"Hello, Ladies and Gentlemen!"

I'm going to be your tour guide as we glide through the waters of the Port of Long Beach. Did you know that this port is one of the greenest, if not the greenest port in the world?!!! I got tickets to take Mushroom and Celeste out for a few hours on a weekday afternoon boat tour to see the tourist and commercial areas, and shipping lanes. While we were there, we also watched Homeland Security and its related counterparts during a at-sea anti-terrorism practice right in the port. (It's not the same old Port anymore...)

My mother and I greeted the Queen Mary when she arrived in Long Beach back in the late 1960's. The ship is permanently moored here, and the Spruce Goose was housed behind it in a dome shaped hangar. I worked across the street at SeaLand, a container shipping company. I was rich and had quite the buff body then. You would be too, if you'd changed semi-truck tires and rebuilt the containers for a living.

There is a wonderful seascape mural painted on the circular blue arena in the center of this photo. All of the area in the foreground is made up of hotels, night clubs, restaurants, and commercial buildings, including the World Trade Center and the federal building. (No, Mushroom didn't work close by in Long Beach, we carpooled in the 1980's to downtown Los Angeles.)

An Oil Island off the Coast of Long Beach, CA

I remember the "natural" deposits of oil along the CA coastline when I was growing up. We used to have to scrap the sticky stuff off the soles of our feet when we came home from a day at the beach. There were no oil islands back in the 1950's. Now, there are dozens along the coast. I can't help but think about the consequences of the leaks, spills, and other "incidental"accidents the coastline has experienced since their arrival. Although the BP tragedy is occurring in water 5,000 ft. deep, making it more treacherous and less likely to be able to be contained, imagine what could happen anywhere along any coastline in the world. Guess that's one really good reason for continuing to have only one car for Mushroom and me to share. Less dependency is good!

A while ago, I stopped telling my family members to "bring your coats" when we'd leave the house. So, dear old Dad is keeping Celeste warm. It got pretty windy, and we got pretty wet sitting on the front of the tour boat. Celeste and I ran inside long enough to dry out and stop laughing, then went out over and over again to see the sights and experience the warm sun.

Having worked for SeaLand, the sight of these container ships still overwhelms me. The massive size of these ships is just an engineering marvel. Unfortunately, the containers leaving the US are more empty than the ones returning from Asia, but business is increasing in the port.

Here's what's left of the Cash for Clunkers program!

Gerald Desmond Bridge, from the north side.
Portions of Obama's Stimulus Package are being fought for to replace this aging bridge. It has netting underneath to catch pieces of concrete, which are falling off of the underneath areas. Yikes! It is made in a similar fashion to older bridges which have recently collapsed in the Midwest. So, there is some urgency to fund its replacement.

This really old Port of Long Beach building looks so familiar to me, kind of like the old ferry terminal we went to when I was a kid. The ferry went across the port to San Pedro. The bridges eliminated the need for the ferry.