Bon Voyage! Finally aboard the Mariner of the Seas

  A bit chilly and windy this morning! Checked out of the hotel and got to San Pedro pier early. They certainly have check-in down to the letter. Hardly any waiting but a pretty intense secuirty check.   No pat downs but lots of looking in luggage, etc.  I guess they have to make sure you're not bringing your own alcohol aboard. Day 1 aboard the ship was a typical first day - got lost a few times, went the wrong way in the hall and had to backtrack to my cabin...nothing unusual.  Did some exploring and found lots of interesting spots to revisit later.  And for my friends who know me too well, I did make it to dinner the first night! 

 Here's some photos of my cabin.  Small but it will be my home for the next week.  I did have a couch in my room and the balcony does make the room seem larger.

The crew had the ship buffed and immaculate for our arrival. After boarding and checking out my cabin, I had the first of many lunches in the Windjammer where fruit and veggie carvings were displayed.

Did some relaxing  and unpacking the rest of the day. Tomorrow will be another relaxing day since it's a day at sea. Around 5:00 pm, the pilot boat escourted  the Mariner of the Seas out of San Pedro Harbor.  Wish you were here....enjoy the pictures.

Universal Studios

          

                                 

 Day 2 of my LA adventure found me taking the LA Subway, (yes, LA has a subway - a very nice one in fact) to Universal Studios.   "The Red Line" runs from Union Station through downtown LA to North Hollywood.   It takes about 30 minutes to make the trip with numerous stops along the way.  There are other "lines" running to various LA areas but these are light rail rather than subway lines.  The transportation grid is very easy to figure out and utilize.

  

Universal Studios is sort of a small amusement park with some rides, shows and lots of food vendors based on TV Shows and Movies.   

  

But,  the back lot tour is worth the price of admission. The tour is well over an hour long. You ride in a tram and visit all sorts of lots and sound stages where movies and TV shows are/were filmed. It is really interesting that they only build what they need so a lot of the houses and city buildings are merely house/store fronts only. 

 Wisteria Lane where Desparate Housewives is filmed is a street of house fronts. The rest of the filming occurs on the sound stages in buildings like Building 50 below.

 

Saw lots of examples of special effects - rain, flooding streets, King Kong 3-D, experienced a subway during an earthquake and saw a staged plane crash site. All very interesting but I don't think I'll look at TV shows and movies the same way again!  Also saw famous cars from Magnum PI and Knight Rider.

 

 

And remeber Jaws and the sleepy town of Amity Island?

 

  

And, of course, there are always characters roaming the park looking to make new friends.

Ended the day with a very yummy dinner at Wokcano around the corner from my hotel.  Time to pack  - up early tomorrow morning to board the ship!  Bon Voyage!

Hello LA - Happy Thanksgiving

Had an uneventful but unusual flight to LA on Thanksgiving Day.  The flight attendant played games with the passengers to see if they were paying attention when she spoke.  Lucky me - I won a bottle of wine because I remembered she said her name was Vickie.  At one point, she told the passengers how many miles we would be traveling and at another point, she told the passengers how many hours it would take to get to LA.  An 11 year old correctly guessed the MPH, but she couldn't give him a bottle of wine so he got to pick items off the "Food for Purchase" menu.  A Bloody Mary and a nap later we arrived in LA.

Boy did I have the wrong impression of LA.  I always thought it was smoggy, crowded and dirty but boy was I wrong.  I certainly would make a return trip to LA.  The Downtown area is nice and is also the home of the U.S. Bank Tower (first pic above).  It's 73 stories tall towering above the rest of LA and it's also the tallest building West of the Mississippi.  It can also withstand an 8.3 earthquake (but I sure wouldn't want to be on the 73rd floor during one). On Friday morning I took an all day tour of LA and the tour guide said the U.S. Bank Tower has been used in movies, Independence Day for instance.  . The first stop on the tour was Venice Beach (pic above) also once known as Muscle Beach - that's where Arnold, the governor of CA competed in body building contests.  No contests going on while we were there but check out the gorgeous blue sky in the picture above!  There are also lots of vendors selling their wares.  I thought the "Botox on the Beach" sign was funny. 

Next stop was Rodeo Drive for some sightseeing....definitely no shopping.  Lots of people window shopping; not many were carrying bags.  The Miss Teen USA pagent was being held in Anaheim and the contestants were taking a tour of LA.  I couldn't find Miss Ohio so Miss Minnesota  and Miss Wisconsin were more than happy to pose for pictures.  

Off to Beverly Hills where we saw the homes of many stars both in BelAir and Beverly Hills.  It looked like Elizabeth Taylor was having a party - lots of cars and guests but no star sightings.  Above are the homes of George Clooney (first pic above) and Mohammad Ali  (second pic above).  We drove past the home of  Nancy Reagan but there's not much to take pictures of as the home is hidden behind fences and hedges....and a Secret Service outpost. After driving through the areas, I do feel for the celebrities living there -  so many cars and lots of traffic on narrow winding roads.  The homes are nice but we have areas in Cincinnati that are just as nice or nicer but without the Beverly Hills address. 

Next was lunch at Farmer's Market then off to Hollywood. to see the sights -  The Hollywood Sign (from a distance), the Walk of Fame, The Kodak Theater (where the Oscars are held), and Grauman's Chinese Theatre with the handprints and footprints of the stars on the sidewalk.  You know, for a mere $12,000, you can have a star on the Walk of Fame!

Well, that about does it for Day 1 in LA.  Tomorrow, I think I hear Universal Studios calling my name.