Day 3

Monday, Sept 26

Overnight, things calmed considerably.  When we got up, Dawn decided to use her seasickness patch and put one on.  We walked around, had breakfast, and as we neared San Francisco, the fog rolled in.  We saw the pilot boat leave, but within a couple minutes, it had disappeared in the fog.  Our ship has a loud, mournful sounding foghorn.  Because of the rough seas yesterday, we were going to be 3 hours late arriving in San Francisco so the tour we had booked was cancelled.

We were supposed to be at the Golden Gate bridge at 11:30, and at almost the exact time, we began to see the towers of the bridge showing up in the fog.  We got a couple pictures from our balcony as we went under the bridge.  Then, within minutes of passing the bridge, the fog was gone.  It was a beautiful entry to the bay.  Looking back at the bridge, it was a great sight with the fog in the background.

By 1:00, we were docked at pier 35 (right beside Fisherman’s Warf - pier 39).  We decided to get off the ship so left by 1:15.  While walking to Fisherman’s Warf, we saw an open top tour bus that had 2 hour tours of San Francisco, so we jumped aboard ($20 each).  It was a great tour, driving through the streets of downtown and through various ethnic communities in the city.  We ended up at the Golden Gate bridge where we stopped for about 20 minutes.  Got some great photos during the tour, and especially of the bridge.  The driver was great – very informative.  We very much enjoyed the tour.

Our ship from Fisherman's Wharf

He got us back to Fisherman’s Warf about 5 minutes late, but that was lots of time before we had to be back on board.  We walked around some of the shops, looking for a power bar to plug some of my electronics in.  Doug and Norma Butler were on this part of the cruise, and we met them while at one of the stores.  They were staying the next 4 days in San Francisco, so we didn’t have long.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find a power bar.  It was as if the shop employees didn’t know what I was asking for.  They must call them something else here.

Alcatraz as we were leaving San Francisco

We were back on the ship by 5:00, and hung around our balcony to watch the ship leave the pier.  Got some great photos of the area and the bridge off in the distance.  We wanted to stay on our balcony until we left so we could get some photos of Alcatraz as we went by.  However, the ship left about 6:30, and by the time it backed into the harbour and got going, the sun had gone down and it got dark very quickly.  We got a few photos, but they are pretty dark.

Went for dinner (did I say how good the food is?) which wasn’t too busy by that time.  We figured it was because a large group had gotten off the ship in San Francisco, and another group had gotten on.  We didn’t have to go the emergency drill, but they did, and that took place while we were eating.

Went to another show tonight.  This one was a guy who did impressions.  It took a bit of time to warm up to him, but once he got rolling, it was pretty good.  Again, he certainly made us laugh.