Pacific Coast Cruise with Princess Cruises

We went on a cruise to celebrate J's graduation from BYU. We loved seeing all of the iconic sites in San Francisco, exploring Astoria, Oregon, and pretending to be locals in Victoria.

Also, can we talk about cruises for a second? We LOVED being able to relax on the boat, try all the delicious food available, and visit some fun places. Cruises are the best of all vacations put into one. Cruising with Princess Cruises was so fun too because they made us feel so welcome and the environment was super chill and relaxing.

Scroll down if you're looking for pictures and our recommendations on what to do in San Francisco, Astoria, and Victoria!

We shot this entire video using our iPhone 7's! The video quality of these phones is amazing!



Here's what we recommend doing in each place:

SAN FRANCISCO

• GO TO THE MUIR WOODS. It's so close and so beautiful. There are several hikes you can do in there and it's shaded and amazing. Also, you might get as lucky as we did and see deer! Apparently they don't bite, just in case you were wondering.
• Sausalito. Such a cute little town. We loved getting to walk around, explore, and eat delicious food. If you are looking for a good burger, go to Napa Valley Burger Company. It is the #1 Restaurant in Sausalito on TripAdvisor for a good reason.
• Pier39. Ok, this place was amazing! There are such fun little shops, fresh fruit, a carousel, and sea lions. Also, it's within walking distance from most of the cruise docking ports, so that's a plus.
• Musée Mécanique at Fisherman's Wharf. This is a warehouse full of old arcade games that were so cool! I never played arcade games growing up, so I felt like I was living my lost childhood there. (Just kidding mom, I had a great childhood!) We spent most of our extra cash just playing around on some classic games and some creepy-looking ones too. Haha.
• Lombard Street. 8 hairpin turns in 1 block. I had no idea this road existed, but it was so cool to see! I would definitely recommend renting a car if you're gonna do this one so you can drive down it. Or you can walk the stairs on the side like we did. Fair warning though: they aren't kidding when they say there are A LOT of hills in San Francisco. After eating dessert after basically every meal though, we didn't mind walking up to the road. We didn't quite make it up the actual road though. Haha.
• Excursions: There are some excursions that take you to most of these places so you can have more time explore! We did one that took us to the lookout point on the north end of the bay to see the Golden Gate bridge, the Muir Woods, and Sausalito. Super worth it.

ASTORIA

• Oregon Film Museum. J is such a film buff and this little museum has trivia on all of the fun movies filmed in Oregon. We didn't actually go in (haha) but if you love movies, especially movies like Goonies and Free Willy, this is a must.
• Astoria Column. This was AMAZING. I would highly recommend this. It's free to walk up to it and climb the actual column. The only fee associated with this is parking there, but if you buy the all day transit pass that they offer right when you get off the ship, there IS a bus that takes you up there. They don't advertise this very well though so we walked and it was SO STEEP. The views up there were so worth it though. On a clear day, you can even see the volcanoes! 
• Columbia River Maritime Museum. This is such a cool museum to visit. It's got so much maritime history and a cool little weatherman simulation. Also tons of fun information regarding the ocean and all its attributes.

VICTORIA

• Bike rental. PSA, there ARE bike rentals here and I would highly recommend them! We didn't realize this so we bought a bus pass to and from the boat which was fine, but there is nothing like biking around a city.
• Beacon Hill Park. This park is AMAZING. It was donated to the city on the condition that nothing could be sold on the premises and they've stuck it! It so beautiful and peaceful there. It was such a good place to spend the last afternoon of our cruise.
• Craigdarroch Castle. We walked to this castle (seems to be a pattern with us) but Victoria is fairly flat so this was a breeze in comparison to San Francisco and Astoria. There is so much history in this castle and it's served the city of Victoria well ever since its occupants left. I would highly recommend going.
• Downtown Victoria. I'm all about history and Downtown Victoria's got it! There's the Parliament building that is lit up at night, the Inner Harbour, Miniature World, and the Royal BC Museum (Canada's version of the Smithsonian). There's also a ton of shops that were so fun to explore.