A Trip Down Memory Lane – Day 15

Just like this, another cruise and another holiday were over. I always find it hard to get off a ship and fly straight home. At least we were not due to fly out until the evening and I had one last thing to look forward to. We had set the alarm for 07:00. When the alarm went off, we got up and ready. I packed the last odds and ends into the hand luggage while Graham got the magnets in. Then we headed down to the dining room for breakfast.

 

The dining room was relatively empty, and we ended up with a table by the window. We both had coffee, water, and orange juice. Graham started with the seasonal fruit plate and some oatmeal. I had a strawberry granola parfait. We both had a cooked breakfast as well. Graham had he Express Breakfast, which consisted scrambled eggs, bacon, smoked link sausages, hash brown, and white toast. I had Eggs Your way, which consisted of fried eggs, smoked sausage links, hash brown, and white toast. I also had a side of cheddar cheese grits. Everything was delicious.

 

We thought we were being clever. Our departure lounge was in the dining room one deck up. There is an internal staircase in the dining room, and we were going to use this to go upstairs. However, we were stopped and had to go the long way round. When we got upstairs, we realised why. It was absolute chaos up there. I don’t know what had gone wrong, but even the people who were carrying off their own luggage had still not been able to get off the ship and no departure groups had been called. I started to worry that Alison would arrive before we were even off the ship even though I had factored in a little bit of a buffer. Eventually people who were doing the self-disembark where called followed in short order by the first four groups. We were in group 26. However, shortly after those first groups were called, one of the crew members who was doing crowd control came to check our baggage tag. She asked us if we were ready to go, which we were. She then sent us to the end of a rather long line, and we were escorted through some crew only areas to where they were scanning people off the ship. The line for that was also pretty long, but moved steadily. Once we were off the ship, everybody seemed to be heading to the lifts. I have never seen so many people carrying off their own luggage. I suppose a lot of people are local on those cruises and just want to get going as soon as possible. With everybody heading for the lift, there was hardly anybody heading for the entrance to the escalators. When we got to the baggage hall, there were plenty of staff around to direct us to the right area or our luggage tag. We found our suitcases very quickly. We then found another long line for immigration, but this was moving quite quickly. We encountered something new. They have biometric kiosks at the port. I did not even need my passport. The kiosk just took a photo and then turned green. For Graham, this did not work for some reason. He was directed to a counter and the immigration official there just had a quick look at the passport and sent Graham on his way.

 

As well as everything is organized inside the terminal, outside the terminal is a different matter. There were a lot of people milling around and nobody had any idea where to go. We had expected that there would be some signposts as soon as we got outside, but there was nothing and nor was there anybody who we could ask. Eventually somebody who worked for the port came by and advised us we needed to go to the area with the sign for the second terminal where there was a pickup area for ride share services and friends and families. I messaged Alison to advise her that we were by the sign for berth 93. She messaged me back that she was still at the other end of the port and there was a lot of traffic. Graham made use of the time for a quick pit stop. While he was gone. Ken and Laurie came by, and I got the chance to say goodbye once again.

 

It suddenly struck me that I had no idea what kind of car Alison was driving. There were a lot of cars around. I left the luggage with Graham, who was keeping out of the way. I positioned myself right in front of the of the sign for berth 93 near the kerb. About 20 minutes after I had messaged Alison our location, she pulled up. I said “hi” to her and then I retrieved Graham and our luggage. We loaded everything in the car and then we were on our way. Fortunately, there was not as much traffic leaving the port than entering. Alison asked us what we wanted to do. We were quite happy to be guided by her. Graham suggested that it would be nice to check out the Queen Mary. We headed there, but they seemed to set up for some kind of festival and it was not obvious where the access for the parking was as the normal access was blocked. It also was not obvious if the Queen Mary was even open. We decided to abandon that idea.

 

Alison drove around some of the historical neighbourhoods of Long Beach including the peninsula pointing out various landmarks. As we are both interested in history and architecture, we enjoyed this very much. After a while, Alison suggested to head to her house to use the bathroom and to regroup. I had previously visited Alison at home in 2015 and I still have very fond memories of the afternoon spent there. Alison has cats and I have always been a cat person. Unfortunately, the cat I spent the most time with in 2015 has now crossed rainbow bridge, but she still has some cats that I had met then. One of those decided that Graham was going to be his new best buddy. Graham is a little weary of cats in general, but he and Milo definitely hit it off. He even wondered if Alison would notice if he smuggled Milo into his suitcase. I got some cat snuggles as well. In between spending some quality time with the kitties, we made plans. Alison suggested that we may enjoy Exposition Park, which is home to a number of different museums. She mentioned that the California Science Centre is home to the space shuttle Endeavor, but she was not sure if this was on display as they were in the process of building a new dedicated exhibition space for this. I was all for this. I am fascinated by everything that flies and seeing the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Centre in 2016 was a huge highlight for me. Graham was up for this, too. With this decided, we headed back to the car and headed towards Los Angeles.

 

Finding the access to the car park for the California Science Centre was not a mean feat. To start with, there is a lot of construction going on in the area. Not only are they building the extension that will  house the space shuttle Endeavor, but the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which hopefully will open sometime next year, is also being built in the area. On top of this, they were filming a movie in the area leading to diversions of traffic. We left the area and took a lap of honour. This time we found the diversion that was leading to the California Science Centre. We found a spot that was quite close to the entrance and got parked. Then we headed inside. The California Science Centre is so large that it actually contains escalators. It is also incredibly disjointed meaning that we saw a fraction of what there is to see. What we did see, we really enjoyed. We headed straight to the Air and Space Zone. From childhood, I have been fascinated by anything that flies. I figured that I was going to be in my element. However, as far as aviation goes, this was a little thin on the ground, there were two replicas of historical planes. Apparently, there are some fighter planes outside, which we missed, but this is not really my scene anyway.

 

The space section however was amazing. There are three different exhibitions in that area. Stars and Telescopes consisted of a variety of space telescopes through the ages. Mission To The Planets showcased range of satellites, space probes and rovers. The largest area was Humans in Space. In this area were a selection of space suits, three different space craft and some of the equipment that is used on space crafts. This was utterly fascinating. There were a lot of interactive elements as well, making this a lot of fun. 

 

The next area along was Ecosystems. There was a film showing a range of different eco systems on a huge screen. This was followed by exhibits showcasing the different eco systems. As the California Science Centre is so disjointed, we did not find all the exhibits in this area. What we did find though was interesting. Kelp Forest consisted of a huge tank with kelp that was also home to leopard sharks, horn sharks, moray eels, giant sea bass, rockfish, spiny lobsters, and anemones. Rock Shores featured a touch tank with all kinds of creatures. We just passed through there. Island Zone had some contraption in the middle of the exhibit where you had to try to get ping pong balls to an island. Graham and Alison had a go, but I thought this looked far too complicated. I was more interested in the aquariums with tropical fish.

 

We then moved on to what we had really come for. The space shuttle Endeavour was in a different building. I was surprisingly empty over there. People were coming and going, but there were times when there were just the three of us. There was a film about Endeavour’s journey to the California Science Centre. Endeavour was in the centre of the room. Around the walls was a potted history of the space shuttle history, which was both informative and moving. It was just an amazing experience. We have had a few impulse experiences on our travels over the years, but if somebody would have suggested that an encounter with a space shuttle was on our bingo card for this trip, I would have said they were crazy. We caught this at the right time, too. Endeavour is now no longer on public view, and it will be a number of years until it will be on show once again in its new purpose-built facility.

 

When we had seen everything, we wanted to see, we decided it is time for some lunch. Alison asked us if we had any preferences. We asked for something we cannot readily get at home. She suggested Canter’s Deli. Canter’s Deli is a Jewish deli that has been a Los Angeles institution since 1931. We were up for this. This is not an area of Los Angeles where tourists would have any reason to be. Even if we had been in this area, I very much doubt we would have even given this a second glance. It just is not the kind of place that would draw the casual passer-by in. However, the food was really something very special. I was a bit torn about what to choose. I knew instantly what I wanted, but there was a dessert that really called out to me, and I know I would not manage both. Alison asked if I wanted to split a main and I took her up on the offer. We split a Pastrami Reuben, which consisted of grilled pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, and Russian dressing on grilled rye bread. This came with steak fries and pickles and was absolutely delicious. Graham had the Philly cheese steak, which consisted of season grilled steak, sautéed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, Jack cheese on French roll with steak fries. He also enjoyed this. Alison and I had dessert, but Graham passed. Alison had some Russian coffee cake, and I had the poppy seed strudel. I grew up with all kinds of poppy seed cakes and pastries and for me, this is the taste of my childhood. It was quite a large piece and very rich, but I could not bear to even leave a crumb behind. This definitely was a find.

After lunch, we took the scenic route to the airport. Alison pointed out various landmarks along the way and it was nice to get some extra time to just chat and catch up. The satnav directed us to the back gate of the terminal, and we had to backtrack a little. We had plenty of time and it was not a problem. This was just as well. When we did get close to the terminal, it was absolute chaos. It was a good idea to take shuttles, taxis and ride share services out of the equation, but there was still too much traffic in front of the terminal. We got stuck behind a bunch of crew busses and they seemed to take forever to unload. Eventually, a spot at the kerb opened up. We unloaded quickly and said goodbye to Alison. Then we headed inside the terminal. Hopefully it won’t take as long this time until we see Alison again.

 

Even with the detour and the congestion outside the terminal, we got there very early. We checked the screens and the check in area for our flight was already listed. This time round, we headed straight to the business class check in. We only had a very short wait. We had brought some water, but we had not drunk much of this during the day. We found some seats and finished the water. Then we had quick pit stop before heading to security. The line for security was huge, but it was well organised and moved quickly. Soon we were through, and we headed straight to our gate. We were the first people there.

 

I left Graham at the gate with our hand luggage and went exploring. I looked at a few shops, but there was nothing that caught my eye. I went back to where Graham was sitting and read for a while. At some stage somebody came around with a survey and as we had nothing better to do, we filled it in. One thing that I cannot understand looking back is how I resisted the Starbucks that was right behind me. I should think the draw of the chestnut praline latte would have been too strong. I must still have been too full of lunch. With about 30 minutes left to go until boarding, we took turns having another bathroom stop. Soon after Graham was back, they started boarding.

 

We were flying on an Airbus A380 this time and I had managed to snag two seats together on the upper deck. They had a great set up. I had the window seat and there was a compartment next to it to store your personal item. This was such a great addition. Boarding was completed in record time,and we were soon on our way. Once we were at cruising altitude, we were offered drinks. Graham had some sauvignon blanc, and I had a gin and tonic. I put on an old favourite, Pitch Perfect. Graham fell asleep pretty soon. I had some dinner. I had some barbecue chicken with rice, peas, sweetcorn, and beans. I was not sure about the starter, but I had the cheese and crackers and also the chocolate dessert.

After dinner, I tried to read for a bit, but I was actually pretty tired. I decided to get some sleep. At some stage I was woken up by some turbulence, but I slept most of the flight. When I was awake again, it was time for breakfast. We both had some. We had coffee, water, and orange juice. The food consisted of a fruit cup, a cooked breakfast with scrambled eggs, sausage,bacon, mushrooms, and tomato. We also were given a blueberry muffin. As airline breakfast goes, this was entirely edible.

 

We arrived ahead of schedule. We cleared immigration. I breezed through the egate, but it did not work for Graham. I noticed that he was not in the right position, but by then, he had been asked to exit and go to the counter. We had plenty of time and it did not matter. Security was a much smoother proposition this time and soon we were near the gates they use for domestic flights. Graham read and I took turns reading and playing a game on my iPad. Eventually boarding for our flight home started. The flight was smooth and quick. We got some water and some pretzels, which was welcome. At the other end, it took quite a while for the luggage to arrive. Once we had our luggage, we headed for the station to take the train back to town. We had to walk from the station as there were engineering works on the tram. When we got home, we put the luggage in the living room and then we headed straight for bed.