Aquarium of the Pacific

While in Long Beach, Beth got us in to the Aquarium. It is walking distance from her place. It is amazing, all the vibrant colors of the fish. The sea dragons were my favorite. They look like floating sea weed. It was fun watching the divers go into the tank and feed the sharks, etc. Then we drove to the beach and saw a lighthouse and watched the sunset. All within 5 minutes from her house. It is such a different lifestyle than here in the desert. The ocean is magnificent. I could watch it for hours.

New Years (on the Queen Mary)

Happy New Year!! As many of you know my sister Beth is the Director of Sales on the Queen Mary in Long Beach. For Christmas she invited Doug and I to spend New Years on the ship with her. It was awesome! The ship has so much history. She got us tickets to the 5 dances on the different decks. The "Platters" were one of the bands. Each band had a different kind of music. It was a foggy, foggy night so I felt like I was on the Titanic. Kind of spooky. When we checked into our room (which still has the original from the 1930's fans, faucets and furniture) we were given hats and noise makers. We were treated to a fabulous buffet in one of the dining rooms. They had fireworks off the bow, but it was too foggy to see them. The next day she took us on a private tour of the ship. She has keys to every room, and we explored every nook and cranny.We got to go in the engine room and the boiler room and down to the very bottom of the ship. We saw the room where they still have the artwork and carpets and furniture from the original voyages. We saw the bunks of the servicemen who sailed on the ship during World War 2. We brought some things back for Luann to keep(because her Grandpa was one of the soldiers that sailed during 1944) Beth got us tickets to all the tours. I could spend hours talking about everything we saw.A lot of people have sighted ghosts on the ship, so I was hoping to see something but I didn't. The ship is over 1000 ft. long. The Titanic could fit inside the Queen Mary. I highly recommend you visit if you ever get to Long Beach. She also got us in to tour a Russian Submarine. I think that was Doug's favorite part of the weekend. The other 3 days we stayed at Beth's place and she took us all over Long Beach.