Queen Elizabeth 2, Vision of the Seas & Carnival Pride
March 30th, 2008, was the end of an era for me.  It was the last time I would see Queen Elizabeth 2 in Los Angeles.  It was hard to believe that day a love affair which had started twenty-five years ago wasn't over.  In truth, I would see her again as an oceangoing vessel in June, but then she would be retired to become a hotel in Dubai.  No one knows like a Southern Californian native how hard it is to preserve an old ocean liner, and so it was with a trepidatious combination of worry and hope that we send her to retire.  The morning started out in an unusual way.  Patsy and I had decided before Lizzie's retirement was announced that we would have her visit around the time that Lizzie called into Los Angeles.  Unable to resist the lure of seeing her in her element, we booked a cruise on Vision of the Seas, which would arrive in port with the Queen that morning.  So it was at five in the morning, far too early to rise on the last day of your cruise, Patsy and I hung precariously from our aft balcony of Vision trying to catch a glimpse of our lovely liner.  It was at five-thirty I finally spotted her.  She was headed straight for Angel's Gate from the southeast (we were coming in fron nearly due south) and there was no mistaking that shape for anything else on the ocean.  Her funnel was not lit, but the long lines and tiered after decks were clearly illuminated and we were struck again by her classic shape that has now become an anathema to modern ship design.  It wasn't until she had passed the lighthouse into the breakwater that dawn began to touch the sky.  After a quick breakfast in the Windjammer Patsy and I slipped under the ropes closing off the forward section of deck 10, Vision's highest deck, when we were closer so we could see Lizzie as she turned past Land's End and into the main channel.  The day was starting out almost as if a veil was lifting over the hills of San Pedro, and I couldn't help feel as though we were watching a funeral procession.  QE2 was tying up her ropes at berth 92 by the time it was light enough for us to get decent pictures, but what photographs they are.  We decided to use Patsy's for this piece since hers came out better than mine.  It was wonderful to pass her on our port side and watch the workers on her gloriously sharp bow, not to mention some passengers, glance across to our comparitively "ducky" ship.
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	(C) Copyright Text Amy Blume & Photos Patricia Dempsey 30th March & 17th April 2008 Not to be reproduced without permission