Spring Break (the bank) PART THREE

(click on a picture to see it better)
Day Six: After a TON of rain, we woke to blue skies (Yahoo!) We had a pretty spacious pair of rooms at the motel and the laundry room was right next door. That came in pretty handy since we did several loads of laundry. We were about as far away as you could get from the free breakfast each morning. So ANYWAY, our first day was action-packed. We drove into the heart of Long Beach and started at the Queen Mary. We bought tickets for that and for the Aquarium of the Pacific at the same time because they were cheaper. We toured the engine room of the ship. Daniel and Nathan thought that was the best part. Next, we walked all over the outside and top of the ship. It was fairly breezy, and a little cool, but DRY! While we were trying to find the way to the observation deck (at the very front of the ship), Daniel and I paused for a 5-minute time out. How many people can say they had a time out on the Queen Mary? We happened to be on the Queen Mary the same day that CSI: Miami was there to do some filming. We didn't see any real action, but we did see one of the lead characters goofing off for the camera. Must be one of those behind the scenes things. I hope they enjoyed Leah's bloody-murder screaming as she threw a tantrum just below them! :) We got some ice cream from an over-priced, not so cordial ice cream shop and then went out and around to take a Ghosts and Legends tour. B wasn't sure she wanted to go. Buddhists are very superstitious and extremely nervous about ghosts. This tour was Long Beach's attempt at Universal Studios, complete with fog, lights, sounds and shadows. I was constantly waiting for Daniel, Nathan or B to tell me that they wanted out! Leah slept through the entire thing! I don't know how she pulled that off, but it's probably a good thing. Poor Chad had to carry her though. I jostled Rebekah around. It was fairly entertaining though. I would recommend it.

After we left the Queen Mary, we stopped at the van for some PB&J sandwiches. The girls in the ticket booth said we could catch a shuttle to the Aquarium and leave our van there. We were glad for that so we didn't have to pay for parking twice. As it turned out, the "shuttle" was actually the city bus system and we had to change buses halfway through the trip. At least we were in a "fare free" zone!

The Aquarium of the Pacific was really fun. We saw lots of neat things (including a sea dragon...a relative of the sea horse...picture included) and got to pet some stuff.




The manta rays were very tame and half came out of the water to be touched. One surprised Nathan and I, getting Nathan fairly wet! If you've never touched one, they feel like spit. There were some small sharks in the pools, too, but I just couldn't bring myself to go for it. A week or so after we returned from our trip, Daniel was giggling. He asked if we remembered when the manta ray waved at him. :)



At the aquarium, there was a lorikeet aviary. We bought a teeny cup of nectar to feed the birds. Wow! They really flock to you! We all had birds landing on us. I found some stuffed lorikeets at a good deal for the kids. Go figure: visit an aquarium and take home stuffed birds as a souvenir.

By the time we got back to the van, all the exit gates were wide open, so we ended up with free parking for the whole day. That was a nice surprise. We slept well that night.
















Day Seven: We spent the morning at the LA Zoo. We got in half price because we have a membership to the Idaho Falls zoo. (We love getting discounts!) As we were walking up to the zoo, B got confused. She wondered if we had left California and gone to LA. :) I guess they don't get that specific in Thai geography classes. There were a lot of school groups at the zoo. We were almost run over a couple of times. We knew we had left Shelley, ID when we didn't see any other blonde heads for hours! It was a pretty nice zoo and there was lots to see.


From the zoo we hit a beach. It was a pretty cool and breezy day, so I didn't get into a suit or the water. I stayed by the van with Rebekah wrapped up in a blanket. Chad took the kids out to the water, but Leah didn't last very long. Daniel was the only one that got completely submerged. Nathan had to be torn away from the beach (and the garbage that littered it)! We were the only ones in sight that were in the water. People now have one more reason to think Idahoans are strange! We slept well that night, too.




Can you find Daniel and Chad in this picture?