Wednesday - I had my alarm set for 5:30 to see the Golden Gate Bridge and slept right through it! I have my alarm on my iPad set for "Waves" and evidently over the last four weeks I have become too familiar to the sound (I woke up at 6 and the "waves" had gotten quite loud). I guess I will need to change to "Church Bells" to wake me up.
Everyone was being cleared by CBP onboard (unlike New York City where we were cleared in the terminal building). My time was 7:15 (the first group was 6:45) but I got there at 7:00. Turns out they didn't even open the doors until 7. We were divided into two lines - US and non-US. Since there are only about 500 Americans onboard, our line went much faster although it still took me about 40 minutes from the time I got in line until I was checked in. I was up anyway so I went to the Lido and got a muffin and a glass of pineapple juice (it comes from a carton but is very good). It was then 8 am and I knew nobody was getting off until all were cleared so I went back to bed for an hour and a half.
One of my few criticisms of Cunard is you never know on which deck you will disembark. So far, we have disembarked on A deck, Deck 1 and Deck 2. Today, I guessed Deck 2 and was correct but there were 26 passengers who had not shown up for Customs check so it was almost 11 by the time I got off the ship.
I caught a taxi and went to the Union Square area to do some shopping and use free wi-fi (thank you Westfield Centre). By the time I left it was starting to rain (something that is much needed in California) so I took another taxi back to the ship around 5 pm.
There were only six of us at dinner tonight. Barbara came to say good-bye but did not stay to eat. We said our farewells to Diane and Roy.
I was tired so I came back to my stateroom instead of going to the show, watching the dancing and/or getting a drink.
Thursday - Woke up about 8:30 to a rainy day. Had to line up to get off the ship because many who were leaving had their carry-ons and the transfers to hotels and the airport were in progress.
Once I made it to dry land, I walked to Pier 39 (we are at 35) and took the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. The commentary was good and I saw many of the famous sights of the city. Unfortunately, it was raining so I could not sit on the top open deck. Most of my pictures have raindrops on them.
After I made the complete loop, I went back to Union Square. Once again, I took advantage of free wi-fi, this time in Macy's. I ended up eating in the Burger Bar inside Macy's and had a really expensive (but good) cheeseburger, onion rings, and a root beer. I was looking for one or two short sleeved tops but did not find any in Macy's (they had long-sleeved and 3/4 sleeved but no short in my size.
Talked with the family via Facetime (while sitting in Macy's) and then headed to the cable car stop. When the cable car showed up I realized that the step up onto the cable car was much too high for my knees to handle so I went back on the hop-on hop-off bus. As I was waiting for it I met another lady from the ship who was also doing the full world voyage. We walked back to the ship together.
Due to sleeping through my alarm on Wednesday and the rain and fog today, I still had not seen the Golden Gate Bridge (I had seen it the last time I visited SF when I was six, but did not remember it) so I was determined to be out on deck for the sailaway. Met up with Maggiemou (from my CC roll call) and we watched the sailaway together. I was rather disappointed that the bridge was not lighted better but I did see it and get a few pictures.
Our table of ten has been expanded to a table of eleven. The only one of the new people to show up was my CC friend, Chez, so we still have three new people to meet.
Made an early night of it again.
Alcatraz
The view from my balcony
Entrance to Chinatown
One of the many old electric streetcars brought from various cities
the Golden Gate Bridge
View as we sailed out of San Francisco
Smooth sailing until next time!
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