Day 2 - Los Angeles

Awake really early this morning,bit of jet lag but not helped by receiving a text from Kath at 5:30! She had been up since 3am and assumed that my phone would be switched off or on silent. We are obviously trying to get used to local time, she by contrast is flying back tomorrow so isn't!Anyway upshot was that we were up and breakfasting in the café across the road from the Renaissance by 7:45. We managed to avoid buying tour tickets although we will probably go tomorrow. Don't like getting hassled before we have had a chance to compare or read through things. Came back to the hotel and the concierge suggested we take the metro to Long Beach as the best way to meet up with Kath. It turned out it was quite a long way but good value at $6 for a day's unlimited travel. The whole journey took around an hour and fortunately most was above ground so we got to see quite a bit of the surrounding countryside. Once we had met Kath at the Renaissance Long Beach we got on a free shuttle bus which took us round to the Queen Mary. It had been an ambition of mine for as long as I can remember to go on her. We took the tour of Ghosts and Legends first which visited the 1st class indoor swimming pool, the boiler rooms which were vast, and the bow that had been damaged when she sank a ship during the war. After that we were able to just wander around the ship as she is obviously a hotel these days. Parts are looking a little tired, but there is a gracious magnificence about her art deco architecture and fittings. Once we had toured the ship we got the bus back to Shoreline and had a very pleasant lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then headed back to the hotel. Having decided that we had had enough greasy food for the day we managed to find a drugstore that sold food where we bought some fruit and cereals for breakfast tomorrow along with just a tuna sandwich for tonight. Think I'm starting to feel a bit hungry now but Bill has fallen asleep. Will have to wake him or he won't sleep tonight!