November 27 - Long Beach and Thelma and Louise Ride again!

We had two sea days since sailing from Cabo and as usual there were lots of activities to keep us busy.  We had our last two trivia days.  We won the first of the days but didn’t do so well on the last day and didn’t win the cumulative prize either. Oh well, it is only a game.  Last night most of the members of the team gathered for dinner in the Colonnade and we laughed a lot.  I’ve noticed that when a group of us get together like that we get a lot of somber looks from other tables around us.  I am going to choose to believe that they’re not disapproving, but rather they are sorry they’re not having as much fun as we are. We had to say good-bye to a couple of friends whose cruise was ending in California.  That was sad, but I know we’ll sail together again sometime in the future.

This morning we arrived in Long Beach and after going through Customs and Immigration again my great day began.  My friend Judy picked me up and we headed off for a lovely day.  Judy and I met years ago, first on a Princess transatlantic cruise (the last one Al and I did).  Actually, that’s wrong.  We did a madcap, spur of the moment, flying trip – Judy from California and me from Virginia – to Syracuse where we rented a car and went to lunch in Kingston, Ontario. Sounds mad, doesn’t it?  The explanation is too long to go into here, but at  the airport in Syracuse, NY was the first time we’d ever laid eyes on each other and we had a great time meeting other new friends in Canada.  We crossed paths again a year later when Katie and I were beginning a cruise in Venice and Judy was getting off the ship we were boarding.  We had dinner at a place along the Grand Canal.  We’ve stayed in touch and both of us have experienced the loss of someone we loved in those years.

Look what I found! A photo from our dinner in Venice.

Anyway,  Judy took me on a tour through downtown Long Beach (which is very pretty) and then past the ports of Long Beach and San Pedro (they are so big I couldn’t believe it!).  We drove first to Judy’s condo.  She has a lovely place with a fantastic view of the Pacific. The view beats the forest I see out my windows.  We then carried on and Judy took me into the Trump National Golf Club which is situated on a spectacular piece of land overlooking the ocean.  Putting politics aside anyone who sees this place has got to acknowledge that he knows what he’s doing in terms of real estate.  I was excited to see it.  

Entrance to the clubhouse

A few from the terrace of the clubhouse

We drove along the coast through Palos Verdes through an interesting and very tragic area. It’s called Portuguese Bend and is part of the Palos Verde peninsula.  It is suffering major landslides which I have seen reported on news back home in Virginia.  From what I’ve read, historically there were slides in the area as long as a couple of hundred thousand years ago.  The current slides were evidently exacerbated by the construction of a road back in the 1950’s which contributed to destabilizing the ground there.  During that period 140 homes were destroyed or displaced.  In the ensuing years there have been episodes of slides, but beginning in the spring of 2023 the movement became far worse.  What was once a flat road is now a roller coaster ride which the city of LA and state of California are having to patch daily. Since September of this year more than 200 homeowners have had to evacuate their homes because the landslides are moving at a rate of three-quarters to a foot a week! Utilities have been turned off in the impacted areas for safety reasons.  The sight of hillsides which have crumbled away is incredible.  The tragedy is compounded by the fact that the people who own those homes have mortgages to pay and insurance doesn’t cover the losses from landslides.  Hence, people are seeing what is most families’ biggest asset crumble away, while still having to make payments.  For the homes not yet condemned, clearly there aren’t going to be buyers so people are stuck. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to have owned one of those homes with a great view of the ocean and watch it crumble away.

The warning is really warranted!

Imagine a house built on a hillside that looks like this.

We drove past Portuguese Bend and drove into a beautiful resort called Terranea also along the coast.  Judy told me the property used to be the location of Marine World.  We stopped and I took a couple of photos from the main building.  There were some low-lying clouds and a little marine layer of fog otherwise I would have been able to see Catalina Island. The resort was beautiful with lush flowers and palms and a lot of fountains.  It looked busy with people checking in for the holiday weekend.  It actually reminded me a lot of Kingsmill because the property includes buildings with both guest rooms and condos, just add palm trees and a view of the ocean instead of the James River. 

The view from the terrace at Terranea wasn't too shabby either.

The main entrance at the resort

It was time for lunch and Judy took me to the original Red Onion Restaurant in the Rolling Hills Estates section of Palos Verdes.  The family has been in the Mexican food business for four generations and this particular place opened its doors more than 60 years ago.  I thought what I had in Cabo the other day was good, but this was even better!  The homemade chips and salsa were amazing (so was the margarita) and the crisp beef taco was incredible.  Usually crispy taco shells crack and fall apart when you pick them up to eat them.  I don’t know what trick they used, but this one stayed intact.  Thank you Judy for a wonderful lunch!

Thelma and Louise (AKA Judy and Ann)

After lunch we headed back toward Long Beach.  On our way we drove into the port of San Pedro so I could see the battleship  USS Iowa docked there. During WWII  she served first in the Atlantic,  carrying FDR to Algeria where he continued on to Tehran to meet with Churchill and Stalin.  She was then moved to the Pacific to participate in the landings on several islands in the campaign there.  The Iowa served in the Korean War after which she was deactivated for a time until being recommissioned in the 1980’s when Reagan instituted the 600 ship Navy plan to counter the Soviet Union’s naval expansion.  I remember when in 1989 she suffered an explosion in one of her gun turrets resulting in the deaths of 47 sailors while on an exercise in the Caribbean. A year later she was decommissioned and due to the efforts of people who had served on her she was eventually moved to San Pedro where she is a museum open to the public. She is an impressive sight with her array of guns.

I didn't take this photo; I stole it from the net but it's what we saw.

Then it was time for me to get back to the Quest.  I had a wonderful day seeing parts of California I’d never seen before, but the best part was seeing a friend after so many years.  One of the things I love most about cruising is the friendships I’ve made along the way. In so many ways the travels I’ve done have made my life richer.  I plan to continue doing that as long as I'm able because there are more things to see and learn and people to meet.  Tonight we've sailed and are on our way to Hawaii.  The foghorn has been soundiing for a while so that fog over Catalina must have spread.