22nd March
San Francisco – Day 1
Last night we experienced a rather rough
sea, so rough that Geoffrey was thrown out of bed in the middle of the
night. However, we were up bright and
early for our sail in to San Francisco for a three day visit, one day on board
ship and two days in the Hilton Hotel.
We had decided to book a full day (eleven
hour) excursion along the coast to
Monterey and Carmel. After a two hour
drive along the beautiful coastline we arrived at our first stop at an Artichoke
Farm and Shop. Here we tasted crispy
deep fried Artichoke Hearts (very tasty), before arriving at Monterey, a
fishing village that used to be the centre of the sardine trade before the
sardines disappeared in the 1960s and the village has now developed into a tourist haven of boutiques,
restaurants, etc. It was here that we
had lunch at The Fish Hopper Restaurant, watching the dolphins and bird
life. A very pleasant stopover.
We then drove on to an area known as Pebble
Beach for a 17 mile drive along the coast, stopping off at Spanish Bay, and The
Lone Cyprus to take in the magnificent views.
After driving past houses owned by the rich
and famous (including the ex-wife of Clint Eastwood) and the famous Pebble
Beach Golf Course, we arrived at Carmel.
Here we had a two hour stop for Doreen to explore the absolutely
beautiful shopping area, but regrettably much too expensive for Doreen, and
Geoffrey to visit the beach area. Carmel
was a beautiful, unique, quaint town catering for the rich and famous that live
in that area, well worth a visit.
We drove back to San Francisco through
Silicon Valley, arriving at our ship at 7.30pm, exhausted after a really
enjoyable day. After a quick dinner we
went to our cabin to complete our packing for disembarkation tomorrow.
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