Finals: Dinners, Cha for Tea, Signal Hill and Sunsets.

So it was our final week of the semester and Steph and Sera's final week in Long Beach. This meant filling our time with activities that needed to be done before we parted ways for Christmas!

Firstly, I went to California Pizza Kitchen downtown with Steph, Sera and their floor mates which was a lot of fun! Having spent the majority of my time last semester in their room, I like to think I became a part of their floor too!

After saying goodbye on the Wednesday afternoon to my fellow English who were flying home, I had one more day until I left. This meant one last day in Long Beach with Steph and Sera! On the Wednesday night we went out for dinner with Tori to a Greek restaurant on 2nd Street which has really great food. All too quickly it was time for the Aussies to say goodbye to Tori (little did they know they'd be seeing each other again). I teared up and it wasn't even me saying goodbye yet.

The next day we had a bad start with rain (for the 4th time in my whole semester) and problems renting a car. Long story short, we had to go open an American debit account, and our day improved from there when a lovely guy helped us at Chase (a bank). Then after finally picking up the car, and filling it with our suitcases, we were on our way.

Our first stop was Cha for Tea… of course! This seems to be one of Long Beach's most popular student spots so it had to be done one last time! Here's a snapchat screenshot of us looking quite exhausted:

We then drove to Signal Hill as Steph and Sera had not yet been and I had told them over and over that they had to go before they left Long Beach. It has great views of not only LB but you can also see Downtown LA and even the Hollywood sign in the distance. Although the weather wasn't too great we still had good views and fun taking photos. I'm glad we went there, I feel its something you have to do when in Long Beach.

CSULB's campus is in the background, see the blue pyramid:

We then decided to go get ice cream at Seal Beach and watch the sunset:

Steph and Sera then took me to LAX for my flight home and while they waited with me we were pleased to see the male Canadian water polo team checking in, who looked great in their uniforms. They were a welcome distraction. When the time came for me to go through security and say goodbye for Christmas, let me tell you, I was so glad I still had Hawaii to look forward to with these girls!

Hike to the Hollywood Sign

On our last Saturday in Long Beach before Christmas we took a trip to LA to hike up to the Hollywood sign. It was Steph and Sera's final weekend in California so this was something we just had to do. After talking about it for the whole semester, we finally got out and did it, and it was a great trip! It was a really hot day; it did not feel like December at all, and Christmas definitely did not feel like it was little more than a week away!

It was quite a difficult hike due to the heat, but we made it to the top and the view was amazing! It is one of those very iconic things you never expect to do and it felt so surreal.

Our first glimpse of the Hollywood sign:

 Hiking:

Horses, right next to the edge.. scary stuff:

About halfway up: 

The now-famous stick had been found, held by Steph:

Steph and Sonnee decided to follow some guys' lead by taking a short cut up a very steep mountain side. The eery-looking wooden cross did not deter them. With the help of the stick they made their way up while the rest of us were on edge, worrying that they would fall, like good friends.

They made it to the top, and named their climb Mount Copperopolis, after the legendary town we had previously visited. They have not shut up about it since..

 View of the Griffith Observatory and Downtown LA:

Barrier separating us from the sign, sad its not the olden days where you could go sit on it:

The sign and Downtown LA:

 Me and Sera:

Group photo at the top, we made it.. even if we do all look exhausted:

Downtown LA behind:

 On the way back down Steph and Sonnee wanted a celebratory photo at the top of their hill, with their stick... notice the warning barrier...

We saw coyotes:

And again at the bottom of their hill, where they left the stick for the next brave hikers ;)

Great day, great people, great end to the semester! We made our mark on the railings up there, we go down in Hollywood history!

One more post from before Christmas, my (first) last day in Long Beach with Steph and Sera, will be up soon too! Then I will try to keep on track...

The Queen Mary

So before I get to writing about Hawaii and Seattle I wanted to make sure I posted about the end of last semester as I'm trying not to miss out any adventures we've had. In the two weeks before we went our separate ways for Christmas we tried to fit in as much as we could amongst all our finals. On the second to last weekend some of us went to visit the Queen Mary, one of Long Beach's main attractions.

Before doing a tour we had time to explore the ship ourselves, so we went on deck and up to the bridge. We had great weather for the day out, which was a nice surprise after seeing a bad report for that day. Weather like that never gets old, even after living in it for 4 months! It was kind of cold but I don't mind if its sunny!

Titanic-esque pose:

On the bridge:

Exploring:

Downtown Long Beach:

As the Queen Mary is supposedly haunted we did a tour of the ship, on which we were told "true" stories of the ship's ghostly history. The old swimming pool is one of the places that is thought to be most haunted, especially by a little girl. It wasn't too scary, we survived! The ship was also used in the war for carrying thousands of soldiers so there were a lot of deaths onboard as a result of wounds, disease and other unrelated illnesses. It would have been very crowded, in fact the swimming pool was even filled with bunk beds for the soldiers.

We went further into the depths of the ship and saw the engine rooms. We were told some more spooky stories about people who had died down there, and of a person on a tour who had once captured a photo of what appeared to be smoke approaching the tour guide. Steph made the guide recreate the situation by encouraging him to stand in the spot to see if anything happened while we clicked away with our cameras. Of course nothing happened!

When we finished the tour it was dark and a few of us decided to stay and look around some more. It was great to see the ship's lights at night and also to see the view of downtown Long Beach.

Relaxing on deck:

We were surprised to find out that the Titanic was smaller than the Queen Mary as it seemed small, and you imagine Titanic to have been so much bigger, probably because of how it is shown in the movie! The ship is definitely worth a visit when in Long Beach!

On my recent trip to Seattle I think I was told that some relatives had travelled from England to America on the Queen Mary which has made my trip there even more interesting, and it seems like such a coincidence that I chose to come to Long Beach now.

My next blog post is about our hike up to the Hollywood sign!