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!
Labels:

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.
26 July 2012 at 14:50
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!
26 July 2012 at 22:24
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trent Valley: Twyford, both ways

To complete my loop along the Dove Valley  from the mouth at Newton Solney up to Dovedale at Thorpe, across to Matlock on the Limestone Way , and back south along the Derwent Valley , I needed to walk one last section along the River Trent from Derwent Mouth to Repton. Originally I planned to do it in that direction. But for various reasons I ended up doing it the other way. The walk from Repton to Ingleby was completed weeks ago, at the beginning of June, and, for the sake of completeness, I also, later, walked from Findern to Twyford, on the other bank of the river. If I had done the walk sixty years or more ago, I could have crossed the river by ford or ferry at Twyford, and that would have been my most direct route home. the Trent at Twyford Walk 1: Repton to Ingleby Starting from the centre of Repton, I made my way out of the village and crossed the fields to Milton. Wystan Arboretum Milton The Trent Rivers Trust has been busy establishing the Trent Valley Way . This sect...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trent Valley: the march of the pylons

In the 1980s, the River Trent supplied the cooling water for fifteen coal-fired power stations, each one gobbling up coal from the local mines and quenching its heat with gallons of river water. The area was known as Megawatt Valley . As the 20th century gave way to the 21st, the mines closed, the coal trains stopped running, and the iconic cooling towers, one by one, fell to the ground. The high-voltage electricity lines which connected the stations to the grid are still there, however, and they dominated the walk I did today. The stately silhouettes of pylons stalked across the landscape, carrying fizzing power lines which sliced up the sky. At one point, I was within view of two of the remaining sets of cooling towers. Diving further back into history, I parked by Swarkestone Lock on the Trent & Mersey Canal, walked past St James' Church, and arrived at Swarkestone Bridge, a 14th-century causeway which still, remarkably, carries traffic today. It was famously the southernmos...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley: Exploring the Astons

It was the hottest day of the year so far, with a forecast high of 32°C, and I was setting out to walk around three places with very similar names: Elvaston, Alvaston, and Ambaston. I was mostly hoping they would be shady! I was expecting to park at Elvaston Castle Country Park, where there is pay and display parking, but I spotted a large layby in Elvaston village, which was not only free, but also shaded by a large hedge. This meant that I didn't walk through much of the country park. Instead I skirted the edges, passing the village hall, with its decorative windows, and approaching Elvaston Castle itself along an avenue of yew trees. Elvaston village hall yew avenue Elvaston Castle was built for the Earls of Harrington and sold to Derbyshire County Council in 1969. Unfortunately the council is struggling to find enough money to keep the building in a state of repair. The castle isn't open to the public, but the gardens are well worth a walk around. The estate church, St Bart...
Post a Comment
Read more