West Coast, by Land and Sea - Day 6

San Fran

We woke up this morning in San Francisco.. the city of..... huh, I thought I knew that? Sourdough, maybe? [Editor's note: "Your favorite radio city, the city by the bay, the city that rocks, the city that never sleeps." Although I usually refer to it as one of the last cities that I want to get sent to on a business trip, mostly because I have to travel to the bay area often and I'm kind of bored of it.]

Anyway. We are at our first port of the trip! Today we are winging it! Shocking, I know. We almost always do official cruise line excursions. But this trip, we decided to try our luck on our own. Our plans aren't too adventurous, so let get to the day.

After breakfast at Cabana's we were ready to walk off the ship a little after 10 am. Our first destination the Exploratorium - which is located at Pier 17. Our ship was docked at pier 27, so it was an easy walk.

This was my science muesem as a kid and going back (it's in a different location now) with my kids was soo fun.

I have memories of doing this as a kid. 

After some science fun, we caught a Streetcar down to Pier 39.

Authors Note: Our young man is a fan of many things...The show World's Toughest Fixes is a favorite of his. The host of the show is from SF and as we were walking to the Exploratorium our young man spotted something familiar.... the tugboat, the Delta Catherine. This boat was in the episode about a cruise ship overhaul and he recognized it immediately.

Delta Catherine 

The street car was fun, but more of a standard city bus feeling once on board than I was expecting. But it saved us some steps and a few minutes later we arrived at Pier 39.  We lunched at Boudin and had some fun shopping and exploring the Pier. The kids didn't believe me about the number of Sea Lions we would see ;)

Sea Lions! 

Silly Selfie - Outside a Cookie Dough shop...Yup, scoops up like Ice Cream!
It was crazy... and quite possibly the sweetest thing I have ever tried. 

From here we were ready to return to our floating home away from home.

Disney Wonder

The plan was for the ship to leave at 4:30... but we didn't.
From what we gleaned a family of 5 was still ashore... and we waited. Typically the ship doesn't wait a long time for stragglers... unless they are on a ship sponsored excursion. But we did. They had a few family members who were already on board, so I think they saved them. Its harder to leave when someone is there to argue. So we waited....
I was up on Deck 10 watching the city and waiting to pull out. Hubby was down of deck four watching from there.
About 5:15 I saw a family running across a street a block away..... Adults and kids in tow... they were clearly frantic - the missing people from our cruise. They made it back and around 5:25 we pulled away.

Our view from the ship in port. Not bad. 

Ok, I am going to be a little petty.... (hopefully it won't last long)... I was sooo looking forward to going under the Golden Gate Bridge. I love going under Lions Gate in Vancouver and getting to stand on Deck 10 and go under the Golden Gate, getting some great pics, was HIGH on my list for today. But our delayed departure meant that sailing under the bridge was now going to happen during our dinner seating :(
So, I decided I was going to be late for dinner. Hubby went down with the kids and I (determined to have my bridge experience) stayed on Deck 10.  Ok.. the petty part is, if the family had been on time... I wouldn't have had to be late. I know.... cry me a river. But I shook it off. It would be awful to be left behind, so I am glad they made it back on board.
Back to the bridge.... Sailing under was AWESOME! The energy on the top deck was crazy too. Everyone clearly was as excited as I was. And.... my camera died right as we started under the bridge... dead battery. (Ugh) After a hot second of AAahhhhhh! I put the silly thing away and just enjoyed the moment.
Then I rushed down to dinner to join my family and tell them how cool it was.
Little did I know that hubby had stopped by a large porthole on deck 3 and snapped a few pictures - Yay!!! What a prince!

A fun Gif

Hubby's great pic from deck 3. Soo awesome! 

The rest of the evening was uneventful. We skipped the show this evening as well and relaxed as the ship picked up speed - next stop Victoria BC.

Alcatraz... maybe next time we will do the tour?