Day 4: 20230926 Tuesday, September 26, 2023- San Francisco

 Day 4: 20230926 Tuesday, September 26, 2023- San Francisco

Ben set his alarm at 4:45am to watch the ship pass under the Golden Gate Bridge.  Due to earlier weather condition, the bow of the ship’s observation platform remained closed off so he went to the top of the sun deck along with about a dozen hard core travelers to witness the bridge crossing.  There was a dense wet fog in the air which caused Ben’s hair to become rapidly drenched and sprinkled camera lenses.  The Golden Gate Bridge didn’t become visible at all until we were within a mile due to the fog and mist. Only the southern tower was partially visible in the clouds as well as the bridge deck. Janet was able to shoot some pictures from our balcony as the ship passed under the bridge.  Ben shot pictures and video from the sun deck and watched the ship glide into its slip on Pier 27.  The Ghirardelli sign and Coit Tower were well lit up through the mist, and the TransAmerica tower was periodically visible through the fog and mist.  

2000 passengers were disembarking from the ship this morning so we took our time, having breakfast in one of the main sit down dining rooms, and walked off the ship at 9am.  Ben’s brother Dave and his brother in law Tony had taken the day off to meet us at Fishermen’s Wharf and show us around a bit.  

We walked past most of Fishermen’s Wharf which was not generally open until after 10am, and Ghirardelli Square to Dave’s parked car.  We drove to the Presidio National Park and walked around Fort Point, the Golden Gate Overlook above Marshall’s beach, Baker Beach, the Visitor Center at the Main Post, the new Tunnel Tops and the Golden Gate Promenade.  Although the Golden Gate Bridge played Peek-a-Boo through the fog most of the day, we had marvelous weather which was dry, partly cloudy and shirt sleeve warm.  

We encountered a relatively new phenomenon at the Presidio visitor center.  The public restroom are located in an adjacent building, and it is designated a "Gender Inclusive" bathroom.  When Ben first walked in, he encountered banks of floor to ceiling doored stalls but when he saw a woman washing her hands at the sinks, he instinctively backed out thinking "oops, wrong bathroom", but then when you go all around the building, it is apparent that there is no wrong bathroom as you pick an unlocked stall and go in.  When Ben was washing his hands afterwards, a group of women came in and did the exact same double take that Ben had done earlier.  Ben warned Janet before she went in, but she noticed that because there are stalls on both ends of the room with the sinks down the middle, when you wash your hands and look ahead, you'd instinctively expect a mirror, but instead you see that image of the stalls behind you without your reflection and have to think "Am I a vampire?  Where's my reflection?".

Another unique thing we encountered was a robot taxi cab.  Nobody got run over, and no emergency vehicles got wrecked, but it did drive pretty slowly.  On closer inspection, this one had a safety driver in the driver seat, just in case.

We probably walked over 7 miles today in total, which was totally needed.  It was fun seeing the new Tunnel Tops and getting caught up with Dave and Tony.  On the way back to the ship we had burgers at the In-N-Out to make our California visit official.  

The sail away out of San Francisco was under much more favorable conditions than our sail in as the sun was shining.  The bridge remained enshrouded in fog as the sun lay lower in the sky, but passing under bridges in cruise ships is just one of those things you can’t miss out on.  

There was another Elite lounge at the One-5 lounge which featured warm Cornish Pasties, which were a tasty appetizer.  We were surprised that the lounge was pretty full because we thought there’d be fewer passengers for the rest of this cruise. However the longer itineraries tend to draw more experienced cruisers, so the percentage of Platinum and Elite members is higher.  

We weren’t able to get reservations for a private 2 top before 7:40pm, so we sat with a Canadian couple from Ottawa and a brother and sister from BC.  It turned out to be enjoyable.  The men turned out to be a chemist, civil engineer and retired surgeon, while the women were a civil servant, educator and nurse.  After dinner we ended up doing music trivia with the brother and sister couple and we ended up winning that trivia.  We ended up sticking around for the Jeopardy styled game show that followed, being joined by a woman from St. Louis who wanted to be part of a team.  We ended up winning that as well, but the prize was a bottle of sparkling wine, which we accepted for our room steward since everyone else on the team had drink packages and didn’t particularly care for more sparkling wine. 

 

The ship is sailing to Los Angeles and will not allow passengers to go ashore while the hull of the ship gets cleaned.  We’ll just be having a relaxing sea day at anchor somewhere off the Los Angeles coastline.  There will be a progressive trivia game in the afternoon, so it’s good that we have stumbled into a team for the trip to Hawaii and perhaps Sydney beyond.