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We’ve flown in a day early (our 3 hour flight completed in 2:20 due to a strong tailwind) and are overnighting at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside, from which vantage point we can watch our ship arrive in port right across the street, and then simply walk over at noon (our assigned boarding time) with our luggage in tow.

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Dinner was a precursor to what we’ll be eating in February when we return here for the month: lots of Mexican food! Right across from our hotel, in addition to the cruise ship port, is a restaurant complex called Portside Pier, which houses as one of its offerings Miguel’s Cocina, a lovely Mexican restaurant overlooking the bay.

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We opened the curtains on our balcony at 7 a.m. to this!! There’s no hotel closer to our ship without actually being on it.

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Since our embarkation time wasn’t until noon, we had time in the morning for coffee and bagels in the deli just downstairs, followed by a walk through the amazing Saturday market in the adjacent Little Italy neighbourhood. There were coffee trucks, food trucks, gorgeous baked goods, lots and lots of lush organic produce (some of the biggest most perfect strawberries I’ve ever seen), honey, natural cosmetics, artisans, and a busker crooning Sinatra tunes, but the things that impressed us most were the mushroom vendors! Maybe because son #2 forages for mushrooms and has taught us about so many new kinds, we were in awe of the shapes, sizes, and colours available here. One booth had wild mushrooms, while a second had cultivated varieties – which the vendor explained grow larger and look more perfect (they really did) but do not have as intense a flavour as those growing naturally in the wild.

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Once back at our hotel, we watched folks lined up to board the ship, and realized why the boarding instructions say not to arrive before your assigned time. Why stand in line for an hour or more, and potentially be sent away to come back later? We stayed in our room until 11:00 a.m. checkout, and then just sat in the lobby until noon when we walked across the street to board.

The next 24 days will be spent back on Holland America Line’s MS Koningsdam, the same ship we were on last August to Alaska.

This time we’re in a mid-ship room with a balcony, having learned from our experience in Alaska that while an “ocean view” (i.e. large window) was quite acceptable, being at the front of the ship was not; there was just too much motion for my sensitive stomach. On that note, one of my priorities during our overnight in San Diego was finding a pharmacy that sells Bonine (meclizine), an anti-nauseant that is not available in Canada. While it needs to be taken about an hour before it is actually needed, it has the advantage of lasting for 12-24 hours. My preferred anti-nauseant is actually Kwells (scopolamine/hyoscine hydrobromide), which is available in melt-in-the-mouth pill format over the counter in the UK, but only with a prescription just about everywhere else. Kwells are on my shopping list for when we’re in London next April, but in the meantime the nearby Rite-Aid pharmacy had what I was looking for, as well as an incredibly helpful cashier who let me use a “visitor” loyalty card number that ended up getting me a 60% discount.

Our itinerary this month is actually two back-to-back cruises – Mexico and Hawaii – both circling out of San Diego. In Hawaii, we’ve booked excursions in each port. In Mexico, we’ll just explore on our own in the ports where we’re docked, and likely stay on board enjoying a quiet uncrowded ship in the two tendered ports.

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I’m looking forward to replacing very rainy, cool BC winter weather with a month of warmer temperatures, sunny skies, lovely meals, Prosecco on the balcony, lots of live music, and on-board TED-style talks. Ted, I think, is mostly just looking forward to me not moping around wanting to be on the go, seeing new things.

I’m smiling more already, so mission accomplished, I think.

But first, a couple of quick shipboard priorities: seeing if we can get off the waitlist and confirmed for early dinner seating in the main restaurant, unpacking, and my first Aperol spritz of the cruise.

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