Skip to main content

California: Little Boat, Big Boat

Well, you got a little break there, due to Toby putting the laptop out of commission and Graham having his hip replaced.  The laptop is now better and the husband is getting better, so on with the saga!

We thought it would be kind of nice to venture out on to the Pacific Ocean, rather than just look at it from the shore, so we investigated our options.  The Channel Islands seemed like a pretty manageable trip, even with a one-year-old, so we booked a boat and hoped for fine weather.  The Channel Islands National Park encompasses five islands and the ocean around them, just off the coast of California.  Like many islands, they have some pretty incredible biodiversity, with many unique plants and animals.  It would have been great to stop off and see it close up, but actually staying on the island entails taking everything you might want with you.  With a toddler this always seems to involve everything bar the kitchen sink (actually, that could be handy too), so we decided to stick to the wildlife tour boat.

Dolphins and birds following the boat

The rock of Anacapa Island is liberally coated in guano
Sea arch and pillar behind, on Anacapa Island
This took us out to the closest of the islands, Anacapa Island, where we admired the rock formations and spotted sea lions basking on the shore.  We would have been very lucky to spot a whale, as they usually feed at the other end of the islands, but we were delighted to have dolphins jumping around us.

 
 

Graham enjoyed the scenery somewhat more than I, as, despite calm seas, I rapidly discovered that I get seasick!  I spent most of the three hour trip staring fixedly at the horizon and trying to persuade Toby that butting his head into my tummy wasn't the best thing to do right now.  He didn't seem affected by the motion, fortunately, and enjoyed splashing through the waves.  All that sea air tired him out, though!
 
Tired baby and mother

So that was the little boat.  The big boat really was at the other end of the scale!  For our final two nights in California we had got a good deal to stay on the Queen Mary, a 1930s cruise ship now permanently docked in Long Beach.  I have to say we were beginning to wonder about the wisdom of it - it would be our fourth lodging that holiday and offered none of the conveniences of your average cheapo Best Western.  No fridge, free breakfast, free wi-fi or free parking, and a suggestion that the room would be tiny.  Would we survive?

No, that's not a giant sun behind the Queen Mary, it's a dome which used to house the Spruce Goose flying boat.

On British territory (or at least British-built!)
But the moment we walked into our cabin, we were smitten.  There were actual portholes to look out of, and a 1950s style bathroom with big chunky taps, and plenty of space, and you could even, occasionally, feel the ship moving ever so slightly underneath you.

Ahoy there!

OK, so we had the car park view, but still - a porthole!

Endless corridors

Best of all, we had free rein to roam about all of the ship's public areas.  We happily explored from the heights of the bridge to the depths of the engine room, walking the long corridors which felt like being inside a hall of mirrors, pressing buttons in the walnut-paneled elevators, and imagining ourselves relaxing on the sun deck with no land in sight.  After my seasickness, though, you can imagine I was glad to remain firmly moored to terra firma!



One of the grand reception rooms


Long Beach lights from the Queen Mary
In the engine room.  Graham said it was a lot more complicated than a modern aero engine, because it was so many separate systems.

Hard a-port!

Comments

John Evens said…
Interesting, I didn't think I suffered from motion sickness too badly either, but a couple of recent experiences on boats and rollercoasters have convinced me otherwise. I'll be taking a pill from now on - it's not a fun feeling.
Martha said…
No, I never got seasick before, but the last time I was out of sight of land was probably crossing the channel in what? 1995 or something? It's been a while!

Popular posts from this blog

One hundred churches

About the middle of January, I was walking to school one afternoon when it occurred to me that I must have visited quite a few churches on my explorations. I started counting them. But I quickly ran out of fingers, so when I got home I plotted them on Google Maps. Not only was the number much higher than I was expecting, it was also tantalisingly close to one hundred. Only a few dozen to go. So of course, every walk since then has had to include at least one church! Last Monday I visited my hundredth church: St John the Baptist, Dethick. It was a beautiful little 13-century building with an unusual tower - I was glad it had claimed the 100 spot. I haven't been inside every church. Sometimes they were locked; sometimes I was in a hurry and didn't try the door. St Leonard's Church in Alton had bellringers practicing, and I almost interrupted a funeral when I stuck my head through the door of St Mary's, Marston-on-Dove. A few, such as St Oswald's, Ashbourne, and St Wys...

Derwent Valley Heritage Way: Steep drops ahead

It's been a long time since I fitted that much up and down into an eight-mile walk! 740m of steep climbs and steps. My legs were not very happy with me the next day. Between Matlock and Cromford, the Derwent River runs through a deep valley, with Matlock Bath - a landlocked town which pretends to be a seaside resort - down at the bottom. The ridge of high ground used to run all the way round to Scarthin Rock, cutting off Cromford from the rest of the valley, until somebody blasted a hole through it to build the A6. Matlock Bath: pavilion and amusement park I started in Cromford and climbed over the ridge at Harp Edge, then followed a path along through the woods, with the ground dropping sharply away to my right. There were a few small caves among the trees. At Upperwood someone had thoughtfully provided a bench. I wasn't in need of a rest just yet, though. In fact, I was feeling so bouncy that I went down an entirely unnecessary flight of steps, instead of staying on the reaso...

The Churnet Way: a wonderful walk

The loop from Oakamoor to Froghall and back was one of the most enjoyable walks I've done in a long time. It had a bit of everything: woods, ponds, rivers and railways; steep climbs and sweeping views; an unusual church, an ex-industrial wharf, and, as a final bonus, car parks with toilets. Of course, the sunny weather helped too. I parked in Oakamoor and set off along a quiet lane called Stoney Dale. This is the route of the Churnet Way, which deviates away from the river for a couple of miles. After a while I turned right and climbed up through the woods on a gravelly path, then dropped down to the B5417. a spring in Oakamoor   Crossing the road, I entered Hawksmoor Nature Reserve. It has some fine gateposts commemorating John Richard Beech Masefield, "a great naturalist". I found a photo of the opening of the gateway in 1933; unsurprisingly, the trees have grown a lot since then! A track took me down through the woods to East Wall Farm. Lovely view! Nice duck pond as ...