I awoke this morning to find a weather warning: Dense Fog Advisory!

“Visibility one quarter mile or less in dense fog.”

“Low visibility could make driving conditions hazardous.”

We’re not driving on this trip, and won’t be going anywhere for at least a few hours. But the fog alert was still attention grabbing!

Screenshot

It got me out of bed and over to the window to see whether there was actually any fog here in Long Beach.

Short answer: Yes!

We told another guest who stepped into the elevator on the way down to get breakfast that we don’t have fog like this at home, and this was kind of a new experience. He valve assured us that the fog will “burn off” soon.

We’ll see.

Small things.

—-

After our plane landed at the Long Beach Airport last evening, we quickly collected our bags and walked outside to catch a taxi to our downtown hotel.

Hmmm. The last time we were here, a year and a half ago, there was a taxi stand across the street on the side of the parking garage. Not there any longer. We looked up and down the street just outside the terminal, saw nothing resembling a line of taxis.

Then I spotted a sign. “Long Beach Yellow Cab,” with a phone number. Okay. I dialed. And reached a computer which asked where we were located, and where we wanted to go. I provided the information, and the computer voice responded that I would receive a text message when the taxi was dispatched. Then it advised that we needed to go to the taxi stand. We had already figured out that there was no taxi stand. So I waited to speak to an operator. A male voice answered after a short wait and I explained the problem.

“It is to the right if you are just outside the main terminal.” Okaaaay. We walked the length of the sidewalk in that direction. Nothing. And no text message. So after a few minute wait, as most of the passengers who arrived with us had gone on their way, I called back. Got to an operator. Where is the taxi stand? This time round, the answer was that we should ask an airport employee. Right. And that text message? Is a taxi heading our way or not? There was no clear answer forthcoming.

So I hung up, opened my Uber app, and in three minutes Phillip pulled up in a black Tesla to escort us to our hotel.

So it seems the taxi companies have just completely ceded the Long Beach Airport business to the ride share companies.

…

The little tag says “Make an Impact”.

And I did!

In fact, it took three solid impacts between my head and the top bar of the shower door before I figured out that anyone 6 feet or taller has to duck when entering or exiting the shower, or else!

I don’t think this is the impact the hotel was advising us about.

A “Watch your head” hang tag would have been more in order.

I don’t remember ever being in a hotel where I had to duck to avoid head injury when going to take a shower.

Live and learn.

—

Air Quality: 62 (poor) according to Accuweather. Temperature up to 60 degrees from the low 50’s earlier this morning.

It looks like a lot of vog blanketing the area today, except no volcano! So this must mostly be old fashioned smog from pollution.

I just took this photo out the window of our hotel, but the smog is much more visible to the eye than it appears in the photo.

It will be interesting to see how it changes over the course of the day.

Other than the layer of smog, it is sunny and clear.

I’ll be taking a walk in a while to pick up a couple of bottles of wine to take to dinner tonight at the home of one of my cousins. Other than that, this is just a day to relax.