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!

Whale Watching

On November 17th we went on a whale watching trip that was arranged by CSULB housing. It was a sunny day in Long Beach and on the trip we managed to see seals, dolphins and a humpback whale! It was great to go on a boat and get away from the city and all our work for a while. We weren't expecting to see so much, and didn't think we would actually see a whale so that was a great surprise! I don't have any photos that do what we saw justice so I have included a video of some of the highlights. I got a good shot of the whale at the end!

Downtown Long Beach:

Long Beach from the ocean:

The Queen Mary:

Seals:

Steph and Sonnee the explorers:

Windswept:

Dolphin:

Titanic moment:

Serenity:

More posts to follow!

Disneyland, night-time adventures and Halloween.

I can't believe I haven't written about Disneyland yet!

So our trip to Disneyland on the 11th October consisted of a lot of singing, a lot of trying on hats and a lot of laughs. Having never been to a Disney park this was another first for me. Everyone here seems to be in love with it and go back again and again so we had high expectations. I was wondering what the fuss was all about! Due to Halloween coming up it was Halloween themed, which was cool. We went on the rides (Space Mountain was the best), we met Mickey Mouse, saw the parade and shopped. I bought a christmas tree ornament already! In the evening we went to California adventure which is just next door and saw the World of Color show, which was AMAZING. It was so clever how they did it. I was surprised at how much I loved the day, I started off thinking it wouldn't live up to expectations but it really did! Apparently there is a lot we didn't see so another trip is needed this year.

Halloween themed Disney:

The castle, Walt, Mickey and Us:

Donald:

Pumpkins:

Sonnee complained that she has not been mentioned by name on my blog, so here's a personal shoutout; "without you, life would be blue, I'd be Doctor Who without the Tardis" (Big Bang Theory/Dr. Who inside joke, she'll love it)

California Adventure:

World of Color:

On the next day which was Saturday, we went to the mall in the day, and then at night a group of us went to visit a cool place downtown by the sea, called Shoreline Village. Its a really cute place with little shops and food places and you can walk down to see the Queen Mary. The lights looked really beautiful at night reflected in the water. Matt insisted I try funnel cake which I had never had before. It was a lot of food, and it was good! There's a hat shop there, which we really wanted to go to (i love trying on hats), but it closed. So I'll have to go back soon!

Shoreline village and my first Funnel cake:

The Queen Mary:

On the Sunday night I hung out with friends at the Hillside halls, we went a bit crazy that night.

My mum sent me a package of English goodies, a card/letter (she knows how much I love cool postcards), and a postcard off my grandparents from their holiday which was really nice to receive. 

So with Halloween coming up we decided to get into the American Fall spirit and carve some pumpkins. I first did it last year at uni back home and did a complicated one, so this year I decided to keep it simple.

Dress up at Target:

Last Saturday night I went to Coldstone's for ice-cream at Seal Beach, and walked down the pier where lots of people were fishing.  California life right there! We then went to Signal Hill again to see the lights and then ended up at the boathouse, where the crew team practice (i seem to be learning a lot about crew recently haha). Its really pretty at night, sadly I have no photos to show.

This past Friday we went to a halloween party, not a frat party just a friend of a friend's apartment. Everyone was actually dressed up! We spent a lot of the night taking photos, I've never made so many facial expressions in my life as I did that night! It was really fun and great to experience another American party.

Me and Steph:

On Sunday night we went to the cinema to see Gravity in 3D (definitely see it in 3D, it's totally worth it). It was really well done, beautifully shot. Photo credit to Sera ;)

I have an exciting couple of weekends coming up, its Halloween this Thursday, I'm going down to visit San Diego with my friend Rachel, and then for Veterans Day weekend I'm going on a road trip to Phoenix, the Grand Canyon and Vegas! Cannot wait for that! Ready to cross some states off my map. We have also signed up to go whale watching in November so that should be fun! And then there's my first American Thanksgiving!

I still need to write up that list of things I want to do this year, I already have a few to cross off!

Until next time! (which will most likely be in a few weeks, in-keeping with past tradition.)