Wednesday, February 11, 2015 - Day 8
The seas picked up a little during the night and the rocking and rolling combined with a dark, cool room and very comfortable bed means that Dick is not up at his usual 6-6:30AM but does not crack an eyelid until 7:30AM. Up and at them boy, coffee is calling! iPad and mug in hand he proceeds to Café Carpathia and his daily fix and then reads until 8:30AM when he returns to the room to find Carolyn nearly ready to go to breakfast.
Breakfast service is very slow and, believe it or not, three days into this leg of the cruise they have run out of oatmeal! How is that possible?! Several people at our table had ordered oatmeal and that throws off the whole production. Our Eggs Benedict finally arrive about 9:40AM and we eat and run. We have nothing to do today and we need to get about it.
Dick goes to trivia where his team continues to score 14 out of 20. We can’t seem to break through that barrier. Carolyn goes to the port lecture on Pago Pago to get some information on what to do own your on.
Starting at 11:00AM, we attend lectures on Polynesian languages by Joe Kess, and the development of the SST Concorde by Captain Chris Rigby. He started his series on the last segment and they were replaying his first lecture on Super Sonic Flight on TV so we watched that to get up to speed. He is a British airline captain (commercial airlines) and has a dry way of speaking, but has lots of interesting film clips and photos to liven up the presentation.
We head to lunch at 1:00PM and are seated at a table for 8. It turns out to be a lively group of a German-Chinese couple from Bavaria, an English couple and a couple from New Jersey. We are all well traveled and have a very lively discussion trying to stay away from the right to carry which is a bit hard for Dick. Well, the Brit woman did volunteer that she thinks there are too many guns in America. Dick thinks there are too few in Britain!
There is a talk on Whales by Denny Whitford at 2:00PM so we skip out before dessert is served. Whitford is an excellent presenter and so far he has had very good lectures. Really, it has all been interesting if you can stay awake in the theater chairs while the ship undulates in moderate seas. Some of us have a harder time than others! We have a 40mph wind from the South and the sky is gray. Not a pretty day.
Back to the room for a while we work on the blog and read. Carolyn skips knitting today and sits out on the balcony until the mist starts to blow in and it gets too cool. She then goes to tea.
There are many empty tables again like there were Monday. The ship is rolling again like Monday also. Yesterday Carolyn had to wait a few minutes for a table, but it was a nice calm day and there seemed to be more people out and about.
After tea Carolyn checks on our account to be sure all the OBC and charges are posted correctly which they are and goes back to the room to read. Dick is playing a game on the computer.
As dinner time approaches the ship begins to roll more. We get a corkscrew from room service and open one of our gift wines to enjoy while we dress for dinner. It is another formal night with the welcome aboard party, but we play hooky and enjoy our wine.
On the way to the dinning room we pass by the Queen’s Court where the party is being held just in time to hear that for once the UK group at some 500 plus exceeds the US contingent of some 380. We miss hearing about the numbers for other groups but from lunch and breakfast we know there are a large number of Germans, Australians and Canadians plus some from New Zealand, Russia and Japan. We always like a cruise with a mix of nationalities.
Tonight the service is just a good as last night so we are happy campers. We both have French onion soup, Caesar salad, Chateaubriand and lemon soufflé. The food has been very good to excellent so far especially considering the number of people served at each meal!
Well, the ship is really rolling again and it is bed time. With all the movement we should sleep very well!
Tuesday, February 10, 2015 - Day 7
Dick is up early again and goes for his morning mug of coffee. He gets back to the room a little after 8:00AM. Carolyn is just getting dressed. We head to breakfast at 8:30AM. Our stewardess is just setting up outside of our room as we leave. Carolyn had asked her the first night to try and clean the room while we were at breakfast and she seems to be trying to do just that and we really appreciate it.
We have another shared table for breakfast in a different part of the dining room. Our table mates are from New Zealand and Australia and we have another good waiter. Carolyn has Eggs Benedict and Dick has fruit yogurt and smoked salmon.
As we are leaving the dining room we decide to be proactive about our evening table assignment. We just don’t want to be on pins and needles wondering how each night will be. So we ask to speak with the Maitre’ de. He is most gracious and already has been advised of the situation. He tells us they are working on it and offers us the option to stay at our assigned table or move to a new table and gives us a choice of two tables for two. We elect to move since we feel that there is really something off at our present location and we don’t want that stress every night of hoping that it will improve. We are still on the second level, but on the other side and in the back next to a window. We will see if we luck out with a pleasant staff like we have had for our other three meals.
Dick goes to trivia and joins his group from yesterday, making him a permanent member of that group. Carolyn goes to the port lecture for Maui. We have a ship’s tour booked for this port; a 4x4 Expedition to Lanai. Carolyn booked it in early December and is glad she did as it was sold out before we boarded. We have been to Maui before, rented a car, explored the Iao Valley, went to one of the beaches and went to a Luau. This tour sounds different and fun.
We both go to the Insights Lecture: "Ocean Waves...from Cat’s Paws to Perfect Storm" by Dr. Denny Whitford, retired Naval Captain and Professor of Oceanography. He has a very interesting presentation on ocean waves so we can "read the sea" as we cruise. Some of his photos and videos are amazing!
That is followed by the second in the series by Joe Kess, "Prelude to Pearl Harbor." He explores Japanese history with interesting pictures pointing out the events over the last 800 years or so that prompted Japan to embark on the Pacific War.
It is after 1:00PM before we get back to the room and, of course, it is time for lunch. Again we opt for a shared table and are seated with three Brits and two Canadians. Lunch is very tasty and the serving size is just right. However, the group broke a cardinal rule and let the conversation drift to the politically hot topic of global warming and the lunch came to a fast end!
After lunch we went our separate ways...Carolyn to knitting and tea...Dick to read and people watch. The seas have been very calm today and there are more people out and about but the ship still seems to have plenty of room for all and it is not hard to find that special, quiet corner to read or nap.
We have late dinner seating (8:30PM) and waiting for that is a little long. Tonight is also a formal night so we shower and dress and by 6:30PM we are in our favorite bar up on deck 10 forward. Drinks are very expensive ($10.93 each) so you can’t sit and drink all night without breaking the bank. We do have two rounds over a two hour period along with some complimentary canapés but that can’t be done every night!
Dinner at our new table is very pleasant and our waiter must have been warned to take good care of us as everything from the wine to dessert is delivered promptly and with a little bit of ceremony. Dick has red snapper and Carolyn has an excellent cottage pie. This is toped off with chocolate pots and crepe Suzette...yummy! We are not hard to please but we are paying for service and want it. We are at a table for two and there are several other two tops around us. At one the couple is speaking Russian and at the other German and very good English. We finish up about 9:30PM and make our way to our cabin. The beds are extremely comfortable and Morpheus is calling.
Monday, February 9, 2015 - Day 6
For the first time on a ship, our room is as cool as we desire without engineering spending time in our cabin. The bed is comfortable and we sleep very well. The sea was delightfully bumpy last night and we always sleep well when there is some rocking and rolling. Dick is up about 6:30AM with the sun obviously up judging by the light coming in around the blackout curtains.
Coffee is calling and the Café Carinthia does specialty coffees and sells a coffee card; ten for $38.53. Not a deal but something less than the regular price and Dick only wants one per day. Two cards should get him to Australia, maybe. With full coffee mug in hand, life is better and Dick heads for the Lido to see what it is like for breakfast. As a rule, we don’t to buffets but this Lido is well laid out and inviting. It will do in a pinch.
Breakfast is served from 8-9:30AM and we arrive at 8:30AM and are seated with a couple from a small town north of Brisbane and a couple from Bozeman, Montana. The folks from Montana just have some juice and move on but we enjoy a visit with the Aussies and some of their traveling companions join us for a very pleasant visit. Both of us order grapefruit juice and Eggs Benedict.
Carolyn then heads for the port presentation on Honolulu while Dick goes to trivia. Next is the first part of a lecture series. Today the topic is how Hawaii came to be and is very good with lots of slides and a good talk. We are looking forward to the rest of the talks.
To round out the morning, we go to the Cruise Critic gathering which is a non-event but Carolyn talks at length with a lady she met on the CC discussion boards. It is now 12:45PM and time for lunch. We join a table with two other couples; one from Germany and the other two elderly sisters traveling together. The conversation is mostly about German geography and languages and multi-lingual cultures. Dick impresses the Germans when they describe where they live in Germany and he asks if it is near Krefeld. It is and they want to know how he knows of Krefeld. He decides not to tell them his Father spent several weeks there in 1945 firing 105mm artillery shells at the retreating German army.
After lunch we go back to the room for awhile. Then Carolyn goes to meet the sewing and knitting group in the Café Carinthia. There are about16 ladies and before the hour is up we are all chatting like old friends. Carolyn is sitting between a German and an English lady and we have a delightful conversation about our families and travel. This group meets every day at 3:00PM. At 4:00PM we break and several go to afternoon tea. Carolyn walks past the two story Queens Room where Tea is served and decides to join in the pleasantries. It is one of the nicest ship’s teas she has experienced since our first cruise in 1984 on the Cunard Vista Fjord, with very fresh dainty tea sandwiches and sweets served table side by liveried waiters from silver trays. A string quartet provides lovely background music.
From there Carolyn goes back to the cabin. Dick is out and about and the bed looks very inviting! The plan is to stretch out and read for a while...err nap. Carolyn now has a plan in place for the wonderful sea days. There are a lot on this cruise!
At some point Dick comes in and decides to get dressed for dinner. He then goes to the forward deck 10 lounge to read and leaves Carolyn a note since she is snoozing away. A slamming door wakes Carolyn enough that she sees the note Dick left and that it is after 6:00PM so she gets ready for dinner and joins Dick in the lounge for cocktails about 7:00PM.
We head down to dinner a little after 8:00PM. We want to be there when the doors open to see if that makes any difference in our table service since we were about 10 minutes late last night. The waiters are all lined up greeting the guests as we enter...all with smiles and light banter...except one...you guessed it...our waiter is at the end of the line with a sour expression and no response to our greeting. Things go downhill from there for almost all the guests at his tables. He takes our order fairly fast, but then we wait 30 minutes for our appetizers, then he forgets Carolyn’s salad course and we wait some more for our main course. People at other stations who came in as much as 10 minutes after us are getting their desert and no one at our stations has seen a main course and some not even their salad.
The head waiter walks by and we call him over for a little chat about the problems last night and tonight. He tells us he will work on it. Five minutes later our main course, prime rib and baked potato served with horseradish and sour cream arrives without the sour cream or horseradish. Dick finally stops a passing waiter, not ours, and asks for the trimmings. All the while our food is getting cold.
Finally the trimmings arrive and we can eat. Well, the head waiter stops by to see how the food is and we explain what just happened and that we are not happy campers; the service is terrible in our section. We are not sure what will happen. Our waiter has a bad attitude and it will probably only get worse now that we have complained. We will see. Funny thing is we had great waiters and good service at breakfast and lunch.
Finally we finish dinner and go back the room, which is turned back and very cool. We are ready for another good night’s sleep.
Sunday, February 8, 2015 - Day 5
The rain returned during the night and it rained hard until about 11:30AM. During the morning Carolyn packed and Dick made a run to Walgreens for some necessaries. We checked out a little before noon and headed toward Pier 35 in San Francisco, some 56 miles down the road.
While still raining, it was not pouring any longer and we picked up I-80 and moved at posted speeds. A Sunday drive!
We pulled up in front of Pier 35 and were met by a very accommodating porter who took our three checked bags while we moved on to return the rent car. Thank Heavens for our GPS. The shortest route, according to it, took almost 30 minutes to reach deep downtown where pulled into a parking garage and returned the car in one piece. We moved up to street level and walked half a block to a cab stand. The cab in the front of the line was in sad shape with a transmission that groaned and growled each time we moved off from a stop. Traffic was heavy and it took 20 plus minutes to return to the pier where we unloaded and went through the check-in and security process. May Osama ben Laden rot in Hell!!!!!
Once on board, in reality a fairly painless process and well organized, we find our cabin, #4050, and begin unpacking. Two of our checked pieces
are waiting by the door. The missing one has several small cans of Coca-Cola and Carolyn wants to take some medicine so Dick is off to find an open bar. He finally finds the Garden Lounge on Deck 9 and buys a small bottle of coke and glass of ice for $4.03. You can explain the $.03; I can’t!
Unpacking finished, we attend the mandatory safety briefing; life vests and all. Once done with that, we explore a little bit and wind up on the back of the ship for some photos of The Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz in fading, near sunset and cloudy light. We sail at 7:30PM and it will be way past photo time then!
We have late dinner seating (8:30 PM) and the prime rib in the Lido looks very tempting. We will see if we last. We are both very tired and in need of a hot shower, good dinner and good night’s sleep.
Dress for dinner is either informal or formal. Informal for men is a jacket with or without a tie. Formal is tux or dark suit with a tie. Tonight is informal. We are pleased to find that we have a table for two as requested. Service is off tonight and very slow. Carolyn orders vegetable soup and a salad and Dick has the soup and a Thai spring roll. For a main course, nothing on the regular menu really appeals so we order off the "Always Available" menu. Carolyn has a small steak and baked potato and Dick has salmon and a baked potato. Carolyn likes her steak but Dick’s salmon is over done and tasteless. We have to ask for condiments for the baked potato and finally get butter and sour cream. We both have apple strudel for dessert along with coffee and camomile tea. They seem to have a hard time understanding the order for the tea and cream for Dick’s coffee is just as hard to arrange.
Back to the room where the bed configuration has been fixed and sleep is calling. Soon all three of us are sound asleep.
Saturday, February 7, 2015 - Day 4
The rain stopped over night and it is quite foggy when Dick gets up at 6AM.
His clock is not adjusting well even though we went to bed after 10PM local time last night. Dick is a morning person and there is a nook where he can sit and read or work on the computer and blog without shining a light on Carolyn who is definitely not a morning person.
The breakfast basket is delivered promptly at 8AM and contains a French baguette, a small rustic sourdough loaf, a large ham and cheese croissant, a fruit muffin, orange juice and fruit. Also enclosed are two slices of quiche and two more ham and cheese croissants, from Bouchon Bakery that we ordered special to have for lunch and dinner tonight. Coffee and tea complete a pleasant breakfast when topped off by scrambled eggs from our small supply.
The charger we had planned to use to charge our Kindle Fires is not working well. Dick’s plan to save space is not working as planned. Our first stop this morning is a Radio Shack in Napa where we buy an AC-USB adapter in hopes of improving the charging performance. Then we head north to the Silverado Trail for stops at two wineries where we have complimentary tastings through our lodgings.
The first is Regusci Winery. We taste a good Chardonnay that is grown near Cuvaison’s location and several Cabernets and a Zinfandel that are not that great. This winery has been here since 1878 under three different owners and names. Outside the tasting room are lemon and olive trees as well as the vineyards, pruned and waiting for Spring.
We then move on to Pine Ridge Vineyards where they have a very good Chardonnay, Le Petit Clos Chardonnay, and several Cabernets that are not to our liking. We buy a bottle of the Le Petit Clos to take on the ship. It is very expensive at nearly $70 and is a splurge but we are now done with our wine tour.
Leaving Pine Ridge, we drive North on Silverado Trail to Rutherford and on into St. Helena. We have been here before and see some familiar sights. We are looking for a ripe pear to go with our blue cheese and wine tonight but do not find any. We settle for a jar of pear butter preserves.....we will see how that works out. After a brief stop at V. Sattui Winery for a bathroom break and a photo stop or two we head back to our cottage for lunch and arrive at 1:30PM.
Carolyn declares that she feels a nap coming on and it is beginning to cloud up. Showers are in the forecast. Napping may be a plan for the rest of the afternoon.
Well, it certainly is for Carolyn and Jack. The snores are deafening! It is 4:30PM, the sun is peeking through breaking clouds and Dick just finished a pleasant walk around the property that culminated in a talk with the owner.
After our feast last night, we had very little lunch and decided to go lightly on supper. So, we had a selection of blue cheese, brie topped with the pear butter and heated, crusty artisan bread, pears, olives and wonderful fresh sweet blackberries. We enjoyed our feast with a bottle of a very good red wine we bought at Cuvaison yesterday. Very nice!
Time to call it a day. Tomorrow we move on board Cunard's Queen Elizabeth for our Pacific crossing.
Friday, February 6, 2015 - Day 3
We went to bed early last night, feeling the two hour time change and the day of travel. Carolyn slept well but Dick did not and is up about 6AM, well before daylight. Putting his time to good use, he downloads pictures and finishes the blog for yesterday. Carolyn rolls out about 8AM and retrieves our breakfast basket from the porch. Dick is well into his third cup of pretty good coffee by this time. Breakfast pastries come from a bakery in Yountville named La Bouchon and the selections are very good. We also scramble some eggs we purchased last night.
By 10AM we are in the car heading for Cuvaison Estate Winery which we noticed on the way in yesterday. Cuvaison Estate Chardonnay is one of our favorite wines and one of the few we agree upon. By the time we reach the winery, it is raining steadily and the sign says tastings by appointment only. Oh, what the heck, all they can do is be closed or say no. As it turns out, we spend a delightful two hours tasting a flight of wines, visiting with two very knowledgeable people, discovering some of their wines that you can only get directly from them and, of course, buying some of our discoveries. We are shipping a case home to be held by a dear friend and buy three bottles for the ship.
Leaving the wine tasting, we head into Napa to the Oxbow Market, a recommendation of our server at the tasting. We get there before the lunch crowd leaves so parking is a problem. The place is crowded plus it is still pouring rain. Once inside, Carolyn buys a deli sandwich and we also get some cheese to go with our wines. The place is very interesting and worth a stop for anyone in Napa. There is a pizza place as well as other foods such as sushi and a full blown, sit down restaurant.
This morning Dick discovered that his Olympus Tough camera had met its match sometime yesterday and the view screen is shattered. In finding the GPS we thought we had dodged a visit to Best Buy but no such look. Leaving Carolyn at the cottage at 2PM, he drives to Vallejo to replace the camera. Best Buy does not carry Olympus but he finds a Nikon Coolpix AW120 on sale and buys it, a padded carrying case and a spare battery. The traffic is heavy and the 45 mile round trip takes most of two hours, including time in the store. All this time Carolyn and Jack are snoozing away in front of the fire, the perfect activity for a cold, wet afternoon!
We have a package deal at The Cottages of Napa that includes dinner for two at Ad Hoc, a restaurant in Yountville owned by the owner/chef of The French Laundry. The cottages provide a car and driver to Yountville restaurants so we take them up on it so we can have a drink and not have to worry about driving in the pouring rain. We are seated promptly and enjoy excellent mixed drinks, salad with a smoked paprika dressing, rustic bread, braised veal chop with polenta, kale and leeks, a selection of cheeses and a “cake shake” (red velvet cake and vanilla ice cream with whipped Chantilly mixed up in an old fashioned malt glass and served with a paper straw!) for dessert. A real treat!!
We call the car and they pick us up 15 minutes later and return us, through driving rain, to our nest. Time for a hot shower and a good night’s sleep.
Wednesday and Thursday, February 4-5, 2015 - Days 1 and 2
We left home at 4:30PM yesterday to drive to our daughter's house where we went to dinner at Eden Café with her family. She then drove us to our hotel near Houston Intercontinental airport and returned to her home in our car. We joked that buying them dinner provided really cheap parking of our car for four months!
We hate travel days and did not sleep well. Dick was up at 5:30AM and looking for coffee at 6:00. Our Marriott Springhill hotel was a typical airport, high-turnover hotel. The room was comfortable but the included breakfast left much to be desired; dry scrambled eggs, O'Brien potatoes, no meat choice, stale breads, juice and Greek yogurt. Oh well, better fare is on the way.
We took the hotel shuttle to the airport, checked in and went through security without a hitch. Our TSA "Trusted Traveler" cards are worth the effort and cost! Spent an hour in the United lounge and boarded our 767 in seats 18A&B in economy plus for our flight to San Francisco. The small up charge was worth it for the leg room!
The 9:30AM flight left on time and arrived a little early. There was lots of carry-on luggage and we just waited for the cabin to clear before getting ours down. Once off the plane, we walked "several miles" to the baggage claim area and by the time we got there our luggage had been pulled off and set aside with several other unclaimed bags. No harm, no foul and we head out to find our rent car. Ok, so we take the sky train to the rent car area. Whoever designed this airport got a bonus for stairs and elevators and we have to change levels four times before finding the sky train platform. Fortunately we can take our luggage cart with us. Oh, by the way, did I tell you that a luggage cart at Bush Intercontinental and in San Francisco costs $5 freaking dollars?!! In most of the rest of the world they are free or cost a deposit that you get back when you return the cart to the rack.
Anyway, Dollar Rental has our reservation. The attendant asks where we are going and we tell him lunch in Sausalito and then up to Napa. He tells us that you can no longer pay the Golden Gate toll in cash but must have a toll tag and he would be happy to let us have one on our car for the cost of the tolls plus $15 per use up to a maximum of $105. I just love being a tourist!!
Our car is a Buick Regal with 43,000 miles on it. It is clean and non-smoking but very small and we need all the space for the luggage. The next crisis is that we cannot find the GPS. Both of look in the electronics bag and find only the cord and windshield mount. The garage is dark, the case is black on black on black. A few nasty recriminations are exchanged as to who left the GPS at home. Fortunately, we call a truce and decide that if it is not found by tomorrow we will spring for a new one. There goes $250 plus the cost of Australia and South Africa maps!
The simple map we do have gets us across the Golden Gate and into Sausalito the back way and we have a very pleasant lunch at Salito’s Crab House and Prime Rib. Carolyn has a Bellini to steady her nerves and we each have the crab chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Delicious!
 |
| Give Me a Brake!! |
From Sausalito it is about an hour up to The Cottages of Napa, a little south of Yountville, CA. Our cottage is #5 and very cozy with a Bose CD player, Kiva style (corner) gas fireplace and a chilled bottle of Chandon Reserve Brut with two flutes and a nice card from the Cottage's staff. Our 50th anniversary celebration is off to a good start!
We head out to find some basic groceries as we have a small kitchen and we booth need some Jack Daniels. With a false start in Yountville, we head down to Napa and eventually find a small liquor store whose clerk, when asked about a grocery store, says, "Me no live here." Anyway someone else does give directions and we find a Lucky store. Actually, we see several so they must be a local chain; not impressed! Oh well, some eggs, cheese, mini-Snickers, etc. and we head for the self-scan checkout where we are told we can’t use the self-scan as we have a bottle of wine. Dick says something unkind under his breath and presents the attendant with a gift of Fetzer Chardonnay and we proceed to use the self-scan checkout; thank you very much!
Back to our cottage where, several stiff drinks later we are in a better humor! We decide we are not hungry and settle for some cheese and other nibbles while we read, get our baths and head for bed about 9PM local time.
All in all, not a bad start.
