Southern California January 2017 - Day 3: Aquarium of the Pacific

Family picture at the Aquarium

Our 3rd day started early again.  Ellie got up at 6:30am.  She never really adjusted to pacific coast time.  We slowly got out of bed and got ready.  Breakfast was in the hotel again.  After breakfast, I got the car and we loaded up.  Our destination was the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.  This was about a 30 minute drive from our hotel.  We changed the route Google gave us because of traffic, and then still ran into traffic with the alternative route.

Ellie coloring on the way to the Aquarium

We made it to Long Beach, which was a cool area.  I had read it has all been redone over the past few years.  There were outlet stores, a marine and some local shops along the harbor.  The Queen Mary was also in Long Beach.  We saw it while driving, but did not tour it.  We parked in the parking garage close to the aquarium and walked over to it.  On our short walk we noticed half a dozen school buses drive up and all stop in front of the aquarium.  Great.  We got our tickets to go in and by the time we started to walk through the aquarium there were middle school kids everywhere.  It was a mess.  It got to where it was a little hard to get around in places, especially with a stroller.

It was a pretty cool aquarium.  It seemed a little different than others Lisa and I had been to (Shedd Aquarium and Vancouver Aquarium), but it was still fun.  They had a great big tank in the main hall that was probably 50 feet tall.  It was massive and it had all kinds of fish in it.  It reminded me of the Open Ocean tank in Finding Dory.  We walked through the other areas, which included the Pacific Coast, Baja, and a couple others.  Outside was an area to see penguins, sharks and sting rays.  They also had an area to touch sting rays.

Ellie checking out the fish at the aquarium

Lots of jellyfish

The octopus was really cool.  He kind of put on a show for us.

Ellie found a whole bunch of Dory fish (Get it??)

She found Nemo too (I crack myself up)

There was a lot of kid friendly areas too.  They could touch sea urchins and starfish in one are and sting rays in another. We also got to see an otter training presentation.  It was pretty cool and Ellie seemed to enjoy it.  She really liked touching the sea urchins and starfish though.  The highlights were the octopus, Dory and Nemo fish, sharks and rays, otters and jelly fish.  Ellie and Lisa really liked the jellyfish.  I thought the moray eel was pretty cool too.  The aquarium was a little frustrating on us because Ellie was a bear most of the day.  She hadn’t slept much over the past couple days and it was showing.  She wouldn’t listen, eat or do as we asked.  We ate lunch in their cafe, and it was decent.  This was the beginning of the frustration with Ellie and ordering her food.  She wanted mac & cheese and barely ate any of it.  We ended up taking it with us.

Watching the Otter training presentation.
It was similar to training dogs.

Ellie touching a sea creature.  She thought this was pretty cool.

Waving to the penguins.

She loved these penguin statues.

Ellie and her penguin.

Trying to touch a sting ray.  They were pretty soft.

We made it through all areas of the aquarium and then walked around the Long Beach marina a little.  We got back to the car and drove down the coast.  We stopped at an area along the beach to use the restroom where Lisa and Ellie got to walk on and touch the sand even through it was hard from all the rain.  Ellie fell asleep about halfway back to the hotel, which was not a long enough nap.  We drove through Long Beach a little more, which was a neat area, and headed back to the hotel.  When we got to the room, we tried to put Ellie down for a nap, but she wouldn’t nap.  After an hour, we gave up and headed toward Downtown Disney.

Ellie on the beach.  Cold and windy.  Yuck.

Doing her surfer girl pose.

Nap time right?  Not a chance.

Ready or not, here we come.  Time to get a Dole Whip!

Our goal was to get to the Disneyland Hotel before 4:00pm.  I found out that the Coffee House has Dole Whips and they are open til 4:00pm.  We left our hotel at about 20 minutes until 4:00pm.  We were booking it.  We got there just in time and were able to get 2 Dole Whips. When we walked out of the coffee house, out of no where Goofy walked by us.  Ellie was pretty excited.  It was really cool. It was pretty chilly outside, so we decided to go to the lobby of the hotel and sit in the tea cup chairs to eat our Dole Whip.  It was a fun Disney experience outside of the parks.  After that we walked over to Downtown Disney.

Dole Whips at the Disneyland Hotel sitting in a tea cup.
What more can 2 girls ask for?

We stopped in the Lego store and the candy store.  We got a bunch of popcorn at the candy store.  Ellie ate the entire bag of kettle corn before dinner and wanted more.  We then decided to go into the Grand Californian to find dinner.  We walked around and made it to the lobby.  There we found Chip, Dale and Pluto walking around.  This is crazy.  Ellie was ok with Dale, who was the first one we saw, but then Pluto came over and she didn’t like him.  She was in the stroller and Pluto kind of got into her area (like a dog would), and she didn't like it very much.  Dale was funny because he was asking her about her popcorn.  We ate at the Hearthstone Lounge.  We go a cheese plate, sliders and flatbread.  They were pretty delicious.  Ellie wanted more popcorn so we got some at the gift shop of the hotel. Popcorn was her dinner that night (not the only time on the trip).

Really cool displays at the Lego store.

The beginning of Ellie's love affair with popcorn.

Hey it's Dale!  Just walking around the Grand Californian Hotel.

Pluto was trying to be a good boy, but he was too much for Ellie.

After that we walked around the Grand Californian a little more, we went out through Downtown Disney to the esplanade between the parks, and back to our hotel.  Lisa took Ellie up to the room and I had to get gas for the rental car and return it to the Alamo across the street from the hotel.  Ellie went to bed at 7:20 and asleep before 8:00.  Lisa and I were in bed before 9:30 and asleep shortly after that.  Also, cool afterthought, Lisa and I got to watch part of World of Color from our hotel window.

Next up, back to Disneyland.