San Francisco - February 7, 2015

Our return trip was three days.  We spent a lot of the time during the days reading in the Skywalkers Lounge, which is the structure high above the stern of the ship.  It's reached by a ramp and moving walkway.

This shot shows where Skywalkers is.

 

On the fourth day we sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 5:45 a.m. after a rough and rocky night.  Right behind us the Queen Elizabeth arrived at Pier 35.

We left the ship at 10:00 and walked to Dan and Liz's apartment.  We had lunch with them, then walked downtown with Dan for tea at Samovar.  We met up with Liz again and had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant.  Our Amtrak bus picked us up at 9:00 and the train left Emeryville on time.  We arrived home the next day at 2:00, after a bus ride from Eugene because of track work between Eugene and Portland.

Puerto Vallarta - February 3, 2015

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at noon.  As we had anticipated, this was the high point of the cruise.  This was our third visit here, so this time we decided to see an area we had not visited in the past.  From the cruise pier we took a cab into town.  We walked along the Malecon and then crossed the river to the Old Town section.  This part is much less touristy.  The businesses sell everyday items, and little English is spoken here. 

Once again we were on the lookout for birds, and we found another hummingbird feeder.  This time we spotted a hummingbird, which turned out to be a Cinnamon. 

This area is very hilly and the streets are narrow and winding.  It was a nice warm sunny day, and we enjoyed just walking around. 

On the way back we walked through the stalls on the island in the middle of the river.  The quality of items seems a little higher here, and the setting is lovely.

David found a soul mate.

We took a cab back to the ship and we sailed at 7:00.

La Paz - February 2, 2015

We arrived early in La Pa.  The cruise pier is a long way from town, so shuttle buses were provided.  After breakfast we boarded a bus for what was supposed to be a 30-minute ride into town.  We did arrive in downtown La Paz about a half hour later, but it took another 30 minutes to actually get off the bus.  That time involved lots of traffic jams, backing up, and going around many blocks to finally arrive at the tiny tourist terminal.  We walked two blocks and crossed a street under construction to the main plaza, where we sat and had our morning snack on a bench.

We saw the church and the capital building, but that was about the extent of interesting things in La Paz. 

We returned to the terminal for the trip back to the ship.  We spent a total of less than 30 minutes in La Paz, which we felt was enough.

Loreto - February 1, 2015

Loreto is also a tender port.  We arrived at 8:00 and went ashore at 9:30.  It was mostly sunny, but still rather cool, especially along the water.  It had rained recently, so everything was muddy. 

Loreto is a very small town, the location of the first permanent settlement on the Baja peninsula.  We walked along the Malecon, then went into the neighborhood. 

We spotted a hummingbird feeder on a balcony, and while we waited to see if anything appeared, a gringo came along on a bike.  He knew the local birds and directed us to the estuary for some nice shore birds.  And darned if we didn't see the Asian woman having her photo taken along the beach.  We figured either she's a celebrity or she thinks she is.

We walked back through town and saw the church, with a bell that was sent from Spain in 1750.

After walking through the stalls of tacky tourist stuff we returned to the ship in time for lunch.  We had 12 bird species at this stop, mostly shorebirds. We never did see the hummingbird that is endemic here, the Xantus.'

Cabo San Lucas - January 31

We arrived early outside Cabo San Lucas.  This is a tender port.  We waited until 10:30 to go ashore.  It had been raining hard, but was just showers by the time we boarded the tender.  It was still cool.  We walked around town for a while, dodging all the tourist trappers.  I bought a woven bracelet for Nayely and a Christmas ornament at the souvenir market. Once we got away from the pier area we walked around looking for birds.  We saw 14 species, including one lifer, the endemic Grey Thrasher.

There were brown pelicans everywhere.

At Sea - January 29 & 30, 2015

We sat in lounge chairs overlooking an indoor pool.  We watched a group of Asians taking photos, mostly of one of the women, for over an hour.

Meanwhile, this guy checked out the sea life at the bottom of the pool.

The sea was calm and we had a spectacular sunset.

The next day was a bit warmer, but still cloudy.  We got our first glimpse of land along the Baja coast.

Again today we saw the same Asian woman having her photo taken all over the ship.

Mexican Cruise - January 28, 2015

We arrived by train yesterday and spent the day walking.  We followed Walk #5 (Russian Hill) from the Stairways of San Francisco book.  The day was cool but pleasant.

We walked through this park, which had signs that said dogs must be on leash.  We were nearly run over several times by all the dogs racing around.  This photo shows only about half of them.  Obviously this is a hot spot for dog-sitters.

In the afternoon we walked down to the water.  I'm not sure what the purpose of this building was, but it looked interesting. 

We met Dan and Liz at 6:00 and went to dinner at Millennium.  We spent the night at the San Remo and had breakfast at the cafe on the corner.  After spending several more hours walking, we went to the new cruise terminal at Pier 27 to board the Star Princess.  We had lunch in the Horizon Court and watched while passengers and bags were loaded.  We were scheduled to sail at 4:00, but we didn't actually leave until a little after six.