San Francisco, CA and Ensenada, Mexico

 Tuesday, January 17, 2023 San Francisco, California &

Ensenada, Mexico

The Bon Voyage party started Saturday when we arrived in San Francisco, meeting up with  friends Jeff and Bernadette. They had mapped out a tiki bar tour starting at the Fairmont Hotel’s Tonga Room. It has a large pool with a dock for the band, and apparently rain, thunder, and lightning every hour. It was SRO, so we didn’t stay long enough to witness the storm.

However, the storm outside was for real. We took a taxi to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Geary Street with good Thai food. From there, between showers, we walked to the Zombie Room, whose only sign was a neon coco palm over the door with skulls for coconuts. Exotic tropical drinks, and great tiki decor! We ended the night at the Top of the Mark, with it’s incredible panoramic view of the city. 

For breakfast on Sunday we met Jeff and Bernie at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, where our Chinatown tour guide extraordinaire—and dear friend—Albert Tou joined us. Albert’s walking tour of Chinatown included the fortune cookie factory (long lines on a Sunday), Bruce Lee mural, main tourist streets, lesser known streets where the locals shop, etc. We then caught a shuttle to board Insignia at Pier 27, had champagne at the welcome-aboard party, grabbed an umbrella, and ducked back out in the rain to meet Jeff, Bernie, and Albert for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe a few piers down. 

We re-boarded Insignia at 5 pm for the obligatory safety drill. The extra socializing in SF meant we now had to face unpacking 8 suitcases in our minuscule cabin. Charlie gave his brother and nephew a FaceTime cabin tour while I began to unpack. We gave up and went to dinner. In the meantime, the ship set sail. Back in our cabin, I began feeling seasick staggering around the cabin in the rough seas attempting to unpack. There was not enough square footage for us both to attempt this. I began suffering from serious  decision fatigue, and vehemently vowed to become a minimalist. Charlie was trying hard not to get in the way or exacerbate my mounting frustration. He eventually went topside to film the ship passing under the Golden Gate Bridge. We managed to stow most of our things, and negotiated with the cabin steward to remove 2 empty suitcases. The remaining bags went under the bed as extra drawers. We are surprised to find we’re starting to like our small cabin now that a couple of days have passed and the clutter is gone.

The rough seas continued Monday, and this time Charlie suffered serious seasickness. I was on my own for breakfast, lunch, and exercise on the ship’s track, which has a great view of the ocean. I brought Charlie a couple of smoothies and a latte, but he was mostly off his feed until dinner. In the evening we attended a meet-and-greet with the captain and ship’s officers.They were thrilled to have a full room for the first time since the pandemic started. We ducked out early to get a table for 2 in the main dining room, then retired to our cabin. Charlie slept 10 hours. The ship’s wi-fi was out all day (unusual we heard from some frequent cruisers).

This morning we arrived in Ensenada, Mexico. Our plans to hike the beautiful Guadeloupe Valley were thwarted by the storms (roads were impassable), so we walked into town, found the beautiful Museo Historico Regional de Ensenada, and a really good vegan restaurant for lunch. A young photographer arrived from Sonoma while we were having lunch to take promo shots, and asked us if he could post our photo on their website. Who knows—it might be on there now. I wouldn’t know since I can’t get internet!

We were lucky to have the pilot boat almost directly beneath our balcony as we departed the harbor. It’s always a thrill to watch that amazing process. 

Wi-fi is finally back. I’m becoming best friends with the internet guy. Next, I’ll figure out how to add photos to this!

✌️❤️Jill