The boys slept in for once and we decided to take advantage of the lounge for breakfast since we had access to it.

Breakfast and Workout

From our experience on New Year’s Day with daytime snacks and evening appetizers, and given the size of the lounge, we didn’t have high expectations for breakfast. We were completely wrong!

The lounge had a solid selection of items including scrambled eggs, bacon, a bread station, a selection of cereals, oatmeal, fresh fruit, granola, fruit juices, and yogurts. We were impressed had how many options they fit into such a small space. While the lounge was pretty full, we had no problems finding a place to sit down. We were quite impressed!

Since my wife was working we decided to go to the gym for about an hour and get our workout in. We were curious to see if there was a sudden surge of people using the gym fulfilling their New Year’s resolutions. It was as empty as usual and we had no problems finding a machine.

USS Iowa Museum

After our workout, we decided to visit the USS Iowa Museum in nearby San Pedro. It’s a WWII era battleship that is now a museum you can tour. On the way we stopped at the laundromat to pick up the clothes we dropped off the previous night. My wife had received a text that everything was done early.  It took closer to 12 hours than the 36 they had originally estimated. We had clean clothes again!

It was a 15-minute drive to the Iowa museum and we arrived just after they opened so there wasn’t much of a crowd. We bought our tickets and an add-on for a flight simulator at the end of the museum tour for the kids. I decided to take a pass.

Once we boarded the ship a volunteer described to us the self-guided tour and gave the kids a puzzle to solve during the tour. They needed to look for pictures of the ship’s mascot, a dog named Vicky. They had to connect the number next to the picture of the dog with the location on the ship. If they got everything correct they’d get a prize in the gift shop. Nothing motivates my boys like a free prize!

From that point they were quite interested in the tour. The ship was really fascinating. In various parts of the ship, volunteers showed some examples of some of the bullets for the different guns on board. There were also examples of some of the projectiles from the big 16 inch guns. Some weighted up to 2700 points each!!! There was a video that showed how the gun worked and how the 70+ people (!!!) worked in concert to fire it.

The ship was fascinating and the amount of firepower on board was awe-inspiring. The ship served in WWII initially and then in the Korean conflict. It was decommissioned but later recommission and refitted in the ’80s before being decommissioned from active service for the final time in the ’90s. It was later restored in San Francisco for use as a museum before being towed down to its current location in San Pedro, CA.

At the end of the tour, the boys picked up their prize in the gift shop which was a rubber bracelet. They were thrilled and put them on immediately. After we exited the ship, the boys headed towards the flight simulator which was at the bottom of the ramp. They went in it while I waited. It was only a 10-minute ride and apparently, it wasn’t as much of a thrill ride as they had hoped.

Lunch and the Gym

The boys were getting hungry again and we decided to go back to the hotel and get something near there since we weren’t finding anything interesting near the museum. We ended up going back to the Island Burger restaurant. Tomatico got the fish tacos my wife had gotten the first time we went. He’d never had fish tacos before but loved them. We also went through two servings of the french fries. Yummy!

Back at the hotel my wife had just finished work. My youngest stayed with her while I went with Tomatico to the gym. He insisted on keeping his streak alive so I wasn’t going to stop him. While we were in the gym, my wife and youngest checked out the outlet stores next door.

Harbor Cruise and Dinner

While in the gym I looked up the costs of the harbor cruises that left from the dock across the street from the hotel. There were a few times still open for the remainder of the day so we chose the 4:45 time. It was only $15 per adult and $6 per child for a 45-minute cruise around the harbor.

After the gym, Tomatico got cleaned up and we walked over to the dock to meet my wife. I had ordered the tickets online so I had to go to the desk to check in and get physical tickets printed. It only took a minute as there was no line.

The cruise boarded right on time at 4:45 and left the dock on schedule at 5:00. It was only about half full and we had a seat on the top deck. It was also relatively warm with no wind or waves. In other words, it was about as perfect an evening as could be.

In addition, the sun had just started setting when we backed out of the dock. During the course of the first half of the cruise we saw the most amazing sunset with deep oranges and reds against a very unique and ever-changing backdrop. We had picked the perfect time for the cruise!

The cruise took us around some of the ships anchored in the harbor including the Queen Mary. We then proceeded around a small island that was built in the ’60s in order to use it as an oil drilling platform. There is a lot of oil under Long Beach and there are four of these islands in the harbor. The city requires oil companies to dress up these islands with palm trees and art installations. They do a good job of hiding the real purpose of those islands and make them visually appealing.

The tour narrator also told about the history of the city and pointed out some famous buildings. The area around our hotel used to be an amusement part with one of the largest roller coasters in the world. The lagoon the boat was docked in was also man-made. Overall the tour was just the right length to keep the kids interested, had a great amount of information, and we couldn’t beat the price. The sunset was an amazing bonus!

After the cruise, we decided to split for dinner and met up back at the hotel. We went up to check out the desserts in the lounge but there wasn’t anything of interest. We watched some TV before finally going to bed. Tomorrow would be our last full day of the trip! It was a long trip but it felt like it was ending too soon!