THE TRIP INTO LONG BEACH
We’re heading on down to Long Beach, 74 miles away, today to stay overnight on the Queen Mary, tour it and visit the Long Beach Aquarium. Last summer, I had read that Long Beach had not only redone its harbor area after the Naval base closed years ago but had opened these two as prime attractions here. We checked and, lo and behold, there is an RV campground on the harbor also but they require 2 months minimum stay and we turned it down. We have now checked this campground out, realized that we could fill 2 months in the LA area and might stay there next year. However, one needs to make a reservation a year in advance AND one must also drive ones motor home into the Long Beach area. Hmmm. Might make me think twice about this.
Meanwhile, we headed into town. We have a new GPS, a Garmin, which also has traffic updates. As we were heading south on Interstate 405, we heard an unfamiliar beep, saw a little drawing of two cars in red and heard the dulcet tones of the GPS telling us that there was a slowdown ahead and it was calculating a new route for us to avoid it. Gulp, we said, do we trust this thing? Well, took a chance and exited. Soon we were winding through streets up and down the canyons, but we were moving steady and now and then we could glimpse the freeway which was now a huge parking lot. Giggling in glee, we moved on and soon the GPS directed us back to the freeway just beyond the bottleneck, and we scooted along! Ain't new technology great? (at least when it works).
The Long Beach is not only the 2nd busiest container port in the US but it is also the 5th busiest in the world. Nearly 1/2 of all manufactured goods that enter and leave the US pass through this bay. Mountains and mountains of containers are piled there waiting to be loaded on to ships or onto trucks. As we turned south on the interstate toward the port of Long Beach where the Queen Mary is moored, we noticed that the truck traffic had increased considerably, on both sides of the highway. The port facility is like a minuet with trucks, ships and containers all moving in their patterened steps to get the goods where they are supposed to go. Some goods are coming into the states and some good are leaving. And, cranes are everywhere.
We found the Queen Mary, parked, ‘boarded’, got our room and our tour tickets and headed out to the Aquarium which we planned to see in the afternoon. But first, I had to get a picture of the Long Beach skyline from our porthole. A little blurry but it’s through 1” safety glass that was installed in 1936 and has been across the ocean numerous times.
THE AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC
The Aquarium of the Pacific is quite a marvelous aquarium. It has a collection of over 11,000 animals and three major galleries: sunny Southern California and the Baja, the frigid waters of the Northern Pacific and the colorful reefs of the South Pacific. However the theme was evident in every exhibit: conservation and stewardship. The Arctic/Antarctic exhibit explained results of global warming (gleciers are melting and water levels are rising), one exhibit talked about how the oceans are being polluted by everything that flows into them from our rivers, another exhibit has displays on water usage and conservation and there were other exhibits in the same vein.
The shark feeding exhibit reiterated this theme by telling us that humans are more dangerous to sharks than sharks are to humans. Sharks are often victims of ‘finning’ where they are caught, definned and thrown back into the ocean to die.
One type of exhibit the Aquarium had that I haven’t seen before is the myriad of touching areas. In one were many jellyfish that you could touch, another one had rays that you could touch, in the Lorikeet forest you were able to purchase some sugar water to tempt the Lorikeets to perch on your arms.
The rays were so smooth, like velvet while the jellies were like touching very soft jelly (natch).
We met Lola the Cocatoo, who can both ask and answer the question: ‘What kind of bird are you?’ ‘Cocatoo’ she says. The trainer told us that cocatoos were the most ‘gotten rid of pet’ since they live to be 100 but are like a 4-year old: they need attention. Leave one alone for very long and your curtains will be shredded.
We saw the sea lion show where Parker ran through his tricks and then waved good-bye to us.
Well, isn’t it a bit cruel to teach tricks to sea lions as if they’re in a circus? Well, this keeps them active both physically and mentally, just like humans.
The corals were colorful and constantly moving in the water.
I was interested to learn that the Aquarium withdrew its advertising from the Rush Limbaugh show on March 8 after his comments about Sandra Fluke who testified in Congress.
Fun and educational place to visit but it was closing and we were hungry. We walked over to Islands, a nearby restaurant where we could order burgers and fries - ENDLESS FRIES - that caught our eye. And, they had sweet potatoe fries - very good. Well, I couldn’t order a regular burger - I had the veggie burger. If I’m going to sin with endless fries, I’ve got to make up for it somehow.
How can a salad have 1200 calories? You think you’re eating something good and you get blindsided like this.
Afterwards we walked back over to the Queen Mary. As we crossed the bridge, we could see her all 'dressed up'.
We showered and usually I don’t talk about our showers but this was something special. In the shower we had a 2 faucet handles for cold and hot salt water (though these had been de-commissioned) and a button for a steward and one for a stewardess. We were told in our tours the next day that this was if a passenger wanted to be dried off after a shower. Huh? Are you telling me that I could push the button for a steward? What kind of ship was this anyway? No, actually, I’m not kidding about the use of the buttons. Press the button and a light would light up ourside your room depending upon who you wanted: a steward or a stewardess. Unfortunately, I was deprived of the chance to see if I could summon a steward - the buttons didn’t work anymore.
And, about the bathtub, it was so curved at the bottom that neither Gary nor I could stand upright easily. Death-defying bathtub. We felt like we were in a trough. Imagine standing in one of these tubs during a storm at sea. Luckily they had a handle on the wall to hold on to.
We were also puzzled by the heat ducts. The room was a bit chilly when we returned so we turned these to get some heat in our room. Nope, they didn’t work either. So I called the front desk and Jessica told me that she would call Engineering and they would turn it on. Sure enough, a few minutes later we heard a whoosh and warm air was flowing into our room. Shortly afterwards, an ‘engineer’ came to the door to see it we had heat now.
After our showers, we took the opportunity to walk around the ship and marvel at its design and appointments. Here’s Gary enjoying a cup of coffee.
Here’s are some plants and a mirrow on a stairway landing. And, the hallway where our room is.
Here’s the promenade deck which ran the length of the ship. 4 times around equals a mile. And, the elevator bank.
Note all of the carpeting. This, along with curtains and bedding are not original to the ship. Originally, the ship had wooden floors - much easier to keep clean during rough seas.
Of course, all of these pictures are from the original first class section where a one-way passage cost $1400 in the 1930’s when the ship was commssioned and an average weekly salary was $30. That would be about $14,000 now. Second class passage was $720 while third class passage was $330. Obviously most of the passengers were wealthy and most of the ship was devoted to them. They had approx 1/2 of the ship while the 2nd and 3rd has about 1/4 each. If someone from 2nd and 3rd were visiting a 1st class passenger, they had to leave for meals since they could only eat in their own dining rooms.
Elizabeth Taylor sailed on the Queen 7 times with her 60 pieces of luggage and was the first to bring her dogs into the actual living areas rather than keeping them in the kennel. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor sailed often, Winston Churchill, Clark Gable, Bob Hope, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, everyone who was anyone sailed on the Queen Mary.
And finally to sleep. We’ve got two tours of the ship tomorrow. You know, this is more than a fancy hotel, it is a piece of history. This was the way to travel across the oceans in the 30’s and 40’s. And, it only took 4 or 5 days. In fact the Queen Mary was the fastest ship afloat for a long time, and it is certainly faster than any cruise ship today.
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