We Made it on Board

Last night was our first night on board.  We met up with Joannie and John, our friends from the Queen Mary, up on deck at the sailaway party.  We made plans for dinner and then headed out in separate directions.  Peggy and I hit the spa, bought internet minutes, and started checking out the ship.  What a lovely gal this is...very glitzy...so different than the Queen Mary. We got down to the spa for our massages, and then headed off to dinner.  There are 5 other people at our table.  Right at the start I thought, are these people going to be fun? As the dinner progressed we found them to be very enjoyable company and we were soon laughing and telling funny stories.  After dinner it was off to the casino.  

Video of our Climb into the Sierra Madres

Here is Peggy's video that she shot of heading into the Sierra Madres.  We were very lucky we went on Saturday, because a huge storm rolled in later and dumped more snow in that area.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ccTf49PZIA

Experimental YouTube Video...cross your fingers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z95aX6Qkp_w

Hear No Evil

Every so often in Chinatown we would find these little benches with things sitting on them. In my opinion, this one was the coolest, so I made Peggy sit down and complete the picture.  

Brake Dancing

We waited for our trolley back to the Wharf and it took us awhile to find one that had room.  Finally this guy stopped and said he only had room for one of us...and we said  that we would wait for another trolley.  Now it is just my opinion, but I think at that point he saw my San Francisco Giant's visor (that I had just bought on the Escandero) and he waved us both on board.  As you can see, he has a Giant's hat turned backwards.  One fan can spot another.  We crammed onto the car and were treated to a tutorial by the driver about how he learned his job.  He told Peggy that they put him into an empty trolley car for 5 days and made him drive up and down those hills.  What was fascinating was to watch him drive and maneuver those hills.  Most of the time he would jump and land with both feet on this long brake pedal to stop the trolley.  At the end of 5 days he said, you either have it or you don't.  He was very funny and entertaining.  The car was crammed full of people with some of them hanging off both sides.  Luckily, we were sandwiched inside and didn't have to dangle in the wind.

The Gate to Chinatown

We approached China town from the North, so we had to walk all the way through to get to the gate.  We decided to get a gnosh in a restaurant right across from this gate so we had a very good vantage point.  The shops and barkers were plentiful today because it was Sunday.  We did lots of shopping and found many, many cool things.  We haven't even left for Alaska yet and we have accumulated a ton of stuff already.  Sigh.

Sooner or Later Everyone Goes to Chinatown....

We got off the cable car a few blocks from Chinatown and started wandering around looking for a restaurant.  We found a local store front that sold dumplings and anything else you could want.  So, we wandered in and did alot of pointing.  Everything on the menu was in Chinese but the lady behind the counter spoke a bit of English and we were able to recognize the food.  After lunch it was back on the street again.