Barbara J. Hamby

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Ship Ahoy - Part Four

Very early Saturday morning the Dawn Princess anchored in the waters near Cabo San Lucas. Since we had been there twice before, we hadn’t purchased a shore excursion. We went ashore later in the morning by tender. The dock where the tender took us looked totally unfamiliar, as did the surroundings. At least six vendors offering transportation into town crowded the dock. They were the most familiar sight we saw. From previous experience, we knew their “free” transportation came with a long spiel selling condo timeshares.

Construction could be seen on all the hills above the port. We started to walk into the downtown area, but took a bicycle cab a few blocks away. After a short ride, however, we began to notice familiar landmarks. The lack of flowers made the area we had passed through seem very strange.

On our first trip to Cabo, we’d stayed at Pueblo Bonita Rose where the grounds were landscaped in gorgeous colors and included an herb garden for the chefs. We saw those buildings from the ship, but not when we got into town.

While we were walking from one store to another downtown, a toddler fell down about six steps right at my feet. I saw her falling and tried to stop her. I was able to catch her head in time to keep it from hitting the sidewalk, but couldn’t totally prevent the fall. Judging by past experience with youngsters, she seemed not badly hurt because she was crying loud enough to drown out her father’s reassurances. I think I was more shaken up than her parents.

When I looked for vanilla in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan, I thought the prices too high, so Cabo was my last chance to pick up a bottle for my daughter, as she’d requested. We went to several stores and I finally got a satisfactory price and took the vanilla back to the ship. Al went back with me, then returned to Cabo to look around some more.

The obnoxious, in-your-face hustle of the street vendors, the narrow, broken sidewalk and the dare-you-to-cross-the-street bustle of traffic wore me out. The one redeeming feature of the day was the lovely sunshine--a high temperature of 71.6 degrees just before sunset.

Still feeling exhausted, I skipped dinner and spent the evening in our cabin. Al attended a magic show that he thoroughly enjoyed.

Dawn Princess weighed anchor Saturday evening and set a Northwesterly course toward San Diego.

Sunday, scheduled to be a day at sea, Al brought me a very light breakfast that I ate in our room. Ironically, for this cruise we had chosen a very small inside cabin since we expected not to spend much time in it. Due to my illness and the unusually cool weather, I spent more time there than in the balcony stateroom we had on the European cruise.

Al took in a lecture on “Human Sacrifices in Ancient Mexico,” and the unrelated movie that followed:  “Just Like Heaven,” while I rested in the cabin. He said that both programs were enjoyable. I walked around the ship some and watched a little of the ice carving demonstration near the pool.

Later I went to the Internet Cafe’ to read email and send a few. After lunch, I read on deck and in a non-smoking lounge.

In the evening, I worked on this journal account and read.  Al tried the Comedy Club show but didn’t stay long. I went to bed early and read.

Monday we were up early to clear immigration in San Diego. Al spent the day at the zoo. I felt pretty punk and decided to stay on the ship. My sister, in Oceanside, had agreed with me by email on Sunday that we should not try to get together since we both had viruses and didn’t need to exchange them. In addition, we didn’t think I’d enjoy a lunch out enough for us to put out the effort and brave the traffic.

I read on deck for a while after Al left, but decided it was too noisy out there, although the harbor view was enjoyable. I called my sister and brother-in-law from the deck by cell phone and visited with both for a few minutes.

Went to a morning movie: Proof with Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins. So-so plot, good acting, as expected.

Ate lightly all day, but still had intestinal distress. Al returned in time for us to have dinner together, after we stood on deck to watch the ship’s trip out through the San Diego harbor. We pulled away from the dock at sunset, and watched the lights of the city on the way out.

Al took more than a hundred digital pictures at the zoo, which we viewed after dinner. Altogether, we have 260+ shots to deal with when we get home. It’s fun to be able to see what you have right away, even though the screen is very small. We hope there will be some good ones when they’re enlarged.

The seas have been calm the entire trip so far. The total miles traveled will be slightly over 3,000 when we arrive back in San Francisco.

We slept long and well Monday night. It may be hard to get to sleep at home without the engine hum and the--real or imagined--sound of the sea.

Tuesday-- Al left for breakfast while I was showering and I joined him in the Horizon Lounge. He told me the woman behind him in line at the buffet had fallen. He heard her hit the floor and turned to see her male companion attempting to bend to help her. Apparently his knees were too stiff to bend, but several crew members rushed to her aid.

After my very light breakfast, we attended a lecture on “Mexico’s Peoples and Populations in World Perspective,” by the same speaker Al had heard before. He had nothing new or shocking to say, but as a “clergyman and psychology professor,"presented population statistics predicted based on several prognostications.

I returned to the cabin where Al brought me coffee and I began to finish up our travel journal.

After lunch I finished the book I’d borrowed from the ship library and returned it. During the afternoon we did most of our packing, leaving the final items to be tucked into empty corners or perhaps smashed into one end or the other of a bag in the morning. Having been in the Navy, Al has a knack for fitting a maximum amount of stuff in a minimum amount of space.

We were delighted to learn that, because we had minimal luggage that we carried ourselves, we would leave the ship in the first group of passengers on Wednesday morning. As a matter of fact, because we had already gone through Immigration in San Diego, we hustled off and through the terminal building to the parking garage most expeditiously. We delayed our departure from there somewhat because it was still rush hour on a weekday and we feared heavy traffic.

When we wound our way out of San Francisco, crossing the Bay Bridge, we were surprised to note the traffic was no worse than Seattle or Portland rush hour. We found the shortcut to I-5 that we had missed on the way to San Francisco and were soon homeward bound.

We took a short detour to drive through Weed once again, partly for nostalgic reasons, but mostly because we remembered the location of the grocery store and we needed a couple of items for breakfast.

We stayed overnight at a motel in Medford and drove home from there on Thursday. On the way back, we talked about how our age is affecting our enthusiasm for cruising and travel in general, for that matter. If those darn cruise lines would just stop making us offers too good to refuse.