Cruising The California Coast

When you are planing a cruise, it seems like it takes forever for that day to come, but when it does come it seems like the days go by so fast that too soon it is over.  When you arrive home you go though a with drawl and you soon begin to dream of another cruise.  I guess you sort of get hook to this cruising thing..... I met a lady yesterday and her description of cruising was just the pleasure of being in a "luxury floating hotel."

The first part of May we took a 7 day cruise up the California Coast. This was different from the other cruises we have taken, as it was to some familiar places, not the exotic places you dream or read about.

We embarked on Saturday, May 5th, on the beautiful ship "The Sapphire Princess."  This is the same ship that we sailed to Alaska last June with our children.  We sailed out of San Pedro, the sky was over cast but beautiful.  The ocean air relaxes the soul, it's the beginning of a beautiful week, with good food, great entertainment and plenty of time to do nothing but enjoy yourself and be waited on.

Our first port was San Diego.  We walked around town a little but spent most of the time on board.  This is a Navy town and my Sweetheart did his boot training there when he was a young sailor during the Korean War.  Our next port was Ensenada.  We got off the ship just long enough to buy some vanilla and me a pretty scarf.

Our third day was at sea.  I do enjoy these days at sea.  I enjoy walking along the deck, sitting in the lounge chairs watching the waves go by or watching a movie on the large movie screen under the stars.  It also gives me the pleasure of doing my hand work which is something that I enjoy doing and is relaxing too.  But this day I'm sorry to say was cold and wet, so we sent most of this day inside the ship and not on deck.

Our forth day was in San Francisco.  Here again we took a stroll along the boardwalk.  We saw lots of Sea Lions just laying around enjoying what sun was there.  Went past a famous bakery and watch a lady making fancy breads.  The buildings along the waterfront were most interesting, but the McDonald's restaurant caught my interest the most.  That night we had the pleasure of sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge.

Day 5 was again sailing the sea.  This was a nice day and we spent a lot of the time on deck.

Our last port was Santa Barbara.  This is a beautiful town with beautiful beaches.  We did a lot of walking.  We walked to the courthouse in the center of town.  This is a beautiful old building with its beautiful gardens, tile work and the mural room.  It has a lot of history and is a must for all visitors.  Kirk and I spent our honeymoon here in this beautiful city 59 years ago, so as we stroll along I felt like a young girl again, except I did get sort of tired and then I remembered I wasn't that young girl..  We road the shuttle back to the ship for 25 cents.

Our evening dining was special.  We dined in the Vivaldi Room.  This again was the same dining room that we shared with our Children on the Alaska cruise.  This time we had a table for 4, we shared our meal with two very fine and nice looking young men.  Tom had been in the Peace Corp for a number of years and after that he had worked for the Red Cross.  Lester had been in the Navy for 14 years, he is now doing some acting which he enjoys.  Right now they were both between jobs so taking a cruise seen to be in order.  We enjoyed their company very much and looked forward to seeing them at dinner and hearing about their days activities, they both enjoyed walking and so they saw the ports on foot.  I wondered how many miles they would have logged in if they had been wearing a pedometer?  Both these young men had personality plus so sharing our evening meal with them became a delight.  They had joined the Cruise Choir so the last evening this choir put on a show in the Piazza.  We made sure we were there to enjoy their performance and to cheer them on.  We had a lovely young lady as our waitress, her name was Aumyot, she was friendly and helpful and had a welcoming smile, she always made sure I was well taken care of.  (vanilla ice cream, caramel topping with lots of walnuts)

Saturday was the end of our trip.  We had a wonderful time and we met many nice people. The only thing I missed was we did most of the sailing at night while we slept and spent the days in port, but that was OK too...   I have to admit, I do enjoy this cruising thing, it really is a "luxury floating hotel" with all the amenities.  I'm going to keep it on my MUST DO LIST....