Crystal Serenity – LA to Vancouver – Day 7 – Thursday, June 15, 2017 (Astoria)

We made it to Astoria, Oregon for an 8am docking.  It was very overcast and windy and Deck 7 was closed off again.  So, we ended up not exercising (OH NO!!).  We didn’t have any shore excursion plans for the day, we just hoped to get off the ship and walk along the sea wall.  Astoria is a very small town of about 8000 people.  It clearly is a big hub for the lumber industry as there were piles and piles of logs on the dock.

We went to the dining room for breakfast.  While sitting there we watched as the weather turned significantly worse with buckets of rain and lots of wind.  We lost count of how many people got their umbrellas turned inside out.  Since we didn’t have plans, we decided to turn the day into a “sea day” and just stay on the ship.  We worked on the blog, did some email, and just lazed the morning away.  Since this was a port day, there were no lectures or anything, so we just kind of hung out and relaxed.  At 12:30pm we went up to Tastes to have a light lunch (we split one of their pizzas).  The crust was cooked perfectly and it was very tasty.  After that, we went to the afternoon movie “Personal Shopper.”  This was a movie made in France about a woman who is personal shopper for a famous person, and is also a medium and she was trying to contact her dead twin brother that just died a few months ago.  The movie was very strange and ended up ending without what seemed to be a resolution of about half of the points.  It was a total waste of time. 

After that, we went back to the cabin to dress for dinner as we wanted to go and hear a second talk by Ken Walsh.  This time he was talking about Celebrity in Chief and how some of our Presidents have used the media and social media effectively and less effectively.  It was quite an interesting talk.

We then headed to the Cove, waiting for our 6:30pm dinner in Tastes.  

For Tastes, we chose five small plates, beginning with the Balsamic Roasted Beet Salad and the Gambas a la Plancha.  Someone posted on Cruise Critic that our blogs had turned into food porn, so we have decided to NOT show pictures. 

Ok, that is a lie, we forgot to take pictures.  The salad was terrific and the shrimp were huge and delicious.  The next courses, we had California Street Tacos, the Chimichurri Steak (for a second time – it is so excellent), and the Saffron-Marinated Lamb Kebabs.  

Bob was dying to have the tacos since he hasn’t had any Mexican food for over a week, he was going through some kind of withdrawals.  One of the tacos was pork and the other was chicken.   The pork one was very tasty, but neither of us really liked the chicken one as it tasted of dark meat and neither of us are a fan of dark chicken meat.  The steak was as good last time and the kebabs were also very good.

For dessert, we got the Forest Berry Cobbler and the “Bananas Foster”.  Both were yummy, but Bob preferred the Cobbler and Julie preferred the BF. 

After dinner, we went to the Galaxy Lounge for the comedy show by John Joseph.  We had seen him before and he was a hoot.  His quick wit was incredible as he ad-libbed with the audience and mixed in some other joke material.  It was incredibly funny and we laughed almost the entire time.

Then it was time to call it a night.