Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

we had several wine tastings on board. one with our group. one offered on the ship. and again with the formal dinner for our group. they set the tables so pretty.

we had to get on a lifeboat to go ashore in santa Barbara. we went to visit a winery. with of course, wine tasting.

all of our group was on the same lifeboat. we had a lot of fun going the short distance to shore.

our first look at the stolpman winery through the window on the bus.

dave knows the owner and buys and serves his wine at his restaurant, delius. the winery is actually near santa ynez. it’s a beautiful 125 acres with a gorgeous new house they just built. we tasted 5 more wines. i know more wine? we had a nice lunch at the house and then got back on the bus. it was a special treat to see this property.

we had fun on the bus too. here are dave and louise the owners of delius. we were all singing to oldies.

guess what? we then went to another small winery in santa barbara. you know how small the portions are so it’s actually not that much wine. jerry always finds a dog to pet.

the boat ride back to the ship was even more fun. if you know what i mean.

we are home now. it was a fantastic week. luxury every where you turned.

so much different than traveling in the coach. but, the truth be told we would rather travel in the coach.

we will probably take one more cruise though. we would like to see the panama canal someday.

I have a few more pictures to show you, since I took so many I have to do something with them.

thanks for all the comments.

love, jill

Read Full Post »

we went under the golden gate bridge at 6:00am monday morning, so i didn’t get a very good picture of it. i was kind of bummed about that.

the bay bridge

we had never been to pier 39 so we walked the 10 minutes it took to get there. (we took the shuttle back to the ship).

it’s basically like every other pier we’ve been to. very touristy and crowded. and of course a bubba gumps.

we almost always try the clam chowder in a bread bowl at places like this. this time we found a surprise in the bottom.

we had never wanted to go to alcatraz before, but now that it’s a national park, we thought we’d go there too. but the next tour opening was in 8 days. they were booked solid.

we walk around the ship every day and i course i take pictures. here’s a few.

room service is great

we are in san diego today. we walked to a starbucks to do this post. I guess I’ll show some of the other pictures when we get home.

thanks for the comments. love, jill

Read Full Post »

                             our taxi awaits us

our neighbor kara took us to the cruise terminal in san pedro on sataurday. we had a pleasant drive with no traffic to speak of.

there were 5 ships in port boarding passengers. luckily we had left early to get there early, and missed some of the worst of the chaos boarding the ship that happened after we were happily in our cabin. (we heard about it later)

we had to go to the muster station to learn how to put on our life jackets. everyone on ship is required to do it.

two of the other ships in port.

we left right on time. this picture is the ship going through the breakwater.

then we attended a sail away party with the group (40) we are traveling with. we are all diners at ‘delius restaurant ‘ in long beach. one of the best we have ever eaten at. it was a no host bar from 5-6. we had previously met everyone at another gathering at the restaurant. it was a lot of fun.

after trying out the buffet, not bad, we went to see a movie under the stars, woman in gold. but it was hard to hear and partly subtitled so we took our popcorn back to our room and watched tv.

and look what was on. ha ha.

we are in san Francisco now and found wifi in the cruise terminal. on the ship the free wifi won’t come in and they want 79 cents a minute to connect to the pay service. this blog is not that important.

we are having a such a good time. this is sure a different way to travel that the coach. our wish is their command. you can have anything you want at anytime. wow.

now it’s time to go explore san Francisco.

check back later. I don’t know when the next post will be.

jill

Read Full Post »