March 17th we departed Nashville for our drive to Los Angeles for our cruise. It was cold and wet when we departed, but the sun came out and it cleared up by the time we reached Little Rock, AR. We were very fortunate on our drive to LA, the weather was sunny and clear for our 4 days. As usual we saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. We were on I40 all the way to Barstow, CA so no surprises along the way.
Sunset our first night in Shawnee, OK.
In Flagstaff, AZ we came across Humphrey Peak - we had to take a picture and send to our good friends John and Cornella Humphrey.
In Kingman, AZ we made a quick pit stop and just enjoyed some of the rock formations along the road.
We crossed the Mojave Desert on our last morning on the way into LA. The weather was perfect, sunny and cool in the early morning. The Mojave is really quite beautiful.
On March 20th we arrived in LA. Our cruise was scheduled to depart LA (Long Beach) on the 21st. We are meeting up with Terri and Andy in LA so they can join us on the cruise. We also have an opportunity to spend some time with Scott and Chris, Terri and Andy's boys. Chris made reservations for us at the Four Season in Beverly Hills. This was quite a treat for us - especially since he took care of the bill. While on route to LA we had some problems with my iPhone (kept saying no SIM card). So a driver (made us feel special) from the Four Seasons took us to the Beverly Center in a town car so we could go to the Apple store to see if I could get my phone fixed. After discussing with the store associates it was determined my phone was defective and since I had only had for about 6 months, they replaced it under warranty with a new one. While at the Apple store we saw Dwight Yoakam - he looked a little scruffy and he wasn't very tall.
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| Downtown LA |
The view from our balcony of downtown LA at the Four Seasons.
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| Rusty and Marilyn |
Rusty enjoying the view as we waited to be picked up for dinner.
Scott came over in the morning to have breakfast with us and then take us to the cruise port. He parked our car in his underground parking lot while we were gone so we didn't have to pay for parking at the port and he also bought our breakfast.
We departed LA on Friday March 21st to begin our Pacific Coastal cruise. The cities we are visiting are: Santa Barbara, CA; San Francisco, CA; Monterey/Carmel, CA; Catalina Island (Avalon), CA; and Ensenada, Mexico.
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| Queen of Missions |
March 22nd we arrived early in the morning in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is an enchanting seaside Spanish paradise. We did the historical city tour aboard an open air trolley car. The weather was chilly and raining so we opted to sit in the covered portion of the trolley - and we were glad we did because the people in the open air section were quite cold. We saw the Historic Courthouse - an awesome looking building. We also saw the Museum of Natural History, Old Town and the historic Old Mission. It was a very cool looking town - wouldn't mind going back some day so we could spend some more time exploring town. The trolley dropped us off back at the pier and we took a walk to Fisherman's Wharf where we explored the shops and had lunch at Moby Dick's. Food was OK, but we had a great window seat where we could enjoy the activities taking place on the water.
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| Andy and Terri |
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| Me and Rusty |
Next we had a sea day. We just relaxed on board, read a little, explored the ship a little. Basically a lazy day. While sitting in one of the lounges sort of reading and looking out the window, we spotted two whales playing off the port side. It is always amazing to watch them breech the surface.
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| After crossing under bridge |
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| Coming in to San Francisco |
We arrived in San Francisco on the afternoon of the 24th - which happened to be a clear beautiful day. The fog was lifting as we sailed in under the Golden Gate Bridge - a spectacular view. Got a great picture of Rusty and Terri as we were sailing under the bridge.
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| Rusty and Terri |
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| Sea Lions on dock |
While in San Francisco we did the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour. You have the opportunity to see 20 of the cities most popular sites while on this 2.5 hour fully narrated tour. Highlights of the tour include Fisherman's Wharf, North Beach, Little Italy, the Embarcadero and Union Square (San Francisco's premier destination for boutique shopping, high fashion, restaurants and theater. We also saw Alamo Square with its picturesque Victorian row houses and the Haight-Ashbury district (once the epicenter of the 1960's "Summer of Love" hippy culture. Also stopped at Golden Gate Bridge Park. After crossing the bridge we returned to the city to see City Center via Presidio Park, the Palace of Fine Arts, Lombard Street, Union Square North, Chinatown and Stewart Street. The tour ended at the ship's pier on Embarcadero Street just a short distance from Pier 39, the home of the Aquarium on the Bay and a favorite gathering spot for a large population of California Sea Lion.
The first night we had dinner with Terri and Andy on Pier 39. After dinner they were meeting up with a friend of Andy's from his band days. Rusty and I took off to explore Fisherman's Wharf, Pier 39 and Ghiradelli Square on foot.
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| Pier 39 |
When we crossed at the cross walk the street going into Fisherman's Wharf, a man in a uniform stopped us he said to give us a ticket. We were a little surprised because we crossed with a ton of other people and he didn't stop them. Well, he was actually a homeless person and he wanted some money. He said he stopped us because we weren't smiling enough and for a small fee he gave us a couple of stickers that said "I luv your smile." He had us going there for a minute.
Ghiradelli Square is an awesome place, had some samples of chocolate and just checked out the area. And of course we bought chocolate.
Fisherman's Wharf - amazing!! The sights, the sounds and the people - it is just a great place to people watch and explore everything.
Sunset our first night in San Francisco from the back of Pier 39.
Day 2 in San Francisco was in the 50's and raining. We got back on the Hop On, Hop Off bus so it could take us to Golden Gate Bridge Park so we could then take a different bus into Sausalito. We walked around Sausalito but it was a relentless, cold rain so we headed back to the bus stop to head back over to San Francisco.
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| Sausalito - Bay |
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| Rusty - San Fran in distance across the bay |
Back at Golden Gate Bridge Park, we got back on the Hop On, Hop Off bus (standing room only because of the pouring rain) and took it back to Fisherman's Wharf. We had a late lunch at Boudin's - home of the original sour dough bread bowl. It was delicious and just what we needed on a cold, rainy day. After lunch we slowly headed back to the ship on foot, stopping at Pier 39 for some more exploring. When we were done at Pier 39 and walked to the ship, the rain let up and the sun came out. Oh well, even in the rain it was great exploring San Francisco.
We had wanted to do the tour of Alcatraz but visibility was poor and all the tours were sold out. Gives us an excuse to go back :).
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| Alcatraz |
After 2 days, it was time to depart San Francisco - but, we will be back. So much to see and do here.
The 26th we docked in Monterey bright and early. Unfortunately the weather was still not what we had hoped for. Spanish Bay Beach gets lots of surfers, while at Restless Bay the waves criss-cross. We did the 17-mile drive to Monterey with the Carmel City tour. Monterey's 17-mile drive was beautiful. This private resident-only road snakes past some of the most breathtaking ocean-side vistas in CA.
We stopped at Seal and Bird rock for a close up look at the habitants of the Pacific. Sea Lions, southern sea Otters, seals, whales and various birds can be seen in the area. There are a lot of amazing rock formations in the area as well.
We drove past world-renowned golfing greens of Spanish Bay and Pebble Beach with a stop at the historic Lodge at Pebble Beach.
We also stopped along the cliff of the Lone Cypress getting an opportunity to view the most photographed tree in the world. Perched high above the Pacific, the Lone Cypress grows out of solid marble and has been the inspiration of artists and photographers worldwide.
This scenic (despite the weather) journey continued through the charming artist's village of Carmel, passing quaint Bed and Breakfasts along the way. We stopped along the main street of Carmel strolling along the various art galleries, coffee shops and antique stores. We walked to The Cypress Inn owned by Doris Day and went inside to view the historic lobby which contained a lot of memorabilia. We also went to the Pine Inn, the oldest inn in Carmel.
Andy took this great shot of this cool little alleyway in Carmel.
The bus took us back to the port in Monterey. We strolled along port side before taking the tender back to the ship.
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| Monterey seaport |
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| Video of zip line participant |
After exploring Catalina via golf cart, we went to downtown Avalon and explored town on foot. Great walking spaces, beautiful fountains and a great pier (although they were working on the pier).
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| Me and Rusty - downtown Avalon, Catalina Island |
We had a blast exploring the island in the golf cart - this was absolutely a great choice. Andy was our driver. We had no idea what we were doing or where we were going but we managed to explore and arrive safely back to the harbor.
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| Rusty, me, Terri and Andy |
Last port of call was March 28th in Ensenada, Mexico. We got off the ship and took a local bus into downtown Ensenada to explore. The guide on the bus told us about some local tour options once we got to town. Weren't sure what we wanted to do so got off bus and started to walk around a little. Everybody and their brother wanted to sell us some little trinkets - beads, bracelets, hair barrettes, etc. Town was looking a little shaky so we walked back to bus drop off and got one of the local tours to a place called LaBufadora - which is a natural made geyser, blow hole. Our tour guide was Fernando - he was a colorful fellow. He told us a lot of history about Ensenada, the local economy, etc. along the way.
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| Flea Market |
Once we got to LaBufadora, we had to walk through a "flea market" to get to the blow hole. Before we headed to the blow hole, we of course had to use the restrooms which cost of $.50 each - we had to laugh about this. The flea market had every kind of shop you could imagine and they all wanted to sell you something.
LaBufador itself was truly spectacular.
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| Geyser going off, kayakers in background |
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| Double rainbow @ geyser |
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| Geyser |
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| Rusty, Sheryl, Terri and Andy |
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| Terri and Rusty |
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| Kayakers |
For all the poverty in downtown Ensenada, the views in LaBufadora were amazing.
Sad for the cruise to be over, we are now heading back to Los Angeles. It was great spending time with Terri and Andy and it was a great cruise. Could have had better weather but we saw some beautiful scenery.
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| Port of Los Angeles |
Scott picked us up at the cruise port on the 29th to take us back to the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills - Scott and Chris are spoiling us. We picked our car up at Scott's and then went to the Four Seasons to check in and drop off our stuff. Scott took us to The Grove - he had something he needed to pick up and then he took us to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory - we looked but didn't see anyone from The Big Bang :). Scott took good care of us - he drove us to and from the cruise port, all around LA, took us to lunch and dinner, to say nothing of keeping our car while we were cruising.
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| Downtown LA from Grove |
After The Grove, Scott took us to Chris's house off Mulholland Drive. Chris and some of his friends were hanging around the pool. Scott left us there to spend some time with Chris and then we were going to meet up with him for dinner.
Rusty and I expressed an interest in seeing the Y&R showroom so Chris took all of us to check it out. We got ride in his Rolls Royce Ghost - an amazing car.
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| Rolls Royce Ghost |
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| Y&R Showroom |
The boys took all of us to dinner on our last night in LA to Katana, Scott's neighbor was the manager and he treated us really well. He asked if it would be OK to pick out several appetizers for us, we of course let him. We all ordered several "small plates" we shared. The place was packed and very noisy but we had a good time. After we completed our meal, the manager then ordered us several desserts to share. I had to use the restroom and while I was waiting in line, the manager came over and took me to a private restroom so I didn't have to wait - boy did I feel special.
We had a wonderful trip. Terri and Andy had a very early flight the next morning so we said our goodbyes that evening. We departed LA to head back to Nashville the next morning as well.
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| Scott, me, Rusty and Chris |
