7.02.2015

Things That Go

When I put together our Summer Bucket List I knew thought some of our to-do activities would just kind of be morning and afternoon 'fillers.' Things that would entertain us for 20-30 minutes, tops, and then leave us moving along to our next activity and adventure.

I was beyond blown away when two of our would-be 'fillers' ended up being practically all morning excursions.

The Los Angeles Maritime Museum
We live near the L.A. Port which is home to a small maritime museum. I'd heard there were some cool exhibits and even a small children's area. So, one uneventful morning I packed us up and away we went to check it out.
Naturally, the place was filled with all sorts of maritime goodies. Among my favorites were the large replicas of ships and boats.
Marcus was a pretty good sport, checking out all the things I was hoping we could at least get quick glimpses of.
The display on the left reminds me of Men of Honor.
We managed to ding every bell we spotted and spin every captains wheel we could reach.
But, it was the small but adorable children's area that really won Marcus over.
I even had Marcus agree to try on some of the dress up clothes.
For nearly 90 minutes Marcus played with the little toy area that resembled the port which we live near.

Maybe there's a future of ships, instead of garbage trucks, in the little man's future...?

The Lomita Railroad Museum
Our second unexpected and pleasant surprise came in the form of locomotives.
While the museum itself was pretty small, it contained a plethora of info on all things trains. 

Obviously, Marcus and his best friend weren't too concerned with the train displays. They were pretty content playing with each other at the train table as well as checking out the real, big trains.
Several different types of trains and cars were on the museum grounds. Most of which we could actually get on and check out.
The engine (pictured below) was massive. There were signs indicating that no touching was allowed. With a million knobs and curious three-year olds, yeah. right.
The kids might have loved the train-tracks-to-nowhere the most, though. I have no idea how many times they ran up and down the tracks, but it was enough to make me tired just watching them.
Growing up I was kind of obsessed with The Boxcar Children books (anyone else read and love those books?). So, it came as no shock to me that I found the boxcar to easily be my favorite. Even though we couldn't go into it I thought it was the coolest of them all. 
I anticipated we'd be in and out of the railroad museum in 30 minutes. Nope. An hour and a half later we were finally packing up and moving on to more summer fun. 

Our Summer Bucket List is moving right along. I was worried we might not be able to complete everything I conjured up. But, at the rate we are going we just might get them all in before M² arrives!

10 comments:

  1. I love everything that you have been doing! So many fun museums! You're just cruising through your bucket list :)

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  2. Simon would love both of those things!

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  3. This is so awesome! Mac would be in heaven! Looks like you guys had so much fun!

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  4. He is getting so tall! Looks like you guys are having a great summer.

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  5. The photo with his mouth wide open -- adorable. Also, I'm not sure if you knew this, but I work for Union Pacific and if you want will totally search our goodie closet and send Marcus some UP swag if you want.

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  6. Lots of things marked off your list! 2 really fun stops!

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  7. What a great surprise that these places allowed for longer visits than you expected. I love the dress up clothes from the Maritime Museum! Those would be a hit with my boys!

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  8. That is awesome! I should check out our little museums, I know we have a couple. I just thought that same thing, wouldn't hold much interest. These are both win! I love the boating one. How adorable, and I think now you just need to put some tracks in your yard and you'd have endless entertainment.

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  9. Trains are fun! Sometimes I want to play with the train table at the library, but I know I would get a few looks.

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  10. I have this list of all these little museums and places around here that I want to try too, but we just never go. I never thought to think of them as fun little morning fillers before though so on weekends when we have plans in the afternoon, we should try to hit up some of the places. Who knows, it could turn into 90 minutes of fun!

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