Festival of Flights returned to Long Beach after skipping last year due to Covid-19 pandemic; I remember William as having so much fun in 2019 Festival of Flights, he loved the cannons!
We were asked to show the vaccine cards; they offered free rapid PRC test for those who are not vaccinated; so William had to take one. It was nasal swab, William did it by himself. We waited only for 15 minutes for the result; it was negative.
I was a bit disappointed because this year there was not that many airplanes and booths like in 2019. Luckily there was 1 airplane that allowed us to get in and touch the controls; William loved it!
We sat on the fake lawn to each lunch and watched the performers on the stage; William did not pay much attention to the music because he was busy playing with the Jack’s Game that he got from 1 of the booths.
We got some chicken noodles for lunch, at first he said no but after the first taste, he loved it. It’s really good but too salty, I guess because there’s no veggie; I did not know that if we want veggie we need to order it, which costs a bit more. From the pictures on the truck, I thought veggies is included.
Then I went to get some Churros Sunday which has ice cream on top of the churros; I asked to have the churros separated from the ice cream and that all the toppings should be on the ice cream but they misunderstood, they have the ice cream on a separate cup but the sauces and toppings (I chose Hershey chocolate and Oreos) are on the churros! William took the ice cream and did not want to eat the churros because there was sauce on them. From his look, I think he enjoyed this event.
With the help of Facebook, we know more about the events around Orange county without having to search other places. So you guessed it right that we knew about the Festival Of Flight from Facebook. Knowing William loves airplane, we decided to take William here. It’s taken place in Long Beach airport, which is only 25 minutes from our home. The Long Beach airport celebrated its 95 Years with lots of people coming to the event.
We arrived around 10:30 AM; and there was still lots of available parking space. From the parking lot, it’s a short distance to the event. There were a few small helicopters and few big airplane on display. William wanted to get on the big airplane, which is used to deliver gas and passengers (it can hold 75 passengers maximum). It took about 40 minutes to get in line; William was running around while Tim stood on line waiting for our turn. Lately William seems to be ok with waiting in line, which is a good thing. Even though he’s not actually standing in line to wait, but he understands the concept of waiting for his turn. Of course I’m always the one to run after him and redirect him back to the line.
Waiting for our turn to get in the airplane.Still waiting ….. and waiting, almost our turn.
He got so excited to get up the stairs but when it was our turn to get into the pilot seat, he got scared and tried to go back down the stairs. I had to redirect him to the exit way. We managed to take 1 photo of him in the pilot seat (and me too :)).
Pilot seat; he got scared and wanted to get out.Passenger seats
There’s a lower level inside the airplane; at first he did not want to go down but later on he changed his mind: “I want to see the mirror!”. I had no idea what he was talking about, then I realized that there’s a mirror beneath the the lower level which we saw when we were walking under the airplane. So somehow he knows that if he goes to lower level, he’d see that mirror. William is such a smart boy; and he pays attention to things more than I realize.
There’s a lower level inside the airplane; at first he did not want to go down but later on he changed his mind: “I want to see the mirror!”. I had no idea what he was talking about, then I realized that there’s a mirror beneath the the lower level which we saw when we were walking under the airplane. So somehow he knows that if he goes to lower level, he’d see that mirror. William is such a smart boy; and he pays attention to things more than I realize.
In the back of the airplane
It took about another 30 minutes to get to the lower level because it’s very small down there: only 5-6 people can go down at a time. There’s a small stair to go down; and there was another young pilot seating there to introduce us to the airplane and to answer any questions. And there it is, a big window in front of the pilot seat. From outside, it’s a mirror which reflects our images but from the pilot seat it’s just a window where we can see people down there. William loved it, he pressed his face against that window!
Done with airplane tour, we got in line to get some freebies; 1 of the things that he liked is the plan pen.
It was 1:00 P.M.; time to have lunch but the lines to those food trucks are so long and it’s hot so we decided to leave the event and stop by the nearest Mc. Donald for lunch.
On the way home, he kept playing with the plane pen and the little airplane that Tim assembled for him with his name on it.
It was a fun day for all of us.
He especially loves this one so much that he refused to check out the other helicopters.Here’s the plane dad made for you!Young at heart!
