Pre-baby Couples trip

In May, Jason and I went on a five day trip. One day in San Francisco, two days on a cruise with Holland America, and one day in Vancouver, Canada.  The cruise was one short leg of a world-wide tour and we got to jump in the middle of it. 

After a failed attempt to see the mighty redwoods at Muir Forest, we took a short but steep hike to this lookout point of the Golden Gate bridge. The weather was gorgeous!

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Battery Spencer, an old war-time site

We had just enough time before our Alcatraz tour to sample some sourdough bread bowls with clam chowder. Delicious!

One of the cells at Alcatraz. One of the inmates remembered how to crochet by his grandmother, and he taught the other inmates. They made a lot of nice items. They were pretty desperate for things to do during the long days. 

Behind me are the ruins of a gathering hall for the staff, I think. 

We highly recommend the audio tour. It was very interesting and informative, and you could pause the recording at any time if you wanted to linger.

Jason standing at the entrance to one of the solitary confinement rooms.

The recreation yard. We had to hike quite a bit to get here because of some construction. We had shin splints for the next two days. Hiking isn't so available in Houston.

On board the Holland America. It was cold!

Our time at sea was mostly spent relaxing from our exhausting day in San Francisco. We weren't missing much in the way of entertainment, as this ship clearly catered to the older set. From about 2-5PM, you could walk the ship and see 75% of it's passengers nodding off, with Sudoku puzzles and romance novels in their laps. 

The seas were choppier than the Gulf of Mexico. I handled them fine until we crossed the area where the Columbia River spills into the Pacific. I picked at my dinner that night and then lost it all right before we went to bed.  I popped a Dramamine (should have done that BEFORE) and a Unisom and sort of slept. Jason said that was the first time he felt the waves while he slept.  Sometimes it felt as if our feet were three feet above our heads. Worse yet, we had left the door to the little room safe open, and it kept opening and slamming shut during the night. We didn't figure out what the noise was until the next afternoon. 

The coastline of Vancouver from the ship

Stanley Park, a beautiful reserve right next to Vancouver's downtown. 

We enjoyed walking around for 30 minutes before the rain forced us back onto the tour bus. We hadn't brought any rain gear because we wanted to pack light. everything for our trip was in our backpacks. Mostly Jason's backpack because he wanted to spare his wife in her "delicate condition."

The entrance to Granville Island. It used to be a sort of dumping ground and now it's a funky shopping and restaurant area.  We had some delicious cookies here and I may or may not have purchased three Kinder eggs which I smuggled back into the States.  Had I known that the fee for EACH egg if it were found by customs was $2500 dollars, I would have wisely walked away and let my kids experience them later. Luckily, I wasn't caught.

Vancouver's Chinatown. Once the weather lightened up again, we would have preferred to catch the tour bus back to Stanley Park, but because of time constraints, we walked around Chinatown for a while. Or what is left of Chinatown. Most of the wealthy and middle class residents of Chinatown have moved to the suburbs of Vancouver. They left behind a few stores and a garden. Their absence was filled with a lot of homeless people and "lost boys" types. 

This store was about the coolest thing we saw in Chinatown. A lot of things to eat, but nothing that tempted our bland American palettes.

This isn't a fake smile, I'm super happy to finally be on the Amtrak passenger train from Vancouver to Seattle.  Gorgeous views and comfortable seats!