Day 3

The Bank

We started the day with a two hour walking tour of Chinatown, which is the largest Chinese community in the country.  Being in San Francisco meant we did a lot of walking up and town hills!

It was a fun tour and we had a good tour guide.  After the tour, we went back and ate at a Chinese lunch restaurant.  It was simply a walk in place, with no seats, where they were cooking right behind the counter.  There was a big sign that said no English was spoken and they were right.  I knew what to ask for and it costs us only $1.50 for lunch.  I know one item had pork in it and we have no idea what was in the other item and I wouldn’t do it again!!

The "Drug Store"

Then we took a bus to Union Square, which is basically the main high-priced shopping and entertainment area in San Francisco.  After walking around a little, we decided we could see these shops in any big city.  We went to a deli that had been recommended on the Travel Channel called Lefty O’ Douls, named after a famous baseball player and we had a really good corned beef sandwich.

Next was a bus to Fisherman’s Wharf where we took a two hour Gray line open top bus tour of the city.  We saw some areas that we wanted to visit and also stopped at the end of the Golden Gate Bridge to see it and take a break – what a bridge.

After the bus trip, we ate dinner at the Boudin bread factory.  Boudin is a very famous sourdough bread company and this restaurant is very busy.

The Fish store

Only 4.2 miles walking today.

At the end of the day we planned out the next three full days – it should be fun and we will share it with you.

Night for now.

The Fortune Cookie Factory

Barb bought some scarfs!!

First time we saw the full bridge out of the fog

Arriving at Sausalito

Day 2

The deli for lunch

???

Oriental influence

We had the first good nights sleep in quite some time.  It seems like the entire month of June we were not getting enough sleep.  We left the room at 9:00am and walked down to the ferry pier and bought tickets to Sausalito. 

This morning, the entire bay area was covered in fog until about 11am and it felt like it was a light rain all of the time.

Sausalito is eight miles north of San Francisco across the bay and you can take the ferry.  It is a Mediterranean-style artist and boating community with a quaint shopping district.  We went there to take a 3 hour tour of the house boats that are docked on the north side of town and there are hundreds of them.  We took a cab to a deli, had a sandwich there for lunch and at 12:30pm, met our tour guide Victoria who is a local artist and very active in the boating area.

For the next three hours we had an amazing tour of the house boats.  Some of them were multi millions houses and some of them were almost junk.

After that tour, we took a taxi to the largest rescue program for sea mammals.  They had about 75 sea lions, sea elephants and seals. 

Then we took another cab back to the main area of Sausalito and walked around, ate dinner at a gourmet hamburger restaurant and then took the ferry back to San Francisco.

A house boat

It is cold here and everyone who lives here thinks that it is great.  We didn’t bring enough warm clothing so Barb will have to buy a jacket tomorrow because the high is going to be in the 60’s.  For sure we are not going to the beach!

We are back in the room early because we walked 5.2 miles today, we are tired and it is cold outside.

Interesting

Not so nice

The Spaulding Wooden Boat Center

July 4^th – San Francisco

Our room at the Marriott

Day 1 - June 30, 2012

For the first time ever, we had to fly out of Peoria, which meant getting up at 3:45am to drive to Peoria for a 7:00am flight from Peoria to Dallas to San Francisco.  We miss AirTran Airways.

The flight to Dallas was fine; however, when we went to leave, we ending sitting on the end of the runway for about an hour waiting for the fog in San Francisco to clear.

Barb with her crab cakes

We arrive to 75 degree weather – what a change from the last two days of 100 to 104 heat. 

The Marriott upgraded us to a junior suite and we really appreciate the extra room and two closets.

After unpacking, it was off to Fisherman’s Warf, just two blocks away.  What a tourist place but it was fun and the number of food places is increditable.

We ate crab cakes and shrimp and walked around until we had walked for 2.8 miles and were tired.

Ed with shrimp

Then we took a tour of a WWII submarine that was docked at the waft – unbelievable that sailors could live in those conditions. We both agreed that we could not.

We also took our first trolley ride and have purchased a 7 day pass so that we can use public transpiration everywhere.  90% of the people of San Francisco live within two block of public transportation.

There is a Walgreens a block away, so we bought some food and sodas to take to the room and crashed early tonight.  As I am writing this, we have been up for 16 hours.

Sea Lions

Night from San Francisco.

Crabs ready to eat

Ed's mini donuts

Spring 2012 – Day 10

The main pool early in the mrning

Well here it is, our last day.

After only a few hours of sleep and the clock being turned forward, Ed go up at 8 am to get chairs on the deck. The one spot where we like to be was still available and most of the prime chairs on the deck were already taken so it worked out very well.

After Ed ate breakfast, Barb joined him on the deck and we stayed on the deck until 11:30 am. Even with our tans, two hours is about all the sun we can take.

We cleaned up and joined Jeff and Vera in the Bistro at 1 pm for lunch. The Bistro is a crêpe restaurant and the food was excellent and the service was very slow.

Going out on our last night

Ed left early from lunch to go play in the blackjack tournament. While he qualified first going into the finals, he didn’t win.

Then it was up to the room to spend the next 1 ½ hours packing. We have signed up for the airline luggage program which means that once we put our bags outside our door tonight the next time we will see them is in Bloomington. What a great program to not have to fuss with the luggage and check it in at the airport.

Ed took a nap and Barb walked around and then we both cleaned up for the show and dinner.

The show was wonderful. The singer from a couple of nights ago sang again and the quartet finished the show.

Ed's steak in Tuscany

Dinner was in the Tuscany Restaurant with Jeff and Vera. It is an Italian Steakhouse and an extra charge restaurant; however, we didn’t have to pay as we were guests of our casino host, Andrea who joined us.

Then it was on to the casino where we had a great night and finished the trip the best that we have ever done.

After finishing this blog, we have to finish packing, organize for tomorrow and get a few hours of sleep. We will be home tomorrow.

We hope you enjoy following us on our trip. May your next vacation be a wonderful.

Night - Night

Spring 2012 – Day 9

The view from our balcony - another ship, the pier and the village

We awoke and were docked at the pier at Costa Maya, Mexico, which is a “town” made for the cruise industry. Before the cruise lines decided to get together and build this port, there was nothing here except a small town of 200 people.

So, they build a port, with a large pier and a new village with all of the typical tourist shops. It is built right on the Mayan Riviera, which is stretch of coastal land in Mexico stretching many miles south of Cancun.

The village at the port

The view from our balcony shows a very long pier, then the village and behind the village miles of just very flat land with palm trees – very un-developed. You could visit some Mayan ruins but it was a two-hour bus right and we didn’t feel the need to do that. There were a number of other “jungle” tours that people could take, but we skipped them all.

After spending about an hour visiting the port we had been to all of the shops and bought the prerequisite souvenirs that we needed. So, we headed back to the ship for lunch.

After lunch, we headed up to the deck for some sun – only one more day besides today to do so. As always, Barb is ahead of Ed with her tan!!

Buying a ring

Pretty soon it was time to change for the show and dinner. Tonight is the second formal night of the cruise and we are eating in the main dinner room.

The show was a major production by the singers and dancers on board. It was a very high energy show featuring all types of fast music from Irish Step Dancing to Tango, to Disco and much more – it was supposed to be a great up-beat show but it fell a little flat and did not have the energy that it should have – but we had fun.

Then we went to dinner which featured lobster tail. Can you imagine fixing lobster tail for a thousand or more people!

After dinner, we went to the casino where Barb finally hit a jackpot – not a great big one but a nice one!! Ed also did well so this was our best night in the casino ever.



Going out for the evening

We set the clocks forward tonight and tomorrow night – not good when you need sleep but tomorrow is a day at sea and we will spend a lot of time relaxing on the deck.

For all the basketball fans, we say Go Bulls and Go Syracuse!!

Night for now and thanks for everyone who makes it possible for us to be here – we will be home soon.

Spring 2012 – Day 8

Well I awoke early because we had gone to bed early since I was under quarantine. I felt just fine so I stayed in bed until Barb woke up and then ordered room service for breakfast.

Barb ready to go into the port.

After breakfast, we watched people get off the ship and then Barb went off to do a little shopping in the small port area of tourist shops.

We had scheduled a great all-day trip to the resort of Paya Bay Resort on the other side of the island. They were to pick us up and for lunch cook us a fresh lobster for lunch. During the rest of the day we were gong to just be on their beach.

Of course all that had to be cancelled last night and I did find out today that they will refund our money.

We had a snack on our balcony

I watched a movie on television during the afternoon – talk about being bored!! But at least life goes on and hopefully we will be back on Roatan in the future.

After the call from the Doctor came at 4 pm checking on my status, we immediately left the ship so that I could see a little of the port. We were back on the ship at 4:45 pm as the ship sailed at 5. You can’t imagine the feeling of watching everyone leave the ship and not even be able to leave the room – but it was over.

As we are requested to play in the casino two hours a day at a minimum and we lost a day yesterday, we went to the casino after the ship sailed and Ed did well.



Ed's three petite filets

The show tonight was a singer by the name of Lindsay Hamilton and she was outstanding. As they said in the program, she has played many of the most coveted roles in musical theatre history and we were very entertained by her performance.
After the show we went to the casino again and Ed did really well.

Dinner tonight was in one of the specialty restaurants call the Murano. There are three specialty restaurants on board that you have to pay an additional fee to go to and this is their classic French restaurant. We went with our friends from New York, Jeff and Vera and had a good time. We had a good meal, but not as outstanding as on other Celebrity ships.

Barb's lobster

Then it was on to the casino where both Ed and Barb lost but we were up considerable for the day, so it was a good day in the casino as we closed it at 2 am.

Tomorrow is Costa Maya, Mexico, our last stop.

Spring 2012 – Day 7

The clocks were set back an hour last night so the extra sleep was appreciated. In addition, we did not dock at the island of Cozumel until 9 am.

The kitchen

At 8 am it was raining but it cleared up by the time we docked. Cozumel is Mexico’s largest island and a major tourist stop. Today there were 5 ships in port so it was really busy. We were docked at the same pier with the Celebrity Eclipse, the sister ship to ours. Both ships were letting passengers off at 9 am so about 7,000 people including crew who could leave were all leaving at the same time – what a crowd. But pretty soon everyone was on their way to separate places so again it was just another busy port with lots of stands to buy things.

The highlight of our trip to Cozumel was meeting a chef at major market in town for a two hour food experience at a number of different local restaurants in the town.



The restaurant

 We met Emily, a US Citizen and trained chef who is living in Cozumel and she then proceeded to drive us to our first stop, a very local Empanadas restaurant, where we had three versions of the dish, all very good.

Then it was to another place for an introduction to Yucatecan food and they served cochinita pibil, which is baby-suckling pig that is slow roasted, marinated with citrus and annatto and served on a soft taco.

Then we went to the local market and Emily walked us through explaining how to tell fresh produce of different kinds and we looked at all the local produce from Mexico. The fish for sale at the market was very fresh, having been caught that morning.

Next we went to a more formal restaurant which served a really great Yucatecan chicken soup.


All parts of a pig cooking for our next meal



And our last stop was a local bakery where she pointed out the different types of breads that they produce and we each selected one for dessert.

What a wonderful experience we had. Every one of the restaurants except the bakery was an actual home with the restaurant in front and their homes in back. At the stop before the bakery, the front seating area was actually the garage for the house at night!!

So much for health codes.

After Emily dropped us off where we started, we took a taxi back to the ship and spent the next hour or so shopping at the shops by the pier. Barb bought a couple of purses because she really needed them. One that is made of folded gum wrappers we saw in Europe a couple of years ago for over a hundred dollars. The style finally made it to the islands and Barb bought one for $20!

Another restaurant and they park their car inside at night

Then it was back to the ship for a nap before dinner by Ed.

Then the problems started. Just before getting on the ship, I (Ed) had diarrhea. It had to be because of all the spicy and different food we ate on the food tour. At 5, there was no more diarrhea; however, I decided to go to the infirmary to get some Imodium in case it continued later on in the evening.



Two new purses



Everything was fine at the Doctor’s office after completing the paper work. Then the nurse came back in and brought me the Imodium and said the I was going to be quarantined in our room for 24 hours. No amount of talking or pleading would budge them. They said that anyone who reports diarrhea must be isolated for 24 hours in case it was a possible case of Norovirus and as soon as I signed the form, I was trapped.

So, until 4 pm tomorrow, I cannot leave the cabin. We were planning a great evening and a fun trip on the island of Roatan, but all that was cancelled.

Barb is not quarantined so at least she can leave the cabin tomorrow. There has been no more diarrhea since 5, but that doesn’t matter how good I feel now.

As of this writing there are 17 ½ hours left – what a bummer!!

Dinner in the room is not fun!!