Alcatraz

Golden Gate

San Francisco, United States

We arrived in S. Francisco fortunately after an uneventful flight. S. Francisco is a beautiful city with lots of hills. We stayed at a time share condo in a made-over 1900's vintage mansion in a posh upper class residential area called Pacific Heights. It felt like home since there was a common kitchen for all, a living room with a magnificent old fireplace where afternoon tea was sered.

In S. F. we used the wonderful public transportation and went to the Ferry building, Alcatraz, rode the cable cars, visited China town, etc.

On January 13 we boarded our floating Mobile home for a special world cruisers only event. On the following day we set sail and passed under the Golden Gate Bridge as we began our five-month journey around the world.

written by  rcodel on January 13, 2011 from San Francisco, United States
from the travel blog: World Cruise - 2011
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After five days at sea during which time we attended lectures, walked, had fun, we realized that there were many "old" frineds and a lot of crew and officers whom we already knew from the previous world cruise. They made us feel very much at home.

We made our first landfall in Hilo, Hawaii, It is a beautiful, lush island on the island of Hawaii, otherwise known as the "big island".

In Hilo we visited a macademia nut farm, toured a lovely botanical gardfen in a little train and

On the windward side of the island where Honolulu is they get 25" of rain annually, whereas the leeward side gets 140" per year. This phenomenon is typical of all the Hawaiian islands.

Royal Palace event

Neptune

On January 25 we crossed the equator. To celebrate the crossing we had a special party by the pool where Neptune made the polywogs become shellbacks. Terry Waite was Neptune again. He gave lectures about his negotiations with freeing hostages from the kidnap takers with a more modern emphasis than his last lectures which concentrated on when he was held captive for five years. We have had a lot of fun and laughs with him onboard and one day he invited us to have lunch with him.

Moorea is a very mountainous island with beautiful jagged peaks. It is mostly uninhabited. We think it is the most beautiful island we have seen in the world, and, as you know, have have seen many.

Tonga is a small, flat, poor and very hot island. However, the color of the water is amazing.

This is us on a formal night during cocktail hour prior to dinner. Does anyone recognize the dress I am wearing? Where have you seen it before? This is a test.

The Bay of Islands is a beautiful spot in northern New Zeland. It is a large bay with over 100 islands, some inhabited and others uninhabited. We came here by car many years ago and stayed in a delightful motel for several days.