Four years ago: Aboard the Queen Mary!

Queen Mary sun deck, Feb. 14, 2010

Four years ago today we toured the Queen Mary and attended the Scottish festival in Long Beach, Calif.!

After the long drive there, we enjoyed lunch aboard a sit-down restaurant on the former ocean liner. Some of the parts of the ship we toured were the engine room, the officer's quarters, and the bridge, the latter two of which you treated as a playground!

At the festival, we listened to bag pipes and then went back inside the ocean liner to look at the vendor's displays, which included some swords. I remember that I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I bought a disposable one at the Queen Mary gift store!

Here's a bunch of photos from our adventure!

Two years ago: Aquarium of the Pacific

Children's playground at Aquarium
of the Pacific, Jan. 28, 2012.

Two years ago today, we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif.! This was one of your favorite places to go, and you always were asking me if we could go.

We'd had a sring of gloomy overcast skies and cool temps in Palmdale, and I was itching to go enjoy some sunshine. Somehow I came across a discount coupon for the aquarium, and so off we went!

The temp was a gorgeous 72 degrees under sunny skies. I remember that our faces got a little red from the sun as we walked around the harbor from the aquarium to the shops and arcade on the oceanfront!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Major American cities you've been to

Train Town in Los Angeles, Calif. in 2009.

I've previously written about the states you've been to. Perhaps you'd also like to hear about all of the cities you've been to, too! Here's a list of the most populous cities that you've been to so far in your life:
>>Los Angeles
>>San Francisco
>>Long Beach
>>Minneapolis/St. Paul
>>San Diego
>>Denver
>>Sacramento
>>Las Vegas
>>Albuquerque
>>Omaha
>>Des Moines
>>Santa Barbara
>>Lincoln, Neb.

I have photos of you in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego, Albuquerque, and Santa Barbara.

Our spring visit to Aquarium of the Pacific

Two years ago today, we visited the renowned Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif.

The day did not start well for us, though! You got ill in the car and threw up! I had to stop at Target along the way to buy you new clothes.

You seemed to be OK while we were at the aquarium. One of the most exciting parts of the visit was when you got to feed the lorikeets. A few moments after the photo at above left was taken, the greedy little bird decided to use you forearm for a branch. When the bird jumped onto your arm, you screamed and spilled the nectar!

On the way back, you were feeling a little under the weather once more and threw up in the car again! Fortunately, I was able to get you cleaned up at a Burger King in Santa Clarita.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our journey!

 

Our many Pacific Ocean adventures

June 20, 2011, Moonlight Beach,
in Encinitas, Calif.

Do you remember all of the times we went to the ocean? We went quite a number of times to the beach in Ventura and Encinitas and once to the beach in Carpenteria. We'd also do the boardwalk in Long Beach, and when you were an infant, you went to beaches in and around Crescent City.

You always liked to let the tide rush in at you and see if you could evade it by running away. Sometimes you were successful! Because you couldn't yet swim, I always had to make sure I held your hands so you wouldn't get knocked down and float away on me.

We also went to different aquariums that had fish, mammals and other animals that lived in the ocean. The Aquarium of the Pacific on Long Beach by far was your favorite. We also went once to the Birch Aquarium in San Diego and a couple of times to Sea World in San Diego.

Here's some pictures from a couple of those ocean adventures!

A trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific

A year ago today we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. This always was one of your (and mine!) favorite places to visit when a preschooler.

The day was perfect - a wonderful 72 degrees and sunny, so I couldn't resist taking us there! Back in the Midwest where I grew up, there were snowstorms or at least cold temps, and in the high desert where we lived at the time, the temps during winter usually only got into the high 50s.

After the aquarium, we walked around the harbor to some of the neat seaside shops and got ice cream. We also spent a little time in the aquarium where we played some game that netted you a toy Army man or two.

Unfortunately, I only have a couple of pcitures from this trip - the disc on my camera was full so only three pages could be taken!