Arches NP

If you haven't seen Arches National Park, pack your bags RIGHT NOW and drive out there! It is so beautiful. We only got to see some of the arches but the ones we saw were super duper kewl. And as you can see, we had to hike to some of them--do I look prepared for a hike? Have my cap, my camera, and my walking stick--oh, and sunglasses! Right, set, HIKE!

Back To--You Know!

FOOD! Here's an example of a plate of food I ate for dinner one night! Please take note of the TWO desserts.

(I LOVED the flower-shaped butter!!!!!)

Hasta La Vista!

One night, we were in the hot tub, laughing at the cold wind around us!!!! Blades of icy cold air would try to "get us" but we were oblivious to the attacks. We were nice and snuggy under the hot bubbling water. We must have stayed in the hot tub for over 30 minutes I'm guessing. Our bodies were nice and HOT!!!!
We were more than ready to face the cold wind, so out we went.
Zip got my Princess-provided fluffy robe and put it on me. Then he wrapped a huge beach towel around me. He then put on his robe and wrapped himself all snuggy too.

NOTE: When I was picking cabins, I picked our room for two reasons--it was on the same floor as the hot tub and it was on the same floor where the ice cream was located.

So to get back to our room, we had to go less than 60 feet!!! No elevators, no stairs--just a straight shot to our room! YES!!!!!
So here we were--in front of our cabin door--Zip is reaching for the key. But there was NO key.

Yes, that's right! We were standing in front of our cabin door and couldn't get in.

Zip had put it (it's like a credit card) in his robe pocket. It WAS there and now it wasn't.
We walked back out to the cold and started to look for it. NOTHING! No key.
The wind must have taken our key on an adventure without us! It was gone, bye bye, so long, see ya, hasta la vista, bueno bye.

So here we are--in our wet bathing suits, in a bathrobe, with this dorky beach towel wrapped around us.
Our bodies are no longer HOT. Our bodies are now getting quite COLD.
Zip continued to look for the key out in the cold while I went inside to find help.

Thank goodness, I saw a cruise staff person (a lady) walking down our hallway.
She called down to the lobby and had someone bring us another key!!! YEAH!!!!

You can be sure that the next time we went hot tubbing, we put the key inside a plastic bag and then pinned it to Zip's robe pocket.
I think we definitely need adult supervision!

Hot Tubbing!

Okay, so let's venture away from FOOD for a while!

One of the things we looked forward to was getting in the hot tub while we were cruising!

Hot tub!!!! Oh my goodness, what a treat. AND we took our bathing suits this time.

On our last cruise (last December), we didn't take our bathing suits. BIG MISTAKE, let me tell you. I ended up wearing one of my bras and some shorts. I looked pretty lame, let me tell you!

Can you tell we are REALLY enjoying ourselves? Every night, we had the hot tub all to ourselves too. It was really really cold getting to and from the hot tub!!!!!!! Once we got in, we didn't want to get out!

Sushi

I love Sushi! When I saw this array of Sushi, I was in heaven. Of course, I had to play with my food too.

Makes Your Mouth Water!

Yes, MORE photos of FOOD!!! Looking at these photos makes MY mouth water, that's for sure!

Cruise Food

We spent 10 glorious days cruising to Alaska, Inside Passage. After the long drive to San Francisco, we were ready for some relaxation. First thing we did after we got our room was we went on the hunt for FOOD. We were hungry!

If you've never been on a cruise--cruise food is abundant. It's everywhere!!!!! On this Princess cruise ship, Dawn Princess, there was a 24-hour buffet. Twenty Four hours!!!!! That is ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT!!! Can you imagine?! It was great.

It's almost impossible to NOT gain some weight while on a cruise. I don't know about you but I have NO will power when it comes to dessert. I love dessert! For most meals, I had TWO desserts. Hmmmmmm, so yummy too.

Hope you enjoy the food displays!

Pier 39

Pier 39 is really interesting. It's full of wonderful shops and yummylicious places to eat. That's where I had my clam chowder in the sourdough bread bowl. Well, there's MORE to Pier 39 than shops and restaurants.

What you ask? Well, how about seals.

They are so fricking funny. Some are sound asleep, minding their own business, not causing a ruckus! But then there are the "bullies" I guess because they are fighting with everybody. They want their own space and they don't want anybody to have even a small piece of ANY sleeping space.

They will push other seals off and then wait for them to try to get back on the platform, where they will nudge them off again. It's so funny.

Now really, can't we all just along?????

Some seals will even walk on top of other seals and wake everybody up, thereby causing another ruckus! Never mind that everybody was sleeping soundly. No! Let's walk on top of everybody and see how they like it. They don't.

We watched these seals for hours.

The city of San Francisco tried to get rid of the seals at Pier 39 but after more and more tourists saw them and LOVED them, the people of San Francisco knew they had a good thing going with the seals and let them be! I'm so glad they did.

We had such a nice time at Pier 39--thanks to the seals! It's something we'll never forget!

Building Art!

Take a look at these photos!While on our sightseeing tour, we drove by this building with "things" attached to it. I love it.

It's called "building art."

Hop On Hop Off!

Once we got to the hotel and parked our car (right in front of our room too!), we didn't dare move it. Parking is first-come first-served and there was NOT enough parking spaces for everybody at the hotel, so our car sat there for the whole time we were in San Francisco! So how did we get around?

Well, at first, with foot power! That's always an option, even for us old folks! And boy did we walk and walk and walk and walk!!!!!

As we got more acquainted with the city, we also took the bus, streetcar, and cable car.

Another option we took advantage of was the Citysightseeing tour buses. For one price, you get to hop on/hop off where ever they have stops--boy, did we love this option!

We rode around the whole route first, just to get the hang of where it goes. Then we decided where we wanted to hop off. Here's Zip--hoping off the bus!

World's Crookedest Street

It was hard finding a hotel in the San Francisco area that DID NOT charge for parking, in addition to the hotel cost. So when I found the hotel we stayed at, a Travelodge, that didn't charge for parking, I was so happy. There was no free breakfast but that was a fair trade, since hotel parking fees can be as high as $30 a day!

And since we were on Lombard Street, we were only a few blocks from the world's crookedest street! A double "yahoooooo."

This street is so darn cute! You can tell the residents on this street KNOW the world is watching. We did get a nice person to take our photo!

Two More!

I thought these two photos were really kewl! Hope you agree!

The photo with the bird on the branch was taken from Angel Island--that's San Francisco in the background. The other photo is, of course, the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, taken from Alcatraz Island.

Both of Us in One Photo!

It's not easy getting photos of the two of us in one photo. We have to depend on the kindness of strangers to stop what they are doing to take our photo. Sometimes, it's easier to just do it yourself. So I've been practicing taking our photo. How do you like this one? Oh, there's more but we'll save those for later!

Pretty Photos!

Okay, these are some "pretty photos." At least I think so. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them!

That's clam chowder in a San Francisco sourdough bread bowl and let me tell ya--it was yummylicious! (Zip made up that word!)

Don't Shoot!

I love this photo that Zip took of me. He had the VISION to see this photo before he took and as he was trying to get me to SEE it, I never did until I saw this photo in his camera!!!!! It took me three trys (three photos) to get my "I give up" look just right. Hee hee!!!! But third time's the charm, right?

And I'm really NOT standing in front of the barrel of the canon--it just looks like I am!

Alcatraz!

I was so excited to be going to Alcatraz, THE PRISON of all prisons! I LOVE to watch prison movies--bet you didn't know that about me, huh?

I loved the movie, The Birdman of Alcatraz, with Burt Lancaster.

And that movie with Susan Hayward, I Want to Live--what a GREAT prison movie that was. Now, to be going to Alcatraz--wow! I was really really excited.

I booked our tour tickets way way in advance, just to make sure that we were able to go during our visit to San Francisco. They go FAST you know! The photo of me sitting on the floor is solitary confinement! Yuck! Can you imagine spending your days in that cell? No way! The regular cells weren't that much better--very very small.

When you go to Alcatraz, you can get these headphones and take a walking tour of Alcatraz--for free. Well, it's included in your tour price, so you might as well listen and learn something about Alcatraz. The gift shop on Alcatraz is really really super duper kewl. I bought a tin cup from Alcatraz (among other things, of course). The tin cup is a replica, but it's still neato bandito--I love my tin cup!

And even though I thought I looked pretty good in the prison cap (see photo!), I didn't buy one! Like, when would I wear it, yo?????

I still managed to leave a few bucks behind at the Alcatraz gift shop, so I was happy!!!!!

Angel Island

While in San Francisco, we took a tour (boat) to Angel Island, which is just a ways from Alcatraz!

The bridge behind me is the Golden Gate Bridge!

Enjoy!