A Night in San Diego
November 20, 2006
Well, we arrived in San Diego yesterday afternoon after a bit of a drive. I had wanted to fly to San Diefo to get to the cruise ship, but Suzanne wanted to drive. In a compromise, we agreed to drive, but she would do the drving, which is a challenge in of itself, as I dont like being a passenger, but even less so when she drives.
It took us about 7 hours to get here with a half hour stop for lunch. It wasnt all that bad as the kids were behaved and the scenery was new as we had never driven to San Diego before. By 3:30 pm we were checked into our room and all settled. We stopped by the hotel bar for a quick cocktail and to chart our plans for the evening. We didnt really want to do too much as the drive was still long and my foot continues to bother me.
We decided to walk about a mile to the Gaslamp Quarter and find a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. There was three of them right near each other. One seemed very upscale which interested me. Another was a trattatoria and the third was an osteria. From my business travels to Rome and Suzanne’s one trip, she picked the osteria because that usually means small home cooking type restraunt. All of them looked very nice and inviting. The restaurant was Panevino.
After a modest bottle of wine ($46), appetizer, dinner and dessert, we managed to rack up a $250 bill. It was very nice and good though. Suzanne had Cioppino (spelling?) which caused her to repeat many times that she was in heaven. It was a plateful and if you like seafood, looked wonderful. I went with one of my Roman favorites, Saltimbocca, and it didnt disappoint though it came with spinach that went uneaten.
For dessert, we went with tiramisu and it was fantastic. I have yet to find a tiramisu in the states that was as good as what I used to get in Rome. Last night was VERY close. It was wonderful. Savannah called it a tie with my own version of tiramisu. Sean had to be different (that’s a Pechuls thing) and had gelatto – Italian ice cream. It came in a cone of almond brittle. Sean didnt leave any behind.
This afternoon, we board the Celebrity Mercury for our Mexican cruise. It should be an enjoyable couple of weeks.
Cruising Back to Mexico
November 18, 2006
Well, its finally here! Time to go on a cruise. It’s only been a year since our last one, but it seems like a lot longer. I guess the long, arduous year at work with minimal vacation time has made it seem longer.
Tomorrow morning we will be driving to San Diego for our Monday departure. We should get there in the early afternoon and have the rest of the day to relax and start the vacation. The kids will enjoy some pool time.
The cruise is a 11 night Mexican Riviera cruise on the Celebrity Mercury. It is the same itinerary we did three years ago at Thanksgiving. We enjoyed that one immensely and this time we are taking the kids. They have become cruise lovers just like us. We are hoping to see some of the crew members from that voyage that we connected with, but realize that may be unlikely. One crew member we wont see if the Captain as he was booted for being on duty drunk on time.
We will be visiting Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarte, Acapulco, Manzanillo and Zihuatenejo. It also appears now that the hurricane/tropical storm/tropical depression Sergio wont be a major factor. Early reports had it being near Cabo about the same time as we were to be there. Sergio has taken a big hook left and headed out to sea and will be several hundred miles offshore. No word from Celebrity, but I suspect we will follow the itinerary though we are likely to see some rougher seas and rain.
Today has been packing day and as usual we have way too many bags packed. I think Suzanne has six bags – luckily none are huge. I even had to go to two bags because of the various formal and informal wear. Toss in the kids bags and its a good thing we have an SUV for the drive to San Diego. One of the bags is our wine supply for the cruise. We will get a bottle every night at dinner, but we like to entertain other guests we meet in our room prior to dinner. Hopefully, we wont get hassled about taking the wine onboard. We have done it every other cruise without incident, but Celebrity did modify their liquor policy recently. Suzanne sent several letters to executives trying to get it changed and/or clarified. The latest response said they would change it, so we shall see. We will have that letter with us.
I hope to post daily or at least occasionally while on the cruise to let everyone know how its going. If you dont see anything from me, it means it wasnt feasible or too costly. On the Celebrity Infinity, you could get an internet package, but thats not available on the Mercury, so hopefully, I can still get on.
Bon Voyage…
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