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.)

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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.

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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.

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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..... 

 

Updates on the last days before my cruise.

 

Lately, I've been preparing for my upcoming cruise, and trying to get as many things in order before flying to California.  I had been thinking of buying a camera for this trip and realized that it wouldn't make sense because I usually get good enough pictures on my cell phone and realized that that the DSLR camera I already own is gathering dust on one of my shelves. (In my defense, the camera doesn't take SD memory cards, lenses aren't made for this camera line any more, and the rig is bulky as hell.)

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Yesterday, I decided to look at cameras on Amazon and found that most of the inexpensive rigs would take more than 2 days to be delivered to my house.  (I wasn't going to pay extra for 1 day delivery.) This was unacceptable, and was one of the main reasons I started to think differently about buying a new camera.  For the most part, this was an unneeded expense, like my drive to the family homestead I took.

Why am I mentioning my drive to the family homestead?

My brother and I own a house that we've been renting out for years. This year, our tenant left, and the place has been vacant since January.  There were upgrades we needed to make to the house, such as replacing the water heater, replacing leaking gas pipes and replacing the washer/dryer in the basement, that had to be done before we could rent the place out again.  While we were doing this, another "might as well" came into play - we repaired and painted the basement walls, then redid the electric wiring and lighting to make it appear as an almost finished basement.  Yet, my brother forgot one thing: Did he make sure that the fire extinguisher was back in the kitchen before the final inspection.  So, I took 4 hours out of my life to find out that the extinguisher was in place when I could have spent it doing something more enjoyable.

There was no way I could do anything else that day.  I had to open up a co-op board meeting specially held to interview 2 applicants to purchase apartments.  This kept me from doing what I would have liked to have done - having one last evening by myself before 2+ weeks of being in the constant presence of others.

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Today, I had only one thing on my docket: seeing an acquaintance I met on the first post Covid shutdown cruise I took in late 2021.  J, as I'll call her here is a retiree who can afford to take several cruises each year, including at least 1 from a bucket list category.  We have been in very loose communications over the past 3 years, and we had another opportunity to meet again - She's going on a cruise that sails out of New York tomorrow, and I'll be leaving for California the next day.  But there is one problem.  She's staying at an airport hotel.  (Why she's not staying in Manhattan I'll never know.) So, this makes my journey to see her more complex, as I have to take Metro North to Grand Central, take the Long Island Railroad to Jamaica, and then the JFK Airtrain to the TWA Hotel where we planned to meet.

My friend was supposed to arrive in NYC at 9 am, but got bumped to a later flight.  That worked out for her, as she didn't have to wait as long at the hotel to check into her room.  I started down to the airport when she was checking in, and was lucky to catch an express train with a few minutes to spare.  (It helped that some people were leaving early, and I found a parking spot within 50 feet of the parking meter kiosk.

With parking voucher in hand (I won't call it a ticket lest a reader get confused), I hopped onto the train (train ticket in hand), and made it to Grand Central at 3:45 pm.  I had a little time to kill, and went to the LIRR concourse at 4:15 pm, catching the next train to Jamaica.  It was easy to kill a few minutes in Jamaica (nothing much to see here, as the train station puts function over form), and then I caught the Airtrain to the airport.  (The Port Authority still uses the obsolete Metrocard to pay for Airtrain rides, and will eventually shift to a "tap and go" system sometime in the next 12 months.  But I digress....)  Given that I was in the airport at 5 pm, I decided to go to the JetBlue terminal, then walk over to the TWA Hotel.  Well, my friend made it to the Airtrain station earlier than I expected, and I trekked back to the Airtrain station to meet her. 

We met around 5:30, and proceeded to the TWA hotel for dinner.  This hotel was originally the TWA terminal at the airport and was decommissioned when American Airlines took over TWA.  It didn't make sense to preserve this terminal for flights, as it couldn't handle today's jets.  More importantly, this building is a landmark piece of architecture designed by Eero Saarinen.  So, it made sense to turn the place into an expensive airport hotel and make the place a living history museum.

I didn't get the chance to explore the whole place - it was time for dinner, and I was hungry.  We talked about cruising for the most part, and indirectly talked politics in a neutral way.  (She pays no interest in politics, but understands why I'd have trouble with the current regime in DC.  She loved the place, and was very glad that I suggested we eat there.  Service at the restaurant was fast in the delivery of our food.  Our water glasses were kept full.  And they weren't in a rush to chase us out for more paying customers.  So it was I who noted that it was 9:30 pm, and that I had to be on my way.

Hopefully, I'll see my friend soon on another cruise, or when she's in New York for some other reason.

PS: My friend is going on the same cruise as another friend from my Yonkers game night group.  Hopefully, they will bump into each other and have a great time.

  

Closing out a weekend with RQS (a short post)

 

Sunday came, and with it came a trip to RQS's storage locker.  Like many, she inherited lots of home furnishings from her parents and other relatives and couldn't store them in her home.  Since she couldn't deal with parting with this stuff, it was stowed away into the storage locker above.  RQS has purged about 50% of the locker's contents over the years, and there is still a lot of work left to be done.

I got dressed in one of the dresses I had at RQS's place,  This dress was a little cooler than I wore into Manhattan, but not one in which I'd want to do any heavy lifting at the storage locker.  After a several block walk, we reached her storage locker and proceeded to do some work there.  Since there was no AC in the building, I wasn't going to work up a sweat and ruin a dress I had only worn twice.  This was just as well, as it gave RQS an excuse to stop working and for us to go out for a burger.

 
We stopped at RQS's place to rest a while, and I noted that I had to make sure I had a parking spot that would stay legal on Monday morning.  Once we visited my car, we saw a couple eating ice cream cones.  Both RQS and I wanted something cold, so we walked several blocks to find a Saturday/Sunday only shop, the Ice Cream Window.  According to the website, the window opened in the midst of Covid for 3 weeks, and has been open every summer since then.  While there, I asked one of the employees what goes on from Monday to Friday and he noted that the main business in the shop was a graphic design studio.

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The next morning came, and I packed up some of my gear and got ready to leave RQS for a few days.  But first, we had to deliver some of RQS's stuff to the Salvation Army.  This meant driving a couple of miles in slow traffic to get there.  So I dropped RQS off with her donations, and drove home for the day.  After a pit stop, I drove over to Uncle Giuseppe's and picked up some food to last me until I leave for my cruise.

Am I ready to cruise yet?  Probably, but I don't feel that way.  

A visit to the Poster Museum (a short post)

 

Sadly, lighting at Poster House made it impossible for me to capture good images of the posters on display without getting reflections from the glass that covers these pictures and protects them from damage.  The above photo was taken of one of the few posters for which I didn't get reflective distortions when taking it.

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Yesterday, it was cool enough that I wore a denim jacket to RQS's place.  Today, it was just warm enough to leave the jacket at RQS's place.  

But first.... 

We woke up a little later than planned, and I had my usual GI-Tract issue at the worst possible time.  Instead of leaving for Poster House at 11:30 am, we didn't get out of the house until noon.  To make things worse, we missed the bus and had to walk to the subway and climb the stairs to the platform.  Once on the train, we had to make a transfer at Myrtle-Wykoff to take the 14th street line into Manhattan.  Instead of taking the advice of the MTA app which recommended that we get off at 6th and 23rd, RQS figured we should go to 8th and 23rd.  By the time we made it to Poster House, it was a little after 1:30 pm.  At this point, I needed to cool down, as the wig I was wearing was keeping me way too warm for comfort. So, we didn't start exploring the museum until 2:00 pm.

After an hour of exploration, we went to a sandwich shop to have a late lunch and chat.  We had a great time until they decided to close the shop around 4:30 pm.  So, we packed ourselves up and proceeded home for the night. I was exhausted from all the walking we had done, and passed out from almost 3 miles of walking added to a touch of dehydration caused by not having a cold water bottle with me.

I was glad that I was able to present as Marian today.  On a day like this, it was nice to be able to wear a comfortable dress, as many women were doing today.  I didn't stand out, and was treated as the woman I appeared to be.