We boarded our cruise on a Monday afternoon at the Port of LA in San Pedro, Los Angeles. The cruise port itself is snuck between other commercial shipping ports, most with containerships busy loading/unloading rows upon rows of shipping containers. Embarkation was pretty straight-forward and efficient. And by about 5:00pm, after we’ve conducted a mock emergency drill, everyone was invited to the upper decks to see the sunset and to bid Los Angeles farewell.

(At the end of this album, you will find a few shots taken on the day we returned to the same port. I woke up before the sun and, from the porthole of my cabin, captured the port bridge against the backdrop of an eerie blue sky. It was a fitting end to three days of sun and fun.)