Update from Santa Barbara

San Francisco Cruise Visit

It was an absolutely glorious day in San Francisco.  I have been to San Francisco several times, but none even remotely matched this weather.  It was fabulous.

We got off the ship around 830 and walked to Pier 39.  There wasn't anything open so we decided it would be good to get a cable car ride.  We saw double decker buses with a hop on hop off all day pass but they were $30 a person.  We decided to wait to do it later in the day. We walked up to catch the cable car, spotted the Hyde Street Maritime Museum and marked it for a visit later.

We bought an all day metro pass ride  on the cable car.  We rode up to the Financial District, got off walked down to get a cup of coffee, and I posted by blog update for Astoria.  We then walked down to where we could get another different cable car unfortunately it didn't go to the waterfront but did give us an opportunity to get a fabulous shot of Chinatown which I will post later.  We then got off and caught a very crowded bus back to waterfront, then walked down got a bite to eat, and headed for Hyde Street Maritime Museum.

It took is a couple hours to tour the ships.  They are in the process of restoring a three masted schooner.  There wasn't much to see with it, but it was interesting.  We spent about fifteen minutes touring another small steamship, honestly I don't remember much about it other than it was steam powered.  We then walked down and toured a steam powered ferry that used to run the bay before the Golden Gate Bridge was opened.  It was loaded up with restored era cars, and each of them was a museum piece all of its own, and worth the small admission price.  It included an old log truck, which again I will post the picture later.

Next up was an absolutely gorgeous, amazing, and gleaming restoration of a three masted sailing ship.  It was obviously painstakingly and lovingly restored to its original glory.  It was absolutely immaculate, polished, and gleaming doesn't begin to describe the ship.  Fabulous, beautiful, glowing hardwoods, glittering metalwork, and impeccable detailed restoration.

We took the time to insure we didn't miss even the tiniest corner.  It is impossible to describe how small these living quarters are.  There was a chart house on the top, which a story describes how one captain's wife claimed for herself as she had always wanted a sewing room of her own.  The holds had been filled with cargo, much  as one would have seen it when the ship had sailed the seas.  Each had a button you could press to describe what the port was like that would have generated the cargo.  There was coffee, tea, wheat, cotton, burlap, gunny sacks, and other cargo items.  It was interesting that the burlap and gunny sacks were from two different ports.   Ship would haul the burlap to one port, pick up the gunny sacks and sail to the grain port where they would pick up grain in the gunny sack, then sail to another port, etc.  it was fascinating tour, and if you ever get the chance to visit there, don't miss seeing that site.

We then walked down to the Hard Rock Cafe to pick up Steve's T shirt.  He collects them whenever we visit a spot that has aHard Rock Cafe.  It's fun to see his collection.  He now has one from London, Paris, Rome, Las Vegas, Key West, and now San Francisco.

We got back to the boat around 3 so we could rest, lots of walking, and get a good seat for the sail away party.  We chose to go to the top deck overlooking the outdoor pool.  Since it was such a beautiful day, we knew it would be crowded and we were right.  It was an incredible experience sailing past Alcatraz, the presidio, and underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.  There were several yacht clubs out sailing with their beautiful colorful sails full of wind.  I will post the pictures later, but I'll bet there wasn't 15 feet between the top of the ship and the bridge.  It was fun, as there were people on the bridge waving act us, and the ships horn blasted.  Way fun.

We hit the AA Meeting at six, a quick dinner, and bedtime for us.  We were exhausted.  We pull into Santa Barbara today, we will be anchored in the bay.  We will board small boats called tenders to go onshore.  I will post the report of the visit tomorrow once we get to my friend Melinda's house.  It is supposed to be a perfect weather to visit a beautiful spot.