Hi everyone!
Today we’re sharing our trip from June of 2017 to Long Beach, California, for the Pacific Veterinary Conference.
While the majority of the trip was spent learning the most updated diagnostics and treatments in veterinary medicine, we did take a couple of days to explore Long Beach while we were in town.
One of our first stops was the Aquarium of the Pacific!
We always enjoy seeing aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens any time we are traveling, and this trip was no exception. Although this aquarium was on the smaller side, we enjoyed a quick afternoon stroll through the exhibits, checking out the displays of local aquatic life.
Jordan also took me to a fancy dinner at Sir Winston’s Restaurant & Lounge, which is aboard the Queen Mary, a retired British ocean liner permanently moored at Long Beach. It serves not only as a restaurant but also a hotel, with glorious views of the skyline and coast. The food was pretty good, but the view was the star of the show.
For our last day in Long Beach, we decided on a spur of the moment trip to Catalina Island. I wish we had done a little more research prior to the trip to have been able to plan this day a little better, but I was really glad we learned about the ferry in time to be able to go!
We caught stand-by tickets to hop on the ferry to the island.
Had we planned in advance we may have been able to do some water activities – there were some glass bottomed boats and submersible tours, but instead we spent our time strolling the small island and taking in the sights.
We ate lunch at the Blue Water Grill on the waterfront as we walked along the wharf.
After lunch we walked up to the Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden, about a 30 minute hike up Avalon Canyon from the wharf.
The memorial was nice and cool, even on a hot day, and we enjoyed looking at the carvings and architecture at the site.
The botanic garden section was definitely unique, displaying the arid native environment common to California. Lots of grasses and drought-tolerant plants were on display, with detailed placards indicating what varieties were present.
We hiked back down in time to make the ferry back, and enjoyed our final night in California before heading back to Texas!
jordanpluskate 