This morning Amy returned to Vegas, so I was feeling a bit sad, but Barb’s wonderful cooked breakfast served outside in her lovely courtyard cheered me up – another gorgeous day in Orange County.

After breakfast we set off for Long Beach to see the Queen Mary and the “Aquarium of the Pacific”. The Queen Mary is an old cruise ship that now lives permanently at Long Beach as a tourist attraction and hotel. Sadly the weather took a turn for the worse and I was NOT suitably dressed. When we left home it was slightly overcast but by the time we got to Long Beach it was cold, windy and raining and I was in shorts and jandals. Turns out my jandals have lost all traction and coz it hardly ever rains here they have many slippery when wet surfaces that made it impossible to walk across without skidding all over the place just like I was trying to walk on ice. It was awful and embarrassing and worried me coz I didn’t want to fall over and hurt myself or my camera or end up not able to walk without a limp etc. so I had to be extremely careful.

The Queen Mary was kinda disappointing but this was probably a reflection of how cold and miserable I was, rather than the ship holding very little to excite me. At one point I slid dangerously across the floor outside a posh gift shop in the ship and crashed into the plate glass window, creating a really loud bang startling everyone around me and scaring me half to death as I pondered how disastrous it would have been for my holiday if I had actually crashed through it. So I left there straight after that and headed for the shuttle bus that takes you to the aquarium.

On the way to the aquarium there was a huge downpour of rain which caused flash flooding and I had to wade knee deep in freezing cold water to cross the road to get inside the aquarium and walk really slowly to avoid slipping over as I approached the entrance. But once inside the lovely carpeted aquarium with totally non slip surfaces I had a lovely afternoon. There was a fantastic collection of fish in some amazing huge tanks. They even had jellyfish tanks that had open tops so you could touch them plus staff standing there encouraging you to do so – I passed on that slimy experience.

After dinner the weather got worse – thunder and lightening started up. Barb got so excited by this as it hardly ever happens here and then it started to hail which was so exciting she had to phone her family and friends to tell them all. They’re all thanking me right now – coz I clearly brought this weather with me!