Thought I would just update from our latest adventure. The end of September we went to California to spend some time with Annette's family. Britney, Zach and I made the trip and after getting lost thanks to construction and ramp closures, we finally made it! We were greeted by Annette, Paul, Gregg and Landon, and after dinner we just hung out and visited. Thursday morning we took Gregg, OK, lets be honest we made him drive, and we went down to Long

Beach to the Queen Mary. I had been there before, but never inside. Gregg took us over the big bridges to get to the ship. That is one huge ship! We went on the Ghosts and Legend tour and then the Haunted Encounters Tour. The first one was kind of cheesy. The guide must have been an out of work actor. They did take you down into the first class pool area that is supposed to be haunted, and even though they did some silly sound effects and lights it was still cool to see the old pool.

Very art deco, the entire room was tile and the ceiling was mother of pearl. This pic is looking down the slide into the pool. After that tour, we went to the other end of the ship to catch the Haunted encounters tour. This one could have been really good. There was one other family on the tour, but our guide seemed like she had done this a million times and wasn't very talkative or happy. When we asked her questions she did answer and seemed a little more pleasant. This tour took us down into areas that are supposedly haunted and that the regular walking tours don't go into. It was kind of cool just to see the inner areas of the ship. There was a huge ball room that they use for large functions that is in the area that once held giant boilers. They also took us back to the pool area so we could look around and go into the dressing rooms. One thing about the ship is that they had to fit alot of stuff into a tiny area so the dressing area was just a narrow hallway with showers off to either side. She took us to

one of the rooms that they don't use anymore because they had trouble with ghosts so we could see what the rooms were like. then she took us to a suite that is still in use, I would love to go stay a night there, most everything is just as it would have been when the ship was a cruise ship. Workers were busy setting up for the haunted house they have in October so we did get to go through some of that. In the light! After the tours we could go throughout the ship on the walking tour and explore It was really cool to see the things that are on display and think about what it would have been like back when the ship was first put into use in the early part of the 1900's.

Unfortunately we both forgot our cameras so these are mostly pics I got off of flicker. Except this one.

After the tours we could wander around the ship I think my favorite part was the long skinny halls. Down in the bottom of the ship is a room they have built so that you can see one of the huge propellers that were used to move the ship. There were tons of coins that people had dropped into the water so of course we dropped our fair share. When I was gathering coins to throw I found a CTR ring that Kaysha had left in my purse so there is now a CTR ring sitting on the propeller of the Queen Mary.We explored for quite a while because we don't know if we will ever get back.

After that we drove down the coast to Huntington beach. we walked through the shop area of town and then down to the beach, Zach was so excited to get in the water that he and I went straight there while Brit and Gregg walked on the pier. We found a ton of sand dollars and shells. I even got a phone call from my visiting teacher and I think she was very surprised to find I was standing in the pacific ocean!