Lunch with a friend and zoom after dinner

The day started with a gradual waking up.  By 11 am, I was up and running and getting ready to have lunch with MSJ.  It was nice to be able to see her again, as we have had way too many postponements of our lunches this summer.

 - - - - - -

I made sure that I was properly shaved and made up before getting dressed.  It was still warm enough for me to wear a casual denim dress from Universal Standard that has been a staple of my summer wardrobe since I bought it.  Rushing out of the apartment, I barely made it to the pizzeria on time.  When we met, it was as if no time had passed.  So we went inside, ordered a couple of slices each, then went to the park to chat and eat.

MSJ talked about family affairs, and how recent dealings with the government put her and her family through the ringer.  Then, we discussed medical issues, specifically an incident with her and marine life, while I mentioned my recent pinched nerves and doctor's recommendations.  She brought me up to date on what was happening with her sons, and while she was talking, a mendicant came up asking us for money.  Neither of us had ever seen a homeless person or a beggar in Croton before, and we handed this person some small bills so that she could get some food.  (I hated seeing her hunt through nearby garbage cans for food, that I felt I should help her out a little.)  We then shifted to talking about current political events, and both of us felt we had good cause to worry about what is happening to us, or what could happen to us in the near future.

All too soon, we had to part. I went home, and awaited a zoom meeting with our Texas friends.  Opening the meeting at 8, I had to use my Chromebook in the living room, as the AC in the bedroom wouldn't keep me cool while I was wearing my wig.  RQS and I talked about our Alaska trip, and I showed off some pictures I took.  I made a joke about who would wear the white dress if we got married, and it evolved into me saying that a wedding would be held in San Francisco, and that our friends would be invited.  I'm pretty sure that they would come if we were to do so.

Shortly after the zoom meeting ended, I had my nightly phone call with RQS, and then closed things up for the day....

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Thoughts on the trip (08/23/25)

 

Some thoughts, looking back on our trip...

• If one needs to fly across multiple time zones to take an Alaska cruise, make sure to arrive at least a day or two in advance of the cruise to: (1) Get used to the new time zone, and (2) Have some wiggle room in transit arrangements, so that a delayed flight won't cause a person to miss the cruise.
  
  
• San Francisco is a wonderful city to spend a few days exploring.  We loved our visit to the De Young museum to see the exhibition of Paul McCartney Beatlemania era photographs.
  
  
• San Francisco is a mass transit friendly city.  However, like New York, rerouted bus routes are poorly communicated to riders via their transit authority's app.
  
  
• San Francisco's Passenger Cruise Terminal is near the heart of town, and relatively inexpensive to reach via local ride services or cabs.
   
• One should book all Alaska shore excursions way in advance of one's trip.  Several excursions were sold out by the time we boarded the ship.  We were glad that we booked our trip on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad months in advance, as this 2½ hour excursion often sells out.
  
  
• In Juneau, there is an area in the center of the tourist district where cruisers can buy independent tours.  Most of these tours are professionally run, and are priced lower than those tours sold by the cruise line. We bought our Juneau excursion via shoreexcursionsgroup.com, and had only the minor inconvenience in finding the bus that would take is to the glacier and back.
  
  
• Although one can take Juneau's public bus system to the Mendenhall Glacier park, I would not recommend it, as one would still need to walk a distance before reaching the park's tourist center. I'd rather spend more of my time walking within the park, than spend it walking to the park.
  
  
• Glacier Bay is only reachable by ship.  Only 2 ships may enter the park in a single day.  One may see wildlife while cruising in the park, we weren't that lucky.  Focus on getting a cruise where one spends as much time viewing glaciers as possible - seeing a glacier calve is an amazing sight.  
  
  
• In Ketchikan, we went to see the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show.  We could have booked our tickets on our own, and used Ketchikan's free seasonal bus system to get from our pier to the show and back.  From the show, it's a short walk to Creek Street and the town's arts district.
  
  
• At many of Alaska's ports, one can book excursions for whale watching.  If one hasn't seen a whale breach before, it's an awe inspiring sight.  As for me, I've seen enough whales on my trips to Cape Cod, that I don't find breaching interesting anymore.
  
  
• Many people will enjoy sled dog mushing and glacier fly-over excursions.  These tend to be expensive, but most people who take these excursions feel they are well worth the money.
  
  
• Our cruise gave us a full day in the 3 Alaskan ports we visited.  We didn't visit any of the more popular ports (Vancouver, BC and Victoria, BC).  Instead, we spent ½ day in Prince Rupert.  And that was the perfect amount of time to spend in this port, as there isn't much to see except what's in the Museum of Northern British Columbia.
  
  
• Assuming one is returning to the East Coast after the cruise, one should book flights as close to 12:30 pm to arrive in one's home city to get home by midnight.  With this being said, I prefer to return from San Francisco on a "Red-Eye" flight, so that I can sleep on the plane AND have more options when I get home.
  

I highly recommend visiting Alaska's inside passage if at all possible.  The landscape and wildlife are unique and can be awe inspiring when the stars align just right.  

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Sea Day #5 (08/21/25)

It's the last full day of our cruise, and I'm a little sad.  We've gotten used to the routine of cruising, and we've been away from reality for the better part of two weeks.  Right now, we're one day away from San Francisco, and we're getting ready to go home.  Our bags are almost packed, and we're figuring out how to keep our big bags under the 50 lb. limit for the plane.  (Luckily, we have a hand scale that we can use.) With this being said, we'll end up going home, then getting ready for another cruise.

Right now, we have to pick up our pictures from the photography studio, and burn off our remaining onboard credits.  RQS will be going to a spa session, while I'll be buying a watch I don't need.  It's not the best way to spend money.  These are just the best ways we can think of to use these credits. 

- - - - - -

Given that my shipboard non-refundable credits were still over $200, I knew we had to burn off some of these credits quickly as this was the last day of the cruise. The first thing we did after a late breakfast was to go downstairs and see if a watch I wanted was available at a price I wanted to pay.  It was.  $95 later, the watch was being adjusted for my wrist, and we were off to the lounge for 45 minutes.  And then we were off to the Crab Shack pop-up restaurant.

On certain sea days, Princess turns its Crown Grille restaurant into a seafood joint (Crab Shack) serving a limited menu focused on crustaceans.  We weren't able to get reservations for the first Crab Shack pop-up on this cruise, but we got one for the last day of the cruise.  RQS compromised with me, and we ordered the Seafood Bucket for Two.  YUM!  Lobster, Snow Crab Mussels, Tiny Clams, and Shrimp - all cold, fresh, and Tasty.  I wasn't sure of how we'd have room for our last dinner on the ship.  But I knew that we'd find a way to do so.

- - - - - - 

Around 1:30 pm, I noticed an email from JetBlue telling me that we could now check in for our flight.  When I looked at things, our assigned seats were gone.  This could be a great disaster for us, as I need to have an aisle seat, and RQS strongly prefers one as well.  So, I contacted our travel agent and found out that he was on vacation.  Yet, he took care of the problem and got us decent seats for the trip home.

At this time, I also found out that a charge made to RQS's account should have gone to my account.  So I had to trek to guest services to move the charge to my account.  At the end of the day, my credit balance was $0.03.  Not bad for people trying to use up both refundable and non-refundable onboard credits.

- - - - - - 

Shortly after 7 pm, we went downstairs for our last MDR dinner.  As usual, no one ended up seated with us.  (This MDR was way below capacity, so we weren't surprised.)  I had a seafood cocktail (more like a salad with seafood) and the seared salmon.  Yum.  Too bad my stomach was still digesting lunch.  But we made sure to thank our two servers profusely, and give them tips before we left for the last time.  When dinner was over, I went upstairs to get things ready for tomorrow morning, while RQS went to the casino to make a donation.  

 

 

 

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Embarkation Day (08/11/25)

Embarkation day.  It's one of the 2, 3 or 4 most stressful days of a cruise vacation, the others being Disembarkation day, and the days one flies to a cruise port or returns home from a cruise port.  Today, RQS boarded the Ruby Princess for our cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage.  And, as expected, we encountered a long line to drop our bags off with the porters and another long line to make it onto the ship.

 

Nob Hill is a ritzy neighborhood in San Francisco/ When one stays at a hotel on  Nob Hill, one has limited choices for breakfast, as there are no easily affordable places where one can find a bite to eat, or find snacks to munch on.  To sate one's hunger, one could choose the hotel's restaurant and pay through the nose for a nice breakfast.  Or, one could take the cable car to a district where affordable dining is possible.  Or, one could use a service such as GrubHub or DoorDash to have breakfast delivered to the hotel.  We chose the latter and saved ourselves some effort and maybe a few dollars in the process.  Mickey D's is usually predictable, but today it was terrible - we both got spicy (read: HOT) breakfast sandwiches by accident.  At least, this would calm any hunger pangs we might have until we were on the ship.

Around 11 am, the bellman picked up our bags, and we went to the lobby to wait for our cab to come. After loading our bags into the back of the taxi, we were off to the cruise terminal.  It took us a while to drop our bags off with the porters, and then to snake through the line to get on the ship.  Yet, we were in our cabin by 12:45 pm, and in the restaurant for lunch by 1 pm.  Although there were two disjointed lines for luggage drop and for boarding the ship,it felt much easier to board the ship here than in some ports I've cruised from.  Hopefully, this will be a sign that we'll have a pleasant cruise.

 

After a little bit of unpacking and resting, we went on the balcony to watch the view as we crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge.  And then, it was off to the lounge to have a drink or two. Given that I didn't want to hang out in the lounge and keep drinking, I suggested that we look at the buffet and see how appetizing it looks. So, we went to the Lido Deck, and sat down and had some tea.  

 

While killing time before dinner, I noticed some islands to the side of our ship.  We weren't sure of what islands these were until I remembered that the Farallon Islands were somewhere off the California coast, West of San Francisco.  Looking at the islands in the distance and photos taken by others, I figured that the Farallon Islands were what we were seeing in the hazy distance.  Although I can say that I've seen these islands, I can guarantee that I'll never visit them.

Around 7 pm, we went to one of the main dining rooms for dinner where were served by a talented and experienced waiter named Marco.  It was a pleasure to have him serve us, as he kept us entertained from appetizers to dessert.  Dinner ended, and it was time to go back to the room to rest.  It was a long day, and we wanted to be fresh for the morning's activities. 

Alaska Cruise 2025 - San Francisco - Pre Cruise Day 2 (08/10/25)

 

Today was spent mostly with things other than sightseeing, yet we got a better flavor of San Francisco than had we visited the usual tourist sites.  Both of us wanted to buy sweatshirts, so that if we needed an extra layer to keep us warm in Alaska, that we'd have one.

Since it was a Sunday, neither of us wanted to get to Target too early.  So I suggested that we use mass transit to reach San Francisco's Ferry Building at the end of Market Street.  This where I expected we could get a reasonably priced bite to eat for Breakfast - and I was right.  We had some stuffed croissants before trekking over to Target.  RQS found the perfect sweatshirt to wear, while I found an acceptable one - but one size too small to use, except in case of an emergency.

Once done with Target, we stopped into Mel's Drive In (across the street) where we had milkshakes.  (I also had some clam chowder, as I knew how good it was.)  These were classic thick shakes that were served with the metal container in which the shake was prepared.  Yum!  Pleasure straight from the 1950's!  From there, it was off to Japantown, so that RQS could visit a specialty stationery store.  I didn't bother going inside.  Instead, I waited nearby until she was ready to leave.  And it was back to the hotel to rest for a while before going to dinner in Chinatown. 

The bellman at the hotel recommended a place called Z&Y for some tasty Szechwan food.  Boy was he right - this place served authentic Szechwan food, spicy hot!  I ordered the Seafood hot pot, while RQS ordered the Mongolian Beef hot pot.  Both were yummy, but both of us preferred the beef as it was easier to eat and was less spicy.  If either of us had known how large the portions were, we'd have only ordered the beef - it was large enough to feed 2 people.

We left the restaurant as it was starting to get busy.  I summoned a Waymo driverless car to bring us back to the hotel.  RQS was a little hesitant at first, but she became more comfortable when she saw how smooth a ride it delivered, as it drove more calmly than most humans would drive.  Would I summon one again?  Yes.  But only in San Francisco.

Alaska Cruise 2025 - San Francisco - Pre Cruise Day 1 (08/09/25)

 

Today's focus was a visit to the DeYoung museum to see an exhibition of Paul McCartney photographs taken during the Beatles' touring years.  One would never think of Macca as an accomplished photographer, but many of his pictures stand the test of time.  (Note: His brother, Mike, is an accomplished photographer. So, a visual talent must also be in the family bloodline.)

- - - - - - -

The day started out with us waiting at the California/Mason cable car stop for a car which never came.  Who knows why this happened, but we made the mistake of not walking down hill to California/Powell to where we'd get the cable car to Union Square where we planned to have breakfast.  So, we waited a bit and I realized that SF Muni's directions had us walk to the next stop on the line (all downhill) where we'd be able to save time and get to where we wanted quickly.

 

Once we figured things out, we made our way to Sears Fine Food (a San Francisco restaurant that's been there forever) and had breakfast.  Even though breakfast was expensive by NYC diner standards, it was well worth the money - the food was top notch, and filling.  (If you're staying in San Francisco and you're in the Union Square area, Go There!  You won't be disappointed.)  While eating lunch, we noticed that we made a BIG mistake - we ruined the one day we could visit the Swan Oyster Depot.  So, that'll have to be on the docket for our next visit to "Fog City". 

We then walked to Mission street where we caught the bus to Golden Gate Park (and the DeYoung Museum.)  It was crowded due to young folks going to an outdoor music festival.  Both RQS and I got a picture of the group wearing Giraffe shaped hats. And soon, we were walking into the park and into the museum.

Although this exhibition of Macca's photos was in Brooklyn last year, I didn't have the chance to trek into Brooklyn to see it.  When I heard that the San Francisco exhibition was extended to October, I knew this would be a must see while in the city - and neither of us was disappointed.  The pictures told the story of Beatlemania in a way which few writers could put it - in the eyes of a Beatle. Once done with the DeYoung, we walked to the Japanese Tea Garden and took a lot of photos.  (RQS wanted to see what she could do with her camera.) And all too soon, our bodies were showing their age, and we decided to return back to the hotel with a couple of stops in between.

Our original plan was to take the bus back from the DeYoung, then catch another bus to California Street, where we'd take the cable car home.  (We didn't want to walk up any hills.)  We ended up at the end of Van Ness, and walked over to Fisherman's Wharf for dinner at a place called Cioppino's.  I figured that this would be a good place to get seafood for dinner, and I was right.  If I had known that their signature dish was big enough to feed two people, I'd have suggested ordering that for $53. 
 

 Our next stop was the Musee Mechanique, a place where I've made many pleasant memories on my trips to this city.  As expected, I played some of the pinball games there and contributed a few quarters to the local economy.

From there, we returned to our hotel via the Market street historic trolley, and then connected with the California street cable car to bring us back to the hotel.  When I looked at how much we walked today, I was surprised.  We walked 4.6 miles!  Not bad for a whale who travels on land.... 

Alaska Cruise 2025 - Leaving for San Francisco (08/08/25)

 

Our day started very early, as we had to be at the airport by 10 AM.  And this is where the problems started.  On the way to the airport, an 18 Wheeler was attempting to make too tight a turn under the EL and blocked traffic for about 10 minutes.  This wasn't the worst part of the day.  When we arrived at the airport, we had problems with our boarding passes for which we needed help. And we encountered a Karen....

At first, the Karen was willing to help a little, but didn't listen to us or pay attention to our needs.  Both of us needed to have our Trusted Traveler Numbers attached to our boarding passes, so that we could use TSA PreCheck.  She got my boarding pass fixed, but RQS had to look up her number from another airline's site.  We asked for help again, but the Karen started redoing my pass and was ignoring RQS. So I started shouting to get attention, but I drew the wrong kind of attention. After things calmed down, the Karen refused to help RQS, or even let her through to the kiosks we were told to go to, as the Karen was taking things out on RQS to get even with me.  (You can guess what will go into a "nastygram" RQS plans to write.)  I ended up going through 1 PreCheck line while RQS got her problem dealt with at the kiosks on the other side of the floor.

Once we were past the TSA checkpoint, I was able to relax.  It took me a while to chill, but we had no further problems at JFK.  We got on the plane with no problems, and had an uneventful flight to San Francisco.  And that's where we were greeted by someone from Princess Cruises, helping us with our luggage and the cab to the Mark Hopkins Hotel in Downtown SF.  Both of us were tired and needed sleep.  But if we slept, we wouldn't be able to find something affordable to eat.

Around 6:30, we took a cab to the Stinking Rose, a restaurant specializing in Garlic dishes.  They moved to a new and better location since I ate there.  So I was glad that the cabbie knew that the place relocated to a spot further down the street.  RQS loved the place, finishing up her ravioli.  As for me, I enjoyed the food, but couldn't eat more than a half portion.  

By the time 8 pm came, it was time to go back to the hotel and finally get some much needed sleep....  

It's off to Alaska!

 

By the time you read this, I should be home from my cruise.  We flew out to San Francisco from New York, then spent 3 days there until the cruise started.  I expected a different experience than when I took my first cruise to Alaska on this line almost 30 years ago.  Then, I was still filled with grief, having lost my wife the year before.  Now, I'm with a partner with whom I expect to spend the rest of my days.

Over the next few days, I plan to journal my daily activities.  Unfortunately, I could not take this trip as Marian for several reasons, the most important of which is that my feminine wardrobe is not geared for Alaska's climate. And now, with the Orange Snowflake in power, I would not feel safe going through any TSA/CBP checkpoints as Marian.  We now have a repressive political regime in power these days, and I don't want to be caught in its crosshairs while it's in power.

- - - - - -

Assuming one is interested in an Alaska cruise, one has several decisions to make when choosing a cruise itinerary, a cruise line, and a cruise ship.  Since I am very comfortable with Princess Cruises, it was topmost of the 3 lines allowed to sail into Glacier Bay:

• Princess
• Holland America
• Norwegian

Other cruise lines are allowed to cruise these areas for glacier viewing:

• Endicott Arm
• Hubbard Glacier
• Tracy Arm 

I had several port requirements:

• The cruise must make port in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway.  
• The cruise must spend a full day in each Alaska port. 
• The cruise must make port as close to the Alaskan town as possible.
  (This ruled out Norwegian, which makes port at Ward Cove, 6 miles outside of Ketchikan.)

These requirements limited me to choosing a Princess cruise sailing out of San Francisco. Unlike my last Princess Alaskan Cruise package from this port, they did not have me stay at an airport hotel.  Instead, they booked me into the Mark Hopkins in the heart of San Francisco.  It's one of San Francisco's more well known places to stay with prices to match.  But then, this is a "Bucket List" type vacation and I feel that Princess now wants to make sure that people feel they are getting something special when they book their Alaskan cruise.

- - - - -

San Francisco will always be a special place for me.  My late wife always wanted to live there, but couldn't do so.  After visiting the place once, I wished I could live there.  But life made other plans for me.  It's just as well, as San Francisco lost much of its vibrancy with the Covid pandemic.  Businesses left town, and storefronts were shuttered.  It has yet to recover, and I doubt it will in my lifetime.

On my last visit to San Francisco with RQS, we visited the Japanese Tea Garden, the Musee Mechanique, and had a meal at the Swan Oyster Depot.  With 3 days in town, our choices have expanded, and I will document them in later posts.  Needless to say, we knew where to feast..... 

 

Preparing for my upcoming cruise

 

Today, I am driving down to RQS's place and will be dropping off a couple of bags containing the clothes I will be wearing on my Alaska cruise.  For the most part, I am wearing the same clothes I had planned to wear on my New England / Eastern Canada cruise that was moved over to later in the season.  

- - - - - -

Alaska is a very informal place, where formality can be defined as wearing a freshly laundered (and pressed) pair of jeans to dinner.  (I may be exaggerating things, but I'd bet that few local women wear dresses, given the weather in the state.)  The weather can go from 40° to 80°, rainy to sunny, all in the same day.  One has to be able to dress in layers, as they will be put on and taken off as needed.

This will likely be my last visit to Alaska, unless we find a cheap cruise there which has an itinerary which interests us.  Once I've seen the best of the Inside Passage, I don't want to keep repeating similar itineraries. There are so many other places in the world worth visiting, and I want to visit them while I'm able to do so.

- - - - - -

Several years ago, I felt comfortable humping my cruise luggage on various forms of mass transit.  Other than taking commuter trains into/out of New York City and using the JFK Airtrain from Jamaica to the airport, I will no longer do so with more than a carry-on bag.  The NYC subway system does not have enough "Accessible" stations, and there is no way I want to deal with staircases on my way to a cruise.  If I'm sailing out of Manhattan, I'll take a cab from/to Grand Central to/from the cruise terminal. If I'm sailing out of Brooklyn, RQS and I will take an Uber from her place to the terminal, and use a combination of a ferry and an Uber to return to her place.  If I am cruising alone out of Brooklyn, I'll use a cab to go between Grand Central and Pier 11, then use the ferry to go between Manhattan and the Brooklyn cruise terminal.

This trip will involve an Uber to the Airport, coupled with the expected airport delays.  I'll be sure to carry a book or two with me, as well as a fully charged cell phone for entertainment.  Given that the plane's entertainment system will require corded headphones, I may bring my own pair with me, as the quality of those provided by the airline usually are sub par.

When we arrive at our destination, I know what to look for when using cruise line provided transfers.  (One time, I missed the transfer, and had to make my way to the airport hotel myself.)  Yes, I'm lazy.  I pay for the simplicity of having the cruise line make all of my arrangements to travel between my home airport and the cruise ship.  Simplicity is a blessing, especially when traveling.

- - - - - -

But enough for now.  I'll be on my cruise within a week's time, and I have to get showered, dressed, and out of the house before traffic gets bad.

This past weekend was too short

 

Laffing Sal.  RQS and I will likely be visiting her when we next visit San Francisco.  Although she is a simple, decades old animatron, she is the best symbol of San Francisco's Musee Mechanique at Pier 45. For me, seeing her in person says I am really in "Fog City" and am ready for a great adventure.

Why do I mention his mechanical wonder?

RQS and I are counting down the days until our next two cruises (the first to Canada and the second to Alaska.) This limits the time I can help my brother with work that has to be done on the family homestead before we can rent it out.  This past weekend, I cut a weekend with RQS short, so I could help my brother with the house.

I knew I would have one problem.  Not doing any dirty work around the apartment, I don't have any clothes I can sacrifice for painting the basement.  And I'm glad my brother gave me an out, saying that I can keep him company while he finishes applying "mud" to the drywall, so that he can paint it during the week.  Hopefully, we can get the work finished before mid June, so that we may have someone renting the place by August.

After my brother was done with the work on the house, we drove to a buffet and enjoyed a good meal.  I rarely go to buffets, as I eat too much.  But here, the food was worth it - including the Asian Snails.  This visit, I skipped the sushi in favor of hot food.  Yet, I knew I'd pay for the indulgence later on.  

All too soon, the day ended, and it was time to go home.  Tomorrow, I'll go to my first meetup in a while.

California Vacation - Day 05 (San Francisco)

 

26 years ago, I scattered my late wife's ashes in a spot under the Golden Gate Bridge, right behind Fort Point.  Due to 9/11, this spot is no longer accessible to the public.  But I try to get as close as possible each time I visit this city.  Today's visit would be special, as I don't see myself coming back to this city for a while.

- - - - - -

When I got up this morning, I planned to drop by Fort Point and then visit the Swan Oyster Depot for lunch.  My plans were to visit the fort first, and then take Muni (SF's Mass Transit system) to the Oyster Depot for lunch.  These plans were blown to pieces early in the day, when a lady asked if she could share my table at the buffet.

This lady and I start chatting, and it was as if we had been related to each other in a prior life.  We chatted from 9:30 am to 2:00 pm without stopping.  She never picked up on the fact that I am not a cisgender woman, as I code shifted my conversation to refer to my life with my late wife as if she were my late husband.  We talked about many of the things that only women could experience, such as "Boob Sweat" and struggles with one's bra.  We talked about our late spouses.  And we talked about what we liked about the opposite sex.  (I can translate well in a pinch.)  So, when her friend called her, I took this as a good opportunity to make my way to Fort Point via trolley car and bus.

Getting to Fort Point from Pier 27 is relatively easy.  One takes the historic trolley to Fisherman's Wharf, then walks a couple of blocks to catch the 28 bus to the Golden Gate Bridge.  From there, it's a walk of 0.8 miles (all downhill) to the shoreline and then to the Fort.  Once I paid my respects to my late wife (for which this might be the last time), I decided to make it back to the bus station for my return to the ship.  What was an "easy" 0.8 mile downhill walk was an arduous 200 foot uphill trek back (over the same 0.8 miles) to the bus stop.  By the time I reached the bus stop, I felt that I needed a shower.  Only one problem - it would have to be quick, because I had a 5:00 pm reservation at the ship's steakhouse and I would likely be a few minutes late.

When I arrived at the ship, I proceeded to my room, then stripped, showered, dressed (in fresh clothing), and reapplied my makeup before going downstairs to dine.  I chose both the sea scallops (with salmon roe) and the French Onion Soup for appetizers before trying the veal chop.  Although the veal chop was good for what it was, I found that it was not the cut of veal that I like to eat because of the texture of the meat.  (Give me a good queen cut of prime rib from Peter Luger any day....)  However, I don't have any regrets in trying this cut of veal, as I try to try out new things to eat whenever I can.

After dinner, I realized that I needed to rest, and I fell out for an hour or so.  Shortly after waking up for a while, I exchanged a series of messages with RQS before calling it an early night.

By the time you read this....

 

By the time you read this, several things will have happened:

1. My taxes will be in the process of being prepared.
2. I will be in possession of my new car.
3. DCD will have started his process of getting the car registered in his own name.
4. I will have given RQS her birthday present.
5. My luggage will be opened, and packing will start for my California Cruise.

Of course, a lot of things will have happened in between then and now.  And you'll be able to read about them over the next few days.

- - - - - -

When I told my brother about my tax situation, I realized how much my brother wants to isolate my financial life from his.  I should mention that he wouldn't give me a recommendation for an accountant if I needed one this year, but would only help me file estimated taxes to buy a little time for me.  My guess is that if an acquaintance of his sees my returns, then they will have an idea of what a slice of my brother's life looks like.

Cleaning out my old car has helped me find things I had misplaced over the years.  One of these things was a canvas bag that I thought was in RQS's place.  Surprise!  It was in my car's trunk.  There was way too much stuff back there, and I'm glad that I am finally emptying it out.  (Guess what I'll be doing on Monday!)

Now that I have the information needed to get my new car on the road, I can give DCD the information he needs to start his process.  Hopefully, I'll have the old car out of my driveway soon.  If not, I know of at least one charity that takes donated cars.

Even though a bought theater tickets for RQS's birthday, I ordered a little something from Amazon for her to open up on the birthday itself.  Hopefully, she will like it.

And lastly, packing....   This will be a trip where I will spend one day as Mario and the rest as Marian. (I must visit my uncle while presenting as Mario.)  It's going to be nice to wear some warmer weather clothes for a change.  (I haven't worn a dress in California in ages, except while in transit to/from Hawaii.)  Since it will be Spring when I arrive, I have to bring sweaters (and a windbreaker) - especially for my time in San Francisco.  RQS's cousin knows I am trans, so it will be nice NOT to have to change into a pair of trousers when in San Diego....

A trip to Mystic Seaport

 

My brother is temporarily unemployed for a month, and this is the first real "vacation" he's had in years.  So, it was nice to spend a whole day with him, driving to Mystic Seaport and back.  

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The day began for me by not having enough sleep the night before, and rushing to get out of the house in time to meet him in Port Chester.  Once he arrived, we took care of a little personal business before going on our way - he needed some hand cream, and I needed a pair of tweezers.  From there, we spent the next 2 hours driving to Mystic to visit the museum.

Once at the museum, we found parts of it closed, possibly for the winter.  Yet, it well worth the drive to get there.  On the way, we talked "of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings." There are a lot of things going on in his life, and it looks like he's made the decision to plateau his career.  This will give him more time to live his life without the stress of staying upwardly mobile, while being with the people who make his life worth living.

It was nice to see these old buildings and ships placed into a context befitting a nautical town of the 1800's.  At one exhibit, we ran into a docent who started talking about his visits to San Francisco and its local beer - Anchor Steam.  Once he mentioned Anchor Steam, I got into the story of how Fritz Maytag once rescued the brewery, and how the pandemic ended up killing the brewery off.  Next, we explored the rest of the museum, visiting an old bank building, an old schoolhouse, and old chapel, and a whaling ship.  It was very educational for someone not focused on maritime history,  Yet, with half of the museum exhibits being closed, it means that we will return someday soon.

On the way home, my brother asked me to do some of the driving, as his back was killing him.  I was glad that he trusted me to drive his car, and we ended up at an Asian place outside of Norwalk.  The food was good, but not spectacular.  Once done with dinner, my brother took back the helm of his car, and we drove to Port Chester to say Goodbye until next time....

Another friend bites the dust - a quick post

 

Years ago, I dated the woman above.  It turned into a simple friendship, as we were in different stages of life.  Mary was about to retire, and I was trying to stave off a forced retirement for a few years.  Sadly, thanks to Facebook and its habit of reminding people of posts they made years ago, I found out that my friend had died a couple of years ago.

Mary once wanted to become a nun.  However, that was not her calling.  Yet, she ended up serving people in her own way, running a restaurant, running an Airbnb, and even managing hospitality for a service organization's guest house overlooking the Hudson river.  When I last was in contact with her, she had moved back to the San Francisco Bay area, and had just found subsidized housing that she could afford.

I always wanted to visit Mary the next time I returned to the SF Bay area, but we had lost contact and I had other things on my mind for the past few years.  When I was in SF on my recent cruise, I had forgotten all about her.  So I was very surprised to find out that she passed away in 2021.  Could it have been Covid-19?  Who knows?  I remember that she had a blood disorder that she knew could kill her one day.  Could this have happened?  I doubt that I will ever find out, as I was never in her close circle of friends.

By my calculations, Mary was 77 years old when she passed away.  She lived a good life, and she was one of those rare people that no one would have a bad word to say about her.  I consider myself lucky to have known Mary for a short period in life, and I will miss having the chance to see her again....

California Vacation 2023 - Some Final Thoughts

 

As some of my readers might know, I chose to cruise out of Los Angeles, so that I could visit my uncle. When I originally planned this trip, my 90 y/o uncle was taking care of himself and his wife in comfort. Unfortunately, things changed since then.  In trying to care for my aunt, not setting limits, he fell and broke his hip.  Now, both my aunt and uncle are in separate care facilities, and my uncle was just told that he will never be able to live on his own again.  He was not in the right frame of mind for us to visit.

I'm glad that RQS and I scheduled a day of sightseeing in Los Angeles in addition to visiting my uncle, as neither of us thought that the day before the cruise was a wasted day.  Yes, we could have done more things if we had done more research.  But we accomplished a lot by visiting two museums and taking advantage of serendipity when we could.

We were both impressed by the level of service provided by Princess.  Yet, we were unhappy with the Princess App. The app was slow, and didn't always provide the information we needed. For example, when we needed to find out the hours for the main dining room, the app did not provide that  information.  When we wanted to find out what performers were in the main theater and the times of their shows, we could not find that on the app.  We were better served by reading the paper Princess Patter.  Not everything was bad about the app.  But Princess has a long way to go before the app can replace many of the things best done the old fashioned way.

This trip made RQS feel that we need to spend more time in California on our next visit.  Not only is San Francisco worth more than spending just two days there. But the same could be said for San Diego as well.  Only Los Angeles stands out as "a suburb in search of a city."  And who wants to visit a suburb when one can visit a city?

California Vacation 2023 - San Francisco (Day Two)

 

The first thing I wanted to do today was to take a trip to Fort Point, and pay my respects to my late wife. (This is where I scattered her ashes.) Unfortunately, the fort was closed, and I scuttled this plan for the day. Instead, we were off to the Swan Oyster Depot to have a good seafood meal.


After breakfast, we bought another day pass on the Muni, and walked over to the trolley stop to start our journey. Instead of the expected trolley car, a bus was servicing the line. This would be the theme for today’s travel - substitution. Even if we wanted to take a cable car for part of today’s rides, it looked like San Francisco’s cable car network wasn’t running, as I saw some buses running on the California Street cable car line as substitutes for the cable cars. The bus we took to the Oyster Depot was rerouted to avoid the area where the president was in town for a conference.

We made it to the Oyster Depot by 12:30, and ended up waiting 45 minutes to be seated. With only 18 seats in the place, a long wait is always possible here. But once seated and fed, it was all worth the effort to make it here. YUM! I had the smoked salmon with shrimp salad, while RQS had the mixed plate of clams and oysters. Both of us had clam chowder. It was well worth the $120 spent on this meal.

 

Then, it was back to the ship. Both of us knew that our stay in “Fog City” was too short, and that we’d want to visit this city again. As the ship left the bay, RQS and I got some interesting pictures from our balcony. It was too bad I couldn’t have book-ended stills and videos of our arrival in the San Francisco bay with our leaving the bay. But it was nice to get views of both Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to our next stop, San Diego.

This was not yet the end of our day. It was Italian Night in the main dining room, and our waiter made sure that we had extra dishes for each course. Yum! Although we didn’t eat everything in front of us, we had a good sampler of what the restaurant had to offer. And this was a nice touch that we didn’t experience on our other cruises. Did I eat too much? For the day, yes. But not at this meal. Everything was served in “human sized” portions. So if I had been hungry, I’d have no problem ordering a second (or third) place of something to enjoy.


Once done with dinner, it was off to the lounge, where we saw our two friends from the other night. This time, Sue was more a part of the conversation, and we had a couple of hours of good chatting before it was time to go to bed for the night.

California Vacation 2023 - San Francisco (Day One)

 

The first thing we wanted to do today was a shore excursion to the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.  I’ve been there a couple of times before, and felt that would be a perfect place to take RQS on her first visit to the city.  So, after a rushed breakfast, we were off to find the tour bus that would take us to the garden.

One thing I have noted about tour guides is that they will often use “filler site” descriptions to avoid moments of silence on bus trips to the sites that people want to see.  For example, I can imagine a bus tour through Hartford Ct, where the tour guide says: “We are now passing the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant” when the guide has nothing else to say on a long ride,  And this ride was no exception.  

RQS was not disappointed by my choice of excursions.  This 5-Acre site is well worth the visit, as one can not help but get a beautiful, serene view from anywhere in the garden.  And after 90 minutes, it was back to the ship.  I found it hard to believe that we had already walked 2.5 miles, and still had more to go today.

After lunch, it was off the ship, and on to the Musee Mechanique at Fisherman’s Wharf.  There are many old time coin operated machines to enjoy there, as well as the more modern pinball and video arcade machines we grew up with.  One of my favorites is an old Wurlitzer which is a work of art that still plays music as if it were brand new.

Our next stop was to have clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl.  Yum!  It was a little pricey, but not outside of reason.  So we sat down in the cool San Francisco air and enjoyed some soup before getting on the Market Street Historic Trolley to the end of the line.

We had to wait a while for the trolley, and when it came, RQS and I were forced to sit in separate seats. This allowed me to get into a conversation with a SF local who told us how his city has changed since the pandemic.  Most of the downtown storefronts and office towers seem unoccupied, as the technology elite are now working from home.  Downtown office space is no longer needed, and the business depending on these workers have closed up shop.  We saw evidence of this ourselves, and still wish we could afford to live in this city.  

 

Eventually, the trolley landed us in The Castro, and we decided to walk around a little.  We explored one of the local “general stores” (I don’t know how else to label it) and then walked back to the trolley stop.  On the way back, both RQS and I got a glimpse of a man, who if painted in gold, would look like a walking Oscar statuette.  The most notable thing about this man was that he was completely naked!  This fellow is a fixture around The Castro, and RQS only wished she had her camera out at the time, as her friends might not believe this otherwise.

The trolley ride back from The Castro was uneventful.  By the time we were back on the ship, we were too tired to do anything but have dinner and go to bed.  Four and a half miles of walking will do that to us.