Yesterday was a sea day. The highlight of the day was the bridge club championship. My partner, Terry, and I came in second. Not bad as we were playing against a world class player. I’ve never gotten so many master points on a ship as I have these past two weeks — almost 5 points. 👏👏👏
We met all the other enrichment people for dinner. It was rather noisy, and we were the only Americans and the only one staying on for the whole cruise.
Today we arrived in San Pedro harbor. During the night we had to lay at anchor while the bottom of the ship was inspected for any living organisms. This is a new thing that they’re doing to make sure that no foreign matter is brought into the United States.
We had to go through immigration and customs at 9am this morning. Everyone, including the crew, has to go through this inspection, and no one can go back onto the ship until everyone has been processed. We did not even have to show our passports. They take our picture and then ask us our full name and if it agrees, then we just go on, I guess passports are going to become passé at some point as facial recognition is taking over.
We then took a bus ride to Santa Monica. It started off rather cold at about 42° and the sun warmed up to about 60°. Overall, it was a very pleasant and beautiful day. Michael and Terry took off for the nearest Walgreens where we had a prescription to pick up, and Terry‘s wife and I took a stroll down the Santa Monica pier. This is a spot where the famous Route 66 ends. I have many fond memories of Santa Monica, walking the beach with my cousins and going to POP, Pacific Ocean Park, where there was an amusement park, and some of the attractions are still there. When the fellows arrived back from their errand, we had a nice lunch at Bubba Gumps. It was then time to head back to the shuttle for a drive through the LA freeway traffic back to the ship.
Tonight was a welcome celebration with the chairman of the board of Viking, Torsten Hagen. I even had my picture taken with him. Today was turn around day where half the ship’s passengers got off and the new group got on. A lot of new faces to learn as well as some old ones that we’ve seen on previous cruises.
