October has always been special to me and my sweetheart. This year is no different. We are so blessed to have spent 51 years together as man and wife. Married when we were young we are still able to enjoy spending special vacations to commemorate our long lasting love. We decided to take a trip to Hawaii for our anniversary this year. We both needed easy travel plans for our adventure this year. So off we went on our two week trip to Los Angeles by air and then a cruise to the islands of Hawaii. A cruise is always so relaxing and we both looked forward to resting as we cruised the beautiful Pacific.
We arrived the day before our cruise, and made plans to stay on the Queen Mary that is now a hotel. Having been on the Queen Mary 2, Grayden really wanted to visit the original. On a previous visit when our daughter was a one year old, she and I boarded this vessel within the first year of its docking in Long Beach. It's been renovated and spruced up a lot since then. We were not disappointed! How wonderful to explore this historic vessel and spend an evening on board.
After checking into our state room we marveled at the size and the Art Deco decor that has been preserved. I'm not sure what class stateroom we occupied, but it is much larger than the ones we've occupied on other ships.
As I sat at this vanity, I couldn't help but wonder what faces of the past have stared into this mirror!
Upon leaving our stateroom we began to wander around this beautiful old ship.
Many famous folks enjoyed transatlantic crossings aboard the Queen Mary.
The Queen Mary is not only a floating hotel but quite a museum full of her history.
For all you Susan Branch fans (and who isn't ?) this little doll reminds me of Joe's Petey!
We noticed that there are tours one can take and we decided it would be fun to take the "Glory Days" tour to learn more.
How interesting and informative our guide made the days of the Queen Mary's life come alive.
The Queen Mary was a class ship full of opulence and over the top decor in the Art Deco manner. She is especially known for her beautiful different tiger wood and inlaid woodwork.
Children enjoyed this playroom back in the day. Even Princess Elizabeth played in this room as a child!
We learned that the Queen Mary was longer than the Titanic! She carried over 750,000 troops during WWWII! She was known as the Grey Ghost during that time as she eluded the German torpedos by out running them as she safely protected her precious passengers. She was painted grey so she would not be recognized.
Grayden really enjoyed this tour. He worked for the US Navy his whole career. We both felt honored to be walking along the same passages as the famous and the amazing soldiers who made their way from and back to safety.
The Queen Mary is still undergoing renovations as she is an old queen now. I'm so glad that by staying with her we are helping to keep her alive a little longer.
Our ship to Hawaii is parked next door to the Queen Mary so in the morning we walked over to our next adventure to Hawaii. I'll be posting a little about that trip. If you are interested, please stay tuned. ♥
