The Russian Submarine Scorpion

One of the odder tourists attractions in Southern California is parked next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. It's a Russian attack submarine that one can tour. The sub served in the Russian military from 1972 until 1994.

We were staying next door aboard The Queen Mary and had some time to kill. We had a family discussion if the submarine was really worth the time and the money to visit. The admission is $11.00 per person and time s four that was another $44.00 for a quick walk around a docked submarine.

Finally we decided to do it. The sub is small, cramped and narrow. However, it is very interesting. You can see the 22 torpedoes, where the 78 sailors would sleep, eat and yes even poop. The kids loved the periscope.

I felt claustrophobic just being the ship for less than a half hour. I couldn't imagine how it must have felt with 77 other men and being underwater for five days. I quickly came to the conclusion that I would not make a good Russian underwater seaman!

The tour is self guided and can take as long as wish it. There was one retired American submarine serviceman on board to tell about his experiences on a U.S. submarine. We took about 30 minutes to look at everything on the Scorpion. We could have taken less (or more) time.

I am happy we decided to take this tour. It was a once in a lifetime experience and a unique chance to see the inside of a Russian submarine. The kids enjoyed it, more than they thought they would and I think they even learned a little about the Cold War. It was worth the ticket price.

WARNING: This tour may not be good for elderly or persons who have movement problems. You do have to climb down a rather steep ladder and climb through some tight spaces and small portholes to get around the ship.

4th of July aboard the Queen Mary

I actually remember when the Queen Mary made her permanent home in Long Beach. It seemed like a great idea to revitalize the city. This grand dame of the Atlantic would be a major tourist attraction and luxury hotel.

Hyatt Hotels would run the hotel onboard the ship. A small English village was build next door and a Jacques Cousteau sea museum would be built on the ship. Howard Hugh's Spruce Goose would be given a dome and moved next door. Long Beach would be put on the map as a major tourist destination.

It worked for while, but soon fashion, times and age took over and the grand lady feel out out of favor. The Spruce Goose moved to Oregon, Hyatt pulled out of the deal, the Jacques Cousteau museum closed and the little English village shut down and is now abandoned and in ruin. Saly the hotel closed and even the ship tours were shut down.

The hotel has reopened and even the tours have started again. So with this iffy future, I wanted the kids to have the chance to see and even stay on this ship with so much history. We made reservations for the 4th of July weekend.

I am happy to report that for the 4th of July weekend the ship was sold out, that was a good sign that the old lady still has some appeal. We checked in and had two first class cabins, one a king and one a double. When you opened the door you had the feel of walking into history.

The cabins had two of the small portholes (not the huge windows most cruise ships have today). My favorite part of the suite was the bathroom. The bath had four handles, two for hot and cold fresh water and two for seawater.

There is no question, the cabins and most of the ship show some wear and tear. The rare woods have been scratched and damaged and the bathroom had rust. But I did not expect a 2010 style hotel room and was even delighted by the feel of history in our cabin and around the ship.

My greatest disappointment was to see how many rooms had been removed to make room for things like ice cream parlors and fast food counters. The Captain's quarters is gone as are all the 2nd and 3rd class cabins.

The rooms that remain are worth a look. The Observation Bar has silver beer barrels as a motif and wonderful, fun mural over the bar. Even the art deco clock gives you feel of the times. Note that the children's nursery is right outside the bar. Parents would drop their kids and hit the bar for a cocktail.

My favorite is the grand first class dining room. It was the grandest dining room at sea in the 1930s. The three story wall decor is a map of the North Atlantic with two routs outlined, one for winter and one for summer crossings. A small ship moves across the wall to tell passengers where they are at that moment.

Today Sunday brunch is served in this dining room. I highly recommend the brunch. Okay, the brunch itself scores a high fair, but to eat in this room is worth the experience. The brunch is huge with meats, oysters and seafood, Asian fare, breakfast goodies, fresh salmon and bagels, pastas and huge selection of desserts. There are a few misses in the selections, but there are just as many hits and over all this is a brunch worth the price with unlimited champagne. But even if this was a horrible brunch I would have paid the price to sit in this grand room.

One of the newer restaurants on the ship is Sir Winston's. The new restaurant is in the area that once the crew quarters. We hesitated to have dinner as the menu was prefixed and was $125.00 a person. The good news it was on one of the top decks and for $125.00 you could keep your table all night long. This was the 4th of July night and it seemed like a great place to watch the Long Beach fireworks. We made the right choice.

First of all dinner was outstanding. I had crab cakes, a nice white gazpacho, BBQ shrimp New Orleans style and a chocolate cake for dessert. Every bite was top quality and tasty. The service was perfect, not rushed by very attentive. Our timing was perfect, right after dessert we were escorted to the balcony and the best view of the Long Beach fireworks show. We had a front row seat and well worth the price. After the fireworks we were escorted back to our table for a final cup of java.

This is something I highly recommend for the 4th of July. Even if you don't eat at Sir Winston's and have this deluxe service, the whold ship faces the city of Long Beach and is a perfect spot to watch the fireworks from any deck.

I am not sure what the future of the Queen Mary, but she sure has had a grand past. I hope the Queen remains a hotel in Long Beach and you can experience what a sail across the Atlantic must felt like in the 1930s. The ship and especially a stay aboard the ship will make history come alive.

One of my best Southern California tips is to spend the night of the 4th of July on the Queen Mary. There is no better place in the state to have a front row seat for one of the state's best firework shows.

JIM'S LONG BEACH TRAVEL TIP --- Spend the cash and get a room on the Queen Mary for the next 4th of July. There are few spots better for viewing the fireworks than from the decks of the Queen Mary. You can have a front row seat and live a part of history.

San Francisco - Doing it her way!

Last month I took Breana up to San Francisco, just the two of us. I feel it's important to sometimes connect one on one with the family and not always do the group thing. I travel easily with Patrick, I enjoy it we are so much alike in that arena. We like to do the same things, explore in the same way and go pretty much nonstop. Breana is not the same, she loves the familiar, likes her down time and doesn't like history as much as something related to pop culture. We kind of travel in opposite ways. I feel bad because on a trip it's usually Patrick and me exploring Stonehenge and Breana just the third wheel.
I figured this trip, I would do it different. I wanted to do it her way. We stayed at the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown. It's been there a long time and was the old Miyako Hotel. The best part of the hotel is that they offer traditional Japanese rooms. They even have a family room with one room as a king bed and the second part of the room are the Japanese rooms with beds on the floor. It worked perfect for us as Breana is getting the age where she requires some privacy and I am still worried about allowing her a room all to her own.
Japantown is near Fillmore Street. We went up and down the shops on Fillmore. Breana lead and I followed. We spent hours in a vintage store called Crossroads. Breana shopped and shopped she found a Marc Jacobs jacket, a cute hoodie and a purse. She was in heaven and feel in love with Fillmore and the vintage shopping store.
We also went over to the COLAGE offices and saw the whole gang at COLAGE. Of course Breana was interested in talking about the subject of the day, the supreme court case to overturn Prop 8, she was much more interested in the sea monkeys in the bowl in the window. Fine, I will talk politics and you look at the sea monkeys.
We did spend the next day on Alcatraz. However, I didn't push. We got the headsets and Breana was interested about half the tour and then got bored half way through. Fine the tour was over at that point...I figure better half a tour with interest then no tour, or forcing her to take the whole tour and hating it! We walked back to the boat and she loved it.
We needed some down time. Going back to the room, her listening to music on her lap top. It was fine. I took a nap or watched CNN. The room was lovely so going back to it would not have been my first choice, but once I was there I didn't complain. It was even relaxing to travel with a few more breaks in the day!
We went out to eat. We tried that silly place underwater at Pier 39 - Forbes Island. It was a hoot. We explores, laughed and had a nice meal together.
The next day we spent a large part of the day at the Ferry Building. Breana loves cheese and I let her go into the Cowgirl Creamery and try it all and buy the goat cheeses she most loved. She ate chocolate and I had oysters. We took our time and when she was ready to go, we went.
We had tickets to Beach Blanket Babylon. It feel a part a little there when I denied her the box of chocolates and the show started a bit late. But once the show started it was upbeat, funny and lively and Breana forgot she was pissed off about not getting chocolates.
We went to the airport, took some pictures. Breana enjoys the camera. We flew home on Virgin America and Breana feel in love with the food ordering system and the videos.
It was fun, fun, fun and we got along great. The lesson I learned - is when you travel with tweens and teens they have their own opinions, likes and dislikes - let them lead a little and you follow!

Long Weekend - Grand Canyon

Travel is my passion. Sometimes, I feel a little like I have clipped wings with two kids in middle school. So I am always looking for something fun, cultural and even a little exotic when one of those three day weekends hits the school calendar. Of course this also means that we can't venture too far from home as most of the weekend would be eaten up by travel time.

I think I came up with one of those perfect trips this year, over the Martin Luther King weekend. We went to the Grand Canyon! It was near enough to not spend a lot of time on an airplane, yet we were reminded we were not in LA anymore.

Now first off you may think of Grand Canyon as a summer destination. Honestly, given the choice I would rather do it the off season. First off we had no crowds, we could park the car, spend time not pushing our way for a piece of the view and getting in to eat when and where we wanted to. These things do NOT happen in the middle of the summer! Also given the choice of the blistering hot summer weather or the little bit nippy winter weather, I choose the later! I also learned the air quality is much better in the winter and therefore the views are much crisper and there is no summer haze to ruin the view.

The bad news in winter is that from time to time you can hit a winter storm, freezing temps or rain, snow and sleet. I have to admit that the weather gods were with us as our day time temps were about 45 to 50 degrees and we had clear, crisp skies all weekend.

Horizon Airlines has started nonstop service from LAX to Flagstaff and to promote the new route they offered some great fares - $59.00 one way. We jumped on the offer. The flight is a prop Dash 8 and left at 9:00pm at night. You land in Flagstaff at 11:30pm. The service was good and friendly. They allowed Patrick to do the safety demo for the plane! Because of the late arrival you will need to find a hotel room in Flagstaff. We stayed at the Embassy Suites. It was new clean, nice big room and huge breakfast buffet. I can't complain as the rate was only $95.00 per night.

The next morning I promised the kids we would stop at Snow Bowl to get a little boarding and skking in. Snow Bowl is not the type of place you would make a destination. It's very local in feel. But the weather was warm and the kids skied in their undershirts. The lift lines were a bit long, but not unreasonable. Overall the kids enjoyed the sun and snow and not many kids can say they flew to Arizona to go snow skiing.

We piled in the car and headed north to Flagstaff. On the way we stopped at Bedrock Village for some campy fun. This is a replica of the town that Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty live in. It's a bit worn down, muddy grounds and very hokey, but it is the kind of place we all can enjoy and laugh at the uniqueness of the place. It was a bit of Americana off the highway and that is fading fast in our county.

It's a lonesome road up to the canyon in winter, traffic is light and you seldom see another car. We arrived, paid for our park pass at the gate and headed to our hotel in the village - El Tovar the gem of the Grand Canyon, home to the Harvey girls!

I love El Tovar, it's special in every sense of the word. It was built in 1905 on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. It's an old lodge with dark wood, animal heads and Native American blankets on the walls. Very little has changed in over 100 years and you can still feel 100 years of eager tourists in the lobby. Our room was on the second floor (no elevators) and was a large deluxe double. We had a huge balcony at the front of the hotel with a view of the canyon. The room was only $140.00 in the off season, but best of all it was available. In the summer months rooms at El Tovar sell out a year in advance. In the winter you can pick up a reservation almost at anytime!

There are plenty of things to do in the winter. Yes, a few snack shops are closed for the season, but overall most things are open. There were ranger programs galore and the kids and I took a geology of the Grand Canyon walk around the rim. It was interesting and we all left knowing more about the Grand Canyon.

I discovered the architecture of Mary Jane Colter who did things like Hopi House, Bright Angel Lodge and Lookout Studio. I found her work to be inspired as she kept close to the natural beauty and her work never distracts from the nature around it. I also love the idea of a female architect working in the Grand Canyon in 1905.

But mostly we just walked, we walked and looked, walked and look. You can never get tired of the views. Each time of day the colors change, you notice a new rock formation or you just relook at a place your eye has been before. I took a ton of photos, but no photo can do the Grand Canyon justice. You need to be standing there, looking at it.

So we had a wonderful three day weekend. We didn't go far, but we were a million miles away from the hussle and bussle of LA. We were somewhere new and even exotic. We were at the Grand Canyon in the dead of winter and I have to say it's my favorite time of year to be there!

Text Book Ditching

Chris is in New York today. He is flying home this evening, but is trying for an earlier flight. CNN is on in the background. Sitting on the computer in the next room. BREAKING NEWS they say, special music. Anchor comes on. There has been a commercial plane crash in the Hudson River by a plane departing New York City. Your heart sinks. For just a moment you wonder. Then it doesn't fit - it's USAirways, it's from LGA and it's going to Charlotte. But for a moment, just a moment you wonder.

Pilot and crew did a fantastic job. It appears to be a bird strike. They did a textbook water landing. They were the last to leave the plane. They saved everyone. No panic, just talent and calm. I hope Obama gives these pilots some type of award. They are real heroes. This is what they train for - this is what you think will never happen. They trained for years and it all came down to today in New York.

Happy New Year - 2009

2009 already. Where does time go? It seems like only yesterday we were all worried about the millennium bug and the big change from 1999 to 2000. Here we are nine years past that, well into the moment. It does make one a little nervous to look at your life and see the majority of behind you and those years towards the end of it, just being fewer and fewer. It makes you panic and question the things you still need or want to do.

We spent the first days of 2009 in the mountains of Colorado. It was Patrick's birthday trip (a family tradition). Patrick always picks something that involves sport - this year Winter Park. I didn't ski this year. It really isn't that I am too old. I just hate all the equipment, getting it on, walking around like cement blocks are on your feet, standing in line, putting it on, taking it off. I don't like the cold. I am old enough now to know what I like and those things that I don't like.

The condo unit was expensive and cramped, I got altitude sickness, the food is town is just mounds of carbs and there wasn't that moment of sitting by the fire, drinking a hot toddie. It was pretty plain. Neither Chris nor I could sleep a wink in the condo and I had a headache the whole time. However, when you see Patrick's need to run to the mountain, his smile, his unwillingness to leave and the pride he had in his snowboarding improvement - every moment was worth it. That is what parenting is, living through someone's eyes and their joy.

Breana is a little bit more like me. She picks warm, sunny beaches for her trips and I can get into that a whole lot more. I am sure next January Patrick will pick another chilly mountain to swoosh down. I will be cold, I may have that same altitude sickness and we may stay in another shitty condo - but if Patrick loves it, we will love it too!

Well 2009 is here. Seven more days of Bush and even though the economy sucks, I have hope that this year holds promise. Things will get better, we have someone in office who cares. There is hope for this year. I don't know what it holds, but like most years a mixture of good and bad I am sure. Bring it on - make it a good one! Happy New Year!