West Coast Virgins - Day 13 - Longbeach and more Shopping

georgemac · 25 Apr 15, 03:16 PM

24th March 2015 – Longbeach – then more Shopping

Estimated Distance Driven Today 60 Miles
Estimated Distance Driven On Trip 1800 Miles

Well I had a restless night last night with a bad stomach, don't know what to put it down to, maybe a couple of glasses of red I had back at hotel.
Well today really should have been down to San Diego, but I did not fancy another long drive.
We left hotel at 10 pm, and had a decent 45 minute drive to Longbeach. Parked up and walked down to the Rainbow Harbour, where most of the tours leave from, and where Aquarium of the Pacific is located. Get a decent view of Queen Mary from here to. I had already decided not to do the 2 1/2 HR whale watching cruise, and decided to do the 45 minute harbour cruise, which is $12, whale watching I think was $35. The 11.30 harbour cruise was delayed to 12.15, and was very quiet while the whale watching cruise was very busy, nice boat too.
It was very quiet and we walked round the marina. I got chatting to a Frenchman who had lived in California for 25 years while waiting to board, he loved the weather in California, but missed the European culture, very nice guy.
I went aboard and my wife, who does not generally like tours, went and walked round the restaurants and people watched, which she likes a lot. She notices everything about people and I see nothing, I love technical things.
Upstairs on the boat was a family for Arizona, another from Oregon and me the token Scot. The Captain was very friendly chatting to us all, and thought I was pulling his leg when I said I was from Scotland.
I found the tour very interesting. Good closeup of Queen Mary and the Russian sub berthed next to her. There had been some sort of strike at the container docks, and he said over 70 ships had been waiting to unload, but dispute settled and backlog now about 30.
I had spotted a small oil platform, but he then went on to tell us about the four oil islands in the harbour, which contained drilling rigs and processing facilities, but the drilling derricks had been clad and hidden, and Palm trees and landscaping hid the process facilities from shore view, and one of them even had a waterfall feature which was lit at night
He said the rainbow harbour and Queen Mary area was beautifully lit at night, and the restaurants on the harbour were a great place to watch the sunset. I wished we could have stayed to see this but we had some more stuff to do.
We had lunch at Bubba Gumps, as it was located right where I got off the boat. In hindsight we should have made the 20 minute walk round to the harbour restaurants.

They were also setting up the Grand Prix road circuit and grandstands for the Longbeach GP in mid April, Indycar I think, would have loved to have seen this. It's sponsored by Toyota, and heard on the radio if you got a car service more expensive than $89.99 you got 2 free tickets, bit different from Mr Ecclestones F1!
We walked back to the car, and left longbeach at 3 pm. We headed to the Mall in Santa Ana to Abercrombie to get some shorts for our son, and Bath and Body to get some bits and pieces for our daughter. Left there just after 4, headed over to Orange outlets and a few more last minute purchases. Headed back to hotel, stopped at Am/pm arch garage, $35 filled the beast, paid cash as much cheaper, less than $3 per gallon. Will just need to top up at LAX.

Back to hotel before 7 and started packing. Fun as always with all the purchases. We have 3 normal cases and a cabin case, looks like it all fits in.

georgemac · 25 Apr 15, 03:16 PM

Photobucket links removed - will try and update later

Pussycat Doll · 27 Apr 15, 08:07 PM

Lovely photos. Sounds like a good tour. Pussycat

daytonababe · 20 May 15, 12:53 AM

Lovely day :-)

One of these years we'll make it to the Indycar GrandPrix at Long Beach...tickets are dirt cheap for all Indy races..

georgemac · 20 May 15, 08:32 PM

Have never really watched Indycar but would love to go to a race. Never been to F1 either but on the bucket list.

daytonababe · 20 May 15, 10:59 PM

Originally Posted by georgemac

Have never really watched Indycar but would love to go to a race. Never been to F1 either but on the bucket list.

I don't really watch F1..

But I went to a Indy Race at the WDW speedway back in 1998.. then when CART (which is now Indy) came to Rockingham twice and Brands Hatch I went to those race , they were fab.

One day we'll go to Long Beach or the Indy 500.