Continuing our stories from this summer of 2025. The hotel breakfast is just okay, so we're not always motivated to get up in time to go eat. Today is pancakes though, so Alli joins me. Ian will come if it's biscuits and gravy.
Using the mini-kitchen in the hotel room, the cheese grater, some butter, salt, and pepper from breakfast, he set about cooking them up.
Not quite fried hashbrowns, but he was happy enough with them and shared them with Alli.
Time to meet up with more friends! This time we're hanging out with Lola!
Along with her sister and other friend!
Why not go run around Chuck E Cheese with them? I gave everyone a game card loaded with credits and off they went!
Congratulations Alli! I know, it's the bad CEC that barely gives you any tickets.
But this was mostly about running around with friends and playing together.
Or even coming to dance together when Chuck E Cheese came out to the dance floor!
Sometimes Chuck E likes to hang out with the kids and play around. This time, he couldn't wait to get back stage. As soon as the dance was over, he was off and gone! I wanted to get a picture of the kids with him and this was from our second time dancing with him, because he ran off so quickly the first time!
There's us and Lola's mom.
Time to bring out the ice cream! Dippin Dots. Is it still the ice cream of the future?
What's a get together without a little pizza?
We took orders all around and have a ton to deliver.
Even more of Lola's family showed up! Her other sister, her boyfriend, and other friends.
Time to redeem all those tickets for prizes! Woo! Everyone had a good time together hanging out.
Ooh! There's some decent tickets! 100 tickets for 2 Minute Drill! Except they only had 3 footballs, when normally they have 5 or more (while the manual states they should have at least 7). You spend most of your time waiting for the conveyor belt to bring you back the balls and not much time playing. That and the fact that instead of being 2 minutes long, the clock is 3x as fast, and takes only 45 seconds to be over. I can beat it with a nearly perfect game, but can't keep it up since the high score keeps going up.
Theresa found Avengers, but it's the low ticket payout and only 3 credits per swipe. Meh. Let's move on to the next one!
What time is it? McDonald's Time! Except that it's 12:50pm. Not 1:10pm. Cool to see a clock! But weird that it's so wrong.
Off we went to the next Chuck E Cheese on our list in this area, this time in Bell, CA.
06/20/2025
The next day was Friday and it's a non-working Friday for Theresa! She has decided to join us as we go explore even more Chuck E Cheese restaurants around the area. We started our day in Walnut Park. 
All I have is this picture of Ian giving a thumbs down. We didn't stick around too long.
Let's go get some 85C for a snack. We're saving our appetites for something good for dinner.
With the disappointment of the first two CECs, we then took Theresa to one of the more fun CECs the kids and I discovered earlier this week. There's games like Quik Drop.
That basketball game that gives out some decent tickets if you score over 200 points.
Ian even set a high score on baseball! Nice job buddy!
But the basketball was where it was at. If you wanted to spend all 250 credits here, if you win 60 tickets each time, you could leave with 15,000 tickets every day. Of course, each game takes a little over 2 minutes. That means you'd be playing this game non-stop for 8.5 hours...
I can be pretty consistent on basketball. My high score was 425 or so. Good thing the game pays out 60 tickets as long as you beat 200 points and isn't based on the high score.
Ian can beat the high score by himself with a 209.
Alli and Theresa together got 258.
And Alli and Ian together putting up a respectable 263.
Nice Alli! That's a new record for you! 249 points solo!
This water shooting game right beside the game had wild basketballs bounce into the water trough more than once. I retrieved them, but they always came out dripping.
Ian really wants to improve his score. He can beat that 209, right?
Not if Chuck E Cheese has anything to say about it!
Well we've hit up these three different CECs today, including the 2 new ones.
For dinner, it's the Old Time Noodle House! Our favorite Korean restaurant here in California!
They treat us really good here, sometimes giving us extra special food that we haven't even ordered. I remember when the kids were super tiny, they would bring them rice and seaweed to munch on, plus all the dongchimi that Alli could eat.
06/21/2025
289! Nice! We had fun playing basketball and other games here.
Chucky!
It's Saturday and that means the Torrance Farmer's Market! Our favorite produce come from Ken's Top Notch, and we were lucky enough to have Ken here today! It's a long drive for him, over 4 hours by truck and 200+ miles! But the kids have lots of good memories of coming here when they were little, even getting to "help out" by taking grapes out of the boxes and putting them on the tables.
He's still got some great produce though. Theresa loaded up on as many nectarines as she thought she could eat in the time we have left here.
Mmm, those oranges look pretty tasty too.
Since we're in the neighborhood, why not go ahead and stop by Market World. They have a freshly prepared food section, plus some Korean snacks that Theresa is partial to.
On Sunday morning, I was lucky enough to get an invite to play beach volleyball with one of my friends from before. We've been on some indoor volleyball teams together, but 2 on 2 beach volleyball is always the best.
It was a whole lot of fun, but now I've got to head back to the hotel to pick up Theresa and the kids. We're in the LA area for another week or so, and we're headed back up to Valencia for more Magic Mountain!
But first, a shower. Those beaches near the refinery has some dirty sand. Washed foot on right. Dirty foot on the left. Let's go ride some coasters!
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