More fun times with friends

The next day after whale watching, we head out to the beach after school.  Looks like Ben and Ara are fitting right in with the SoCal lifestyle!

We brought some sand toys back from Phoenix so Graham and Charlie are loving it:

It is SUPER windy today.  I am amazed this guy hasn't flown away with his kite (kite-boarding)!

Charlie and his sand castles and who knows what he is drawing... :-\

Ara and I sneak away to get coffee and crepe. Ahhh... so good to get out of the wind!  All the boys show up later and boys are happy with their crepes as usual.  Crepe before dinner??? Mommy definitely went soft there.  We spot the Goodyear blimp on the way out. Seems that instead of the Chinooks that we always spot in Abu Dhabi, we would spot the blimp here instead. Ha!

We drive back to Terranea Resort for dinner.  There is no indoor seating so we are outside, surrounded by 4 heaters.  It is still so windy and now cold!!!  Charlie makes the funniest faces. Ha ha!

Graham is ready to go to bed and dinner hasn't even arrived yet!

Charlie is just happy has a bug to be snuggling next to Ara.  He is going to be trouble when he grows up being such a lady-charmer :-D

Thanks so much Ben and Ara for coming out to see us!!!  XOX

Whale watching - 2nd chance

Feb 11: We are back on the boat for our 2nd chance to catch a whale!  Well, not literally catch a whale but at least catch a glimpse of one :-)  We did not see any on our first whale watching trip a few weeks ago and thankfully we were given a rain-check, so this trip is free. Even better!

Our friends from the UK are here visiting so they are tagging along as well.  Graham and Charlie especially love having them around!

I forgot to take my Dramamine this time but thankfully the waves were down today.  But I need to get something into my belly. I know it sounds weird, I actually feel nauseous on an empty stomach.  Hot dogs for lunch:

We spot another cruise liner.  Gosh, these things are really massive:

Graham and Charlie would love that slide!

We are now in the open ocean.  Graham is bored...

And Charlie is having a snuggle-buggle and falling asleep with Ara!

But wait... there are some splashes...

Dolphins!!!  Like SO MANY of them!!!

I am probably exaggerating but I'm quite sure there were about a hundred dolphins!

There were lots of baby dolphins are well:

After a good 10-15 minutes with the pod, we move on.  I catch a dolphin catching the waves at the back of the boat.  Too cool!

Okay, back to finding that whale!  It's probably another 30 minutes or so when the boat starts to slow down.  See that break in the water in the photo below?  Well, that's sort of like the whale's footprint.  A whale's tail is called a fluke so it's called a "fluke print" :-)

We have to wait for a few minutes before the whale resurfaces.  There's the spray from the blowhole!

There are actually 2 whales today.  Woohoo!!!

Now here is an interesting fact - the whale is actually not spraying water out of their blowholes.  When the whale resurfaces and exhales, they release the air forcefully through the blowhole.  Since the air inside the whale is typically warmer than the cooler temperature outside, it immediately condenses making it look like a water spout.  Who knew!  And supposedly you can tell the different whale species based on the shape of this water spout.  We'll see how long we have to live here to get to that stage of expertise :-P

No breaching today by the whales which is too bad.  But one last look at the whale's fluke!

What a fun day and experience for everyone!  I think those dolphins definitely stole the show today!!! I should have panned out more so you can actually get a good feel of exactly how many dolphins there were.  Next time :-)

Chinese New Year celebration

We were able to find a Chinese New Year Celebration in Long Beach a couple of weekends ago (Feb 10). I thought there was going to be a Lion Dance but was disappointed to find out that there wasn't going to be one.  Nonetheless, we did this discover this place called "Crafted At the Port of Los Angeles".

What a neat place!  It is a warehouse that is a permanent marketplace for handmade artisans.  There are also lots of DIY classes.  Might be something for me to explore. Anyhow, I digress.  I just get so excited about DIY projects! Ha ha!  :-)

We park and are greeted by a huge ladder fire truck:

Crazy to think the Fire Department would still use a wooden ladder???!

Look!  It's the Oscar Meyer "Weinermobile"!  Supposedly there are only 11 active Weinermobiles and we have one here!!!

Daddy and the boys are figuring out who is what animal.  This year it Daddy's year - the Dog!

As usual, Charlie is all excited about face painting.  Not so much the case for Graham:

While I am waiting for Charlie, I take some random photos :-)

Show your dragon face, Charlie!  Grrrr...!!!

There is a small petting zoo:

Graham finds a rabbit to pet.  There are some funny looking chicken in front of him, but he doesn't go for those:

We step inside the Warehouse and the boys have fun with some mirrors.  I thought Graham and Charlie were quite clever playing with their "reflections" - a boy on each side.  Almost got me fooled!

I love LOVE this photo of Graham and Charlie with this shark.  HA HA HA!!!

Back outside, we catch a traditional Chinese fan dance.  I think it's cute how it is actually older ladies that are doing this dance.  They were probably in their 60s or 70s:

As we watch, there are some kids in their uniforms getting ready to perform their Kendo - a form of Japanese martial arts.  Wait... I thought it was a Chinese New Year celebration.  Hmmm.... I hope they don't think all Asians are alike!

We go over to the other side of the building where there are more warehouse space and we find a massive brewery.  See the excitement in Bobby's face??!! :-D  Belgian-inspired beer is brewed and bottled here.  I am just reading up that this 25,000 sq ft space is actually a former WWII-era Navy warehouse.  Woah!!!

But first, everyone is hungry.  We opt for the pizza food truck.  See that red thing in the food truck, in the background?  That's the pizza oven!

Graham love pepperoni!

Charlie and I opt for plain cheese:

Once we are done with our pizza, we make our way out.  We catch a little bit of the Kendo.  The kids are warming up by hitting their sensei/teachers with bamboo swords.  Thankfully the sensei is wearing protective gear but even so. Interesting!

As we head out, Bobby spots a cruise liner:

We turn the car around and go chasing after it.  I think it's funny how this tree is leaning left, even though when it is not windy!

Not sure if this port/building is still active.  There is no one here, although it is the weekend:

This cruise ship is MASSIVE!!!

Someday, we will make it on a cruise!

Point Vicente Lighthouse

We finally made a visit to the Point Vicente Lighthouse, which is not too far from our apartment.  It is open to the public every 2nd Saturday of the month.

Can't believe this was actually built back in 1926.  And based on what I am reading on the internet, the light source was dimmed during WWII to avoid aiding the enemy.

The lighthouse was manned until 1971 and now is maintained by the US Coast Guard.  There is a museum and 3 houses on site which are Coast Guard residences.
Graham and Charlie were very busy with the Morse code machine in the museum:

Lots of other miniature of actual lighthouses on display:

An old light of the lighthouse:

On this particular day, we also saw some dolphins out in the distance by the lighthouse. A fun day out!  Speaking of fun, just read this as well - that the lighthouse was the finish line for the 25th season of The Amazing Race.  Too bad we don't watch that show a lot!