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STAGE 17 LOS ANGELES -Long Beach. |
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| Monday 29th January 2001 |
| Since the
City Rail station was across the road from the hotel we
decided we'd head for Long Beach without a guide. Left
about 9:30am... got to sleep in again... oh glory!! Got
into the station and looked around for a ticket seller...
NO HUMAN... only a machine. We had no idea what to do or
how to get our tickets. A couple of people were coming
down the stairs and I chose the one we'd ask. This guy
was really helpful and went out of his way to make sure
we knew how to operate the machine and make sure we got
the right tickets. He made sure we got off at the right
stop to change lines. We arrived in Long Beach around an hour later and didn't feel at all uncomfortable travelling on the train. Discovered a "Red Bus' that was free and dropped us off wherever we wanted. So we "hit" the Queen Mary first. It was not different to how I remember it 27 years ago except that they charged more to get on board and they had ramps built from which to enter the vessel. Quite frankly, I didn't think much of the 1st Class cabins or the furnishings... even for that era... didn't look all that luxurious to me. We had a snack before heading off for the Aquarium. Jared was encouragiing the pigeons and spoarrows to come share our meal... so we made him sit at another table *S* I didn't fancy the birds crapping all over MY food. The aquarium was fantastic, I loved the way some of the tanks were set up to simulate the waves ebbing and flowing because the fish in that particular tank didn't send their lives in "still" water. They thought of everything. The fish on disply were every bit as colourful as the fish here on the Great Barrier Reef. In fact there were some I'd never ever seen before. Jared just loved it. We had dinner in an Italian Restaurant that Mum had spied as we got off the train. It was right next to the terminal. The food was fantastic and I had the biggest prawns I'd ever seen in my life... cooked to perfection, and a perfect sized portion... I even had room for dessert *S* We found our way home OK and arrived back about 8pm, safe and sound. Decided we'd get the Greyhound bus tomorrow to go to Tijuana and give the tour a miss. I couldn't see me getting Mum and Jared in Anaheim by 9am to catch a tour bus. |
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