Spring Adventure I 2025

SPRING ADVENTURE Part 1 to Australia

January 31, 2026 Clearwater Beach

Robert, our dear friend from New York City, joined us for dinner.

After our turkey, stuffing, fried apples, broccoli, and salad dinner, Robert shared his amazing talent by playing us several songs on the piano.

WHAT A TREAT!

February 1- 3, 2025 San Francisco, California 

Our friend, Pete took us to Tampa International where we boarded our United flight at 8:30 flying to San Francisco, California where we landed at 11:30 WCT. We watched Clint Eastwood's most recent movie, "Jurer #2". 

Our Uber ride was entertaining. The driver, an architect from Turkey, shared his life transition of coming in the US two years ago. We enjoyed helping him practice his English. He was quite fluent after arriving in the  US with no English skills.

As we drove to our hotel, The Castle Inn, we passed numerous driverless cars, waymo, passing by us. These futuristic machines are available in San Francisco, Phoenix, and LA with plans to expand to Atlanta and Miami.

We are definitely living in the age of the Jetsons.

The next day we walked to Chinatown. Despite the rainy day, it was quite busy on the streets and in the markets. Larry and I enjoyed a nice Chinese meal in one of the busiest restaurants....a line of people waiting to be served was a clue to how good it was going to be.

Larry and I had a couple of fabulous nights in the Castle Inn. Our plan for the day was to meet up with our friends, Jay and Kim, who had boarded the Queen Anne in New York City on January 18th to sail through the Panama Canal and visit other Latin countries before meeting us in San Francisco. We started walking toward the San Francisco Bay. It was a cloudy day with rain in the forecast.

We met our dear Pennsylvania friends at the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop (birthplace of Ghirardelli)….it was nice to catch up with each other and take in the San Fran surroundings.

Then we headed down to the infamous Pier 38 to get some Dungeon Crab for lunch. We entered into a restaurant famous for photos of Hollywood Stars displayed from eating in their restaurant. We began to feel like stars ourselves.

After that delightful meal, we walked back to get a Ghirardelli treat and look around the shops in the area. 

The original chocolate machine

Which is sweeter....my man or the Ghirardelli Sundae?

To end the day we caught the infamous San Francisco Trolley for a ride. How exciting to watch the city light up and come alive!

That evening we parted....to dream about how we were gonna top this wonderful day on the Queen Anne for the next 23 days.

The next morning was pouring rain. We had intended to take a WAYMO, the driverless driven car, to the ship that morning. WAYMO is a driverless driven car. They were everywhere and we thought it would be fun to try it out as our last San Fran  excursion, but since it was a down pouring rain, we changed our minds at this the last minute because we were afraid it would drop us at the Port Entrance and not next to the ship.  So guess what we are saving for the next adventure in San Fran.

Anyway we made it to the ship with Uber to find Jay and Kim had taken the WAYMO that morning with thrilling tales of its efficiency. We were so excited for them.

After five days of sailing the Pacific Ocean we arrived in Honolulu.