Well, I’ve tried at least two things I would never have normally done today. One was a success, and the other was sort of gross. Would not recommend the fish steak.
This morning we woke up at the unreasonable hour of four in the morning starving, and wide awake. Starving because we stupidly figured the sun going down meant it was dinner time (forgetting of course that it is indeed winter here) so yesterday we’d had dinner at 5pm; we were wide awake as we ended up crashing at 8pm the night before. So we finished watching Stranger Things Season 2 which distracted us till breakfast which started at 8am.
The air B&B we’re staying in does, in fact, come with its own complimentary breakfast, one I was a little worried might be a dozen apples in a basket but thankfully it wasn’t. Sugary cereal, boiled eggs, tea, coffee, and white bread with any number of bizarre sounding and intriguing spreads is what awaited us. We cobbled together something edible and scoffed down at least three portions of it.
Yesterday we had rung up Rod – one of Neil, Callum’s Dad’s friend. He was headed down to Long Beach today and was offering us a lift down there. So we decided to tag along. We met Rod, Rob, and a man whose name I completely missed but I think it was Noddy, or Bobby, or Robby. Together we set out to apparently go see The Queen Mary, a lavish decommissioned 1936 ocean liner that has now been turned into a hotel and attraction. The whole thing had a gorgeous Art Deco feel about it, and it sort of felt like we’d accidentally stumbled onto the Titanic’s sister ship. This was something I never would’ve thought of doing, but I really enjoyed the experience. I might have the timeline a bit off but from what I read the ship was a cruise liner during the 30s, and come WWII it was stripped back and made into a transportation vessel for soldiers. After the war it was restored to its former glory and was back on the ocean, then come the 60s the popularity died down as the ocean liner was seen as an opulence of the past. So now it sits at Long Beach like a strange doorway to the past. It’s a little mindboggling standing in the engine room and picturing someone designing it, and then having to build it.
We were on the ship for quite a while, wandering around, taking an odd ghost tour (where we were ghost hunters and had to take photos of reflective surfaces around the ship to see if we can find shadowy figures in the background of the photos. Very weird), and watching a small 4-D video about the ocean. Then we headed on over to the Yard House where Callum and I accidentally ordered a fish “steak sandwich” which I will not be doing again if I can manage it. Who knew “Ahi” was a kind of fish and not just some fancy steak.
That was basically our whole day. We did have a plan for the evening but it sort of got aborted. Coming back to the hotel we were going to go out and see a movie after a quick nap but alas I think Callum must’ve either not gone to sleep, or had woken up a while ago as for some reason he decided the best way to wake me up was to pry my eyelids open. Naturally this didn’t go down to well and we did not end up going to the movies, I did though end up going back to sleep. So another lazy night for us. Since we didn’t manage to get to Venice Beach today that’s going to be tomorrow mornings adventure. Tonight we will just be attempting to stay awake late enough that hopefully 4am won’t be our starting time tomorrow.
Over and out
Rachel
Travel Bee 