But You Have Promised Me A Subtropical Paradise

[dolphingirl47]

When we got to the stop, we got off the train together with one of the staff from the wine train who would stay with us. We were also met by a member of Grgich Hills staff. The area in front of the winery was a bit of a building site as they are in the process of building a wine tasting terrace. After our guide welcomed us, we walked over to an area where they grow grapes. This area is there purely for educational purposes and the grapes grown there are not used to make wine. Our guide told us a bit about the lifecycle of the vines and then we moved on. The area we walked through was very pretty with water features and flowers. We then stopped at an area with a lot of machinery and our guide explained how each piece of machinery is used to make wine. He talked a bit about the ways in which red, white and rose wines are made. He explained that you can make a completely white wine out of grapes like Merlot or Shiraz that are normally associated with red wines, but that they taste completely different to their red counterparts. This was new to me. I always thought that if you use red grapes and do not use the skins, you would get rose wine. Apparently for rose wines, they still leave the skins in with the juice for a short time so that you get the colour, but not the flavour of the skins. Once we had been introduced to the basics of wine making, we moved into the area where the wine barrels are stored in which the wines are fermented and aged. Some wines go through the initial fermentation stages in huge stainless steel tanks before being transferred to the wooden barrels. All the wooden barrels used at Grgich Hills are 100% French oak. They also have a unique rack system for the barrels which allows easier access to them if they need to be topped up. This is something else that I learned. A certain amount of wine evaporates during the ageing process which is the reason why in every winery I have visited, I could have got drunk just on the smell. The problem with this is that if the barrel is not full, oxygen can get in and spoil the wine. Therefore the barrels are periodically topped up. After visiting the various storage areas, we moved past the "library" which does not contain any books, but a bottle of each wine ever made and to the tasting room.



















As we passed the library, our guide explained a bit about the history of Grgich Hills. One of the founders Mijenko "Mike" Grgich came to the USA when he was in this early thirties. He is originally from Croatia and came to the USA via Germany and Canada. When he arrived in the USA, he settled in the Napa Valley and worked for a couple of different wineries over the years. Things changed in 1976. A blind tasting of wines was hosted in Paris, involving the best French wine judges, the finest French wines, but also some Californian wines. A 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay crafted by Mike Grgich won the competition in the category of the white wines and also score the highest amount of points of any wine in this tasting. On the strength of this, he joined forces with Austin Hills and a little over a year after the surprise win in Paris, Grgich Hills was born. Mike Grgich is still very much involved in the running of the winery even though he celebrated his 90th birthday in April. Indeed when we passed the library, he was in some kind of business meeting that took place in the library.

When we got to the tasting room, we each got to try 4 different wines. The white wines were a Chardonnay and a Fume Blanc. I really rather liked the Chardonnay, which was a bit of a surprise as I am not normally too keen. The Fume Blanc however absolutely blew me away. This is probably the best wine I have ever tasted. It was also the cheapest of all the wines we tried, but at $30, it was still more than I was willing to pay. I think if I could have been sure that I could get this back home in one piece, I may have thought different about this, but I was just not willing to spend that much on a wine that I would gulp down on the ship. We also got to taste red wines: a Merlot and a Zinfandel. I was a bit reluctant as normally red wines give me a headache, but I could not resist. I have to say, I rather liked them and best of all I did not get a headache. It was only after I got home and did a bit of research on Grgich Hills that I understood why. What gives me the headaches are the sulphites in red wine. All of Grgich Hills wines are organic, which means no sulphites. I learned this when I visited an organic winery in Ensenada last year.

We were just about finishing with the tasting when Mike Grgich joined us. Our guide had told us that he likes to come and meet people that had come on the wine train, but had thought that he would be tied up during the duration of the visit. So it was nice that he could meet us after all. He announced that he was happy to sign any bottles of wine that people were purchasing. We were also each given a beautiful engraved wine glass. The glasses had been produced to celebrate his 90th birthday. I decided to have my glass signed by him. I asked him whereabouts in Germany he used to live and he answered me in fluent German. It actually turned out that he lived quite close to Frankfurt, where I grew up, but not in an area that I associate with wine growing. I did actually manage to get the wine glasses home in one piece. This was nothing short of a miracle as we put our hand luggage on top of our suitcases when we have to move our luggage and both I and Graham dropped the hand luggage that we put them in multiple times.

 

[dolphingirl47]

At one point we were told that it was time to leave as the wine train would be back very shortly. We were told the name of the parlour car that we needed to go to. When the train arrived, a lot of people got off. They were getting on a bus and would visit two wineries before returning to the station in time for the departure of the bus to the ferry. When we got on the train, we were directed to our seats. There were only very few actual tables in the parlour car. The rest of the seating can best be described as extended window sills with very comfortable swivel chairs. This is where we were seated. The advantage of this was that we could look straight out and enjoy the view without having to turn our heads. This time round we looked out on the opposite side of the valley. The view was not quite as nice as we were not looking straight onto vineyards, but there was a road in the way. The view was still pretty stunning though. Shortly after we were seated, our dessert and coffee was served. We both had chosen Creme brûlée with blueberries, which was very nice. Time is definitely flying if you are having fun and it did not seem long until we pulled into the station at Napa. It most certainly did not feel like an hour since we left Grgich Hills, but it really had been that long.

































When we got back to the station, I had a look at the wallet with tasting coupons that we had been given. We had just over 90 minutes before our bus left. I spotted that there were two tasting rooms very close together about 500 yards away. So this is where we headed. We started at Taste of Oxbow, which was a joint tasting room for a number of the smaller wineries in the area. We showed our coupon and were handed the tasting menu. We were told that our coupons entitled us to three tastes each. The tastes turned out to be rather generous. Graham went for a Pinot Noir, a Merlot and a Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet was his favourite of the wines that he tried that day. I went with a rose version of the Cabernet Sauvignon, which was a bit to dry for me. I also tried a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc, which I both liked. However, neither came close to the Fume Blanc that I had tried earlier.

Once we finished that particular tasting, we decided that we had time for one more. There was another tasting room very close, but when we got to the Mason Cellars Oxbow Tasting Room, we saw that they are closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. As it was a Wednesday, we were out of luck. We decided that we had enough wine for a day and headed back to the station. I had originally planned to visit a shop that sold handmade chocolates for which I had a tasting coupon, but in the end this seemed too much like hard work. The shop was about half a mile away, it was rather hot and I was still stuffed from lunch. When we got to the station, we made ourselves comfortable on one of the nice sofas they have their. To my delight, they also had free WiFi so I could carry on where I had left off earlier. I was trying to figure out the timetable for the famous cable cars and also the location of the closest stop. We also had a look at the photos that had been taken at the station and on the train, but I was not very impressed with them so I passed.

Soon it was time to get back on the bus that Would take us back to the ferry. I do not remember much about the trip back. The combination of all the wine I had and the movement of the bus sent me to sleep. We arrived at the ferry dock about 30 minutes before the ferry was due to leave. There was a building that looked quite touristy right there so I decided to explore, but this only contained the ticket office, a coffee shop, bathrooms and racks with leaflets for various tourist attractions. Still, I did find a leaflet for the Disney Family Museum where I was heading the next day and that had instructions on how to get there. So that was useful. I then joined Graham again who was sitting on a bench enjoying the sun.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Shortly afterwards the ferry arrived. This time we were sitting as far forward as we could as I was hoping to take some photos on the approach to San Francisco. I spent some of the way back again catching up online. As we approached San Fransico, I got up and started to take photos. I did get a bit of a surprise though. We had expected that we would arrive at the Ferry Building again and had discussed to take the F line to the terminus of one of the three cable car lines. As we approached, it was clear that we were turning the wrong way. Instead of docking at the Ferry Building, we docked at Pier 41 at Fisherman's Wharf.































As we still had 90 minutes until dinner, we decided to try to have a ride on one of the cable cars. I knew that two of the cable car lines terminate at different points in the Fisherman's Wharf ara and then go via different routes to Market Street in the Downtown area of San Francisco. So we had a quick look at the map and then headed off. We did not get very far initially though. We walked past a photo shop and I was looking at the lenses in the window.as much as I love my new camera, I realised very quickly that I need a bigger zoom lens. I knew how much the lens that I wanted would be back home and I was looking if they had prices displayed. They did not, but one of the people from the shop stepped out of the shop. He invited us to come in. The shop was completely decked out with Manchester City stuff. I was quite surprised by this. I know Manchester United has a huge international following, but I have rarely seen any evidence of Manchester City outside of Manchester. I took that as a good omen. We live just down the road from Manchester City's stadium. I asked how much the zoom lens that I wanted was and he quoted me an amount of about $60. This was a genuine Nikkor lens so I for very excited as the cheapest that I had seen this at home was around £100. First however we got told off for not having a filter on our cameras to protect the lenses. I had not got around to putting my polarising filter back on, but told him that I had one back on the ship. He told me it was not a polarising filter I needed, but a UV filter. Somewhat resigned, I asked how much it would be. I had wanted a UV filter when I first got the camera, but it was a bit more than I was willing to pay at the time especially as I was advised in the camera shop that if I was going somewhere like Dubai, I would need one, but would not benefit from it in Alaska. Anyway, the UV filter was only about $10 and as I needed one eventually anyway, I jumped on this. He then turned his attention to Graham's camera, which is my old Lumix bridge camera. I did not even know that you could use filters with this kind of camera. He gave our lenses a good clean and attached the filters. He also re-attached my strap so that it was more secure. He then showed me a telephoto lens that would go on top of my existing zoom lens. I was not impressed. I knew what I wanted and that was that. He also showed me a wide angle lens which very much tempted me, but was out of my budget. I insisted that I wanted the lens I had originally looked at. I was told that they needed to get a new one from the warehouse and I was to come back the next afternoon. This was all too risky for me as we would leave at 4:00 the next day. As I really needed a bit more zoom, I went with the telephoto lens. He sweetened the deal a little by giving me a discount. Even though I was reluctant at first, this turned out to be a blessing. The lens did not only fit on my camera, but on Graham's camera as well and we got some stunning pictures with this.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After we left the photography shop, we carried on our search of the cable car. I was quite surprised that something that is a major tourist attraction is not really signposted. We were almost on top of the terminus for the Powell Hyde Line before we saw the first sign post for the cable car. We were actually closer to the terminus Powell Mason Line when we started out, but no way would we have found this without a close look at the map as this was so hidden away. As we walked up to the terminus. I got my first impression of the famous San Francisco hills. It did not look that steep, but it was hard work. When we got to the cable car terminus, we found a huge line and a sign that the estimated waiting time was 30 minutes. Neither of us fancied that and we decided to get up early the following day and ride the cable car before Graham had to check in for his excursion. I was on my own timetable the next day. We walked back towards the port and took some photos on the way. There was one building on top of the hill that really caught my attention and I was hoping that I would find out what it is, but so far I had no luck.

































When we got back on the ship, we took our stuff back to the cabin and freshened up and then it was time for dinner. We were in Triton's again and that night the rotational menu was served. Our serving team welcomed us and our assistant server wanted to bring us the rest of the bottle of wine from the previous evening, but we told him that we had more than enough wine for one day and would like to keep this for the next evening. I had a Coke and Graham just had some water. Graham had the French Onion Soup followed by Seabass with Herb and Mushroom Risotto, Sweet Onion Marmalade and garnished with a Potato Crisp. I had French Onion Soup and Tomato and Basil Soup followed by Grilled Beef Tenderloin, Bacon-wrapped Green Beans and Tamarind-Barbecue Reduction, but instead of the Olive-Oil Smashed Potatoes, I asked for the Herb and Mushroom Risotto. This combination worked really well. Graham passed on dessert and I did not really have room either, but this menu features my favourite dessert, the Grand Marnier Soufflé with Vanilla Sauce. So I had to have this. Fortunately it is nice and light. At one stage our head server Josip came by and we had a nice long shop. He asked what we had done that day and got excited that we had met a fellow Croatian.

After dinner we decided to take a turn around deck 10 to admire the skyline at night. This was the first time I encountered an issue with my new camera. There were so many bright lights that the camera was not quite sure were to focus and I deleted more photos than I kept. Still, the photos that I took of the adult pool and one of the smokestacks came out rather well.

















At one point I turned around and Graham was gone. As I was on deck 10 anyway, I decided to go to Palo to see if I could change our dinner reservation. When I originally made the reservation, I still thought that we would have a Pirate Night. As we are not too keen on spending that particular night in the dining room, I made our Palo reservation to coincide with this. Of course, shortly before we left for our trip, we found out that Pirate Night had been replaced by Pixar Night. I was rather curious about that menu. So at one point I had asked Graham how he felt about switching the reservation to the last night. As we had another week to look forward to, I did not particularly want to be in the dining room that night. He agreed. So I went to Palo to sort this out. I had a bit of a wait until somebody came to see what I wanted and a bit more until the restaurant manager came. Fortunately it was no problem to switch our reservation. By the time this was sorted, I was definitely ready for my bed. I took a quick photo of our towel animal, set our wake up call for the next day and then got ready for bed. Even though I had been a bit concerned that I would find it hard to sleep without the ship moving, I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

 

[jedijill]

I love San Francisco and so excited to see your report. The wine train looks amazing! I've seen a special on the Food Network here on how they cook in the tiny little kitchen on the train. It really is a tight space!

I haven't been to SF since I was 18 right after the big earthquake. I'm planning on going out and spending some time in the near future. Can't wait to hear about Day 2!

Jill in CO

 

[Chilly]

What a great day. I love SF and would love to do a cruise that stopped there.

They do the padlocks on the bridge in Paris as well.

I think you are talking about Coit Tower by the building on the hill you mentioned that you didn't know what it was.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I love San Francisco and so excited to see your report. The wine train looks amazing! I've seen a special on the Food Network here on how they cook in the tiny little kitchen on the train. It really is a tight space!

I haven't been to SF since I was 18 right after the big earthquake. I'm planning on going out and spending some time in the near future. Can't wait to hear about Day 2!

Jill in CO

The wine train was amazing. They encouraged us to have a walk through the train and look at everything including the kitchens, but between eating and admiring the scenery, I was too busy. I always wanted to see the Napa Valley and this was just the perfect way to do so in the time available.

Yes, that earthquake is something that I will never forget, but for reasons that are completely unrelated to it. I was just getting involved in some voluntary work working with elementary school kids in our church and they had sent me to a training course during my fall break. I was born in Germany and still lived in Germany then. In the morning of October 18th, we had heard news of a major earthquake in San Francisco and it was decided that before we would start the evening programming that day, we would all watch the evening news. I am still not sure why this was determined such a major even that the ban on TV was temporarily lifted. Still, we were watching the news and the coverage about the earthquake when there was suddenly some breaking news. Erich Honecker, the president of East Germany, had been overturned. He had been in power all my life. I lived in West Germany and for us East Germany was more difficult to get to than Outer Mongolia. We literally saw history in the making that evening. A little less than a month later, the Berlin Wall was taken down and the process for uniting the two parts of Germany started to take shape.

What a great day. I love SF and would love to do a cruise that stopped there.

They do the padlocks on the bridge in Paris as well.

I think you are talking about Coit Tower by the building on the hill you mentioned that you didn't know what it was.

San Francisco is a truly beautiful city.

I had never heard about the padlocks before this trip, but when I read up about this after we came back, I found out that there are loads of places around the world with padlocks like this.

Thanks for solving the mystery of the tower. I just read up on this and now I really want to visit. This can be added to my ever growing to do list for San Francisco

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

So many fabulous things in one day! The sunrise pictures are gorgeous. Very cool at being the first ones off the ship. The train looks beautiful, I would have enjoyed exploring it. Glad your glasses made it home intact. I've done a few wine tastings with some friends, and while I wasn't crazy about the actual wine I loved going through the creation process.

 

[dolphingirl47]

So many fabulous things in one day! The sunrise pictures are gorgeous. Very cool at being the first ones off the ship. The train looks beautiful, I would have enjoyed exploring it. Glad your glasses made it home intact. I've done a few wine tastings with some friends, and while I wasn't crazy about the actual wine I loved going through the creation process.

It was amazing. The most moving thing was going under the bridge and the horn sounding. We are wine drinkers. I grew up at the edge of wine country in Germany and family friends of ours own an award winning winery in the Rhine valley. Drinking wine is something I grew up with. I think I was about 5 or 6 when I had my first taste of wine. Graham was more of a beer drinker when I met him, but I introduced him to wine and now if we have a drink, it is usually wine. But even people who don't drink wine would enjoy the wine train. They made a big deal out of the fact that they are first and for all a restaurant. The food was amazing and the scenery stunning.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 8

Our alarm went off bright and early at 6:30 AM in the morning. We got up and got ourselves organised for the day. We were off the ship by 7:00 AM. Graham had made use of the time while I sorted out our Palo reservation the previous evening to study the map properly. We decided to head to the other cable car terminus in the Fisherman's Wharf area as this was on the same street where Graham needed to go to for his excursion. It was nice to be out for a walk that early in the morning.

There was hardly anybody about, but that was probably down to us being away from the seafront. We found the shop where Graham needed to check in later and then shortly afterwards found the cable car terminus. We did not see any evidence of this until we were virtually on top of it. It is very low key. Essentially it consists of a wooden turntable and a sign. There was nobody waiting to get on the cable car, which made a nice change from the previous evening. By the time the cable car was ready to leave, there was another couple. We decided to sit on the benches on the outside of the car that are facing sideways. Soon we were off. We decided to get a day ticket. This was only a couple of Dollars more expensive than two single tickets and is also valid on the streetcars. This cable car route goes mainly through residential areas, but does include some rather impressive hills. Pretty much as soon as we set off, we had to navigate a very steep hill. I have to say I had doubts that we would get up there, but of course we did. I had forgotten one piece of eternal wisdom: What goes up, has to come down again. The hill that we came down on seemed to be even steeper than the one we had gone up and I was hanging on for dear life. I had taken some photos on the way up, but there was no chance of this on the way down. What really got me is that half way down the hill, we saw a cable car coming the other way that had people standing on footboards and hanging on to the outside of the car. I was freaked out by sitting in the car that was open to the front. The whole journey took about 15 minutes. We had a short wait as another street car was ahead of us and they needed that to be clear before we were allowed to get off.





















We headed across the road to the cable car stop. There were a few more people about at this stop, but it was still very manageable. I had assumed that we would go back the same way as the terminus was close to where Graham needed to be. When the cable car arrived at the stop, a member of staff informed people that this was the Powell Mason Line and that this was not the one with the pretty views. He advised people to wait for the Powell Hyde Line. I checked with Graham and he said that he still had plenty of time, it would be only a short walk and to go for it. So we waited for the other cable car line. We did not have long to wait. I am glad that we did this. This time round we were sitting in the inside of the car. On this line, the hills are more gradual, but some of he views we were treated to were absolutely stunning. We even got a view down the famous Lombard Street, which is known as the crookedest street in the world. The terminus is also very pretty. It is in a little park and has a fantastic view over the bay.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Another thing that was on my to do list for that day was a visit to Ghirardelli Square. Ghirardelli is one of my favourite chocolates even though I have never really forgiven them for discontinuing my favourite Peanut Butter Squares. So I could not imagine being in San Francisco and not visiting Ghirardelli Square. I was under the impression that it was quite close, but had clear idea where it was. We turned around and there was a huge Ghirardelli pretty much straight ahead. Ghirardelli Square was only a short distance away, but we had to climb another steep hill to get there. All chocolate shops should be at the top of a steep hill as by the time you are at the top, you really have deserved your chocolate. We had a quick wander around and then Graham left me to my own devices and headed off to his excursion. I was sitting in the sun waiting for the chocolate shop near the entrance to open. I then decided to have a look around and found another chocolate shop with an ice cream fountain that was already open. So I decided to go in there. They had a huge pick and mix section with Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares so I filled a bag with some of my favourites, but also a couple of things I had never tried before like Sea Salt Caramel Milk Chocolate and Cabernet Dark Chocolate. When I paid for this, I decided to order an ice cream sundae as well. I had never had ice cream for breakfast before, but I was on holiday after all. I ordered the The Gold Rush, which is a Peanut Butter Hot Fudge Sundae consisting of Vanilla ice cream with freshly homemade hot fudge and melted peanut butter throughout topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds, a cherry and Ghirardelli Squares milk chocolate. Unfortunately something along the line went wrong and I ended up with the Hot Fudge Sundae, which was essentially the same just minus the peanut butter. I love my peanut butter and was a little disappointed by its absence, but I still loved every spoonful of my sundae.





















When I finished my ice cream sundae, I made a quick bathroom stop and the sat down in the sun for a bit longer using their free WiFi. Before I lost my internet connection the previous day, people from our cruise meet thread had been discussing heading to the Disney Family Museum. As this was where I was headed next, I just wanted to check if there were any updates. A lot of the people seemed to have gone for the Disney excursion and one family was going to head there later in the day. I was hoping that I would be able to share a taxi with somebody, but I wanted to get going. So I decided to go an find a taxi. That proved easier said than done. I expected that there would be taxis near a tourist attraction, but there were no taxis to be found near Ghirardelli Square. I carried on walking and saw a taxi in front of a hotel and thought I was in luck, but that taxi was waiting for somebody. I ended up cutting through the Cannery at Del Monte Square, which deserves a closer look in the future and headed back to Fisherman's Wharf. We had seen some taxis lined up the previous evening, but no such lack this morning. In the end I was nearly back at the port before I finally found a taxi.

 

[dolphingirl47]

It was a good job that I had read the leaflet about the Disney Family Museum the day before as otherwise I may never have made it there. The address for the Disney Family Museum is 104 Montgomery Street. Apparently there is another Montgomery Street in the financial district in the downtown area and the leaflet made it clear that the museum is in the the Presidio. Indeed, the taxi driver had never heard of the Disney Family Museum and when I mentioned the address, he mentioned that this was downtown and suggested that it may be quicker to walk or take public transport. When I mentioned that the address was in the Presidio, he called the office, who provided him with the zip code and then he entered this in his GPS. We were finally our way. The drive was actually quite scenic and the Presidio itself looked really pretty and worth a closer look. The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former military base on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It is mainly managed by the Presidio Trust, with the area by the coast being managed by the National Park Service. Soon after entering the Presidio, we arrived at the Disney Family Museum, I paid the driver and headed in.



A few weeks before we left, I contacted somebody that I had met on a couple of cruises who is from San Francisco. At the time I was not quite sure how to get to the Disney Family Museum and I wondered if she could give me some pointers. The verdict was that I would need either a car or a taxi. She suggested that she could pick me up from the port and go with me to the Disney Family Museum and I would have absolutely loved this. However, it turned out that she would be on the Disney Magic on the dates I would be in San Francisco. That was a real shame as I would have loved to see her again. However, every cloud has a silver lining. It turned out that she is a member of the Disney Family Museum and she arranged for a complimentary ticket for me which I would just have to pick up when I got there. I was not entirely sure if this would work out especially as she told me that normally the member needs to be present to give guests complimentary access. Still, I had nothing to lose. I had made up my mind about about visiting the Disney Family Museum ever since I had booked the cruise and I would have been quite happy to pay. So if this did not work out, I would do just that. When I entered the museum, I approached the reception and told the member of staff assisting me that there should be a complimentary ticket for me and gave her the name of the member and my name. She looked a little dubious, but went to check. She came back with an envelope shortly afterwards that had my name on it. She checked if this was me, which I confirmed. She asked for ID and then handed me my ticket and directed me to the entrance.

Before I headed to the entrance though, I had a closer look around the lobby. There is a display case with 248 awards that Walt Disney won during his career, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and many Academy Awards, including the honorary award for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which consists of one full-sized Oscar alongside seven miniature ones. I tried my best to take a photo of this, but all the shiny metal behind glass is not the easiest thing to take a photo of. I had heard some contradictory contradictory information about taking photos at the museum. Some reports stated that it is forbidden and others stated that it is now allowed. The back of my ticket stated that photography is not allowed. However, when I asked a member of staff I was told that photography is absolutely fine as long as no flash is used. I was happy with this and made good use of the chance to take photos. There was one more thing that I needed to check out before entering the galleries. In the lobby there is an area with furniture from Walt Disney’s firehouse apartment at Disneyland. A small area duplicates the decoration of the room with chairs, table, lamp and exact duplicates of the wallpaper and carpet. This is probably the closest I will ever get to the apartment.







I then headed for the entrance to the galleries and had my ticket scanned. There are 10 galleries in the museum that cover the whole of Walt Disney's life. The first gallery (Beginnings: Walt Disney’s Early Years (1901-1923) covers Walt Disney’s early childhood and his family. The room features a lot of family pictures. However, the most prominent artefact is a World War I ambulance, similar to the one Walt drove as a 16-year-old in France. In the next room, the period of time when Walt Disney moved to Kansas City is covered. He got a job at a commercial art studio and his first experience with animation. at the end of this room, there is a lift decorated like a 1920s train club-car, with wood paneling and a window that looks onto the prairie that Walt Disney would have seen traveling from Kansas City to Los Angeles. This lift opens onto the next gallery, Hollywood (1923-1928).







This gallery showcases Walt Disney's attempts to find his feet as a director, the launch of Disney Bros. Studio with his brother Roy and early successes like Oswald, Mickey and Steamboat Willie. In this gallery there are also a lot of family photos giving a glimpse of his private life with his marriage to Lillian Bounds. My favourite part in this gallery however was a huge cabinet with early Disney merchandise.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The next gallery is called New Horizons: The Emergence of the Walt Disney Studio (1928 to 1940) and covers the expansion of the studio, which was then renamed to Walt Disney Studios. A big part of this gallery is about the Silly Symphonies and I just loved the artwork there. The gallery also features the birth of his daughter Diane and the adoption of this second daughter Sharon. This is probably the brightest of the galleries with a huge display of coloured pigments as well as some fantastic artwork. This gallery also features some display cases with early character figurines. One thing that really tickled me though was a photo which I am familiar with from the Disney Wonder.

























After this, it was on to The Move to Features: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The whole gallery was devoted to Walt Disney Studio's first feature film. It was interesting, but a little bit too technical for me as it very much focused on advances in animation that made this film possible. I only took a single photo in this gallery, which was a display about the premier at the Carthay Circle Theater. The next gallery was more to my liking. It is called New Success & Greater Ambitions and covers the studio's move to Burbank, other early feature films such as Bambi, Pinocchio and Fantasia and an animator's desk.

















The Late '30s to Mid '40s gallery covers probably some of the darkest period of Walt Disney's life. During this period of time, his parents died, the Second World War was in full swing and a writer's strike affected the productivity of the studio. Yet, this gallery is one of the brighter ones. During this period, the Walt Disney Studio produced produced training films for the military, public service shorts, and morale-boosting films. A lot of the posters and photos in this gallery have some link with the military.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The lighting in the Post-War Rebuilding: Mid-‘40s to the early 1950s gallery was very difficult so unfortunately I do not have any photos from this, but it featured films like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Lady and the Tramp. It also featured props from various life action films. I have to admit I did not even realise that the next gallery was a gallery and therefore missed Walt & the Natural World. I just thought this was a corridor leading from one part of the museum to the other. The reason I missed what was in this space is that two the left, it has huge floor to ceiling windows with a beautiful view over the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay. I was so busy enjoying the view that I did not notice what else was in this space. I have to make sure that I have a proper look around on my next visit.











Next up was my favourite part of the museum, The 1950s & 1960s: The Big Screen & Beyond. This is a huge two storey space with a 12 foot model of Disneyland at its centre. Other interesting exhibits are the Lillybelle engine and some cars from the Carolwood Pacific Railroad that Walt Disney had in his garden, concept art and photos from the the 1964-1965 World's Fair and announcements regarding Epcot. If this was my favourite gallery, then the next and last gallery, Remembering Walt Disney, is the most moving. This covers the last weeks of his life and his death. I had not realised that the lung cancer that eventually killed him was discovered entirely by accident. He was having trouble with an old neck injury and was supposed to have surgery for this. During x-rays in preparation for this surgery, a couple of small shadows on his left lung were detected. His doctors informed him that he would have a life expectancy of 6 months to 2 years, but he passed away just over a month later. A lot of the gallery is taken up with reactions to his death. The one thing that is noticeably absent is any photos of or reference to his final resting place, which I was lucky enough to visit in 2011. The hallway leading away from this gallery and to the gift shop showcases the legacy of Walt Disney on a large number of screens that are embedded in the wall. If you have not done so already and you get a chance to visit the Walt Disney Family Museum, I would recommend that you do so. I will have to bring Graham next time as I am sure he will enjoy it.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once I had finished looking at all the galleries, I had a look around the gift shop. There was a wide selection of tasteful gifts including books, artwork, t shirts, sweatshirt and jewellery and bags with artwork from various films. I only got a couple of pins, but I could have spent a fortune in there. After I finished my shopping, I went back to reception and asked them if they could call a taxi for me. I was told that my taxi would be there within 10 to 15 minutes and I made good use of this time to take some more photos of the outside of the museum and the view. I also managed to take a couple of photos on the drive back to the port.

















When I got back to the port, I got back on the ship and dropped off my stuff in our cabin. Then I headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet for some lunch. This was actually busier than I had expected. They had a Mexican buffet that day and I had Tortilla Soup, Rice with Beans and Sweetcorn, Pulled Pork, Beef Burrito, Tortilla Chips with Black Beans, Mexican Pork Patties and Jalapeño Cornbread. There was nothing that really grabbed me as far as dessert was concerned, but I washed my lunch down with a couple of Cokes. After lunch, I went back to the cabin to pick up my day pass for the public transport and my camera and I headed out again.

 

[dolphingirl47]

My original plan had been to ride the F line to its terminus and then back again. When I stepped out if the terminal, I just missed one, but I did not have to wait long for the next one. This was surprisingly busy and I had to stand for the first few stops. I still managed to get a decent photo of the Ferry Building though. The streetcars on the F line are something special. Not only are they quite old with the oldest ones being built in 1912, but a lot of them come from all over the world. The taxi driver who brought me back from the Disney Family Museum mentioned a boat-shaped streetcar. I did a bit of research on this and this originally came from Blackpool, which is quite close to where I live. I unfortunately did not see this, but I got the chance to ride on a streetcar from Melbourne that was built in 1928 and one from Torronto that was built in 1946. Anyway, once I managed to get a seat, I studied the route map and realised that there was a stop just round the corner from the Market Street terminus for the cable cars. So I decided that I wanted on last ride on a cable car and got off when we got to that stop.





This time round I had a longer wait for the cable car. The line was actually quite long, but it moved steadily and as I had nothing else planned before I needed to be back on the ship, that was fine with me. As the line went behind the wooden turntable, I got a good look at how this works. The cable car turntables are fully manual. there is a ring next to the turntable that is pulled up with a hook that the staff carry and that releases the brake. They then lean against a piece of metal that is attached to a railing at the side of the turntable and this makes it turn. When the cable car is facing in the right direction, the ring is released and this locks the turntable back into place and this can then move onwards. I had to wait for 4 or 5 cable cars to go before it was my turn. I was lucky that the cable car that arrived when I got to the front of the line was the Powell-Hyde line and I managed to get a seat on the outside. Pretty soon after we set off, I discovered two shops that caught my interest. One was a Lush shop and I try to visit Lush whenever I visit a new city that has one and the other was H2O+. I had left my wallet on the ship. Otherwise I would have got off and had a look at those shops. I had my back to them in the morning and therefore was blissfully unaware that they were there. I was hoping to take some unobstructed photos, but that was not to be. Shortly after we went past the shops somebody got on the footboard right in front of me blocking a lot of my view. The conductor asked him to go inside the car as there was still plenty of view, but the man just ignored him. Still, I managed to get a couple of photos.



















When we got off near the terminus, there were a number of cable cars backed up. This made for a nice photo. I walked towards the Fisherman's Wharf terminus of the F line taking a few photos along the way. Again, I just missed one, but the wait was not too long for the next one. When I got back to the port, I finally managed to take a photo of our terminal. I love the way the entrances to the terminal buildings in San Francisco look. Most port facilities that I have visited are actually quite ugly, but this is not the case in San Francisco. I also managed to get a couple of nice shots of the bow of the Wonder. Then the time had come to get back on the ship. As much as I love the Wonder and however much I was looking forward to the rest of the trip, I was a little sad that I had to leave San Francisco. For some reason this city had really got under my skin. There is also so much I still would like to see and do. Fortunately Graham feels the same way so I am sure we will be back.























I quickly went back to the cabin to check if Graham was back on the ship. I could not see any evidence of this, but there was still some time until all aboard. So I headed down to the Promenade Lounge. When I checked in online I saw some people posting on our Facebook group that we should have a meet at 16:00 at the Promenade Lounge. As I had nothing planned at the time, I decided to join them. Most of the group were drinking Spicy Mojitos, which is made with pineapple juice and ideally jalapeños, but as they did not have any jalapeños at the Promenade Lounge, it was made with Tabasco. I was not quite so brave and asked if they had the ingredients for a Melon Mojito and they said they did. I am still not entirely sure what kind of Mojito I ended up with. It was very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but it was not a Melon Mojito. At one stage, Graham came to join us. At first he just wanted to say "hi" and leave again, but then the decided that he quite fancied a Virgin Pina Colada. So he ordered one and sat down.

 

[dolphingirl47]

At around 17:00, we all said goodbye to each other and Graham and I headed up to the public outside deck on deck 7 aft. During our early cruises, we spent a lot of time up there, but for some reason we stopped doing this. We figured this would be the perfect spot to watch us sailing away. Even though all aboard was at 16:30, we were still firmly docked. However, soon after we got to deck 7, we were on the move. I took some more photos of the San Francisco skyline and managed to get some nice photos of Alcatraz. Soon we were approaching the Golden Gate Bridge. The horn was sounded again as we went underneath the bridge and I took a number of photo. This was a completely different perspective as we were aft rather than forward and lower down. What was more obvious from this vantage point is that there really is not a lot of clearance between the top of the ship and the bridge.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Once the Golden Gate Bridge had disappeared into the distance, we went back to our cabin to drop off our cameras. We grabbed our swim stuff and I got my iPad and then headed up to the Rainforest Room to relax on the heated tile loungers for a bit. I had brought some clothes to change into and had a shower before leaving the spa and heading back to the cabin. I dropped off my stuff in the cabin and got my camera before heading down to the atrium for some character photos. Up to this point, I had not done too well with character photos. I was hoping to put this right. When I got to the atrium, I saw two quite long lines, one for Cinderella and one for Snow White and Dopey. I realised that I would not have time to do both so I opted for Snow White and Dopey. The line was not actually that bad, but it did not seem to move at all. Normally the lines on the ships move pretty quickly and indeed a cast member who was charged with crowd control advised that it should be about a 15 minute wait from the area where I was standing when the person behind me asked. This matched with my past experience. Fifteen minutes later and we had not really moved. I could not understand what was going on. I ended up missing Captain Hook and Mr Smee who where upstairs and did not have time to see Pinocchio either or would have missed my dinner. One good thing came out of this though. Once I finally was back in the atrium, Steph, the photography manager came over to say "hi". We chatted for a while and I commented that I wished that they had a deal for back to back cruisers. She told me that they did. If you bought the photo CD for full price the first week, you could get the CD for the second week for half price. I had been on the fence about this up to this point. I figured that there would be more photo opportunities during the Alaska cruise and was considering just getting the photo CD for that cruise. However, this deal changed everything. I decided to check the next day how many photos I had up to this point and if I was happy with the number, I would get the CD. Eventually it was my turn to have my photo taken with Snow White and Dopey. By the time I was finished, it was time for dinner.







Graham had come down to the atrium by the time I had finished and we headed up to Animator's Palate together. Our serving team welcomed us and our assistant server checked if we wanted the rest of our wine that night, which we did. Graham had the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup with Bacon Bits and Chives followed by Asian Marinated Beef Tenderloin on Wasabi Mashed Potatoes with Bok Choy and a Tamarind-Barbecue Reduction. I had the same, but also had the Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist served with Parmigiano-Reggiano as an appetiser. Neither of us is keen on the show nor are there any desserts on there that we really like so we made a quick exit after we finished our main courses.

Being out of dinner so early gave me a head start on the characters. Lilo and Stitch were due out that evening as were Pinocchio and a bit later Captain Hook and Mr Smee and Terk. I got my sides mixed up and joined a rather short line for what I thought would be for Lilo and Stitch. However, it turned out that it was for Pinocchio. He also came out a little earlier then scheduled so I managed to get my photos with him and then join the line for Lilo and Stitch before the official time that they were due out. That line was quite something. Graham decided that he would head back to the cabin. Lilo had come out, but there was no sign of Stitch. Eventually he did arrive and the line started moving. I did get my photos with them and then headed over to the other side for photos with Captain Hook and Mr Smee. I would have liked a photo with Terk, too, but they were nowhere near done with Lilo and Stitch and Terk was due to replace those two. I was pretty tired by then and decided to call it a day.





















When I got back to the cabin, I took a quick photo of our towel animal, had a look at the Navigator for the next day and then got ready for bed. I was glad that we were moving again and fell asleep to a gentle rocking motion.

 

[tiggrbaby]

What a lovely day! You fit in so many things and took fabulous pictures.

 

[ukintheus]

What a lovely way to have a couple of days in that area. We have only been to SF once and it was with family who were not interested in the Museum. Your photos have convinced me that I need to make it back there. The wine train is now on my list of "must do's" too.

You have a photo in your post above, with the submarine and the Navy ship at a dock in SF. They are open to the public, and while some of my family went onto them, I took a look around the area. Right behind them, in one of those warehouses, is a FANTASTIC penny slot machine museum. They have some machines dating a LONG way back - it was fascinating to me - I could have spent hours and hours in there!!