San Francisco

Just going under the Golden Gate Bridge right now. Spending the day in Chinatown. Everyone got up really early to be on deck to see the ship go under the Golden Gate Bridge! St Grace Cathedral! Golden Gate lookout with Alcatrez in the background! Pier 39 taken over by seals:) Our ship in the background! San Francisco Day. We did so many things today, I cannot even remember it all. The bus took us all over up and down the hills of San Francisco. There are 71 of them, but we didn't hit all of them, of course. We saw lots of architecture on Nob Hill- tiny multi-million dollar homes. Haught-Ashbury region where many rock bands hung out in the 60’s. A home cost 15,000 then... and now the exact same tiny home is around 2 million. We also went to St. Grace Cathedral- a Gothic Cathedral that took 33 years to build. Then to the Golden Gate Park which is bigger than Central Park in NY and is also designed by the same person. Then back and forth over the Golden Gate Bridge. There was no fog... which is very unusual for this time of year. They said that the summertime is the coldest and foggiest, while the spring, fall, and winter are pretty nice. It is colder on this cruise than when I went on an Alaskan Cruise a few years ago. Very windy. Good thing I threw those heavier jackets and sweaters in the suitcases right before we left. We walked around Pier 39... a very touristy shopping pier- and of course, we had to go to the candy store. We also saw the famous sea lions which have taken over the pier in the past couple of years. Apparently, they were not welcome and they tried to get rid of them for awhile but they just would not leave. Now they are a big tourist attraction so they are wanted!

Disney Cruise Day 1

First thing alot of kids wanted to do was go swimming in the Mickey Pool. It was 55 degrees and windy out, but apparently the pool is more like a hot tub, so all of the kids are just fine “swimming” in it. Already the pool has been closed due to a “protein spill”- just a nice way of saying that someone vomited or had an accident in the pool. One of the attendants told me that it happens literally every single day. They have to close the pool, drain it, disinfect it, then refill it, - which takes a couple of hours.. every single day! Jasmine spent part of the day in Oceaneers Lab where she played ocean games on the computers, then a few hours in Oceanears Club where Belle read them stories. We also met several characters... Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse- the favorite, and Chip and Dale. I’m sure we will see many more of them. Every night we have been going to Live Theater with all of the Disney characters. No filming or photos. There are so many activities going on at once. There is no way to do everything.