Coastal Cruise - San Francisco 1

 April 6 San Francisco 1

Lido for breakfast again, this time with Josh too, then I tried out the Tai Chi class and for the first time on a HAL ship it was not well done. That turned out to be just as well because it gave me time to get to the Trilo3y boot camp up in the fitness center (yes, Josh was there too, doing leg day) (and no, I don’t know if the 3 is supposed to be pronounced like a soft g). I was the only person in the class. They’ve made it easy to teach by putting time cues into the soundtrack, which could increase the opportunity for phoning it in, but the instructor stayed involved and laughed at all my jokes, so it was a good time, and a challenging workout as well.

Then it was time to get ready to go outside for going under the bridge. Unlike Avalon, San Francisco was cold and gray this morning, so we bundled up. As previously discussed, the Nieuw Amsterdam doesn’t have a lot of front-facing deck space. They opened up the small forward deck on deck 5, and many people came out. Fortunately the bridge is up high, so you could still get cool pictures.

Once we were safely under the bridge, I showered and Dave and I headed out in search of lunch. We’re parked at Pier 35 – there was a whole thing about us having to leave Avalon early and slack tides and not being able to park at the usual pier that we don’t completely understand – which actually worked out well as it’s closer to the overnight parking garage (more about that later), but that puts it right smack in the center of the touristiest part of the city. We were able to find Scoma, an Italian restaurant that’s been around since the mid-60s, about a block off the main drag. The food exceeded expectations, and the old school vibes and big windows letting in the sunshine (it cleared up) made for an enjoyable lunch. Dave’s pasta puttanesca with seafood was worthy of mention.

We headed back to the ship, with a short detour to see the parking garage (more on that later) and ran into Josh and Jen, who were headed out in search of sea lions. When we got back to our cabin I took an excellent nap while Dave hung out in the Tamarind bar, and then he came back to the room and we switched places and I got some blogging done.

Then it was time to head out to visit Ben & Joan & Avery & Hannah; I ordered a bigger Uber so we could stretch out. We got there and had a little while to chat with Joan before the rest of the troops got there. We had a nice dinner of Indian food and catching up, with the girls at their own small table off to the side. I always wish we lived closer together!

We’d made a plan with Ben to borrow his car for our day in port, so we drove back to the ship to the aforementioned parking lot which was now locked up tight, even though our ticket said arriving at 8:30 and even though the guy I talked to on the phone said it was accessible 24/7. This was too much for me, but Jen was able to find another place just a couple blocks away that worked fine. But GRRRRR it made me mad. By the time we got back to the ship we were ready for bed and another big day coming up.