San Francisco - day2

23^rd March

San Francisco – Day 2

Today is a sad day as we are disembarking the Arcadia after 79 days on board, (seems like leaving our home), very sad. 

We woke early to a view of the sun rising over the Bay Bridge from our balcony.

After retrieving our baggage at the quayside we were taken up to the Hilton Hotel in Union Square for our two day stay.  After booking in to our suite on the 14^th floor, we started to explore San Francisco, with an obligatory visit to Macys, a well known department store.  

We then queued for a trip on the famous “Powell and Hyde” cable car.  We managed to be first boarding the cable car and got the prime seats at the front, for an exciting forty minute trip UP AND DOWN the streets of San Francisco, before arriving down at the waterfront.  

We strolled along the waterfront past the Maritime Museum, Marina to Pier 39 and the sea lions.  

It was now early evening so we decided to have dinner at the Neptune Grill on Pier 39, famous for its clam chowders.  It was here we watched our ship, the Arcadia, sail out of San Francisco on its way to the Panama Canal, Caribbean and then home (with four of our cases still on board).

We then boarded a street car F Line (vintage trams from all around Europe) to take us back to our hotel.

San Francisco - day1

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.