October 3 - San Francisco, CA

helipad

hello San Fran!!

Weather – threw open the curtain to soupy,
soupy, soupy. We could see the water when we stepped onto the balcony but otherwise, a wall of white. I decided to go to the gym and getting there meant crossing the pool deck…brrrrr! A glorious morning for those in the hot tubs. Temps all day in SF were coolish (esp in the shade), 18º, more like 14º when the sun went down.

just made it

slowly, slowly

Steps – 16,790

I set an alarm for this morning. I know that on vacation I can sleep LATE! I prefer NOT to wake up to an alarm (who does?!) but at home unless I need to be up particularly early, I don’t need an alarm…away from home…different story. I’m not sure if it is the new environment, new bed, especially dark room or what…nonetheless…I can SLEEP. I knew today would be a good day for the gym followed by post-workout champagne.

Alcatraz in the distance

after lunch dessert

It was a good morning for the gym, sleeping or the hot tub. I didn’t think of the hot tub until I saw people there on my way to the gym…maybe
tomorrow.

Jays game and a pint

Alcatraz again

The gym here is great…as great as a gym can be. As far as I’m concerned, I go to the gym for the same reason I eat broccoli. I don’t like it, but I’m a big girl and do it anyway. This gym makes it not unpleasant…it is big, uncrowded, with good equipment. I was in and out and at the juice bar in an hour. I wanted a fresh
made juice, but showed up between shifts - Chris would have to be satisfied with boxed grapefruit from the pool bar for his in-room-mimosa.

Fisherman's Wharf

SF seals

For the sail into SF and under the Golden
Gate we were invited to watch from the ship’s helipad – another Retreat perk! Very cool (literally and figuratively!) Of course, it is cool in SF and being on the front of the boat with the wind in our faces was chilly…we were served champagne, should have been Baileys and coffee. We were only out there for about a half hour, so we survived the cold.

cider

Lunch was onboard, followed by a visit to the ship's bakery for one last coffee before heading out. Chris was hoping to watch the Blue Jays game, but it wasn’t shown

$14 Irish coffees

on the boat, so we found a pub close by to watch the Jays loose.

We've been to SF before, so didn’t venture out
too far from the ship. Just wandered from the pier through Fisherman’s Warf, up the hill a bit to Buena Vista for their famous Irish coffees. I don’t think this place has been updated since it opened in 1952! I suppose that’s part of its charm. 2 $14 coffees later and we were on the go once again. Cable cars run right past this place, so that was charming also. The coffee was delicious, but $14?!?!...USD don't forget!!

flambé

We were on our way back, when Chris mentioned a place he had cider the last time he was in SF, just past where our ship is. I can’t pass up cider so we had one more drink at Coqueta before heading back to the ship. They were out of the cider Chris had so we had to have another more expensive one…it was very tasty though…cloudy and funky…delish!

waiting for us

Dinner was on the boat, table side flambé...quite tasty!

balcony view...not bad

October 2 - Santa Barbara, CA

beautiful, but invasive

view while tendering

Weather – 18º and clear when we threw open
the curtains, nice for a bit of morning blogging, sunny and high of 21º

Steps – 14,240

Room 2155 is located one floor below the ship’s buffet. I wouldn’t never choose a room directly below any public space, in my opinion the best rooms are surrounded by other rooms. Usually, the poshest rooms are high on the ship which I really can’t understand. High rooms have the most motion of the

quaint Santa Barbara street

ocean (something most do not want) and are next to, over or under public spaces. We never choose the poshest rooms on any boat unless the price is right. The very best room we have ever had was on the lowest floor on the back of the boat. Anyway, because we booked this cruise so close to sailing time, we took what we could get. We’ve had a room like this before (because of late booking, you’d think we’d learn our lesson) and it was a bit loud, not terrible, but enough that I’d steer clear if given the choice. Last night was fine, there was some other kind of undesirable noise, but it didn’t seem to be from above. Tonight, we’ll get the

good bye Santa Barbara

white noise going. Or we may just open the balcony door. I might have to have them bring back the industrial fan…you can’t hear anything over that.

daily planner

Santa Barbara although on mainland California, can only be reached by ship anchoring in the bay and tendering ashore. We’ve been down the tender road many, many times in the past and the process lost its shine long ago. Tendering on Regent can be tedious as only 100 or so people can fit in a tender,
this in addition to the loading and unloading is tiresome. However, Regent only has 600 people to deal with, this boat has 3000. The operation here has 2 tender boats rather than one operating, but everyone was cautioned that the wait for the next available tender could be 90 min!! Good thing we have priority! A perk of being in the “Retreat” is that we basically cut the line…I didn’t feel real good about that, but still did it and was on the first tender we wanted – we weren’t cheating at all, but kind of felt like we were. Coming back was another story and we lined up with
the masses – that didn’t take 90 min…maybe 15. The ride to and from the ship was another 15 minutes.

seals!

October 1 - Los Angeles, CA

bon voyage

Celebrity Eclipse

Weather – Today was the first morning since we’ve been in LA that we’ve woken up to blue sky and sun…auspicious??

Steps – 7,200

Today we boarded the Celebrity Eclipse - our home for the next 7 days. This boat can hold 2800 guests which is the second largest ship we’ve on, the largest was just over 3000. We are used to a ship with about 600 people, so this will be different. I am very curious to experience life on a bigger ship like this is. I’m also curious to know how full the boat is. It feels full, but I have nothing to compare to, so who knows.

almost there!

Another lazy morning with rooms service. Our hotel booking included a $100 credit which we haven’t used yet, so breakfast pretty much took care of it…wowza! In fact, we had to pay $4 on top of the $100!!

Our check in time for the boat was technically 2PM (late compared to our previous cruise check in times - typically late morning. We’re staying in one of the boat’s ‘Retreat’ rooms which let’s us board whenever. I wasn’t quite sure if this would work as it isn’t really advertised this way, but sure enough we arrived at the port around 1:00, on the boat by 130, and were exploring…Champagne in hand by 2:00. Check in was a BREEZE. We had done much of the check in process online so as soon as we arrived (after a 45min Uber
ride), we were ushered to the “Retreat” check in…basically a person with an iPad to scan our boarding passes, check our passports and send us on our way. 

drying out

 As for scrutinizing our bags for contraband booze…nope! No one could care less. Maybe because we only have carry on, but no one looked twice at what we were bringing.

As soon as I took my shoes off in the room I felt a bit of squish...squish, hmmm. Sure enough we have some kind of leak. Can’t see where it’s coming from exactly but looks like the tub. We tell Mozes our room attendant and when we come back later there is an industrial fan filling the room with the sound of a plane taking off. When we came back at the end of the night, the fan was gone, but a bit of squishy remained.

love the name!

Our room is big. Not crazy big, but bigger than we are used to. The balcony is bigger too.

We spend the rest of the day exploring, having dinner, and seeing a comedy show. As expected with a ship this size, things are hopping. The busyness is nice…gives a good vibe. People here seem friendlier than on Regent (our usual cruise line.) People on Regent are friendly, but we don’t usually meet many people. Despite sitting at bars (where most people meeting takes place) on Regent we meet some, but not a lot. Each time we sat for a drink today (4 different spots) we met people.

September 30 - Los Angeles, CA

pork belly food market

tour meeting point

Weather – rain when we got up, on and off until
about 1:00, sunny late afternoon, 20º

Steps – 16,269

Bradbury building

Food tours have always treated us well – Seattle, Barcelona, Bologna…all 10/10, we thought we’d better try what a Los Angeles food tour had to offer. Today’s wasn’t much more than a 5/10 unfortunately. It was OK, but just OK. In addition to trying some food, we were interested in the location for this tour - Downtown LA. If we didn’t check out downtown today, we didn’t think we’d be back. Downtown LA is about a 30 min

random downtown LA

drive from Beverly Hills where our hotel is. An
11AM start meant we had a bit of a lazy morning before heading out.

This walking tour met at a bakery just like our Seattle food tour. This is very practical…we can use the facilities and grab a coffee to go. Our first taste on the tour was an almond croissant from this bakery – it was very good! I’m not usually one for almond flavoured anything, but this may have turned me.

pumpkin ravioli stop

This tour was a combo of food, walking, and info. Every now and again, our guide Scarlet stopped to chat. Before we knew it, we arrived at LA’s Grand Central Market, for Filipino

Central Market

pork belly and a beer (unfortunately we were on our own for drinks, but maybe that was a good thing.) I’m not the biggest fan of pork belly…too fatty, but the sweet-Asian flavour was very tasty…needless to say, I helped Chris eat his. This market
was thronging with activity…people, sounds, and smells. Our visit here was perfectly timed…it poured for about 10 minutes when we were safely under cover.

meh donuts

tacos

Next, we wandered a bit down LA’s Broadway…many old theatres with

random interesting building

cool architecture, but kind of run down. Currently, there aren’t any shows playing at all. We stepped into The Bradbury Building – LA’s oldest commercial downtown building, very interesting ornamentation and iron work. Next was an Italian place for pumpkin ravioli, I thought I’d
have a double order, but Chris ate his. Then we had tacos (I had pork and Chris had steak) washed down with a beer. Lastly, were donuts from Donut Friend. Donut Friend was more like Donut Acquaintance…I’ve had better. If I’m going to

eat a donut, it had better be worth it…this was not unfortunately.

After the tour we checked out the area around LA’s Staples Centre and found a bench to eat the donut we schlepped here from the end of the food tour. We then grabbed an Uber back to Beverly Hills. Before heading up to our room for a bit of a siesta, we visited BevMo for some ship wine. We have all inclusive booze on the ship, but not via the mini bar in our room. Don’t get me started on how annoying that is…but we got a couple of bottles for our balcony on the ship.

blogging and Gump

The rest of the afternoon was spent blogging, watching Forest Gump (how I love this movie) and chilling with a beverage from BevMo.

fondue!

Dinner was cheese fondue and a bottle of wine at Monsieur Marcel in LA’s Original Farmer's Market. This place was about a 30 min walk from our hotel. This was the perfect pre and post dinner distance for a walk.

hotel mall and downtown

September 29 - Los Angeles, CA

Walk of Fame

Weather – morning was super cloudy and gloomy,
but not cold - 19º, high of 23º, sun came out late afternoon, definitely humid

Steps – 26,084! 19.6 Km

Our original thought for the day was a Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. We’ve been on many of these over the years over the world. While they are VERY touristy (we acknowledge we are tourists who want touristy things) they give a great overview of a place while providing transportation to far-flung places we can’t quite walk to, and we are

no caption needed

ahhhh, America!

very capable and happy to walk…FAR…today may actually be a record – I can’t actually remember how many steps we had in England once…over 20,000 for sure.

Anyway…after some research, we realized LA’s HOHOs probably weren’t that great. We decided to

Michael Jackson died here

walk to Hollywood, check out the Walk of Fame, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Boulevard, get some lunch and do a celebrity homes tour, oh and people watch…there’s plenty of people watching.

Laugh Factory

Our hotel is in East Beverley Hills, almost West Hollywood, about 6K south of Hollywood or 90 minutes walk. This was a lot. Plus…Getting to Hollywood takes at least one block of very hilly walking…no gym necessary today. We knew what we were getting into, but our 2-pint lunch was a sight for sore eyes, by the time we were sipping it was actually 9K!

I wasn’t looking for a 2-pint lunch, but it was forced upon me. OK, not exactly FORCED, but drinks were 2for1. This is the second time I’ve had a second drink FORCED upon me (remember Miami Mom?) this time we weren’t surprised. Sure we could have each had one, but that would have meant that we would have had to drink the same drink…it’s not 2for1 of any combination…it’s 2for1 of the exact same drink. Chris wanted Guinness and I will drink pretty much anything EXCEPT Guinness.

might do some shopping

After lunch was a 2-hour, 8 person, open-top vehicle tour of celebrity homes. We saw the Hollywood sign, homes of the Kardashians, Justin Timberlake, Quinten Tarantino, and Brono Mars, and Jennifer Lopez. We also drove up Rodeo Drive and down Sunset Strip. This all was

narrated by our drive/guide giving stories and gossip. This was the perfect tour…not too long, not too many people and to places we’d never see on our own. Bel Air was definitely the crème-de-la-crème of the fancy-schmancy neighborhoods. But…no actual celebrities were spotted.  If I had to choose, I’d choose Bel Air for my LA pad…the streets were narrow, so that trees from both sides formed a canopy – very charming. Who knows what the houses actually look like…mostly we saw gates and high walls, but the area…pretty nice.

By 4:15 we were done with the tour and headed back to the hotel. This was just the right time for happy hours all along Sunset Blvd and we were a bit parched. We found a charming wine bar with great staff, great prices ($5 for a glass of rosé) and great volume of vehicles zooming by.

Whisky a Go Go

We had absolutely no desire to stop for another glass until Hunter the door guy at a West Hollywood bar convinced us to have one more $5 glass of wine. Chris was over-dressed for this place…the fashion for guys was muscle shirts and short-shorts and the fashion for women…well, there weren’t many women.

Chinese Theatre

One quick stop at the CVS across the street from the hotel for a giant beer to share, a few snacks and we were in for the evening. It was only 8:00, but we were done.

Stacey…it’s only day 2, but so far I have no regrets on the carryon front. Not too much room for shopping, but I’m never a big shopper, did bring an emergency tote bag that currently is taking up little room and can be used if I NEED to check the carryon on the way home. Don’t want to be forced to, but can if a shopping spree breaks out.

$5 wine!

Lori…thanks, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to your mom too!

trek to Hollywood

September 28 - Calgary to Los Angeles, CA

Weather – 19º when we arrived in Los Angeles, with just a touch of humidity

Steps – 20,517. I have to admit, most of these were accumulated before the vacation started…walking to and from Renfrew.

We made it to Los Angeles with very little excitement. Our evening flight was delayed a bit, but nothing terrible. Once we lifted off Chris and I toasted vacation with a bit of bubbly and beef jerky! I figured I needed a bit of protein to get me through the 3-hour flight sitting behind 2 howling gifts from God. These kids were something else! I assume their parents were mortified and did all they could and didn’t want their kids wailing for 3 hours, but WOW! We’ve been on flights with screaming kids, but never with the stamina of these kids. I wonder if they were missing their mommy-night-nights?

bedtime snack

I was prepared for a nightmare at the LAX airport. I had heard that it was huge and hard to navigate. It was huge, but in the end fine. Definitely not the worst airport experience – talking to you São Paolo. Only having carryon may have smoothed the experience…the freedom of just walking off of a plane and out of the airport is glorious!

We had a bit of a hike (10 min) to the Uber pick-up spot, but we could have taken a shuttle. Finding an Uber at the Vegas airport is harder on the head than this was. This was pretty well organized with different waiting spots indicated by letters and numbers…made finding the driver pretty easy.

Speaking of Uber…we had a wonderful Uber driver. Hendra, our driver from Indonesia, talked just the right amount, which for us is lots. Especially in a new place, drivers have plenty to share about what’s what. Hendra has family in Montreal, so we talked about Canada. We’ve been to Indonesia, so we talked about that, and he was adamant that we knew about pickpockets and bag snatchers – I think we are always aware, but it was sweet to hear him remind us. 30 minutes after we left the airport, we arrived at the hotel around 11:45, checked in, dodged the partiers spilling out of the hotel’s club, showered, ate the welcome chocolates and plum and passed out.

I might have passed out because of the cloud I slept on…this was the softest hotel bed I’ve ever slept in – softest mattress, softest sheets, softest duvet. Based on the softness of the bed I expected cloud-like pillows…nope, they were fine, but the bed oversold the pillows. Nevertheless…I may have woken up once in the night, or I might not have, I can’t remember…that is rare for me.

PS…happy birthday MOM!!

September 27 – vacation prep

Bags are packed, lamp timer is set, plants are watered, fridge is emptied, and we’re checked in. In less than 24 hours we should be boarding a plane to Los Angeles for the next 2 weeks.

This only time I’ve ever spent in LA was a weekend trip to Disneyland about 30 years ago!! Of course, part of this trip is a 7-day California coast cruise bookended by 3 days at the beginning and end in LA – I’m not sure how we’d actually cope with a vacation NOT including a cruise. The weather forecast looks perfect for travelling – highs from 27º in LA to 19º in San Francisco, lows should be around 13º, at this point there is only one day of rain forecasted. Not quite beach or pool weather, but perfect for wandering, touring, and having a few meals al fresco.

From the moment we returned from our last trip I’ve been determined to travel light. This trip involves no checked bags despite the need for ‘cruise clothes’ and 2 whole weeks away! Unlike the last cruise we were on in the summer, we don’t have endless, included laundry. Nonetheless, we’ve already ‘bought’ 2 bags of ship laundry. One backpack and a wheely bag each is all we’re taking…should be no reason to return to the house for the forgotten bag…should there?? We can count to 2, can’t we?