Keith's Panamanian Travel Ramble

Phase I – San Diego Complete

By Keith on Friday, 10 October 2014

Hi Travellers,

The trip from Calgary to San Diego went as expected, with the exception of a little insanity in Seattle when we boarded our Alaska flight to San Diego.  Over the years, I have seen all kinds of different schemes used to load aircraft, but this one beat them all.  They allowed all the special groups to board like families with young kids, first class, military, including a number of special groups related to their air mileage program.  Next, they allowed everyone who would not be using storage space in the overhead bins to board.  Last, they offered boarding to all passengers who would be using overhead bin storage.  Once the last group was onboard and getting their luggage stowed, the cabin staff started to try to rush those passengers, who they should have expected to take the longest time to get settled, through announcements and verbal encouragement that included suggestions that if they did not hurry, the departure would be late.  Extremely stupid process, if you ask me!  Oh well… I’m supposed to be on vacation.

San Diego was a pleasant mid 20C temperature and it was a short cab ride to our hotel, which turned out to be perfectly located.  It is the Best Western Yacht Harbour Hotel and it located right across the street from a beautiful marina full of big buck toys.  Now I haven’t been to San Diego since I was a kid and it has grown a bit since then.  Current population is around 3 million.  I have a cousin here who, it was pointed out, that I have not seen for 44 years.  We spent some time with Janine and caught up some of those years.  She will be joining us in Panama, when we get there on the first of November.  Thanks to my brother, who is much more familiar with San Diego than I am, for acting as tour guide and showing me effective use of the local transit system.

 

We leave for the ship late this morning, for a 15 day Panama Canal cruise on the Holland America Westerdam.  This will allow me to check off one of my bucket list items, as I have always wanted to take this cruise.  I will keep you posted as possible.  For those of you who are familiar with cruising, you know that Internet usage is slow and expensive.  My plan is to post when we are in port and I can find an Internet café.  I remember my last cruise to Alaska where someone asked how long the cable was that provided the Internet to the ship.  I hope it works better this time.

 

See you later