Tour of Long Beach Port

Whenever we drive over the Thomas Vincent Bridge on our way to the Aquarium of the Pacific I look at the controlled chaos of the port and wonder how can I get the kids in for a field trip? I have to say I never really looked into it too deeply, but I did wonder. Finally our opportunity strangely arose when a friend sent us a link to an upcoming event. It was a one hour narrated train tour through the port and was free to all who wanted to come.

Simon, who is still in love with trains and cars and big vehicles of all kinds, was very intrigued.

The kids were very excited about the train ride...

... after half an hour they were kind of done. Brad and I learned about exports and imports, re-free cars, COSCO, and more. Why the children lost interest is beyond me. However, there were quizzes ever so often and gave out prizes to the winners. I won a huge hardback book about the ports for remembering that the ports use zero tax-payer money.

The last ten minutes of the tour was the hardest for the kids. They started getting really loud and goofy.

Whew! Right before the ride ended every child got a small package of building blocks that built a small crane with boxcar. All four of the children sat quietly and built.

Did the kids learn a thing? I doubt it. But we finally had a field trip through the port. Job well done.