Jan 9: Santa Monica

We knew we were in LA today because our excursion bus was an hour late due to LA traffic! 🤣 We visited Santa Monica Pier and the surrounding neighborhoods. I needed a few art supplies so we hoofed it to Blick Art Store (7.5 total miles walked today). It felt great to get out and walk in the beautiful California sunshine! Our tour guide gave us a few facts regarding the cargo containers in the Santa Monica port (there are THOUSANDS of them!) Each container can hold:
▪︎ 2 million golf balls
▪︎ 400 flat screen tv
▪︎ 1/2 million eggs
▪︎ 300 containers are empied and moved in a typical 8 hr shift
▪︎ George Lucas reportedly got his inspiration for the AT-AT (All Terrain Armored Transport and combat vehicles) for the movies, "The Empire Strikes Back & The Return of the Jedi", from the container port cranes.

Upon returning to our ship today, we were excited to see that the 300+ new cruisers have boarded for the next 4 months! The ship threw a huge celebration on the pool deck, with music, champagne & hors d'oeuvres. We were surprised to run into founder & CEO of Viking, Torstein Hagen & his daughter Karine at the celebration! My first question to Karine was whether she had her pups with her?! She laughed and wished she had but they were a long way from home. She told us the hardest part of traveling is leaving her beloved yellow labs behind (a kindred spirit!) Karine then proceeded to check Julie & my hands to see if we had Viking blood! She obviously recognized something in Julie that gave her pause. The Hagen's are quite down-to-earth and don't hesitate to express their gratitude to the hard working staff who work tirelessly to bring the best to all of us.

Tomorrow, Santa Barbara!Read more