Watching over you while you sleep

  Angels are everywhere.

Independence Day aboard the Queen Mary

  Well, here we are, five days past the 4th of July, and I’m just now getting around to posting about what a great holiday it was! My girl and I were lucky enough this year to get to spend the day in Long Beach, aboard the famed RMS Queen Mary, which is permanently moored there.
  I read up on the ship the night before, and I’m glad I did. It really made me appreciate the history, and gave me even more of a feeling of stepping into the past than I already would have had. I won’t go into the complete history here (that’s what Wikipedia is for, folks), but suffice it to say, the Queen Mary has quite an interesting past. I had also heard about some of the “ghost stories” making the rounds, but I found all that to just be tourist rubbish meant to drum up more ticket sales. I got no kind of creepy vibe from the ship whatsoever. (Click any pic for fullsize)

The Grand Lady

  It was a beautiful day in Long Beach, temps in the mid 70’s, with a nice breeze coming off the water. Our first stop was the self-guided tour of the innards of the ship, beginning with the engine room. Because there’s no air conditioning, or even air movement per se, I found the temps inside fairly uncomfortable, and began to sweat profusely. It didn’t rob me of enjoying the experience, though, and it was amazing to see all the controls, dials and levers still in place next to the massive engines. I imagine it was MUCH hotter down here when the ship was operational, for those unfortunate men tasked with keeping things running.

Engine Room gauges

More Engine Room

Hard to port!

Makes me hungry for Cap'n Crunch

  After working our way through all the pipes and rivets of the engine room and its supporting components, we entered a room where the deck had been cut away, offering a glimpse of the last remaining propeller. It was an eerie sight, for some reason, and kind of reminded me of underwater wrecks. The installation had a couple small lights aimed at the prop, casting a murky sort of green hue on it.

Creepy propeller

  Next, we walked through a few rooms showcasing ship’s amenities. There were items from wartime, when the ship was refitted to ferry troops, photographs of some of the ship’s more famous passengers, dining sets, equipment from the hair salon, and much more.

Typical dining room setup

  After we concluded our tour, we decided to go exploring the currently inhabited parts of the ship. Besides being a museum, the Queen Mary also functions as a hotel. The lobby and promenade were fairly fancy, and I would like to have seen what the cabins look like. I’m told that some of them contain original furnishings, and that you can even see where some passengers have scrawled their names in the bottoms of dresser drawers over the years.
  There were several events going on throughout the day, and various decks were themed according to different decades. One particular ballroom we stepped into was in the midst of a concert by a really decent Beatles cover band.

Beatles ballroom

  We strolled the deck after that, going as far topside as we could. The very highest deck was reserved for VIP access (class wars never change, am I right?) and we didn’t feel it was worth $20 more per person to see one more deck.

Looking toward the bow

  We walked about a quarter-mile away and arrived early for our dinner reservations at a restaurant called “The Reef,” which was pretty good. Nice atmosphere, right next to the waterfront, good drinks. Out in the harbor, we could see people boarding their boats with coolers and supplies, getting ready to watch the big fireworks display later in the evening.
After our lovely meal, we headed back to the Queen Mary and boarded the Scorpion, a cold-war era Soviet sub, moored next to the ocean liner. It was pretty fascinating, and it was our first time aboard a submarine.

The Scorpion

  I expected the sub to be cramped, but that is an understatement. I could barely stand fully upright in most of the vessel, and my shoulders were practically rubbing the bulkheads as we made our way along the inside, passing through several hatches. If you ever go, be sure to wear loose-fitting pants, as crawling through the circular watertight doors can be a bit tricky if you’re not very bendy.

Torpedo launch bay

A torpedo tube

Sub stuff

  We staked out a place to watch the fireworks on the upper deck of the ship pretty early, but almost not early enough. A full two hours ahead of time, most of the deck was already covered with people.
  As the sun went down, the entire harbor filled with boats for the big show, and the deck became ever more crowded.

The harbor

Across the harbor

  Then, finally, it was time for the big show! With various patriotic tunes blasting, the fireworks cut loose directly in front of the ship. It was an amazing display, and the closest I’ve ever been to a big fireworks show (Disneyland excluded).

Fireworks!

  As the finale roared and filled the sky with thunderous colors, the crowd cheered, and then it was time to call it a night.
  We were in no hurry, knowing that there would be massive delays debarking, and also a mess of traffic in the parking lots and on the highway. We ended up sneaking on to the topmost deck of the ship, since security was very lax by this point, and saw how “the other half” lived. It was mostly just big ol' drunken dance party.
  All the exhibited areas of the ship were closed, but we were still able to peek into the bridge and the radio room, which was pretty interesting. After poking around for a while, we made our way off the ship and started back for home.
  Although traffic was indeed an absolute NIGHTMARE, we were able to get around it eventually, and it did nothing to spoil an otherwise amazing day in Long Beach.

  Hope everybody had a happy fourth!

The other side

  I'm back!

  After a year-long hiatus from this blog, I decided it was time to return. Why? No particular reason. I still don't feel that I have a lot to write about, but you never know. Every once in a while, I miss this platform as a place to expound upon my thoughts, or review a movie, or plaster up a few images from a photo shoot. Sometimes I just want to rage about something. Sometimes I want to share a recipe- although, now, I have a place for that: Chef Bear, a blog that is entirely about food and cooking. You can find a link to it in the sidebar.
  I'll be tweaking the new look of the blog for a while, I'm sure, but here I am. Welcome back, readers! I'll try to keep it interesting.

The end of things.

  In a year that's seen each and every one of my interests dry up and blow away, so to it is with this blog. This will be the last post, though I'll leave the blog here as an archive.

It's been fun, ya'll. See you on the other side of someday.

Toffee or not to...ffee?

  Yep, I caught the cooking bug again today, and I blame Pinterest. I blame Pinterest for a lot of things lately: lost time, gained weight, and a newfound desire to cook ten metric tons of sweet delights.
  Today's delight is none other than English Toffee, one of my favorites. It was a super easy recipe, with the only tedious part being the "waiting for things to cool down so I can proceed to the next step." This very minute, I'm waiting for the final product to cool down so I can break it into pieces and then shove some of those pieces in the old face-hole.
  Here's the basic process. I'll include a link to the recipe at the end if you're feeling saucy.

Ingredients

Melty

Bubbly

Pour and cool

Toasted in the oven a few minutes

Melting the chocco

Coat the cooled toffee

Sprinkle with nuts and cool

  Obviously, it makes more than what is pictured here, but I wanted to show the end product. Also, I've shoved several handfuls of this in mouth, and it is killer. Here's a link to the recipe. Enjoy!

Boston

  For hours now, the world has known of the shocking attack on the Boston Marathon. We've watched as the casualty count climbed, as it often does in these awful circumstances. We've waited for an explanation- who did this? Why? Often, these questions are not easily answered.
  As human beings, we're designed to be empathetic. We hurt when others hurt. We also feel shock and, later, rage. We want- we DEMAND- reprisal. In a word, we want revenge on those who've hurt us.
  As a person of faith, I'm not blind to this. One of the biggest personal struggles I've dealt with is to not seek revenge. I'm telling you this only to illustrate that I understand how people are feeling right now; especially those who were personally affected by today's events. But revenge is not the answer. Hurt for hurt doesn't do anything except cause more hurt. I'm not saying we shouldn't find those responsible and bring them to justice- we absolutely should. I'm simply calling for a hush to the bloodlust that usually erupts around these acts of violence. I know that our intel community is working hard this very minute to to find the responsible party, and I wish them nothing but success.
  Of course, I will continue to pray for those who were wounded today, and for the families and friends who lost loved ones. I'm deeply grieved that our nation is becoming such an unsafe place to live. It seems these days like you can't go anywhere without risking your life. Schools, movie theatres, shopping malls, restaurants, public transit, offices, marathons- all of them have been targets of unimaginable horror. What we can't do, though, is give in. We can't stay at home and let those who would visit these acts on us scare us into not living our lives. It doesn't really matter in the end whether today's bombing turns out to be the work of a foreign terrorist or a domestic one. The result is the same.
  I'll also be including those responsible in my prayers tonight. One of the greatest revelations that's come out of my walk with God is that we often forget, as we pray for victims, that it is the ugliest and most evil who often need our prayers the most.

Creeped Out at Greystone

  This past weekend, I had the opportunity to not only see the grounds of the famous “Greystone Manor,” but also to enjoy the privilege of a tour of the interior of the mansion itself. The grounds are open to the public, but tours are by appointment only.
  Completed in 1938, the elaborate mansion was a gift to Edward "Ned" Doheny, Jr., and his family from Ned’s oil tycoon father, Edward L. Doheney.

Construction underway in 1927

Nearly complete

Greystone Manor

  Tragically, under mysterious circumstances, Ned and his secretary, Hugh Plunket (with whom he was rumoured to be having an affair), were the victims of an apparent murder-suicide. Our tour guide filled us in on the whole sordid story, and it all sounded pretty fishy. Both Ned and Hugh were due to testify in the trial of Ned’s father in the Teapot-Dome scandal, for starters. Also of interest was the fact that Ned’s family held police at the outer gates to the grounds for an hour and a half after the shooting, telling authorities they “needed to compose themselves” before allowing them entry.

The main staircase

The main staircase

  There are also numerous discrepancies involving the murder weapon, a .45 revolver. No prints were found anywhere on the weapon, and it was found underneath Plunket’s body, reportedly too hot to touch nearly two hours after the shooting. There were also discrepancies with trajectories, powder burns, and Ned’s wife. She was in the next room over, yet testified that she didn’t hear the fatal shots. When local newspapers printed a diagram of the house, the room Mrs. Doheny was in at the time of the shootings had conveniently been moved to the other end of the house.

Tudor style ceiling

  But that wasn’t the end of the tragic history of Greystone. Two of the house’s female staff later committed suicide in separate incidents, and a child playmate of the Doheny children fell to her death from an upper window. It was also believed that a man was beaten to death in the basement.

Upper floor hallway

  There’s a lot more to the history of the place that I won’t go into here. Nobody ever lived in the house after the Dohenys, even though the property has changed hands a couple of times. Thankfully, it was eventually taken over by the park service and preserved.
  What was immediately noticeable was an odd, creepy vibe to the place- a weight, if you will. Being in the room where the murders took place was eerie enough, but there were other odd sounds and sights throughout.

The turret staircase

  The house has been, and continues to be, used in many film and television productions, and the ranger giving us the tour had a little fun with this at our expense. In one of the house’s original kitchens, he opened a large morgue-like freezer drawer which revealed the bare feet of a fake dead body. One unfortunate woman on the tour screamed at the top of her lungs and jumped. He explained to us that many productions had used the kitchen as a morgue set for its appearance. There were a few other surprises like that, but honestly, they didn’t need them. The real stories were scary enough.

The bowling alley

  Besides the creepy, heavy vibe, I also personally witnessed a very large, very heavy chandelier swing by itself and heard a large crash at the other end of the house when nobody was there. Along with the rest of the group, I heard an audio recording that I found most blood-curdling.

  A film production person had left their audio equipment recording during the night one time, to capture the creakings and groanings that typically happen at night when a house settles. Mostly, what they got was silence. Then, on one section of the recording, it sounds like increasingly louder bumps and bangs, as if a body is falling to the floor over and over. It sounds… angry.

A sitting area

  Another more faintly heard recording sounds like tortured screaming coming from the basement. The ranger told us of a time he had to go down to the basement by himself at night to turn the power on. He heard the same screaming, and left in an awful hurry. At least two other rangers have refused to work in the house.

  Could these things have been set up? Sure. Do I believe there’s evil in that house? Without a doubt.

  Visit. Judge for yourself.