Saturday was spent visiting the beach areas. I had told friends ahead of time that we’d be at the Long Beach Pike where we’d find a restaurant for dinner and then hit up the Mai Tai Bar afterwards, and to join us whenever they’re able. Jordan, Chad, Mr. W and I first detoured to Huntington Beach (because Mr. W wanted to take our visitors on the scenic route), where everyone decided they were hungry enough to eat at Duke’s. We walked down Main Street, enjoyed the sporadic sunshine in between short bouts of drizzle, and porked out with a nice view of the beach. Unfortunately, since this detour took a lot longer than planned, Vanessa had already made it to the Long Beach Pike to meet us, so we jammed there while Vanessa shopped at Borders.

At Long Beach (Jordan’s childhood home town), we stopped and took some photos. Here is the famous Queen Mary behind us. Chad’s being nice and squatting lower so Jordan and I don’t feel like the midgets we are, but unfortunately, Mr. W zoomed out, foiling the attempt to fool the audience.

Jordan wanted to retake the 2008 photos she and I took around Long Beach, so we went off to find the ol’ photospots. Turned out that the little yellow ‘copter from ’08…

… has been turned into a yellow SUBMARINE by 2010. Jordan made me shove my big butt in there anyway and pose for a photo. I’m not sure if a photo was taken by anyone before I leapt back out, screeching. Thanks to the recent rains, the seat was a POOL. My ass was totally soaked! I was NOT a happy camper after that because in the cold, I felt like my butt was turning into ice. That’s why our attempt to replicate this carousel photo from ’08…

…ended up looking like THIS in ’10.

I even tried sitting on the wooden boardwalk and rocking back and forth in an attempt to have the wetness sucked out of my jeans, but turned out, those weren’t wooden planks! They were plastic made to LOOK like a boardwalk. Shenanigans!

But I wasn’t the only one who wasn’t smiling on a ride. Vanessa and James (who’d arrived shortly after we did) caught up to us, and we walked by a huge Ferris wheel. Jordan instantly thought of the great photo ops from waaaay up there, and Chad just as quickly vetoed it, confessing he has a pretty severe fear of heights. None of us knew that before.
But anyway, look at this great shot of Long Beach we got!

I wonder how we got that shot. Hmm. The answer is below…

Honestly, I was surprised Chad took the leap and followed us up into the Ferris wheel. I was going to stay down on the ground with him. But what a trooper! I mean, can’t you just hear Chad’s teeth grinding as he tries hard not to look down?
When we finished wandering and sight-seeing, everyone decided on Bubba Gump for dinner.

It was perfect because Chad’s never been there, Jordan loves shrimp and wanted to eat it for dinner, and it was just underneath the Mai Tai Bar (our final destination). Turned out that Jordan and Chad are whizzes on Forrest Gump trivia, and we thought we’d be a shoe-in for the free dessert we’d win if we answer 5 trivia questions right, but the last question was SO unfair. It was, “What model of car was advertised on the side of the passing bus in the scene where Forrest is sitting on the bus bench?” WTF? Multiple iPhones instantly started googling, but to no avail. Shenanigans!!
On our way out of the restaurant to hit up Mai Tai Bar, our visitors couldn’t resist being in the shoes of Forrest Gump himself.
“My name is For-rest. For-rest Chad.”

Forrest W: “Life is like a box of video games…”

Forrest Jordan: “Wait, how does this go?”

Forrest Cindy: “Life is like a box of…HELP ME GET THESE CHOCOLATES OPEN!!”

Mai Tai Bar was also a hit! The waitresses wore TEENY skirts (Mr. W and Chad thought they saw something when one sat down to take our order), and it was happy hour for a LONG time. Ann joined us there and we all had a GREAT time bonding.

(as usual, rest mouse pointers over photos for captions)