Heading Down Under with a few stops along the way

I'm back! I left off in San Francisco about 2 1/2 years ago and amazingly enough, I begin a new blog from... yes, you guessed it... San Francisco.

We are embarking on a new adventure heading all the way to Australia and we are quite excited! We will board the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship in San Francisco on Saturday, February 4th and set sail for Sydney, Australia, with stops along the way in Hawaii, Tonga, Western Samoa, and New Zealand.

We've been organizing and planning for the month of January as it's kind of crazy to plan to be away from home for five weeks. I thinking getting the bills paid was the craziest part but thank goodness for technology, which enables us to pay bills and be in touch from all over the world.

We had a few hiccups in the week and a half prior to leaving as Betsy's sinus infection decided to make a return, followed by her shoulder flaring up and the need for a cortisone shot - update, all is now well.  But Ed, not to be outdone, decided to have a toothache and ended up having a tooth pulled three days before we left.  And in the good news department, our boat - which we've been trying to sell since late summer, decided to sell this past weekend. It made for some long days but in the end, all worked out and here we are!

We flew two days early to San Francisco (just in case of bad weather) and planned to visit Alcatraz on Friday the 3rd. We had not fit that in last time so it seemed appropriate to make it happen. And the weather cooperated as well. While the forecast was for lots of rain, we had lots of peeks of sunshine throughout the morning and truly avoided getting wet until our way back to the hotel.

Speaking of the hotel - I had checked in ahead of time (since they offered me the opportunity) and even was able to choose my own room. So I chose the 19th floor - a room they billed as "quiet". And it was a nice room, nothing special, but high enough to view the harbor and it was quiet. However, it really didn't have a lot of hot water, which we didn't discover until our cold morning shower. SO... when we left the hotel for the day's activity we mentioned the issue to the front desk and they said they would take care of it. Upon our return, I checked to see what had happened and much to our surprise and good fortune - the issue in our room could not be fixed and we were upgraded to the Executive Level to a Junior Suite with privileges to the Executive Lounge (cocktail hour and free breakfast). What a hoot! And to think I picked the room that ended up having us upgraded. Good job Hilton - you stepped up and compensated us without us having to ask.

But back to our day at Alcatraz. We were able to walk a couple blocks to the Brioche Bakery and Cafe. A small, unassuming storefront cafe with some yummy treats for breakfast including quiche, vanilla french toast with fruit, and fresh squeezed orange juice. A good way to start the day.

Then a longer walk to Pier 33 (San Francisco is unbelievably hilly - going down is one thing but getting up those hills, yikes - let's just say we walked off breakfast) to catch the Alcatraz 10:00 a.m. ferry. A well-run affair, very organized - the boat left on time for the short ride out to Alcatraz. A bonus - we saw that the Queen Elizabeth had already arrived in San Francisco - and were able to catch a nice picture of the ship on our way to Alcatraz.  

 

Alcatraz is an interesting place - lots of walking to get up to the prison and then a well-informed audio tour of the inside of the prison itself. Kind of cold and damp inside with tiny cells - can't imagine spending day-after-day living out your existence in that place. Of course I did find out that it was really only a prison for 30 some years - the other 70 years or so it was an Army fort, Army prison, then a federal penitentiary, and now belongs to the National Park System. They continue work to restore many of the crumbling buildings and many areas are off limits. It also has historic gardens, tidepools, bird colonies, and amazing views of the bay. Who knew?

After spending about three hours on the island, we headed back and had lunch at Alioto's, enjoying chowder and fish and chips (and wine and beer). We had a beautiful view of a small harbor and were entertained by a harbor seal.  With the rain a bit more constant and the thought of walking back to the hotel not in our plans, we were able to ride a Cable Car, which took us within 4 blocks of our hotel.

On the healthy end of things - we walked 13,500 steps, climbed the equivalent of 35 flights of stairs for a total of 6.1 miles.

So that's it for now. We board the ship tomorrow and I'll be back after we spend our two days in Hawaii - the first day visiting with Jacqueline, Madison and Charlotte - and perhaps Tim; the second day taking a catamaran whale watching trip off of Maui.  Stay tuned!