The ‘Why?’ Cruise, continued

by Bob Sparrow

Well, no jumping overboard for me – Alcatraz is too close! Fortunately, there was no need to jump as the trip was ready to get more interesting. Wednesday morning, we woke up in San Francisco Bay, opened the curtains in our cabin and looked out on the best view I’d had all week: the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower and Alcatraz. It was overcast, but what did we expect in San Francisco? However, temperatures were in the 70s, which for this time of year in ‘The City’ is ‘HOT’! We walked over to Pier 39 and Ghirardelli Square then decided to take the hop-on-hop-off bus around the city. It was awesome! We never hopped off but just enjoyed the views from the open upper deck of the bus, of places like North Beach, the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Haight-Ashbury, the Financial District (Where Suzanne used to work) and Golden Gate Park, where we drove past old Kezar Stadium, where at somewhere around 8 years old, I watched my first 49er game. It was also the place where I played my last game of college football. The whole tour was very enjoyable and very nostalgic. We got off the bus at Fisherman’s Wharf and had an awesome dinner at Fog Harbor Fish House – clam chowder, Linda had lobster, and I had crab and just to stay with the theme of the cruise we both had some California wine. I have to say ‘The City’ looked awesome, and Newsom didn’t even know I was going to be there!

The ship’s entertainment was generally pretty good; the program I enjoyed the most was an interview with Taj Jackson. No, I didn’t know who he was either, until I did a little research before going to his on-stage interview. He is the first of three sons of Tito Jackson, member of the Jackson 5 and brother of Michael and Janet. Taj and his two brothers formed a group years ago called 3T, (All their first names start with ‘T’ – Taj, Taryll and Tito Jr.). They were mentored by Uncle Michael. Taj says that the group is more popular in Europe than here, but they are still touring and selling lots of music here. We had a chance to personally meet Taj after the show, and he is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. He took time with everyone to answer questions (mostly about Michael) and was just a super person. I’m not familiar with their music, but I’m definitely going to give them a listen.

Meanwhile, it’s another day at sea as we head down to San Diego. We did get to watch the 49er-Ram Thursday night game on TV – Yay 49ers!!! We had such a good experience in San Francisco with the hop-on-hop-off bus that we decided to try it in San Diego. But don’t call it a hop-on-hop-off bus, it’s a ‘trolly’! While the venues weren’t as memorable or nostalgic for me as San Francisco, we did hit the high spots of San Diego, which were interesting – Gaslamp Quarter, Coronado Island and the Del Coronado Hotel, Balboa Park, Little Italy and Old Town, where we got off to have a delightful Mexican lunch . . . complete with margarita! We decided that since we live so close, we need to get to San Diego more often and spend some time at some of these fun and interesting places!

Back on the boat for our final night and the short cruise up to L.A. (that took all night). So, our plan of flying to Vancouver and taking a boat ride home turned out to be surprisingly good, once we got to San Francisco.