Coastal Cruise Pt 5

One of the best aspects of a cruise vacation compared to a week stay at a resort hotel is that each morning you wake up somewhere new. Yesterday evening we sailed away from Santa Barbara and this morning when I wake up was are slowly cruising into San Diego harbor. Past the Navy submarine pens and around the bend heading straight for downtown.

The pier that the ship comes to faces the downtown San Diego area. Looking straight off the bow you can see the bustling morning traffic on Harbor drive and all the taxis and buses making their way through the check point to enter the pier. Just two piers to the south of us is the USS Midway museum. Growing up watching movies involving the Navy, the aircraft carriers of history all appeared to be huge. The cruise ship is a giant compared to the size of the Midway. It is an easy two block walk to the Midway museum though to get a taste of history.

The city is easy to get around even if you do not take a taxi. The city transit system if very thorough and pretty easy to navigate. Two blocks east of the cruise terminal is the Santa Fe station where the all three of the local light rail lines can be accessed. The blue line can take you passed UC San Diego all the way to San Ysidro and the border crossing for Tijuana. The green line can take you passed Olde Town and San Diego State University all the way to Santee. The orange line can take yo all the way to El Cajon. Also from the Santa Fe Station buses can be taken to Sea World (route 9) and San Diego Zoo (route 215).

We have been to San Diego several times so this trip my wife and daughter decide to stay on board and take advantage of an uncrowded pool deck. My high school son wanted to go take a look at San Diego State University, one of his favorite college basketball teams he watched this season. So off we go just a couple blocks east of the pier to the Santa Fe station. I bought us each an all-day pass for $5 and we waited for the north bound green line train heading for Santee. Less than ten minutes and our trolley rolls up to the station. A nice easy ride of about a dozen or so stops passing Olde Town, Qualcomm Stadium and a couple shopping centers until we reached the transit station at the university. Nice wide-open campus still not out for Spring Break yet and a center of activity. We checked out the Associated Students area and the campus bowling alley before heading over to the campus book store. A basketball player has to have a good pair of SDSU basketball shorts my son reasoned. So we shopped for a while until he found the right shorts.

After finishing our walk around the campus, it was now my turn so we boarded the next south bound green line trolley and made our way back to the Santa Fe station. You see, a couple clocks east of the station is a Karl Strauss Brewery so since it was a little after lunch time, I needed to grab a bit and also sample some of their ware. Great place for food and a variety of beers but with my son along I just had one with lunch and then we made our way back to the pier.

Sail away occurred almost an hour late so we were cruising back through the harbor as the sun was getting low in the western sky. From the somewhat hidden deck forward of deck 8 right at the front of the ship I had a great view as we passed the submarine pens with only one sub in port and passed the channel markers as we made our way again out to sea.

Buenos Dias. A new morning finds us in Ensenada Mexico on another beautiful sunshine filled day. Usually if on shore without kids I find my way to Papas & Beer or to Hussongs Cantina to people watch the crazy tourists. Both are a healthy walk from the cruise pier but can be done in about 35 to 40 minutes for the average person. Today we will just hang around the marina and check out a vendor fair near the marina bus terminal. For $2 per person you can take a bus to the marina bus terminal but it is a fairly easy 20 minute walk. The benefit to the bus comes if you are interested in a tour to La Bufadora (the blowhole) but not crazy for the cruise line tour price. The bus driver can hook you up with the same tour for much much less.

The vendor fair had some fresh baked sweet breads (pan dolce), Mexican candies, leather goods, and of course plenty of tee shirts and jewelry. Nothing really got our interest so we continued to the marina and watched the fish market flurry of activity selling the morning's catch. Just about everything from the sea including plenty of shrimp, crab and other shell fish were up for sale. After several minutes watching the fish mongers peddle their catch, we continued along the marina to watch the early sport fishing boats coming back in. The sea gulls and the sea lions sure know which boats to follow and make quite a ruckus when the crew filets the catch for their passengers.

After reaching the end of the marina and finding nothing the had our interest to buy, we turned around and began heading back to toward the cruise ship pier. The bright sunshine brought plenty of locals down to the marina to enjoy the afternoon so there was plenty of people watching to be done. It felt good to get out on land a walk around rather than ride a bus. From the end of the marina back to the cruise pier at a very causal pace we reached the security check for the pier in about 35 minutes. Ensenada is a pretty easy place to find you way around and we had a nice walk-about but time to beat the rush back to the ship.

The last port or more specifically the last day of a cruise gives time for reflection back on the new sights that had been seen and also a time to look forward to that planning of the next cruise vacation. Where will you go and for how long? Start working with a cruise specialist early and let them do all the leg work for you. Many travel planners do not charge you for their service AND you will not pay any more (any may pay less) than you would pay reserving directly with the cruise line or on-line. Give us a try.

Ciao for now