Day Thirty Eight - February 12

Well it was back to Los Angeles again on the Magical Mystery Cruise . We arrived at 07:00am at Pier 46 but not the same pier as we embarked from on January 6.

The main cruise terminal spots were occupied by two mega Princess ships who regularly do seven days cruises down the Mexican coast. We were not supposed to be returning to Los Angeles when we first left port. I assume we will meet these ships somewhere on our journey in the Caribbean.

Today we were met by our friends Tom and Karen from Thousand Oaks in metro LA and spent the entire day with them. We had previously met on an Oceania cruise in 2018. They were wonderful tour guides taking us many places and we were grateful for the time spent with them.

First stop was to Griffin Park and the Griffin Observatory. The park itself has many walking trails over the 4,210 acres and is situated in the Santa Monica Mountain range.

At the top near the observatory we acted like tourists and took pictures of the historical Hollywood sign in the distance. During our time here we explored the observatory and spent about an hour hiking some of the many trails before heading down the mountain for lunch at "Off Vine" restaurant. As the name suggests is was a block off Vine Street. Our hike was not as long as originally planned as there is a heat wave currently in LA so we were careful not to stay out too long.

Vine Street intersects Holloywood Boulvard and the tourist in me was taking pictures of the stars on the pavement. Some included: Dean Martin, John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and the Chairman of the Board Frank Sinatra. At the corner of this famous street you can see the Capitol Building. I always assumed Hollywood Boulvard to be an upscale area but it was far from that.

It was time then to do a bit of shopping at a Target store before heading back to the ship.

On our way back we stopped at Angel Gate Park in San Pedro (the cruise ship terminal is located here) for a look at the sunset. The sky was clear and the sunset did not disappoint..

All aboard was 20:30 but having spent most of the day in the sun we ordered dinner and ate in our stateroom. The ship departed at 21:00 for our next port San Diego (again).