Erva Remembers the Pasadena

My sister, Erva has these remembrances of our trip on the Pasadena.

"It is amazing the difference a few years can make.

"We did sail on down the Sacramento River, but from Stockton. That was the original embarkation point because the original ports of call did not include a stop in San Francisco, which would have been our most convenient boaring point. As it turned out, there was a perviously unscheduled half day stop in San Francisco to pick up a cargo of bulk rice. We could have gotten off the ship for a couple of hours, but did not because we had done our "last look" around the Bay area only a few days before with Uncle Ro and Aunt Mildred.

"Of course, the most amazing thing, to me, was steaming out of San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. We had certainly crossed it many times on our trips to and from Lake County, but I had never before seen it from quite that perspective.

"After San Francisco, we made another stop in Long Beach where we took on at least on holdful of baled cotton. We could have gotten off the ship there, but there really wasn't anything that we really wanted to see that we couldn't see from the deck - a rather ugly waterfront and a lot of oilwells.

"The third stop was San Diego and our wonderful visit to the zoo. I remember many of the animals, but the ones that most stuck in my nine-year-old brain were the rhinos - Sally and Butch. They were in separate but adjoining pens. Butch was getting his exercise by running up and down the length of his pen. He did so without stopping and it was as if he could make that 180 degree turn on a dime to head back in the opposite direction. The aviary was so wonderful - you walked inside and many of the birds were loose flying and perched in their areas in that huge cage. In some cases, you could actually touch the birds.

"As we headed toward Panama (even from as far back as Long Beach), we saw lots of porpoises and whales. It was a great time to be doing this trip for that reason. I can also remember, as we progressed further and further South, how the weather gradually warmed and we could get out of our scratchy winter clothes. By the time we got to Panama, we were in our summer wear.

"Would love to plot the actual distance. Our top speed was only 15 kph which is why it was such a deliciously long cruise.

"The two ladies - the younger was Swedish and the older was Danish. The Danish lady was the one with the be-ribboned little Teddy bear. It was these two ladies who taught me to play cribbage - one of many games we played during the trip. Jacks was especially interesting. With those sloped floors, if you didn't catch the ball, it would roll away all the way across the lounge and you'd have to go searching for it under whatever piece of furniture the ball encountered in its downhill travels.

"Don't remember his first name, but the ship was under the command of Captain Larsen. But then, as children, we would not have been privy to the first names of the adults.The Panama Canal! What a day that was - and night as Mom and Dad allowed me to stay up to watch the passing thought of the last lock and getting dumped into the Caribbean Sea. Lots of memories of that day.

"Of Curacao, I have very little memory other than we had to stay on board, the port was not very attractive, (but we did pick up another smaller cargo, but don't remember what it was), there were people on the pier who wanted us passengers to toss money to them (which we did not and got cursed at for not obliging them), and the only other thing was how amazingly flat the place was. We have always lived in hilly places - and this one was definitely NOT!"