"Come, cuddle your head on my shoulder, dear. Your head like the golden-rod, and we will go sailing from here to the beautiful land of Nod."-Ella Wheeler Wilcox
If you live in the Bay Area, and weren't a big fan of the Super Bowl, then there was a different show you might have been catching. The arrival of the Queen Mary 2, as it sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge. While she was due to arrive at 3:00 PM, she was more than an hour late, but she was well worth the wait. The ship is as tall as a 21-story building, and longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall. To date, she is the second largest passenger ship in the world, having been surpassed by the "Freedom of the Seas," which is 1, 725 feet long. First-class tickets aboard the Queen Mary 2, for it's current, "Around The World In 181 Days" cruise cost, $185,905 per person, while the least expensive cabin goes for about $21,000.
When the ship visited Long Beach last year, it was estimated that more than 100,000 people were on hand to see the ship arrive. There probably wasn't that many people today, but traffic was still a nightmare, and parking was extremely difficult. We were lucky to find a spot at Baker Beach. The weather at the beach was glorious, so it was a great place to watch the ship slowly sailing under the gate. From far off, she looked almost like a giant gray ghost. It was somewhat eerie. Also from our vantage point, we had a nice view of the Liberty ship, Jeremiah O' Brian, which was one of the Queen Mary 2's official escort ships. That was fun for me, because my father, in his retirement, worked on board the Jeremiah O' Brian as part of it's restoration crew. I missed my father a bit today, he would have loved seeing the Queen Mary 2 arrive. :)
Queen Mary 2
Gross Tonnage 150,000 tons
Length 1132 feet
Beam 135 feet
Beam at Bridge 147 feet 6 inches
Draft 32 feet 2 inches
Height 236 feet 2 inches
Passengers 2,620 (3, 90 max)
Decks 19
Queen Mary 2 Website Cunard
Queen Mary 2 Bridge Cam
Note: The ship will be leaving San Francisco, bound for Australia and Hong Kong, on Monday, February 5th, at 5:00 PM Pacific time.
-OndineMonet
Queen Mary 2
San Francisco, California
Sunday, February 4, 2007
4:00 PM
6 comments:
Wow! Great photo of the QM2, and interestng angle from Baker Beach. I got some shots from near Crissy Field and posted them on my blog. Glad I didn't drive!
that is one impressive photo Carly!!! simply beautiful!
on my way to work last night, while listening to the game, i heard on the news that the traffic gridlock related to this was horrendous. i hope you didn't get stuck.
i would have loved to have seen it, but when i wasn't snoozing, i was working.
oh well, another time. in the meantime, i will enjoy your view. it's breathtaking.
Thanks for the great blog post!! Great pictures. :))
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http://www.cameravox.com/
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A friend of one of my co-workers is on an around the world cruise now. She may well alreayd be on that ship! Great picture, as always, Carly!
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