April 24, 2015



THE CITY BY THE BAY

Another very different day for your Friendly Neighborhood Cruisers.  Because we came into San Francisco from Canada, the whole ship’s compliment – passengers and crew – had to go through U.S. Customs and Immigrations.  And what a situation that was.  Bonnie and I were supposed to go off at 9:30 and it was almost 11.  But all was well – we had no plans, so we just waited our turn and then did some exploring.

Basically we stuck to the street where the Docks are (ask the Bro what the name of the street is).  We walked from Pier 27, where we are docked, to Pier 39 for shopping, lunch, souvenirs, and some picture taking.  Got some decent shots of Alcatraz, the tower on the Embarcadero, and one of the Oakland Bay Bridge.  We were not close enough to the Golden Gate Bridge.  Talked about taking a boat ride out past Alcatraz and the GGB, but it was so windy, we did not.  We were going to take a tour of Alcatraz, but they are sold out until April 27 (when we will be at Catalina Island).  Oh well.

Our main goal of the day was to buy Bonnie a pair of long pants.  Other than dress pants for on board, she brought only shorts, and it was a very windy 55 degrees out today.  We found a place and she asked the sales girl if she could try them on.  The girl said, “Sure.  But we don’t have a dressing room.  But right here is okay.  This is San Francisco.”  She told us she went to dinner one time and one of the patrons was naked.  So I stood beside of a rack of sweatshirts and in front of Bonnie while she changed clothes.  People have more fun than anybody!

We ate lunch at Eagle Café.  Bonnie had a hamburger with bacon, cheese, and lots of stuff – and she ate the whole thing (first full meal she’s eaten in days).  I had a cup of fantastic Clam Chowder and then two dozen fried oysters.  Oh my goodness!  On the way back to the ship we stopped for ice cream and had a double waffle cone each.  They had FroYo, but we sinned and had the real thing!

Oh yeah.  We stopped at CVS, and brought Mountain Dew, and chips for on board snacks.

Side note from Bonnie: We also stopped at a chocolate store where they made their own chocolate. They had all kinds of caramels, chocolate covered nuts or pretzels or fruits. I bought 2 of these and 3 of those and etc, and I got one truffle for David. It was $5.95 a pound and by the time I finished I had $10 worth. Oh my!! Haven’t eaten any yet. But I will later. I feel sure I will have consumed it all before I get home. Sorry!!   We saw some hilarious t-shirts but resisted buying any. We saw a Darth Vader that said “Who’s your Daddy?” We saw lots of Minions t-shirts and some that were too indescribable. Stacey Amerson if you are reading this we saw one just for you. Ask me later! The wind blew my hat off 3 times!! Once I got it, once David got it and the third time a kind gentleman on the street got it for me. I finally took it off. Though the air was very cold!!

Sail away tomorrow is at 1 p.m., and my talk is at 2:30, so we’ll blog again on Sunday from Santa Barbara.

TTFN