A Day With the Queen

We spent the day doing some sightseeing while the daughter rehearsed with the All Southern California Honor Band. I haven't been aboard the Queen Mary for many, many years, so we thought we'd give it a try.

I had read recently that the Queen is in big financial trouble, and that becomes obvious when you get aboard her. Number one, all the ticket booths were closed except one window that it felt like we had to walk a mile to get to. Once on board the ship none of the escalator were working, including the huge one which was supposed to take us from the dock level to the promenade deck where the self-guided tour was to start. We had to hike that thing, which was no fun.

Once you stagger up to the upper decks you have a great view of downtown Long Beach and the harbor area.

We wandered around the ship for awhile, ate lunch, and the boy went on the "Ghosts and Legends" tour (which was disappointing), and spent a few minutes up on the bow of the ship. Here Anne poses for a shot with the Queen (I couldn't get her to do the "I'm the Queen of the World!" thing.)

After leaving the ship we headed over to the Home and Backyard show at the Convention Center. Big disappointment. The show at the Anaheim Convention Center is much larger and much more elaborate. This one reminded me of the home products building at the County Fair with desperate salesmen on all sides. I did see one interesting product: the world's ugliest toilet and unfortunately matching sink:
You KNOW you need one of those.

It's starting to rain so we're going to hang out at the hotel for awhile until it's time to pick up the girl. More later.