San Diego

 

A lovely 3 day break in San Diego before the cruise. As my sister and brother in law live here we have been many times. So this time we mainly relaxed and enjoyed the sun and mild weather, such a change from Vancouver!

We did some nice walks, a little shopping, and had some great meals. It was so nice to see family and old friends in person!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alcatraz and Cable Cars

Image
  A busy day for me and a relaxing one for Ian. Because of his wonky knee he decided that the steep walkways of Alcatraz would be too much. There was fog earlier, but by about 7:30 it had lifted. A glorious sunny day with a very light breeze. I had pre-booked a ticket on the first ferry (10am). Cost is about $50.00 for the ferry and tour. A 10 minute ride over to the island where a park ranger gives an orientation talk, then you can wander the island for as long as you like. Some of the walkways are fairly steep, similar to walking in North Vancouver! Beautiful views over to San Francisco. The audio tour of Cell-house was excellent, giving you a good insight into prison life. There are other exhibits covering the Native occuptation of Alcatraz, U.S. prison system etc. Very interesting. I would suggest about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour visit to see the highlights and walk around the island. At this time of year there is only 1 ferry an hour. Back to the ship for a quick lunch, then off for a ...
Read more

Embarkation

Image
  We were so excited to finally get onboard a cruiseship! And I have to say it was was one of the quickest and smoothest check-ins. Holland America is assigning check-in times, so although there were several stations to go through for health checks, and we had to show our vaccine certificates and negitive covid tests the line kept moving and before we knew it we were onboard Koningsdam! Staterooms were available immediately and luggage soon showed up. I love the new lifeboat drill. You listen to the safety video in your cabin, then go down to your muster station and have your keycard scaned. That's it! Koningsdam is a beautiful ship, the largest Holland America ship I've been on so far. Usually carries about 2600, we haven't heard how many are on board for this voyage. Our cabin is an obstructed view Verandah. Great central location and very quiet. The lifeboats obstruct part of our view, but for this cruise there isn't much to see most of the time.We spent some time ex...
Read more

Ensenada

Image
  Another beautiful sunny day, it will be about 25C by midday. It's been many years since I've been to Ensenada and it's certainly has grown. We had a shore excursion booked for this morning, the Califita Valley wine tour. Cost was about $55.00 and it's one that I would highly recommend! It's about a 45 minute drive to get there, and our excellent guide Elsay gave us information on Ensenada, Baja California and Mexico in general as we drove. Very dry countryside with rolling hills covered in boulders. As we get to the Guadalupe Valley there are lots of vineyards. Some have small hotels or inns situated in the vineyards. One had cabins in the shape of wine barrels!  Our first stop is at Casa de Dona Lupe  It's a small family run organic winery that also sells jams, hot sauce and olive oil etc. This is an informal stop. There are tables set out in the shade with a musisan playing. We are given a tasting flight with 4 wines, along with pizza and crackers with a var...
Read more