Skip to main content

California: Long Beach

No more California after this, I promise!  We'll be back to normal life again.  This is just a scattershot tour of the highlights from Long Beach. in no particular order.  If nothing else, you get a few more cute photos of Toby to look at.

Long Beach is part of the greater Los Angeles sprawl, and while it might not be your first choice for a holiday destination, it has a pretty harbour area and a few good attractions (the Queen Mary of course being one).  We spent several days just pottering around and enjoying time in the sunshine.

Outside the Convention Center
Strolling along the boardwalk
The harbour and downtown.
An inoperative lighthouse had a pleasant little park around it...
...perfect for fun and games!
Shhh, don't tell him you can put money in it!
We drove to Huntingdon Beach one evening, where we were appalled to find that most of the car parks wanted $15 from us!  Finally we found a meter to put a few quarters in, and were rewarded with a nice sunset.
Sun setting over the palm trees at Huntingdon Beach
The beach baby look: sunglasses and dummy!
On Sunday we met up with some friends who live close by in San Pedro.  We joined them at their very friendly church, where we were greeted warmly and Toby, to our surprise, made a beeline for the nursery (probably thinking, "Finally!  Some different toys!")  After church we headed for a local park, where the adults enjoyed a cookout and the kids enjoyed the playground.  Their little girl is almost exactly the same age as Toby, and they seemed to get on well in that strange toddler fashion of mostly ignoring each other.


Being locals, they were able to give us a few recommendations, one of which was for the Frosted Cupcakery in the Belmont Shore area.  Graham and I went citrussy with lemon and key lime cupcakes, and we treated Toby to a chocolate "hi-hat" - kind of a mini cake and frosting sandwich.

Yummy!
Belmont Shore has some pretty streets, too, and so many of the homes had flowering bushes outside.
 Another recommendation was the Aquarium of the Pacific.  It's a great place, but let me further recommend that you don't try and drag your very cranky toddler around it.  Having said that, the penguins and rays were interesting enough to pull him out of cranky mode for a while, and we managed a pretty good tour before we hit complete meltdown.  We were even honoured with a great view of the octopus, who normally hides in her cave all day.  It was obvious something special was happening when all the employees were calling each other to come have a look!

Graham and Toby by the ray tank
You can even touch them if you want!
Look at those suckers!
One of the tanks was floor to ceiling and had some great big fish.
Anything with a steering wheel is always a hit.
Fast asleep on the bus back to the Queen Mary.
 On our final evening in Long Beach we were out looking for a place to eat, and stumbled across Kavikas.  The first attraction was a patio overlooking the marina, which we inexplicably had completely to ourselves.  The second was the sign saying, "Free kids meals".  This, we thought, has got to be worth a try.  We were not wrong.  Toby's food came on a plate almost as big as he is!  He thought he was in chip heaven, and tucked in with gusto.  Meanwhile we were wondering how big the adult portions were, if that was a child-size one!  Fortunately they were quite manageable and just as delicious.  Isn't it great when your lack of planning works out that well?

Is it bad that Toby is a pro at dipping things into ketchup?
Yummy!
Our trip home was mostly uneventful, at least until we picked up our car from the remote parking and somehow managed to set off down the wrong road.  What was worse was that it took us a good ten minutes to realise it!  Suffice to say that Hwy 183 - I820 - I35W is not the direct route home from DFW airport, and our Texas friends can laugh as much as they want, but I bet they've done something similar at least once!
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hiya Martha, so cool to see your photo's, it looks like your having a wonderful time & Toby looks full of fun. Many Blessings, love Su, (old cafe staff member.)
25 August 2012 at 12:39
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greece is the word! Part 2: Epidaurus

For the first part of our Greek holiday, see here . Day 4 - continued After much waiting around, we acquired a hire car and set off for the second part of our holiday. I am so glad that Graham can get into a strange car in a foreign country and drive away with no problems. I would be a nervous wreck. Even Graham was a little spooked by the Athens traffic - very narrow lanes crowded with cars and buses, and mopeds zipping in and out of every available gap. I had left Google Maps set to "avoid tolls", which meant that we stayed off the fancy new highway and took the old road towards Corinth instead. There was practically no traffic, so although it was slower, it felt very relaxed. We passed hills, hotels and oil refineries. Along the way, we stopped at a supermarket for supplies and drank Green Cola at the beach over the road. Crossing the Corinth Canal at Isthmia, we started heading south through the mountains of the Peloponnese. The sky had been growing darker and darker, and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Derwent Valley: Derby City and the Derwent Pilgrimage

It was 8 am and I was already hayfeverish, headachey and hot. Why on earth was I setting out to walk through the middle of Derby, when I could be up in the hills of the Peak District? No one was forcing me to do this section. I could skip it entirely. But I knew I wouldn't, because this was the next part of the Derwent Valley Heritage Way. And besides, I had a suspicion that it would be better than it looked. Alvaston Park was certainly a good start. It's a wide sweep of green grass and mature trees. I used to come here quite often when the boys were small. I was glad to see some of the planets were still there - although Mars has had a lot of feet standing on it, I think. Here's a tiny Toby in 2013 with Mars... ... and a more battered Mars today. Alvaston Park I kept off the roads for a while by following a cycle route. Even when I joined the traffic, it wasn't bad. The factories and office blocks had roses outside. This road, now the A5194, used to be the A6 coming in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Greece is the word! Part 1: Athens

The last few times we have been on holiday, my family has asked, "Mum, are you going to blog about this one?" It's felt like an overwhelming task. For a start, we now have FOUR phones with photos on, rather than one digital camera. Also, I regularly write quite long blog posts about three-hour walks. How on earth will I summarise a full week's holiday? But this time, I thought I should try. It's one of the most enjoyable holidays we've had in a while, and I've definitely done too many Peak District posts recently. Everyone needs a change of scenery. So here we go, jetting off to Athens. Day 1 We landed at Athens airport in a looming thunderstorm, but the worst of the rain held off until we'd made it safely to our apartment. Graham had earmarked a nice little restaurant called Lolos for dinner - eating shell-on prawns in tomato sauce was a deliciously messy experience - and we went to bed early after our 3am start. Day 2 Next day we climbed Philopappos ...
Post a Comment
Read more