Navy Week in Pedro

So this week has been Navy week in San Pedro. They haven't had a Navy week here since the Navy was kicked out of the LBC. I remember when I was little we use to go and check out the boats and go on the tours of the ships. They use to bring in the tall ships, the old fashion sailing ships too, but they don't do that anymore either. So when I heard about Navy week, I wanted to go and check it out. Well needless to say half of the California population wanted to go too!! They had to shut down the tours early because of the lines and the traffic. I'm so glad I don't live in San Pedro this week. Traffic from the 110 freeway was backed up all the way to the 405, people were waiting in lines over three hours to get on one ship not even counting that there were 4 ships to tour. So reading a little more about the activity I found out that 1. you had to wear close toed shoes to get on board...not happening when its a billion degrees outside. My toes have to breathe. 2. The lines were expected to be longer the later in the week. 3. You have to be able to climb up and down steep stairs and be in confined spaces during the tour...not happening. I'm very claustrophobic and heights are not something I rush through, especially if people are pushing. So to be able to say I saw the USS Abraham Lincoln and the other ships in port, we opted out to seeing it from another vantage point. Since we use to live in San Pedro it made it nice to be able to go through the back way and at least see the ship, not up close but at least close enough and personal for me.



















The other three ships weren't so easy to get a good look at them. I thought about going and taking a harbor cruise, but again the traffic and the parking was horrible and the first harbor cruise didn't go out till 1:30pm and it was 11am when we were taking these pictures. So the best thing to do was try and see them from the bridge except the only problem was when we finally got through all the traffic to get on the bridge every truck in the harbor seemed to be on the bridge at the same time so these pictures are little rough. The ship farthest away in the pictures is the USS Champion, in the middle is the USS Chafee and the closest and not a very good picture of it is the USS Princeton.







Michael got some great pictures of some little friends we met on the beach too!!

Blue Whales in the Harbor

So I'm wishing that I was on this boat seeing this for real, but a part of me is glad that I wasn't because I just couldn't imagine a Blue Whale breaching and the boat being so close that it capsizes from all that water. I guess what gets me the most is that these whales are SOOOO HUGE!!! It's hard to look at the ocean and think that something so big is right out there, but then if you think about it the ocean is so huge why wouldn't there be gigantic fishes in it.

Look whose holding Santa's hand

I've been meaning to post this for the past couple of weeks. Mom was going through some genealogy boxes she had looking for something for the up coming Garrett family reunion and came across this little gem.



Dad was 7 almost 8 in this picture taken at Buffum's in 1948. I thought I had seen most of Dad's younger years pictures but I'd never seen this one before. So here it is for the rest of the world to see!!! (Too bad the world doesn't read my blog!!)