Long Beach Aquarium-Free

On our way to the temple we stopped in Long Beach (actually way out of our way) to pick up Dad. He was there for a business meeting and instead of driving all the way back, it worked out for us to pick him up and he also was able to pick us up some free tickets to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific.

Good thing, because the ride there was a little less than desirable with all the traffic and not having enough space in our 8 passenger mini van for all 5 of us. What are these kids going to do when they really have to sit right next to each other and when the line drawn down the middle is not in the middle of the whole seat that is separating them?

We made it and the aquarium was wonderful. We did have to rush through it a little quickly because they closed an hour after we got there. But it was exciting!

So this is a life size whale. Can you say humongous? I hope I can spell it.

Lauren with her fish star.

Ethan swimming with the fish.

Live stingrays and sharks.

These were our favorite. This one reminded us of the shark in Nemo and the next one just had the goofiest smile. We were kind of making fun of him. Good thing we were on the other side of the wall.

As we left the aquarium, Matthew found a "child's ticket" on the ground and picked it up to show us all the "Chicklet" he had found. I thought it was so cute.

We ended our Long Beach stay with dinner at the famous Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co. The food was good but our favorite part was when the waiter questioned our knowledge of the movie Forest Gump. We/Steve did pretty good.
The night wasn't over yet. We headed back to Santa Monica to check into our Temple Apartment and then off to visit Aunt Sarah and to check out her nice little bungalo/apt nestled in the middle of downtown, just down the street from the temple. And thanks to her and her DVD collection, we checked out a few for the rest of our trip. Thanks Sarah!!!