We had intended to do a leisurely departure from the San Diego area to Los Angles, staying overnight, then Amtrak-ing to Seattle on the Coast Starlight train. However, as noted, a trestle north of Redding was damaged by the Lava wildfire.
So we burned up some points on Southwest to get to Seattle free, via San Jose (odd but that's how Southwest works - lots of mini-hubs).
On rising, we found Glenn making us breakfast. We chatted all through that and a little more. D gathered our bed-clothes for laundering. Had a little more coffee.
About 9am we loaded up the Hertz Chevy, drove to the rental center return lane and turned it in, with a conversation to an attendant to check the oil.
The shuttle took us to Terminal 1 where we checked the bags and went to the waiting area for the below flights.
WN 1010 SAN-SJC 1210-1330… SJC = San Jose CA
WN 2165 SJC-SEA 1450-1700
Well, the flights were free (on points) and on time, but not of very high quality. The hordes filled both flights, with a lot of kids, and with many people who just must bring aboard two large suitcases. I'd forgotten the size of Southwest's seats. And the 7-up and snack thing doesn't contribute to my idea of a nice air trip (no liquor on SW these days).
The person with the car met us as advertised with a large, clean, VW SUV. He drove the route into downtown that O has often driven, very smoothly and cautiously. Good service by aplustowncar.com.
He dropped us at the Marriott Waterfront, next to the condo set that Fran & Duane live in. Nice room on the third floor over the entry. No view, but nice room.
We walked at the appropriate time to Anthony's on the Waterfront to meet F&D after a long absence from each other of eight days. Good talk, a nice drink, fine food (O had Ahi, D salmon halibut), with good things on the plates. Lots of talk. Afterward, F drove all of us to their condo (re-training) where we entered and looked over the condo. The cats came out to say hi, so we started getting them used to us.
We had a glass or two just chatting about this and that and new bathroom and cats and neighbors and happy hours here and there and on and on.
We finally quit at 2200 and returned to our Marriott beds and this note. 'nite.
Loafing in the Marriott. Cruise ship Norwegian Encore is tied up at the Cruise Terminal Pier 66 across the street. Huge bloody thing with all sorts of water-play tubes and things topside. It's getting ready to join other ships in the Alaska cruise season.
The check-in lines to board Encore were stretched up and down Alaskan Way to cross the street to board - what a miserable way to do things.
We packed and made ready. Fran picked us up at 1330 and drove to Pier 91, straight into the drop-off/pick-up area. We gave our carry-ons to a handler and walked into the hall. Several screening kiosks were there to look at our ID, CDC vaccination cards, and boarding passes.
We were pushed on to the next place where the boarding passes were screened and photos taken. Then onto the ship. We made our way to the cabin and found our key-cards in the mail slot. Unfortunately, they didn't admit us. So we had to go down to Customer Services and get new cards - no big deal.
At the cabin, we found our luggage and put our things away into the closets and shelves. Then up to the Lido Bar aft on Deck 9 to do the getting-underway thing. We took a table, then invited a younger couple to join us. Phil turned out to be ex-Coast Guard and a math instructor whose dad was a submariner cook on FBMs. So we had things to talk about.
We dined lightly in the Lido. Then we toured the common decks - forward on the pool deck 9 then down and aft on the shops deck 3. After finding most things we returned to the cabin to watch the Olympic peninsula pass by. The ship made a major deviation in to the Port Angeles hook to drop off the pilot in more calm waters, then steamed out into the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
Back in the stream, we have the wind howling past the sliding glass doors as we go back to 18 knots westbound.
That's where we are now as I type this. We've opened the door a few times to take pictures but closed it quickly to stay out of the breeze.