Jumping for Joy

Jumping on the trampoline is one of the joys of life.

Babette's Feast

One of the best things about the holidays is all the good cooking. We have lots of great traditions in our family, including nanny's Swedish bread and grandpa's Swedish meatballs. We made the bread this year and then a slew of other great food: fresh bread, an assortment of cheeses, fruit, wild rice soup, lefse, quiche, and a host of other great food. It's hard to beat good conversation over good food around a big table full of family.

Christmas Football

When you spend the holidays in Texas you really have to play football, especially when so many of the boys are such huge fans of the game.

Merry Christmas

From Houston, TX this year.

California ScienCenter

 We got to visit the CA ScienCenter to see the Space Shuttle Endeavor. I had forgotten that the Endeavor was built to replace the Challenger after the disaster in 1986. It flew 25 missions with 154 crew members over its lifespan. Standing underneath it you realize how rugged yet fragile it seems. The tiles underneath are so worn from the heat of reentry and the white sides are layers of thermal material, not the painted aluminum of an airplane as one might imagine from seeing it at a distance. The kids looked for the one astronaut we've met, a friend of their cousins in Texas, Pat Forrester. They found him on three of the mission plaques. He didn't fly the Endeavor but went up in the Atlantis and Discovery.

lunch in the Rose Garden across from USC afterward

Metropolis II, Chris Burden

 "DC motors, electronic controls and sensors, custom die-cast cars, HO-scale train sets, neodymium magnets, steel, aluminum, copper wire, copper sheet, brass, plastics, assorted wood products, tile, acrylic and oil-based paints, rubber, adhesives."

By far our most favorite exhibit was the Burden larger-than-life Metropolis. The kids were enamored with the many roads and tracks and the cars and trains. Unfortunately, it only operates on the weekend and we were there on a Monday. But even looking at its potential is stunning. The security guard said it makes quite the noise when it's going full tilt. I guess some things are true about all traffic no matter the size.

LA County Museum of Art

 Next to the La Brea tarpits on Wilshire Blvd in downtown LA is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They have a great collection of art including a few Picassos, a Magritte, some Rodins and some fun contemporary exhibits. We particularly liked the larger than life artwork that invited these viewers to engage with it. This particular day was gorgeous so we didn't spend too much of it inside the buildings, but thankfully they had plenty of art outside so we could enjoy the museum outdoors.

Sunset Cliffs

 A friend told us to try Sunset Cliffs in San Diego at the day's end. It was beautiful. I looked for the green flash in that last moment as the sun dipped below the horizon but, alas, it didn't appear. Jules Verne wrote a whole novel about it. There's even a restaurant along the coast in San Diego that caters to the sunset crowd. Its seaside tables offer front row seating to the beautiful sunsets. The patrons reserve dinner seating hoping to catch a glimpse of the green flash. We did not have reservations. But we didn't need them. We had just eaten at La Pinata, the oldest Mexican restaurant in the Old City, where the food is authentic, the margaritas delicious, and the server calls a Gringo a Gringo.

Normalcy

An elusive notion in this family.

I

o.

E and O

O, I and D

E

From Sand to Snow

From this to this in one week. Ouch.

Seal Harbor Football

As I've already noted, any time of day is the right time of day for these guys to grab a football and start a game. Even a small patch of turf between the beach cliffs and a busy road is enough to stir their passions. Game on.

Tide Pools

Soaked

 We had a good time exploring the tide pools around Children's Pool and got a bit wet when the big Pacific waves came crashing in. All good.

The kind of fauna one finds on these rocks

Time Travel

 In 1997, E and I made our first trip to San Diego to visit my sister and her then five year old son, J. They took us around to all the fun sites: Coronado, the beaches, Seal Harbor, an aircraft carrier. So much to do in this city.

So it was extra special this week to get back to some of those spots that we remembered so fondly and show our own kids where their cousin J spent his early childhood. These California seals are a treat. They play in the surf and sun themselves on the big rocks while we tourists queue up to see them. After fighting the crowds for a glimpse of the wildlife, the kids were happy to find a patch of sand where they could once again race the waves while the seals played in the surf behind them.

Happy Thanksgiving