We spent the past 10 days in California and Baja Mexico – catching up with some relatives and spending several days down at my business partner’s beach house in Ensenada.

On our first full day in California, we headed to Hollywood to let the kids see some of the sights they only know about from TV and pop culture references.  The Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, Hollywood and Vine – and the handprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

Some names they recognized– but only a few. It’s hard to explain who Myrna Loy or Cyd Charisse was to kids with very limited historical memory.

Then we drove to Beverly Hills.  We did the requisite shopping along Rodeo Drive, had lunch there in one of the outdoor cafes, and then drove around the housing in the hills – mostly looking at large gates and shrub walls that blocked off any real visibility of the mansions that lay behind.

In almost every store we entered, the people immediately asked us where we were from? Apparently, we don’t fit the mold as “locals,” and really didn’t belong.  We imposed ourselves there nonetheless.

Here is the hotel we called Home Base during our time in LA – what better place for 5 Georgians?  This art deco hotel was constructed in the early 30s and was a perfect location for all of our activities – in Santa Monica, across the street from the beach and pier, walking distance to fantastic restaurants.  One of the best places we ever stayed – and could accommodate the 5 of us reasonably well in one suite.  It’s also reputed to be haunted and that added an extra little bit of zest for the kids.  They kept a close lookout for ghosts, but didn’t encounter any.

Along the beach front in Santa Monica – we never turn down an opportunity to play with parrots.

Watching the waves crash along the pier.

The western end of Route 66 – Isabella (pink jacket) capturing the sign with her camera-phone.  She didn’t really know what Route 66 was, or why it was significant, but took our word for it that it was something special and wanted proof that she’s been there.

Saturday was Disney Day, devoted entirely two the two parks (Disneyland/California Great Adventures) situated across the street from each other.  We hit the park at opening time and stayed until into the night – walking out to our car as the fireworks were on display.

Apart from the rides, the highlight of the day was meeting up with Brian and his girlfriend, Phuong, for lunch and then a wonderful afternoon and evening. Brian’s energy surpasses that of the kids; they all had a marvelous time trying to outdo Uncle Brian while Brenda, Phuong and I tried to keep up.

On the “California Screamin” – Josie is seated at my left, but still too small to see.  This was her first real rollercoaster ride.  She just barely made the height requirement and it took some coaxing to get her on.  The ride has the usual huge drops, loop-the-loop & etc. It did not take her any coaxing to get her on the 2nd and 3rd time.  The older two kids didn’t have any fun, as you can see.  Hook ‘Em.

Let’s take things down a notch for Mama.

Playing hand games with Phuong.  Holden will have none of it as he takes off in line for the next thrill.

Brian demonstrating to the kids how to properly eat cotton candy.  He spoiled the kids by buying them junk food every time they asked for it.  (We’re really lucky that nobody got sick!)

Below: Space Mountain.  Front row, Isabella and Brian.  Middle row, Phuong and Holden.  Last row, Josie and Brenda.  Adam was in the car ahead of us.

The Magic Castle, all lit up for the holidays.

Brian, Phuong and Josie.

After Disney, we spent most of the following day with Brian and Phuong seeing more of the sights.

We shared a wonderful Sunday breakfast at a local British restaurant – full English breakfasts for most, with crumpets, tea and coffee.

We then headed downtown to see The La Brea Tar Pits (which, as our tour guide pointed out, means “The The Tar Tar Pits” and that they’re not really pits, and that it isn’t really tar.)  He also had a lot to say about the historical and scientific inaccuracy of the scene below:

A fence surely put up just before our arrival to keep Holden out of the goop.

Brian, struggling to pull a simulated foot out of tar.  This display demonstrates how easy it is to stick in a limb, and how difficult it is to extract it.

Isabella and Phuong admiring a fossilized skeleton.

Dire wolf skulls – the most popular mammal found at La Brea.  To date, they’ve found more than 4,000 dire wolf skeletons on the site.  (We thought dire wolves were fictional creations for The Game of Thrones, but as it turns out, they were very real.  They were slightly bigger than modern wolves and had slightly different skull shapes, but it’s hard to see the difference if you aren’t a wolf expert.)

Paleontology in action.  They have teams of volunteers, and yet the amount to be collected, filtered, identified and sorted grows.  The most valuable fossils are microfossils (rather than the bigger animals) because the tiny organisms give scientists a better idea of climate, temperature, humidity levels, plant life, etc.  The big animals are more impressive, but actually provide less information than the micros.  This lady is using a microscope to collect every tiny little thing stuck in the mud on a bigger bone.

After a final lunch with Brian and Phuong, they left us, making the long drive back up to Salinas where they live.

Left to ourselves and a beautiful afternoon, we decided to drive to Venice Beach to see the canals and gawk at the funny looking people and funnier smells.

“Why does it smell like skunks here?”

On our final day in LA, we drove down to Long Beach to see the Queen Mary.  It was the first time for all of us and was an unexpected pleasure.  We had assumed that we would tour the boat for an hour or two and then find something else to do later in that day. Instead, our time on the boat took the entire day.  If you have been on the Queen Mary in years past, you owe it to yourself to visit again.  They have upgraded a great number of the displays, added some high tech (lights, sound) tours and done a wonderful job of opening up more of the boat to let folks wander all about for hours at a time.

The Russian submarine “Scorpion” in front wasn’t open on the day we visited — one of the few disappointments on the trip.

The Queen Mary sailed from 1936 to 1967.  By then, air transport had become cheap and common enough.  The Ocean trips were long (6 days) and very expensive – round trip was equivalent of today $20k; and very uncomfortable.  Almost everyone was in a fairly chronic state of seasickness.  Ocean travel could no longer compete with air travel, so The Queen Mary was retired in 1967.

One of the ships screws on display just outside of the hull.  We are about 20 feet below ocean level at this point.

Main lobby on display for Xmas.  There were few tourists onboard that day, which I always appreciate.  We had all of the time and room in the world to wander about at our own pace, never fighting to see displays or waiting in line.

The ship now is a hotel, museum, tourist attraction, hosts weddings and other celebrations, and has 3 full and high scale restaurants.

The kids manning one of the AA guns installed during WWII when the ship served as transport between the US and UK.  The Queen Mary was repainted battleship grey, and was nicknamed The Grey Ghost.  All in all, over 800,000 troops were carried over on the Queen Mary in preparation for D-Day.  They built bunk beds 7 stories high to accommodate the high density shipments.  It was considered such a valuable asset to the Allies that Hitler offered a $250,000 reward to any submarine captain who sank it.

They put on a “haunted” tour that takes us through various portions of the ship where people had died and are now reputed to be haunted by spirits.  They added lights and sounds to make it spookier.  For the kids, it was an entertaining way to tour the boat, seeing the various areas, and yet keeping their attention.  (With our haunted hotel and now the haunted boat, we’re calling this our Ghost Vacation.)  

Afterwards, we shared a full tea service on one of the upper decks, overlooking the water and Long Beach port.  Good fun.

The next day we headed south to San Diego/Mexico.