I’ve lived in northern California long enough now to instinctively dread and dislike LA. It’s a rather odd aspect of northern Californians, the automatic dislike for their own state’s largest city. In contrast, Angelenos will express their love for San Francisco and its beauty if the subject ever comes up. In fact, I’m not even…
Category: Out & About
Camping at Sunset Beach
Neil’s cub scout troop had a family camp out at Sunset Beach on March 8th, and of course we went. Kelly loves camping, and she loves the beach, and combining the two was like a dream come true for her. Neil could hang out with other boys and do boy stuff. Me, I got to…
Stowe Lake By Boat
The Saturday I got back from Germany, I took Neil and Kelly to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Their Saturday children’s art activity was focused on tromp l’oeil, and Neil just loves that art form. He has tromp l’oeil books and his art last summer was making tromp l’oeil projects. After a…
Germany Here I Come!
At last, my flight for Germany is about to be called, and I’m off to to fairy-tale land, er, Germany. For all my intentions of winging it (or as the Germans would say “driving in the blue”), I find myself pretty well-scheduled. I’m starting off in Dossenheim, a suburb of Heidelberg, where I spent my…
Marie Antoinette Makes an Appearance at the Legion of Honor
Today I dragged my children to Lincoln Park to visit the Legion of Honor. It’s one of my favorite museums, and though the current exhibition wasn’t that compelling to me, I haven’t been there in over a year. I’ve been having trouble finding a weekday free enough from other commitments, and when I do take…
Exploring the Mind at the Exploratorium
As I mentioned earlier, Neil and I were excited about a new exhibit at the Exploratorium, so we headed out there on Monday, when it was open, unlike a lot of places who closed on the holiday. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea, especially since it was raining, which prohibited a…
Another Day, Another Beach
Peter had a rare day to spare on Sunday, so we made an excursion to a nearby tourist spot most of us hadn’t been before: Carmel. As charming as it’s known to be, it’s also renowned (locally at least) for being very pricey and snobby. It’s more “romantic getaway” than “family vacation,” and frankly, when…
An Afternoon at the Bay Area Discovery Museum
Neil had Friday off from school, so we drove up to the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, from which we’d tried twice to visit earlier, only to find out, upon arrival, that the museum was closed. Despite the long drive, the Bay Area Discovery Museum is a cute little museum in a particularly scenic…
January Beach Weekend
So what did I do on this wintry weekend? I went to the beach with my family, twice! Beaches are, after all, scenic year round. And most of the many fun things you can do at the beach, such as making sandcastles, looking for seashells, twirling around on your tippy toes and giggling, can be…
A Full Day in San Jose
Every so often, I take the children to downtown San Jose via light rail and we spend the day there. We have memberships to three museums there, and there’s almost often some event going on, whether it’s Christmas in the Park, activities tying in to the national gymnastics championships, or a Vietnamese moon festival. We’d…