Day 7: Off the boat, onto the Bed & Breakfast

Waking up on Friday, we were a bit sad to be leaving the boat so early (they kick you off by about 8:15 AM), but again, we weren't leaving to go home, or back to work. We were leaving to stay at the Beachrunner Inn in Long Beach, a cute little Bed & Breakfast. So I guess it wasn't too sad, was it?

We got off the boat, which was easier than I would've guessed. We chose to carry our luggage off rather than leave it out the night before and claim it in a roomful of suitcases tomorrow. No inspection, no security, nothing. We walked off, no lines, no stopping, straight through to the parking garage in just a few minutes. We only had to hand in our claims form to declare what we spent and were bringing back, which was close to nothing from Mexico. Anyway, the Beachrunner was just 4 miles from the port, and check in wasn't until 3 in the afternoon. We decided to stall until 9 AM, then swing by the Bed & Breakfast to let the owner we were there, find out how early we could check in, and to ask the owner where we could grab breakfast and head to a beach nearby. You could almost see the ocean from the Inn, but it wasn't beach area. She recommended Belmont Shores just a little ways down the road. Off we went.

We headed down the street to Belmont Shores. It was a cute little beach town. Lots of surfing items, beach clothing, and seafood shacks. We were told we could check in early, but not before noon, so we went looking for a place to grab breakfast. We weren't overly hungry so we stopped at a little doughnut and coffee shop on the main street. Parking in Long Beach is different. Half the streets are one-way streets, and all the streets have signs up that say, "No parking on Thursdays (or whatever day on that sign)...street sweeping". You may find the best little shop, but parking may not be available for a long way down the street, nor on the side streets. We probably chose the coffee shop we did because we found a parking space and just tried to find what was near the car. Inside was small, but fairly clean. It was run by just one woman. She did the baking out back, and ran the front of the shop. We ordered our coffees and bagel egg sandwiches. We didn't rush through our breakfast but we didn't stay too long either. I couldn't wait to get on the sand, staring at the ocean waves breaking once again.

We headed down to the end of Belmont Shores and found a mostly empty parking lot on the beach. Perfect! We paid for our parking, opened our suitcases to pull out bathing suits and towels, then hit the restrooms to change. They were pretty much cement blocks with a door and typical side-of-the-road rest area toilets, but we just needed room to change. After putting our clothes back in the car we headed toward the water. I can't tell you how amazed I was at the empty beach. Granted, it was a Friday morning, and people are at work and kids are in school, but you always see photos of California's beaches with people packed like sardines on the sand. That morning, there were about 3 people walking the beach, and way up on the next hill a small group of people met for yoga on the beach. We had a mile long stretch of beach almost to ourselves. We could even look across the way and see a little of our ship we'd just left. I never mentioned this but Jordan collects sand from places we go. It started with my trip last year back east when I brought her back some sand from Hampton Beach, NH. She put it into a colored, old-fashioned bottle with a cork stopper. She said then she'd like to have sand from all over in different colored and shaped bottles - so on this trip, I brought her back sand. We gathered sand from Newport Beach, and Catalina Island, and now from Long Beach (the Mexican beaches were miles away so that didn't happen). The sand here amazed me. First of all, where the water receded after each wave came in, it left a black trace. The sand had lots of black minerals in it. When I looked closer, I realized it also had tons of shiny, gold glitter (looked like it) in it. When the wave came in then receded, it would leave a trail of gold behind on the sand. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. I made a short video of it for the kids to see. I collected sand for Jordan, and also some shells to add to her someday Beach Themed room (next house where we can paint). It was a beautiful morning, by a perfect beach, with the best husband I could have asked God to give me.

Once it was around noontime, we weren't really hungry, so we just snacked on our healthy snacks we'd brought along, and went to check into our room. The home is a remodeled 1913 home with lots of space. There were at least 3 bedrooms upstairs and 2 downstairs, I think, plus the areas where the owner lives. The chair rail shelves, built-in hutches and cabinets, the stone and tile fireplace, it was very inviting and warm. There was even a hot tub and sitting area out on a back patio that was covered by trees for privacy. Our room was ready when we got there, and we were more tired than we realized. We thought we'd just take a short nap, then go sightseeing or something. Well, our nap took us from about 12:30 through to suppertime. We slept great, the room was nice and cool, the ceiling fan and open windows were perfect. There was a bit of noise from the street outside, but I grew up in the city and Tim sleeps in truck stops, so it was fine. We just enjoyed the freedom to sleep all afternoon if that's what we wanted to do. There never seems to be time for naps as an adult, too much to do. This day was ours to do as we pleased, with nothing else to do.

After our extended nap, we were hungry. Tim suggested going to George's Greek Cafe. I LOVE Greek food. I wasn't sure he liked it, but if he was okay with it, I wasn't going to argue. We got ready and drove downtown to the district where all the restaurant, bars, and entertainment seemed to be. The buildings had a historic flair to them, nice architecture, high-rise buildings. It was very different from everything else we'd done so far. We ate outside on their side patio, just as the sun was getting ready to go down. We enjoyed the special, roasted lamb, baked potatoes, Greek salad, it was better than the cruise dinner. All homemade, no artificial ingredients, just good food. For dessert we tried a warm vanilla custard with vanilla ice cream (again, I'm not a chocolate fan). It was pretty good too. What a great dining experience - yes, we were still on vacation.

After dinner, we just went back to enjoy our Bed & Breakfast, and spent the evening relaxing.