DAY 10--SAN FRANCISCO

                         
                            We arrived in San Francisco at 8am today.  Departure time is 7pm.

LAST NIGHT:

Krew Kapers (show by some of our crew members) was GREAT.  Probably the best I've seen.  I think the two male singers were actually better than the ones on the production cast.  They got a standing ovation at the end of their show.

I started my dinner in Compass Rose with a shrimp cocktail then this beef Wellington.  The filet practically melted in my mouth as it was so tender.  Cooked a perfect medium rare as I requested.

                         For dessert I had this pecan pie cheesecake.  It was very good.

TODAY:

        Unfortunately, my side of the ship did not enjoy a view of San Fran as we sailed in.  Rebecca's isolation suite is on the other side so she had the good view.  As always it was foggy but not that bad this morning.

                                                        I was able to see Alcatraz.

This is my view out balcony window.  A "dam" ship.  It is the Holland America Zuiderdam.  All of HAL's ship's name end in "dam".  That's why I called it a dam ship!  I think the dam ship is blocking our tv news channels today.

My view looking towards town.  I'll get more photos from deck 12 later today when fog lifts.

For a change I ordered this bagel with smoked salmon, cream cheese, & capers for breakfast.  When I delivered Rebecca's coffee from coffee connection earlier she said she forgot to put her breakfast request card out last night.  So she was going to call her order in.

        Although the ship will not say how many, I believe there is a significant number of passengers who have tested positive for covid and are isolated like Rebecca is.  I say this because starting again yesterday all crew members and officers are required to wear masks.  Also officers are not allowed to dine with guests again.  Aries, our suite steward, today said they are not allowed to clean the suites if passengers are in them.  This is a step backwards.

                                         The aquarium is just on the other side of the marina.

                                               On top of telegraph hill is the Coit Tower.

        In the distance is the Golden Gate Bridge.  Hopefully I will get a better photo of it as we sail under it this evening.  As you see it is a gloomy and cool day here in San Fran today.  We stopped here earlier this year when on our world cruise.  And, we will be back here for an overnight stay on Oct 12th & 13th.  Hoping for a nicer day then.

        I went up to La Veranda for lunch today.  I started with some split pea soup then this nice pasta in a smoked salmon cream sauce.  Followed that with a couple slices of anchovy & caper pizza.  I told Rey, maitre'd, that I would be coming up to Sette Mari this evening for dinner.  Should have a nice view of the sail out from there.  Goodness, the sun is finally peaking through the clouds now at 1pm.  61drgrees.

        An interesting thing happened yesterday evening while I was having a Manhattan in the Mariner Lounge.  I was approached by Tammy, our social hostess and wife of Andy the cruise director.  She asked if I would host the single travelers group at dinner in Prime 7.  She said she was no longer allowed to dine with guests so would I.  I politely declined.  These single guests are not what you may think.  They are old, old singles.

        Well, my plan for this evening is same as always.  Cocktails in the Mariner Lounge.  I have not been to the other 3 bars on this cruise as Viktoria is a great bartender in Mariner Lounge.  I hope they keep her there for the next cruise segment as they sometimes rotate them.  As I said dinner will be up in Setti Mari.  Not sure if I gave Siegfried, the chef there, enough time to arrange another veal parmesan for tonight.  

        The show tonight will be our last production show for this cruise segment, "Tuxedo".  These are the same production shows we saw several times on the world cruise earlier this year so not certain if I will be attending.

The Holland America ship departed at 5pm giving me a view of the Bay Bridge going over to Oakland.

        BIG DAY TOMORROW!!!  They will give Rebecca the first antigen test.  She has to test negative on it and the one on Monday in order to be released from isolation.  All fingers and toes crossed!!  We will be at sea tomorrow enroute to Los Angeles.  Hope I can get some photos of our sail away from San Fran and will post them tomorrow.

        

DAY 9--AT SEA OFF OREGON AND CALIFORNIA COASTS

                

Our position at noon today was just off the northern coast of California.  It is sunny and 66 degrees at noon.  It was a rocking and rolling night and earlier this morning.  Still rocking some now however not as bad.

LAST NIGHT:

        I had a couple Manhattans in the Mariner Lounge before going up to Sette Mari for dinner.

    The veal parmesan I had requested for my entree was there.  It was EXCELLENT again.

        The production show was rescheduled for another night due to ship's movement.  I retired to my suite after dinner.  Rebecca was able to watch the Thursday Night Football game on her IPhone.  I watched in on my Samsung phone during cocktail hour and dinner.  We could stream it from Prime Video app now that we have the higher speed streaming internet.

TODAY:

        Quiet day.  Covid is going around the ship so our crew is back to wearing their masks.  They won't say how many cases there are now.  I have been pretty much just staying in the suite past few days.  I will watch a couple movies off Amazon video this afternoon.

Lunch in Compass Rose today.  Started with this empanada.  Not nearly as good as the ones I used to get in Buenos Aires when I flew trips down there.  But I did enjoy today's.

I tried this today's pasta special.  It is a large tube pasta with bits of chicken in a saffron cream sauce.  Not so good.  I told Joseph, my waiter, I don't eat something that is the same color as the shirt I am wearing today.

       So I traded it in for this spaghetti bolognese sauce.  It was good but way too much.

        Rebecca said she needed more chardonnay so Grace, sommelier, sent 3 bottles up to her suite.  That will hopefully last her until she gets out of isolation.  She says she is feeling fine but still some lingering coughing at times.

        At 6pm in the theater is Krew Capers.  A show put on by some of the crew members.  It is always very good so I plan to attend and support our crew.  At 9:30 the talented Linda Gentille will be doing her second show as will be leaving tomorrow in San Francisco.

        

Here is tonight's menu in Compass Rose.  The beef Wellington is always one of our favorites.

DAY 8--ASTORIA, OREGON

Our position today is docked in Astoria, Oregon.  It is partly cloudy and 68 degrees.  We will be departing here at 6pm.  Tomorrow will be a day at sea before arriving in San Francisco on Saturday, October 1st.

 BACKGROUND INFO:

        This town with a population of around 9500 lies on the west coast of Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River.  The river flows southeast and passes through Portland nearly 100 miles away.  As a point of reference, Seattle is 180 miles to the northeast.
        The city was named after the investor, John Jacob Aston, when he built Fort Astor in 1811 for his American Fur Company, however the Oregon Legislative Assembly first incorporated the town back in 1876.  The Lewis & Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805 & 1806 at Fort Clatsop just south of Astoria.  Fort Astoria was the first permanent settlement built on the Pacific coast and was extremely important in the exploration of the northwestern US.  As the Oregon Territory grew it became more colonized by Americans, Astoria became an important port city with its Colombia River access to the inland.
        For over a hundred years Astoria’s economy thrived on fishing, fish processing, and lumber but those started declining in the mid 1900’s.  All canneries were closed by 1980.  Even its trading center as a port of entry has moved to Portland and Seattle.  Today tourism, art, and light manufacturing are Astoria’s economic drivers.  Facilities at the port were built to handle cruise ships in 1982.  Interestingly enough, in order to avoid Mexican ports during the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, the cruise lines rerouted many ships here to Astoria as a port of call.  Another bit of trivia:  Actor Clark Gable began his career here at the Astoria Theater in 1922. 

LAST NIGHT:

        I arrived at the Mariner Lounge just before 6pm and the bar stools were all full so I plopped down at a small table and had a couple Grey Goose martinis.  They brought our standing order for pigs-in-a-blanket.  There were 5 of them so I ran two up to Rebecca.  She was very happy to get them.  
        As I did not see anything on the Compass Rose or Setti Mari menus that grabbed me, I stopped at Prime 7 and asked Rommel, the maitre'd, if he happened to have a open table for me.  He led me to our favorite table in the corner.  Kadek was again my waiter.

                                                            Marina served my red wine.

                                                                    Still no Rebecca!

I had the surf & turf.  6 ounce filet and lobster tail.  Twice baked potato and asparagus.  The filet was cooked perfectly at medium rare.

      I tried a new dessert (new to me) "rocky road bread pudding".  It was very good.

        After dinner there was a Beattles dance party or movie in theater so I just headed back to the suite.  The ship was rocking again and my window noise was constant all night long.  

TODAY:

        My phone rang at 7:30 this morning.  I thought I had it in airplane mode but somehow it wasn't.  I hung up without answering as appeared to be a marketer.  I wanted to get up then anyway so as to go down to coffee connection and get Rebecca's double shot Americano.  I believe she is doing ok and adjusted to isolation now.  I did not do my treadmill time today.

        We arrived early at 10:30 in Astoria.  US Customs & Immigration clearance started around 11am.  All guests were required to pick up their passports and do a face-to-face with a Customs officer.  It was a very quick procedure.  Following it I went up to La Veranda and had a hot dog for lunch.

Here are some photos I took up on deck 12 of where we are docked.  There is a very long bridge--4 miles long.

        After lunch I caught a free shuttle bus to downtown Astoria, about a 15 minute ride.  My mission was only to go to a pharmacy for some cough medicine, cough drops, and neosynephrine nose spray for Rebecca.  It is a nice warm day here.

        William, Executive Concierge, sent a letter to Rebecca saying we could have the streaming speed internet so she could watch movies.  Normally they charge $10 per day for this service.  I had the internet manager sign us in on our cell phones and my laptop.  Now she can watch her soaps on Paramont Plus which she subscribes to.  I can watch movies on Amazon Video.

        I will be dining up in Sette Mari this evening and the chef will prepare me another veal parmesan.  There is another production show, "Tuxedo", tonight so I will probably go see it.

DAY 8--VICTORIA BC, CANADA

 

                                                        Our position at 1pm today.

        Located on the southern tip of Vancouver Island just across the Strait of Georgia only 76 miles from the city of Vancouver and 62 miles from Seattle.  It is the capital of British Columbia.  With a population of nearly 400,000, it was named for Queen Victoria and one of the oldest in the Pacific Northwest.  It’s Chinatown is the second oldest in North America behind San Francisco’s.
       As it is on an island, it can be reached by airplane, seaplane, or ferry.  Of course cruise ships also make it a port of call during the summer months.  It is known as “the Garden City” with its 55 acre Butchart Gardens which attracts tourists from all over the world.  Besides tourism, the other industries include technology, food products, education, and government administration.  It is also the Pacific headquarters for the Royal Canadian Navy.  Whale watching is a popular due to whales often present near its coast.

LAST NIGHT:

At 6pm I went to the Seven Seas Society cocktail party.  This is an ice carving "R" for Regent at the entrance of the theater.  They announced our names as Rebecca and I have the most cruised nights of all passengers on this cruise.

This is Joyce working in Compass Rose at night but during the day she is the one who takes room service orders over the phone.  I wondered who I was talking to.

        You may wonder why the chair across from me in Compass Rose is empty.  I have previously mentioned that Rebecca has been coughing.  Last night we were supposed to dine with the F&B Mgr and head housekeeper.  So to be on the safe side I gave her two home covid tests in the morning.  Both showed positive.  So I called medical and requested they come up and test her.  A male nurse came to our suite and gave me an antigen test.  It was negative.  Since Rebecca had a symptom (cough) they gave her a PCR test.  An hour later they called to say she was positive for covid.  She packed a bag and they moved her to an isolation suite.  She is now in 817 and me staying in 824.  At least she is on the same deck and not far away.  She feels fine, no fever, and vitals normal.  They will take her vitals every morning.  So the protocol is they will test her again on Oct 2nd and 3rd.  If both days show negative, she will be released on the 3rd.  That is the end of this cruise segment.  We are to move that day to a penthouse suite so hoping she will be released.

        As you may recall on our world cruise earlier this year on Easter afternoon I tested positive and was isolated for 10 days.  She was negative then.  So now our roles are reversed.

        Current policy is if medical comes to test you and you are negative they charge $300.  If you test positive, there is no charge.  Weird!  And if you request Paxlovid (covid drug) it would cost $800.  Not asking for that drug as Rebecca's symptom is so mild.  The doctor did send her some cough medicine.  Wonder how much that is going to cost!

        Several of the crew and senior officers have called her to wish her a speedy recovery.  She is being spoiled.  Room service has delivered more of her La Crema chardonnay and they told her she could order off the Chartreuse and Prime 7 menus in addition to Compass Rose.  She was pretty depressed yesterday but sounds better today as I call her several times a day.  I dropped off another James Patterson book as she reads a lot when on cruises.  Being apart is tough as we miss each other.  

                                        For my dinner in Compass Rose I started with this Greek salad.

 This is the miso glazed Alaskan black cod with sticky rice and asparagus.  It was really good.  Rebecca ordered the salad and cod also with room service.

                         Can't remember what this dessert is but I enjoyed it for sure.

        The show was with the comedian again so I went directly to my suite after dinner.  The ship was moving some during the night due to the swells.  I slept well however.

TODAY:

        I got up at 7:30 and went to the coffee connection to get Rebecca a "double shot" Americano coffee and dropped it off at her door.  I get this for her every morning.  Then I went back down to get me one.  She said she was fine but woke up at 5am and could not go back to sleep.  I went to the fitness center and did an hour on the treadmill.  

        Andy, cruise director, made a PA while I was on the treadmill saying the ship would be arriving in Victoria an hour late so 1pm not noon.  As I write this we are just pulling into Victoria.  It is a sunny day for a change.  Temperature outside is 60 degrees.

                                                        Pulling in to the dock

                                                                          About there

        Obviously Rebecca is not getting off for a tour.  Neither am I.  Mariner is the only cruise ship here today.  We will be sailing again at 8pm.  Tomorrow we will be in Astoria, Oregon, by 11am.  Everyone will have to clear US Customs there. 

This is tonight's Compass Rose menu.  I may go up to Sette Mari.  Haven't decided for sure.