DAY 25 - DAY 19 CRYTAL SERENITY

I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO

Kathy, thank you for your lovely comments.  Very much appreciated.

Emily, thank you so very much.  Happy New Year.

Thelma, thank you for your comments.

Gilly, glad that you are enjoying those hearing about our recollections and that you also stayed at the Madonna Inn.

We began last evening with a visit to the Avenue Saloon.  Someone asked us about the initials below the bar near where we have sat if this was K for Keith and A for Anne Marie.  We didn't even know these initials were there so we looked and sure enough we saw K&A.  Not sure who they are for but not for us. 

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Before dinner last evening we went to the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle Party held at Pulse between 5:30 and 6:30 PM.  The party was well attended.  We wish we could have stayed longer to have spoken with everyone.

Afterwards, we returned to Waterside.  Although there are no Black Tie Optional (BTO) nights on cruises of seven or less days the menu featured items that you would find on a BTO night.  

We are including two sets of dinner menus.  One is the Traditional/Modern Cuisine menu and the other is a Vegetarian Menu.

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The dinner served at Waterside was very good.  We began with appetizers; Caviar for Keith and Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail for Anne Marie; Baby Spinach Salad for both of us; followed by Fresh Cold Water Lobster for the two of us.  The first and third items were from the Modern Cuisine Menu.

There were two performances given by Christine Andreas who is an amazing singer.

Lots of other entertainment before, during and after her performance in three lounges including pianists, violinist and a duet of singing and guitarist.  There was also a DJ playing music.  If that was not enough there was a showing of the 2018  movie Come Inside My Mind. Also, at 5:00 PM they showed the NCAA College Football Championship Game in the Hollywood Theatre.

This is a photo of the new television that was added during dry dock.  The TV used to be positioned on the built in unit to the side of the bed.  This television is larger than the previous one and is located on the wall in front of the bed making it easy to watch from various areas of the room.

As part of the new TV system they have added a range of services including on-demand movies.

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We slept well last night as we sailed to the next port-of-call; San Francisco.  The seas were relatively calm.  

​Keith got in a workout at the Fitness Center before we had breakfast in our room.  After breakfast Keith took an indoor cycling class while Anne Marie walked inside the ship.  Including Keith six people participated in the class.

Following the class Keith freshened up and we went off the ship.  San Francisco has special meaning for us as we lived in the Bay Area for four years from 1987 to 1991.  We loved our experience in this area.  We think of this city as we do of Venice.  They are cities that are out of a story book with their natural beauty.  We love to vacation in the city and to also visit it on stops when we cruise.

We want to digress for a moment about the city.

Our children were ages 5 & 1/2 and 1 & 1/2 when we moved to the Bay Area.  We remember taking them into the city and going on the merry go-round at Pier 39 and taking the cable car a couple of years later and enjoying many activities.  A restaurant we would go to because it is sentimental to us is Scoma's and we have eaten there after moving away.  We enjoyed the parks, the ferries and all there was to do there.

Our first Crystal Cruise on Crystal Harmony in 2002 was a R/T San Francisco  Cruise of Alaska.  We quickly became Crystalized on that cruise.  The cruise was 10 months after 9/11 and we remember the extra security at the port and at the other ports of call.  We introduced our family to Crystal Cruises including our son, daughter and future son-in-law.

San Francisco has a population of  900,000 residents.

There are many iconic sites including:

Golden Gate Bridge  a suspension bridge spanning one mile which opened in 1937.  

Golden Gate Park which is actually 20 percent larger than Central. Park.

Alcatrez Island which was once home to many criminals.

China Town which is the oldest China Town in North America.

North Beach which includes Little Italy where Joe DiMaggio grew up.

Coit Tower which is a 210 foot Art Deco tower.

Fisherman’s Wharf which is located on the northern waterfront and is home to stores and restaurants.  It does have special meaning to us.  When the children were young and we lived here we would let them ride on the merry-go-round which is still there today.

We could add many more sites/attractions to this list.

Given the weather forecast we decided we would not do sightseeing since we have been here many times.  Our destination was Nordstrom's. The San Francisco store is one of our favorites in terms of the size of the store and the array of merchandise they carry particularly men's and women's clothing.  On our way we passed iconic sites that we mentioned such as Coit Tower and the Ferry Building.  On our way to the store it became misty and then it started to rain.  With raincoats we were fine.

On our way back to the ship we stopped in the Ferry Building.  It has many nice shops including ones selling bread, beef, and seafood and several restaurants.  Once we go to Pier 27 where Serenity is docked Anne Marie boarded the ship and Keith went for a run over to Pier 39 which is special to us.  He took photos of that special merry go-round.

In spite of the on and off rain we took a trip down memory lane this morning

We had lunch in our room knowing we would get back later in the afternoon.

We have two couples who will be visiting us later in the afternoon and who will stay on-board for dinner.  We will post all about this tomorrow.

The Reflections Daily Program follows.

Until tomorrow.

Anne Marie & Keith