Sunday: San Francisco 9/28
Overnight, we picked up our pilot to guide us under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. That all happened before I awoke, so I will have to see it when we leave tonight.
We docked at Pier 27 on the Embarcadero, close to Fisherman’s Wharf. Since I had been in Oakland and San Francisco last week for my college reunion, and Bob and I had spent several years in the Bay area, we did not go ashore. Instead, we admired Alcatraz, the Bay Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge from the ship. During the day we saw Pelicans in perfect formation skimming across the water.
Being a shore day, there were few activities, but we did have both morning and afternoon trivia. Bob went to the gym. I did more grading and fine tuning of my courses.
Since I wanted to get pictures of the Golden Gate as we left, we ate quickly and went up on the top deck. The ship still hadn’t left after sunset, so we returned to our cabin where it was warmer to watch from our balcony. Finally, we left and we saw Fisherman’s Wharf, the Eye, the Presidio, and the bridge. It was iconic.
After that we went to the evening show: David and Dawn Meyer. David played music from Led-Zepplin to Tchaikowsky on his Xylosynth, and then Dawn danced with laser sticks as David played the Laser Synth. Both instruments were new to me. It was a very energetic show.
Monday 9:29
Our pilot disembarked after we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge last night, and we are now headed south to Los Angeles. We passed San Simeon, which was founded in 1797. Interestingly, the first Europeans to settle near the bay of San Simeon were Portuguese shore whalers under the command of Captain Joseph Clark from the Cape Verde Islands, around 1864. We visited Cape Verde on our cruise from Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona. It seems odd that whalers from there came all the way around to the Pacific Ocean here.
We attended both Morning and Team Trivias. We are finding a group. Today we sat with Heidi from Montreal an Yvonne from Seattle. Chuck and Kathy Kennedy from North Carolina joined us. Bob also attended an interesting lecture by a Canadian Astronaut. For the rest of the time it was a relaxing day.