Day 2: Embarkation Day

We woke up this morning and this was the view from our hotel room at Omni San Francisco. That's Nob Hill to the left, and San Francisco Bay in the background.

I stepped outside this morning to see what the weather felt like this morning. Not bad, but what really struck me was the vibrancy of the city. Our hotel is across California St. from the financial district. You get a sense of the heartbeat of the city, a connection with its soul. Maybe that's because we're on vacation and everyone else here is working.

We had a couple hours to spare before we were to check in at Pier 35, so we decided to go for a walk. We wandered through the historic Financial District, down Market Ave. We did a bit of shopping, and Dona bought a Pandora charm for her bracelet. We then climbed to the top of Nob Hill by walking from Market, north on Mason up to California St. Anyone who is familiar with the area will tell you that is one steep hike uphill. Here is the view from the top of Nob Hill looking south down Mason: 

We then checked out of the Omni, and hired an Uber black car to take us to Pier 35.

Here is a picture of the Grand Princes starboard mid-ship looking forward as we walk up the gangway:

Now a gentleman doesn't normally say this about a lady, but the Grand Princess, she is huge! 915 feet long, 118 feet wide, and she displaces 109,000 tons. She can take a maximum of 2,600 passengers, and has a crew of 1,150. The crew by the way is like the United Nations, with people hailing from countries including Indionesia, Italy, Chile, Austraila, Croatia, St. Lucia, and Canada.

We had our muster drills, which is the equivalent of a safety briefing on board an aircraft. Lessons learned the hard way from the Titanic disaster of 1912 are why when the emergency signal sounds, we walk to our stateroom, take our life vests, and gather in one of a half dozen designated areas on the ship. We listened to a safety briefing, and practice donning our life vests. In a real emergency, we simply follow the instructions of the crew.

We cast off shortly after sunset, thrust off the pier, backed up, and heading west through San Francisco Bay. Yep, modern cruise ships can do that. The view was one of magnificent beauty as the Bay Area was lit up in all its glory:

We then slipped beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, it's towers ablaze in a rusty red glow of light:

I felt a sense of enormous gratitude being able to experience this. Is it any wonder I get few arguments when I tell people San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world? I gave Dona a kiss as we passed beneath the Golden Gate, and felt so fortunate to be able to spend my 50th birthday in this way.