked at lost luggage but it was a rather difficult dealing. 

Another friend, Kris, was also coming to San Francisco, and was at that airport.  Off we went to get her.  We then also checked with Delta lost luggage at San Francisco, and there was my luggage.  I heaved a huge sigh of relief.  I was so tired by now I could hardly get that sigh out, but I did.

Home we went to Jaz’s mom’s.  I dropped like a rock into bed and slept for 10 hours.  I awoke refreshed and ready to hit the bricks. 

Kris, Jaz and I decided to catch the CalTrain and the muni train into the city and on to Fisherman’s Wharf to do lunch and just wander around.  We got off the muni train a little early and probably walked three miles to the wharf.  But we saw things we wouldn’t have if we’d been on the bus.

 

It's not my first choice of a place to sleep, but to someone else, I guess it is.

The Bay Bridge had fog rolling in and rolling out during our walk.

The wind was ruffling the feathers of this bird and it made me think of a turkey.

This guy feeds the pigeons often.  The one to the left appears to be covering his eyes with his wings.  What doesn't he want to see?  That the other pigeon is getting more than he is?

There are so many things to see just walking down the street, but flowers always gladden my heart, especially at this time of year.  The daffodils and tulips are wonderful to see.  Come on, spring.

 

We decided to have lunch first … the Fog Harbor Fish House … and what a wonderful lunch it was.  High recommendations.

 

Alcatraz in the fog.  Beautiful when you're on the outside.

 

A ship in the arch, fog behind it. Rails run right up to the edge, so there must have been loading and unloading from ships to rail cars, but there was no sign to tell us what it was.

Ya gotta admire his honesty.

 

Wind sock mobiles ... thank you, Jim and Tricia for the one you gave me.  Love it.

Rattle can art ... fascinating and some talent.  Do these folks start with graffiti?  Would love to have one but no way to carry it at this point and he doesn't ship.

From there we wandered down the street to the Musee Mecaniue, the arcade museum.  When Jaz first mentioned that she wanted to go there, I thought, well, I guess it would be fun.  I had no idea.  There were all the old-fashioned arcade machines from eras gone, from the carnivals, the old player pianos, the fortune-telling machines.  What a blast from the past … and fun.  A quarter here, 50 cents there, and we played and shot, and got our fortunes read and bowled.  It was something different and quite fun. 


The sign says it all.




Shooting games ... my favorite ... and fortune tellers, too.

Some things are just worth fighting for. 

Even an old bread bowl is worth something to someone.

The carousel on Pier 39 is a thing of beauty.

Street fun ... mimes.

We wandered down Pier 39 to where all the sea lions gather.  It was quite the get-together and you could hear them a block away, arf, arf, arf.  Some were just laying around on the wooden docks enjoying the sun, some had their noses up in the air in some highbrow way as though they were better than the other sea lions. 

This guy was enjoying his rays.

Some were playing and swimming in the water.  There were females nursing, and a platform that seemed to be the fight platform. 

These two were going at it for possession of the platform.

There would be one sea lion on it, then another or maybe two would jump up, only to be knocked off it, or fought off it by the first one.  Another might win the battle, and another one or two would take up where the others left off.  It was quite fun to see.  The noise would make your ears ring, but I could have hung out for a couple of hours watching them. 

Sweet faces.

The sun is going down ... was a beautiful and warm afternoon/evening.

Then it was time to head on back home for the evening as it was coming into dusk.  We caught the CalTrain, only to have it stop and back up.  There was a break down ahead of us.  But it wasn’t too much of a delay, and Jaz’s mom came and picked us up.

What a great day, but certainly a tiring one.  And there will be another tomorrow.

February 14 dawned with yet more fog, but it usually seems to burn off.  We hauled our butts to the gym for an hour to work out and work off some of the food we’ve been eating.  Jaz’s mom was going to be having lunch out so we just puttered around the house a bit, getting packed for our journey, boxing up a teapot Jaz had gotten me.  It’s a beautiful, heavy green one and she’d put it on the table in my room.  I’d noticed it immediately but didn’t know it was for me.  Wow.  Nice.  Thank you, Jaz.

We got cleaned up and decided to walk to town.  It’s mostly downhill, but still, three miles.  That three miles deserved a Five Guys burger and fries.  Heavy duty but oh-so-good.

You see some interesting things walking around ...

I wanted this sign. 

 

Then it was the post office, the bank, the store, a few errands and time to head home.  Please rescue us, Jaz’s mom, so we don’t have to walk all that uphill stuff.  Thank you. 

More readying because tomorrow will come early with a 9 a.m. flight.

On Saturday, February 15, we were up early to finish packing, head to the airport and get on the plane to Los Angeles.  The trip was a good one as I sat next to a lady who lives a town over from Jaz’s mom, and we hit it off.  Miriam is a school teacher, as is her daughter.  We had so much fun chatting that the flight seemed over before it started.

Once we got off the plane and gathered our luggage we looked around and saw the signs for “Island Princess.”  What an easy way to get to a cruise.  They took our luggage and loaded it, then we boarded a bus to head for the Port of Los Angeles. 

 

Yahoo, we're boarding.

The tug was pulling the tanker that had fueled us up away.  We were close to leaving now.

They must have heard about Jaz and me.  We had a police escort out of port.

A lighthouse as we were leaving, was beautiful as the sun was beginning its descent. 

 

The actual processing was pretty easy, passport/boarding pass, get a group number (9), sit and wait for your number to be called, board and be directed to your cabin.  In no time at all we were settled in and looking for food, which turned out to be a big buffet on Deck 14, Horizon Court, a restaurant that is open most of the time.

We got all settled in, with our suitcases open on the floor, a few things hung up, a few things put away on the shelves and in drawers.  After all, this is two weeks, so we can settle for a while.

 

Settling in.

 

Wandering around, with the port in the background.  It's huge.

We did some of the usual, the evening welcoming show that included a comedian who said there were only 13 children on this voyage (we’ve seen two of them), wandering around to get familiar with our surroundings, signing up for an Internet package so we could blog.  And … we found the Lotus Spa.  There was an embarkment deal, so we signed up for hot rock massages.  And dinner, of course.  We sat with several folks from Canada … some of our favorite people, and made lively conversation.

Then it was time to just enjoy the ocean waves sliding by, the quiet in the room, the slight movement of the ship back and forth, and bed.  It had been an early day and I know I was tired.

Sunday dawned, but was rather cloudy, windy and cool.  But we still enjoyed our balcony, coffee and a light snack.  We made our way to the gym at about 7 a.m.  Who knew all these old people would be in there working out.  It was packed.  All the treadmills were in use, the weights had lots of people lifting and putting down, machines were being used.  Wow.  Guess since there’s no port for a few days people are focusing on their well-being.  I found a rowing machine and worked on that for a while, Jaz worked with weights and then a couple of treadmills became available.  Thirty-plus minutes on those and we were done for the day.  Off we went to clean up and head to the spa.

Hot rock massage … ooooooohhhhhhh.  What a great way to start the day … Relaxing, with a capital R.  We had 75 minutes of it … from head to all your toes, fingertip to fingertip.  Wow.  What a nice treat to one’s self.

Then it was time to go to another presentation but we didn’t last because we hadn’t really eaten anything.  Up to Horizon Court for an early lunch, then at 1 p.m. we hit a photography seminar, Photography 101, but you can always learn something.

Back at the room, it had warmed up and the sun had finally come out, blowing sunbeams across the slightly-whitecapping sea.  Jaz saw some rocks and commented on the ship being away from them as we ran down the Baja Peninsula, southbound.  I hollered “whales” and we both made a beeline to get inside, getting stuck in the doorway trying to get inside to get to our cameras.  The doorways are only meant for one person at a time.  But we made it, got the long lenses on the cameras and took photos of whales breaching.  While none are close nor near-perfectly clear, we have them, and expect to see more.  It was stunning to see them … 

 

Hoping to see lots more whales.

At 3:30 p.m. we headed down to our usual dining room, the Bordeaux Dining Room, for afternoon tea, where we sat with some delightful folks from Florida and California.  We were ready for a cup of tea … little sandwiches without crusts, scones and pastries.  Yum.  Yep, the cruise ship of eternal eating.  But I was on top of it … and I was at the dinner trough, too.  Shrimp tonight.

 

At sea, not a bad place to be.