Friday, March 17, 2017

Tuesday, January 24, 2017 – San Francisco, CA–Mostly Sunny – 49F

Distance from Ensenada, Mexico to San Francisco, CA: 487 Nautical Miles (15.7 knots)

Total Voyage: 5236 Nautical Miles – 6023 Statute Miles

Don’t know the reason (bumpy seas, creaky cabin, or real coffee masquerading as decaf) but I did not get much sleep at all last night.  We have transfers from the ship to SFO and our meeting time is 9:25 AM (Explorers Lounge).

Back to the City By the Bay

I was “up” at 6:45 AM and had breakfast in the Horizon Court.  They had their usual offerings available and I had the WCCSCP breakfast plus some oatmeal and a couple of biscuits.  I brought Ellen a spinach/mushroom/Swiss Cheese/Egg Beater omelet and fruit.  It may have been the first time I brought her breakfast on disembarkation day since we have been cruising.

It is a beautiful day in San Francisco after a couple of weeks of storms and rain.  Crisp and clear.

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My City By the Bay

After breakfast, we went to the Lounge to await our group call.  That happened pretty much on the nose and our pass through immigration was the fastest ever (literally a minute – no line, no one in front of us).  We boarded our Princess bus and had to take a little detour to avoid the nasty traffic along the Embarcadero.  We also got a little tour of the downtown area by our driver.  Despite the traffic we were at the airport by 11:00 AM.  The Admiral’s Club is just past security (which was also very fast) so we are now hanging out until our boarding time of 2:05 PM.

Since this is California, the offerings in the food area are kale salad and edamame humus (the latter was good).  There was also a vegetarian vegetable soup.  Best part was the Bloody Mary along with all of that.  Later on, it was very good cappuccino and pita chips.  The problem with these clubs is the chatty cell phone folks, who are using the club as a mobile office.  We were there for a couple of hours and one guy was on his phone the whole time. 

Boarding was at 2:05 PM so we showed up at the gate 10 minutes early and they were already boarding.  AA2234 is a new A321S (a spiffy version of their smaller jets). 

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AA2234 Being Readied for Flight

We were in 25AB, which were supposed to be exit rows.  They aren’t really exit rows but the seats in front of only have two seats creating a path from out row to the door, the airline is calling them exit rows.  As soon as the door closed, I moved to 24B, a real exit set so I could stretch out and Ellen had no one next to her.  The flight attendant’s jump seat is so close to mine that we were practically touching knees.  On the plus side, I am right next to the mid plane washrooms (unique to this airbus) and the in-plane entertainment system is really new and nice.  I mostly like watching the flight map but they had some new movies – I had seen the good ones.

We pushed on time and waited a pretty long time as the next to go but we were soon in the air.  The ride all the way to Illinois was smooth.

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Two Hours Out – View from Port Hole

As the plane started its descent into the Chicago area, we hid some pretty good turbulence which didn’t smooth out until we got through the low cloud layer. 

After taxiing for a good 10 minutes we pulled into our gate.  Instead of going to baggage claim, we decided to go the Admiral’s Club for a warm drink.  We did get something to eat as well and then made our way to the lower level.  Our bags were still moving around the carousel.

I used a taxi app to arrange a ride and he showed up in about 10 minutes.

Our house was cold but it was nice to be back.

Overall, a very nice cruise to paradise…

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