One that Corrie and I came across was a twenty-two minute show about the history of the Queen Mary--the ship that's permanently moored here in Long Beach. That sounded cool, and it was filmed as if there were to be commercials, but we learned a few things: it's bigger than the Titanic--I didn't know that. It holds the record for most human beings transported by water ever in the history of the world:16,005, when it was repainted and moving would-be soldiers for WWII. Even the history of the name of the ship was a neat anecdote: the ship builders came to the King of England and told them they were going to christen and name it after the "most beloved queen in England's history". The king smiled and said, "Oh, Mary will be so happy," indicating his wife, who may not have been the choice they had in mind, but they couldn't very well change it at that point.
Now, the claim that it was bigger than the Titanic I had to look up. What they actually said was that they could put two Titanics inside of the Queen Mary, which is demonstrably false. That was the claim, and it was wrong, but the Queen Mary is bigger, er, was bigger. If you were in a helicopter, high in the air above a fully restored and resurrected Titanic and the Queen Mary side by side, after saying "Holy shit, those are the biggest fucking ships I've ever seen," you'd be able to tell that the QM is bigger.
Well, dang. Occasionally when I walk down to the coffee shop I've been going to to work on the notes for my novel, down Linden Street I can see giant vessels, cruise ships of the largest sort, making a striking silhouette off in the distant waters. They seem so massive, like they'd dwarf the Queen Mary, and hence the Titanic, so what's up with them?
Well, after doing a little research, the largest class of Carnival cruise vessels are called Oasis Class, and whether or not these are the ships I see occasionally at the end of the street on Linden remains to be seen, but at this point I'd like to think they are. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't matter.
On Friday, while I was making my walk down to the coffee shop to have a good day of notes--I was really get someplace good--I told myself, for a laugh, that the next time I made the turn and looked down the street and saw one of those ships, I turn around and get my bike and camera, and go take some pictures of it.
I smiled to myself at the thought. Then, as I made the turn, of course one of the ships should be there.
Dammit, I thought, I really need to get these notes down...another ship will be there another time. I made it to the coffee house and started working. Or trying to work.
I started to get distracted. It was early enough, right? I should be able to bike over to get the shots I wanted for a post, right? And be able to get back to the novel notes without wasting any part of the day. Half-hour at most.
By now I was totally distracted, and needed to just go get my camera and get some pictures. So, I would need a few shots from up the street, and a few closer up, just to let people understand how friggin' huge these things are.
This is what it looks like from Linden:
Linden has a steep down-hill section and dead ends into the tiny Seaside Way, a road used during the Grand Prix, but rarely otherwise. Then there's a large parking lot for the Long Beach Arena. This ship could be anywhere from a half-mile to a mile away from where I'm taking this picture, and you can see that it has a water slide.
The close up pictures would be in just a few minutes, as I rode on over that side of Shoreline Blvd.
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