Our second day trip was down to Long Beach. We spent some time looking around to various kid-friendly activities going on near us while we were here. Touch-A-Truck day is a big thing in Boston and Jordan found that they were having one down in Long Beach. I didn’t actually want to go, but last minute that Sunday morning, we decided to drive down after realizing we didn’t have any plans and the kids needed a break from the beach.

We came to find that the Long Beach Touch-A-Truck day is one of the biggest in CA (you know, so they say). It was right on the beach in a giant parking lot. They estimated 10,000 people and 115 vehicles. All the kids wanted to see were the double decker bus (it left before we saw it, woops!), the buses, the vespas and we spent an inordinate amount of time in the Corner Bakery delivery truck haha, which definitely wasn’t part of the day but didn’t have a line. The kids were laughing and honking everything and loved it – especially the pink vespa and the yellow boat we got to go in at the end.

We hopped back in the car and drove up to the boardwalk to get lunch and ride a carousel. We had no idea this would become the best day ever. Delaney is an arcade natural and couldn’t believe all the games around the carousel and obviously we suckered into getting a bunch of token and taught her how to play all the classics – skeeball, whack-a-mole, drag racing etc. She looooooved it. At first, she was hesitant with whack-a-mole and didn’t really get the appeal of the place,,,until the TICKETS. Competitive nature came out real quick. They also rode the carousel once, which is always a hit for some reason. We ended up with 500 tickets (i have no idea how much money Jordan spent, but it was worth it and so fun). Delaney got a candy bracelet and w got a few other special things for them that we will divvy out over time while we’re here – puzzle, bouncy balls, chalkboard games etc. All junk really but it was SO fun and Delaney hasn’t stopped talking about it.

Update: The day after Easter, after lots of struggle to get Delaney to stay calm during her hair washing every night (we don’t blame her, it’s hard, exhausting, and the knots hurt I’m sure), we challenged her and ourselves to see if we could all stay calm during hair brushing in the shower for 7 days in a row. May sound crazy but this was a very serious challenge for all of us and exactly what we needed to break an unhealthy habit of getting frustrated all around at bath time. So, we were all successful and all Delaney wanted if she completed the challenge was to go back to the Fun Factory. So today we did!

We rented a bike/cart thing and biked around for an hour, which was actually very fun and cute (but very hard!). Then, we went to lunch before going back to the fun factory and having the time of our lives again. I have no idea how much money Jordan spent again this time, but it was probably a lot, on tokens. Owen was obsessed with the basketball game (he’s insanely good), I loved Skeeball as always, Jordan also played a lot of basketball, and Delaney loved whatever got her the most tickets:) The kids got to pick their prizes – and Delaney picked a Barbie and Owen got a mini basketball. We had the best day again in Long Beach!