MSP to San Francisco...again

Our last major trip began just a little over a year ago with a flight to San Francisco. If you've followed my posts, you know that we were there to board the NCL Pride of America for a unique one-time cruise across the Pacific to Hawaii. This time we were returning to San Francisco to board another NCL ship...the Sun...which was also doing a unique itinerary to Alaska.

The DoubleTree offered a free airport shuttle that left on the half-hour and 7:30 am worked well to get us to MSP for our 10:00 am departure. A start of vacation smile!

Our direct flight on Sun Country airlines was purchased as a Black Friday bargain last November. Since booking, the price for a piece of checked luggage on Sun Country had risen from $20/bag to $25 but I "thought" they were going to honor the lower price that had been in effect when we made the reservation. Not quite. Had we paid the luggage fee online ahead of time we would have been charged the lower cost, but at the airport, it was the full amount. Fortunately that was the only small glitch in our travel arrangements for the day.

I had read online that due to some runway construction at SFO, flights on the weekend were often being delayed...some for several hours. I was relieved when they announced that our flight would actually board EARLY. There was a small window of time that our plane was allowed and by arriving in this designated time we could avoid any delays.

Sun Country flies out of the smaller Humphrey Terminal at MSP. Good...because the terminal is usually not too busy. Bad...because the food options are pretty limited. Luckily, Subway is one of the choices and our go-to food choice by the gates. Shortly before we boarded, Bob picked up a couple of subs to take on the plane.

Our flight experienced a fair amount of turbulence, but even more disturbing to me was the amount of sneezing and coughing that was going on inside the plane. I could almost see the germs floating around in the air.

As was announced, we arrived in San Francisco just a little ahead of schedule...no delays! On the ground, we collected our bags and called an Uber.

The traffic on the way to our Fisherman's Wharf hotel was horrendous. Maybe not by San Francisco standards, but to us small-town Midwesterners, it sure was. The drive took 47 minutes and along the way we chatted with our driver, a Russian gal, who had only lived in the city for one month.

Our hotel, the Columbus Motor Inn, had been booked 10 months earlier. It was the same place where we stayed for several nights before our previous cruise. I had requested the same room on the top floor...it had a balcony with a great view of Coit Tower and also a little bit of a bay view. I was disappointed to find out that instead we were on the first floor. We still had a balcony, but it looked out onto a construction zone on Columbus Avenue.

Our traveling companions, Kent & Laurel, were scheduled to arrive at SFO shortly after we did, but they became victims of the runway construction delays and arrived a little later. They were also staying at the Columbus Motor Inn and had a room right down the hallway.

Once Kent & Laurel arrived, the clock didn't say so, but our tummies were telling us that it was time to eat. Staying at Fisherman's Wharf, I felt it was our obligation to start off our stay with a bowl of clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl from one of the street vendors. Not bad soup, but waaay to much bread for one meal. (Score for the sea gulls!)

The Wharf was much more crowded than on our last visit and had a carnival-like atmosphere...music, street performers, etc.

We walked down to Pier 39 and spent quite a bit of time watching the sea lion antics and then took time to walk through Musée Mécanique. This is a huge collection of antique arcade machines and mechanical musical instruments. 

It was fun to wander around, poking our heads into some of the shops and checking out the attractions along Fisherman's Wharf, but by 7:30 pm, the day's travels and two hour time difference had us heading back to the hotel. We had big plans for the next day and needed to get some rest!