Covid Testing & Holiday lights

Since being back from Minnesota, we decided it would be a good idea to get tested for Covid.  We should have set an appointment when we first got back since we couldn't find any same-day appointments. Sheesh! So we decided to drive out to Long Beach and ended up in a line for testing.  I almost feel like we are even more exposed to Covid this way!

But first off, check out all the snow cap mountains in the distance:

There's probably even more snow now as it rained all week this week!  We probably had about 2-3 inches of rain. The sun is finally just out today!

Here's our line for Covid testing. Urgh:

Thank goodness there was a bus stop bench along the line so we could rest our legs from all that standing:

And instead of everyone waiting around in line, we decided to leave Bobby and go look for some food. Thank goodness for the cafe just down the street.  The boys devoured the PB&J sandwich:

What a cool mural along the way:

I'm don't think we will ever stand in line again ever for a Covid test.  I was quite anxious.  And then someone else entered the room while we were testing i.e. had our masks down.  YIKES!!  We probably waited over 1.5 hours in line and then a little bit longer after that - waiting on the results for our Rapid Test.  Still no news on our PCR test yet and that was about 5 days ago now :-(

Phew, now that that is done, we are off to our little surprise for the boys.  We told them we would see some holiday lights.  And hmmm, traffic jam!  We are sending Graham to see what how many cars are ahead of us:

Yup, looks like Bobby decided to take the long way around and the only way to get over now is on a little baby ferry.  Ha!

Who knew this even existed!?  Okay, we're finally next!

Okay, here goes:

The boys and I get out of the car while we are on the ferry:

Daddy is staying put in the car:

It's a pretty quick ferry ride so all of us are back in the car within a few minutes:

We find parking on this side and we are off back towards the pier.  I made everyone wear a Santa hat even though it's already the day after Christmas.  Much easier to spot them this way :-)

We've actually been here a couple of times but never walked this far down.  Who knew all of this play stuff existed.  Ha!

You can barely see Charlie's eyes.  Ha ha, silly fella.  And the two ferries are just on the water in the background:

Huggie time while waiting to get on our boat.  Looks like the boys have figured out what we are doing now:

Ready to get onboard!

Graham was fast to try and get a better view, even if it meant being away from his family.  Hmm...

And he was peeking into the captain's cabin.  That's probably the other reason why he was in that corner by the front:

Woah, quite some houses and boats over here in New Port Beach:

Check out this house for sale that we saw.  Are you kidding me??! YIKES!!  Who are these people that buy properties like these:

Beautiful sunset:

Just one more of the sunset :-)

Looks like this is as far as we go, before getting out there into the Pacific Ocean:

There's a beach down there!

The boys go down to get some snacks and looks like they decided to stay on the bottom deck:

Cool U.S. Coast Guard boat - it's named "Narwhal".  Even cuter!

This must be the "I am cold" look from Bobby:

Pretty lights!

Boys are keeping warm with some hot chocolate.  Brrr... it was a cold night:

OMG, check out this house!

I thought that maybe the boats would be lit up but even so, I'm surprised that not more houses had Christmas lights up:

I'd hate to be that person wrapping up these palm trees with lights.  Looks like it would be a tough job:

Pretty stretch here. Even the piers are all lit up:

Fun night!

One last photo with our masks off.  We waited until almost everyone left the top deck:

We went to look for some dinner and found a tiny sushi restaurant.  Charlie insisted on his soft shell crabs.  This kid, I tell you: 

The first lot had a spicy sauce on it so Mommy was more than happy to take that share off Charlie's plate :-)

As if dinner wasn't enough, the boys spot a crepe place across the street from the restaurant:  Wow, talk about sugar load!

We didn't stick around the store to eat it, but had no troubles finishing it up in the car:                                 

      

No wonder it was so cold today during the boat ride. Woah, 44F tonight!

Looks like this will be my last post for the year of 2021.  Happy New Year everyone!  

Let's hope that 2022 will be a better one - especially with this whole Covid pandemic. The numbers have actually gotten quite bad this past week or so.  The Omicron variant has definitely created quite the havoc with more positive cases, continued hospitalization, and also lots of flight cancellations.  I'm so glad we got our trip to MN when we did.  Might be our last flight for a little bit again.  Urgh! Stay safe everyone!!