California Trip #1

Hubbells

The 2017 Hubbell Family Reunion was held in Long Beach, hosted by Rich and Colleen Hubbell (my first cousins). The group stayed on the Queen Mary, which is now permanently docked in Long Beach as a museum/hotel. Thank you, Lisa, for providing a bunch of pictures to complement mine, especially Mt. Wilson, and the activities you and Alan did together.

HAH Gathering

Mt. Wilson Expedition

Looking out over the parking lot from the Promenade Deck, you can see the currently not-in-use English village replica buildings. They look like they should house quaint tourist shops. And way beyond that, you can see the cranes of the port of Long Beach, one of the busiest commercial ports in the world.

Looking down from the Promenade Deck, a tiny bit of open water, and the exterior elevator/stairwell tower and access ramps.

The Promenade Deck.

The view from the other side of the ship -- Long Beach Harbor.

From the stern end, you could see a cruise ship taking on passengers.

Modern amenities on the cruise ship -- a water slide.

And off it goes, under way.

Long, long hallways. This is A-deck, and to the side you can see the Welcome Hubbell Family sign above the door to our hospitality suite.

First Board meeting, in the Board Room, appropriately enough.

Margie Hlava and Harvey Hubbell

Lunch on board at the Chelsea Chowder House. Mother, Aunt Mary, Kitty, Alison, Kitty, and Anne.

First family meeting.

Alison looks for Pokemon while the adults listen to meeting minutes.

Karen presents her plans for the 2019 Reunion in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

Shelton took Mother and Anne to breakfast Saturday morning at the Courtyard by Marriot. He'd stayed there the week before and liked the food and the service.

Then we took a scenic drive through Long Beach Harbor back to the Queen Mary.

You could see the Queen Mary across the water.

We also got a glimpse of the busy Port of Long Beach. So many containers being loaded to and from trains to ships.

Back on board the Queen Mary, hanging out in the hospitality suite. A puzzle was underway, of course. Max, Paul, Colleen, Dr. Pete, Carolee, Emily, Martha

Karen shows Laura some of her Michigan reunion planning.

Dinner out at a Greek restaurant in Long Beach. We had a large group, so we were served family-style. They just kept bringing one delicious dish after another, culminating in baklava, of course, for dessert.

Seated around the long table: John A., Shelton, Rich, Mother, Anne, Ky, Alison, Miranda, Ryan, Holly, Aunt Mary, Paul, Larry, Derrain, Rick, Kitty, Ty, Rhys, Katy, Margie, Donald

Flaming cheese.

The puzzle progresses.

Mother and Anne breakfast on the Promenade deck with coffee and a muffin from the snack shop.

We took a tour of the ship. This is the grand ballroom.

We learned about the building of the ship, entertainment options for the voyage, differences between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class, etc.

The ship was used for troop transport during WWII. While an inviting target for Uboats, it was obviously never sunk, or even hit.

a lego model of the Queen Mary

The long hallways show the curvature of the ship, end to end. You can't really see the ceiling at the far end. We were told that it was a fifth of a mile from our stateroom at the stern end of the ship, to the elevators by the lobby. Those elevators were the only ones available to guests. The service elevators were off limits, although the staff did kindly make a key available for our family so we could get the wheel-chair and stair-limited people up to meetings more easily. Generally, though, Mother only returned to our stateroom on the B-deck once at night.

Sunday evening - Mother ready for the banquet.

Waiting outside for the group picture to be taken.

Behind us, berthed next to the Queen Mary, was an old Soviet submarine.

assembling for the group pic

our photographers, Harvey's intern Olga, and his daughter Allie. Olga launched a drone camera, in addition to still shots.

Alison dressed for the 20's theme with peacock headgear.

Margie and Paul in period style.

The Kimmels: Margie, Larry, Kitty, Glenn, and Aunt Mary.

Laura and Karen strike a pose.

Banquet in the Royal Salon.

Since I had orginally planned to spend Sunday driving up the coast to UCSB for David's graduation, I didn't go to the banquet. After deciding I really wasn't up to doing that drive, I took the opportunity to simply put my feet up and relax. Lisa brought Alan over to the Queen Mary that evening as planned. We got a rollaway bed in our stateroom for him to sleep on. Lisa then returned to Robyn's home in Huntington Beach.

No, this isn't our stateroom. This is Margie and Paul's suite, The King George Suite. She gave us a tour. It even had a small room and bathroom for the valet.

The first-class passengers had 4 taps for their bathtubs: hot salt, hot fresh, cold fresh, and cold salt. They were encouraged to take therapeutic salt baths! Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that salt water was quite available and fresh was rather limited.