ASTORIA, OREGON

This town with a population of around 9500 lies on the west coast of Oregon at the mouth of the Columbia River.  The river flows southeast and passes through Portland nearly 100 miles away.  As a point of reference, Seattle is 180 miles to the northeast.

The city was named after the investor, John Jacob Aston, when he built Fort Astor in 1811 for his American Fur Company, however the Oregon Legislative Assembly first incorporated the town back in 1876.  The Lewis & Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805 & 1806 at Fort Clatsop just south of Astoria.  Fort Astoria was the first permanent settlement built on the Pacific coast and was extremely important in the exploration of the northwestern US.  As the Oregon Territory grew it became more colonized by Americans, Astoria became an important port city with its Colombia River access to the inland.

For over a hundred years Astoria’s economy thrived on fishing, fish processing, and lumber but those started declining in the mid 1900’s.  All canneries were closed by 1980.  Even its trading center as a port of entry has moved to Portland and Seattle.  Today tourism, art, and light manufacturing are Astoria’s economic drivers.  Facilities at the port were built to handle cruise ships in 1982.  Interestingly enough, in order to avoid Mexican ports during the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak, the cruise lines rerouted many ships here to Astoria as a port of call.  Another bit of trivia:  Actor Clark Gable began his career here at the Astoria Theater in 1922.  

                                         Dinner last night with Goran & Rose Mary

                                                       Rebecca's lobster

  Headline entertainer in showroom last night was Jade Milian singing Whitney Houston music.

                                            Our position this morning--Astoria

                                       I have to mail my Mother's Day card here today.

 Hemlock and fir trees waiting to loaded on ships.  They export to China.  Two ships every month.

                                             Bridge over to Washington state

                                                                   Our ship

 My tour was "Panoramic Astoria".  Rae was guide and Charlie the bus driver.  Yes, they used school buses for our tours here.

             Sea lions--They were noisy and smelly.  Locals want to ship them back to CA.

 Stopped for photos at Astoria Column that was built in 1926 on a hill over looking Astoria.  You could climb the 164 steps to top but not me.

 Deck chairs back out today after 36 hours of wind and rough seas.  Nice sunny day and 62 degrees.

                                                                 Pool grill

        Rebecca decided not to go on tour this morning.  She stayed on ship and went to the fitness center to do her workout on treadmill.  She did not miss much by not going on tour.  We had lunch up in La Veranda (buffet) and I ordered a hamburger from pool grill.  The burgers are VERY good.

        Not sure what we will do this afternoon.  I am going to fitness center to do my workout for sure. It has been too rough at sea to do it.  Captain said it was going to be very rough again when we leave this port at 3:00 pm and get back out in ocean.  YUK!  At 6:00 pm is Regent's "block party".  You take wine glasses out into the hall where the stewardesses will pour wine and you meet your neighbors.  Only Regent ships do this and it is fun.

        This evening we will dine up in Sette Mari.  At night La Veranda turns into an Italian restaurant called Sette Mari.  Tonight's show will be the first production show featuring the Jean Ann Ryan singers and dancers.  We will definitely be going.

        Tomorrow will be another day at sea as we head north to Sitka, Alaska.  We will arrive there on Tuesday at noon.  So for the next 45 hours we will probably be bounding around again.  Not looking to that.

ROCK'N & ROLL'N AT SEA

Our position at noon today.

There is definitely "motion in the ocean" ever since we left San Francisco yesterday evening.  We have not experienced seas this rough in a long time.  They secured our balcony furniture and the pool chairs.  Today we have 40 knot winds and 18 foot swells which is causing the bumpy ride.

Last night before retiring Rebecca put our room service for breakfast request out on our door.  Our butler brought it at 8 am but we decided to go down to the dining room instead.  The Compass Rose dining room is down on deck 5 and the ride down there is MUCH better than up on deck 10 where our suite is.  On days like today it dramatically illustrates that, if you are subject to sea sickness, get a cabin on lower deck and mid ship!  I am now in the library on deck 6 as it is much more comfortable here than up in our suite.  I doubt if our ride will improve today so glad we will be docking tomorrow in Astoria, Oregon.

At 10 am we went to the theater to listen to Terry Breen's lecture on Alaska.  I swear she is a walking encyclopedia on both Alaska and South America.  We met and became friends with her on our 2012 Circle South America cruise.  Her lectures adds so much to our cruise experience.

This is Terry after her lecture.

They are showing a movie in the theater this afternoon which I may go to.  Better than bumping around in our suite.  Tonight is the Captain's Welcome Aboard party and dinner.  We will be dining with Goran, the F&B Director, and Rose-Mary, the head of housekeeping, this evening in Compass Rose.  We ran into the Cruise Director, Lorraine, this morning and she also wants to dine with us something during the cruise.  We know her from previous cruises also.

Our stewardess, Rose Marie, is on left and her supervisor.

From left is Alin, Prime 7 Manager, Dino, the Executive Chef, and Goran, F&B Director.

                                               Suresh, our butler, with my Manhattan.

At 5:00 pm our butler delivered some "poppers" (jalapeno peppers stuffed with cheese then deep fried) and a Manhattan for me.  Bottle of chardonnay for Rebecca.  Ship is moving around so much that I figured I could stand up better if I had alcohol.  Getting dressed now for dinner is not easy with suite bouncing around.

ALL ABOARD!!!

        After a great night's sleep we were up at 7:00 this morning.  This is a great hotel.  Rooms are very quiet but smaller as the hotel is an old but very well maintained one.  The hotel staff is maybe friendliest I have ever seen, and believe me, I have seen many hotels during my airline career.  After I got ready I went down and got coffee and brought it up to the room.  Rebecca expects that!
        It was 60 degrees this morning but suppose to be another warm day here in San Francisco.  Sun is shinning brightly and we can see forever from our 9th floor room.  I have our luggage ready now for the bell hops to come get them later this morning.  They will put them on the buses that take the Regent passengers to the ship at noon.

    Breakfast is pretty expensive at Mark Hopkins.  I am glad that Regent will be paying it, not me.

        As I mentioned yesterday, Regent was sending 3 buses to pick up the hotel folks starting at noon.  We let them take our 3 large bags but we took a taxi to the ship at 11:30.

When we arrived there were only a few guests already there.  We went right through security but had to wait until about noon before they started checking guests in.  We were the second couple to walk aboard the ship.  We were advised that the suites would not be ready until around 2 pm so we went up to the La Veranda (buffet) for some lunch.  Right away we started seeing crew member friends from previous cruises.  It is so good to see these wonderful people again.  During lunch Goran, our good friend who is the Food & Beverage Director, came by to give us big hugs.  Really great to see him again.  He had made us reservations at Prime 7, the steakhouse, for this evening.  Later on he took us down to Compass Rose, main dining room.  There we met the Executive Chef who is from Germany.  We also visited with Alin who is the manager at Prime 7.  He is an old friend also.  The head sommelier, Arthur, another old friend, stopped by to tell us he had the two cases of St Francis chardonnay that we ordered special.
        We were allowed in our suite at 2:30.  Our luggage showed up shortly thereafter and we have everything unpacked now.  Our stewardess, Rosemary, and our butler, Surish, came by to introduce themselves and make sure we had everything we needed.  All the butlers on Regent are from India and do a fabulous job.

Ok, we are sailing now and the ocean is not being very nice.  We had a great dinner in Prime 7 so now hitting the hay.  Internet not cooperating so will try again tomorrow.

SAN FRANCISCO

        We made it!  Left the house at 6:45 am, drove to The Parking Spot where we left car, rode van to DFW, checked bags, went through security, found gate, ordered Mc Donald's breakfast, and was eating it an hour after we left home.  Believe me that is a record time.
        After comfortably being seated in 4A and 4B, our flight departed the gate on time.  The 1st class F/A was very new but she did a pretty good job.  Breakfast she served us could have been a lot warmer, but after all, this is airplane food we're talking about.  I had a bit of trouble understanding her Chinese accent.  American Airlines is starting several new routes to China so think they are hiring F/A's who can speak their language.  The Captain said we did not have the usual headwinds so we arrived at the gate in San Jose 20 minutes early.  Yes, our checked luggage made it also.
        I did not reserve any transportation from the airport to downtown San Francisco.  I usually have that done.  I figured we would just jump on a SuperShuttle van but found out you have a reservation or they do not show up at SJC airport.  There were 3 Eagle Airport Shuttle vans sitting there so ask their rate.  It is a 47 mile trip.  They said $110.  After some tough negotiating, I got one down to $99. Glad we did not try a taxi as traffic was stop and go in several places.  It took us over and hour to get to our hotel, the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins.  The famous San Francisco cable cars run by the hotel.

                                                                   Our hotel

        I brought some candy I bought last summer in Russia and presented it to the young lady who was going to check me in.  She was very pleased.  Regent had just booked us in normal room so I asked if we might be upgraded.  She said, "Let me check availability".  We were upgraded to a deluxe room!  Candy is the way to a woman's heart!!  Our room, however, was not ready so we went across the street for a salad,

         Their was a Regent hospitality table so checked in with them for information about our transfer at noon tomorrow to the ship.  The bell hops will start picking up our checked luggage in our room at 9:30 am tomorrow.  She said there will be 3 buses with 30 people in each one going to the ship. Regent never crowds buses.

        After settling is the room we decided to go walk around for awhile.  It is a beautiful, sunny, and warm day here.  Our hotel is located on the top of Nob Hill so you walk down then up hill to go anywhere.  Here are some of the photos we took.

                                                         View from our room

                                                    Fairmont Hotel across street from us.

                                                              Grace Cathedral

                                                                     Cable car

      This is Fairmont Hotel with the flags.  Our hotel in taller one near center of photo.

Glad I am not driving!!

 Top of the Mark is famous place to go for drinks with a good view of the city.  Below is photo of it sitting on top of our hotel.  It opened at 4:30 and we went up for a cocktail and view.

        Looking like we will dine at Sotto Mare tonight.  Good rating on Trip Advisor.  Not a tourist trap like restaurants down at Fisherman's Wharf.  Also it is not far from our hotel.
        Ok, I walked Rebecca to hell and back.  Went to Sotto Mare but it was too hot and not too classy so we walked another 40 miles back to where she wanted to go to begin with.  Tadish Grill is the oldest restaurant in San Francisco.  OMG, Rebecca was right, it was to die for.  Well worth the extra bucks.  Drinks at Top of the Mark then two bottles of chardonnay for dinner so we are ready for beddy bye.  Watching NFL draft now on TV.  Below are pics of our evening.

                                                           I had cioppino

                                                    Rebecca had redfish with crab topping
         Ok, bed time so more tomorrow.