Up early breakfasted and out at 8:15 for our trip to Muir Woods NM. Thanks to Ben we knew about the required reservations and had our parking permit ready to go, and also thanks to Ben (and Joan) we had a car. Getting it out of the parking garage went smoothly and we were off to Muir Woods, which allowed Josh to point out the Skywalker Ranch General Store for the second time (he pointed it out on the way to B&J the day before as well). Josh drove smoothly and carefully up the twisty roads so Jen and I didn’t have any trouble. We found a nice route that was about 3.5 miles and really enjoyed our hike. Apparently the redwoods that we saw were on the small side, but we saw redwood burls and fairy rings or family cicles, which apparently nobody in our group had seen in other places. Also lots of baby redwood trees, also something that they hadn’t seen. Since this was my first visit to redwoods, it was all new to me. I’ve put some information from the NPS at the end of today’s blog if you want to know more.
We ate lunch at the Barrel House Tavern in Sausalito, where
the baked oyster appetizer was so delicious we had to order a second one. Sadly
the rest of the food was good but missing spice or heat or acid, so fine but
not worth going back to. While at lunch we discussed our plans for the rest of
the day. The original plan was to meet Ben at the Japanese Garden, but even
though Josh never actually said out loud that he wanted (really, really wanted)
to go to the Skywalker Rance General Store, his beloved wife understood what he
wanted and suggested we accommodate him. It worked for Ben to meet us there
instead, so there we went. In case you don’t know, the Skywalker Ranch General
Store is at the headquarters of Lucasfilm, home of Star Wars (among other
things). Josh was beaming the whole time, and found several things to bring
home. Dave did not buy the Shakespearean versions of the Star Wars stories, but
he was tempted.
Ben arrived while we were checking out the Yoda fountain and
the Lucasfilm lobby, and after getting over his horror that nobody but Dave
knew who Philo Farnsworth was, he drove us back to the ship. We dropped of Dave,
Josh and Jen and then he and I drove to Swensen’s ice cream (note to self: the
chocolate raspberry truffle is good, but the sticky peanut butter is better)
and had some cone and sibling time. It’s never long enough.
He dropped me off at the ship just in time to join Jen for
trivia, although she might have been better off by herself – including our 3
bonus points we got only 9 out of 15 correct. She wrote 60%- D on the top in
her best teacher writing, but we had a good time anyway. I went to the cabin to
grab my computer and then joined Dave at the Tamarind Bar for a little blogging.
Then it was time for watching the cast off and going under the bridge, which we
managed to not get quite right and emerged onto the deck on 5 forward just
after we’d passed under the bridge. We did have an excellent view of Alcatraz earlier
in the afternoon. I blame the Captain, who had announced we’d be passing under
the bridge 6:45 but it was closer to 6:20. We think he might not actually be
Dutch.
To console ourselves we went down to the explorer lounge and
listened to Vivace, the classical duo of piano and violin. They were mostly
playing old pop favorites, but they were very good and we enjoyed ourselves.
Then it was time to go up for dinner – only our second
dinner in the dining room. Jen and I had the black bean soup, which 3 out of
the 4 of us thought was delicious. Josh is not a fan of bean soup so this didn’t
change his mind. I had eggplant cannelloni and was surprised to find that the
eggplant sheets were the cannelloni. While we were eating our dining room
section manager came over and I actually thought to ask him what kinds of Port
they serve on the ship (we’d asked many servers and gotten several answers),
and he sent over the sommelier, Jonathon, who answered the question definitively by
bringing over the bottles of the three types they serve – all ruby, one of them
an LBV style, if you’re curious. Most of the excitement came with watching the
beverage server take our drinks to other peoples’ tables. In the spirit of
exploration (we just did the tasting on fortified wines at the winery) I
ordered a glass of Harvey’s Bristol Cream [sherry], and watched it be delivered
to another table. Mine never came, so I asked our server to cancel it, which
caused the dining room section manager to come over and encourage me to staying
and drinking it, which I said no to, which probably made a black mark for the poor
server, who is new. But it was time to move on.
We moved on to the Ocean Bar where the Dam band was playing
jazzy music. Like most HAL bands they probably met a couple days before the cruise
but were tight and fun to listen to. Dave stayed until they finished their set,
but I went down to the Rolling Stone Lunge (formerly known as the Queen’s
lounge) and danced both my shoes off. There was a group of 10-15 women and a
couple reluctant spouses just boogieing our hearts out. It was super fun! I
danced until 11 and then was wide awake and sweaty until about midnight.
“Occasionally, an almost perfect circle of redwood trees
grows in the forest. Known as fairy rings, they are evidence of several
bud-collar sprouts, normally of a similar age, encircling a long-fallen parent
tree. Redwood trees are unique conebearing trees because they reproduce via
burl and seed. If a redwood falls or is otherwise damaged, the burl may begin
to sprout from the trunk or branch it developed on, sharing or taking over the
established root system of the parent tree. Staying true to its name, the
adaptations of Sequoia sempervirens (ever-living Sequoia) seem to bend time as
it continues to prove itself one of the earth’s most tenacious survivors.“
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