rubber ducky, so much fun

last weekend, i managed to talk my family into hopping into the car and driving down to san pedro for something i thought would be kind of fun.  we parked here:

stood in these lines:

 stopped at a couple of food trucks for some grub:

and then followed this sign:

can you see it (i mean, it'd be damn hard to miss a six-story rubber duck)?

yes.  i made the hub drive us almost forty miles to see a giant bath toy.  what?

there was also some sort of tall ships festival going on, with at least a dozen ships scheduled to be available for tours.  but this was the last day of the five-day event, and i guess a bunch of sailors didn't feel like hanging around because i swear there were only like three ships there.  to make it somewhat worth the price of the ticket, we boarded one of them and looked around.

it was...uh, super exciting.  yeah!  and not crowded at ALL.  or hot.  psh.

our next stop was for some cold, creamy goodness from this truck:

while the bean enjoyed her treat, the hub and i snapped a selfie - with our favorite photobomber in the background.

this ship sailed past, and it was gigantic.  look - the tugboat was being dragged sideways behind it.

i mean...as if.

we decided to walk to the other end of the festival, where the SS iowa is docked.  since our ticket included a self-guided tour, we decided to go onboard for a looksie.

highlights of said tour:

all kidding aside, how much would it have sucked to have to sleep here night after night?

outside, we were treated to a pretty nice view.

and some super random ass shenanigans, which the teen also seemed to find amusing.  sorry, random lady.  i couldn't help it.

and that was about it.  by the time we disembarked, it was almost closing time.

ah, rubber ducky.  i shall miss you.  i'll always cherish the time we spent together.

also, today marks the beginning of birthday princess month.  THE COUNTDOWN BEGINS.