LA/San Pedro - January 30-31, 2009

We left Detroit at 5:40 pm and flew to Phoenix where we had a short layover. While we were in Phoenix I got a phone call. As soon as we booked the cruise I checked out the roll call on Cruise Critic to “get to know” some of the people taking the cruise with us before we left. At one point Ally asked if anyone was interested in taking a sail boat, whale watching tour in Mazatlan. Karen and I decided that is sounded like fun and joined Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick on the tour. Prior to leaving we all emailed to start to get to know each other. Nancy had offered to pick us up from LAX. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I like to be in control of things, especially things as important as getting myself to where I need to be. So many of my friends were very surprised to hear that I had agreed to let someone I did not know pick me up from the airport. Well, as we were sitting in the phoenix airport Nancy called and told me she had misjudged the time and now could not pick us up. Now normally something like this would totally freak me out… But thanks to another trait of my, obsessive planning for every possible scenario, I had a back up plan of a shuttle that you did not need reservations for at the airport that would take us to the hotel. Karen was so surprised I was not freaking out.

Our flight from Phoenix left at 8:08 pm and we were just an hour away from LA. Flying into Los Angeles in the dark was an interesting experience. I have flown into big cities before, New York and London, but I was blown away by the size of the LA area, the lights from the city when on and on and on. It was like there was no end. I was really surprised about it. After another smooth landing we were here!! We got off the plane, collected our luggage and found the shuttle.

I had to commemorate my arrival.
Here are Karen and I outside the airport.
Originally we were going to stay in a hotel near the airport, but after talking to Nancy I decided to try my luck at priceline to get a room close to the pier in San Pedro. I was able to get a super deal on priceline and a room at the San Pedro Double tree was cheaper then one right by the hotel and it was much nicer. So we got into the shuttle and took about a 20 minute ride to the hotel.

We checked into the hotel with no problem and went up to our room.

Here is the room. The nice “sweet dreams” pillow. The other side of the room. The view of the marina in the dark. By the time we got into our room it was getting late – it was probably only midnight California time, but since we were still on Eastern time, it was 3 am. So we went to sleep.

Karen woke up much earlier then I did and took some pictures of the sun rising over the marina.
Look at all those boats. I’ll take that one. Or any of these. We decided not to eat breakfast at the hotel, but to walk up to town to find a place to eat. We were recommended a place called Rex. It was really good and a great value.Look at the size of Karen’s pancake! After we left Rex we ran into the convenience store across the street to pick a couple things up. Well Karen grabbed a few things, I chatted on the phone. I needed to get my fix in before I was phoneless for a week.

Here are some palm trees we walked past on our way to town. Here I am standing by the palm tree. Look at all these lush, green plants – such a site for a Michiganders eyes in January.

Here is our hotel.
A fun little fountain. Here I am on a bench, still on the phone – big surprise. :) After our walk into town we went back to our room to gather our things and meet up with Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick to take the shuttle to the ship.