Tourism Adventures – Page 7 – branching out… on a limb

Two Moms and A Lot of Fun…

The Intention:

Two moms have all teens and pre-teens either in school or otherwise accountable. They meet for coffee and pastries, have tickets to the San Diego County Fair, and plan to spend AS MUCH TIME AS THEY WANT, all morning and afternoon, to pore over the art, horticulture, cooking, and any other exhibits WITHOUT KIDS SAYING “Mooooom, we’re booooooored, can’t we leave the exhibits and ride the Throw ‘Em Upper Coaster now?!??”

Hidden Agenda:

Get the Swedish partner in crime to try Fair Food. Fried Fair Food.

The Reality:

The fair is closed for the first two Tuesdays. Dammit!

What We Did:

Sat in the fairground parking lot for five minutes wondering how it escaped both of our attention to this Tuesday closing… kept getting distracted with twenty other subjects, then decided to hit another San Diego landmark instead. Liberty Station? Great idea! I’ve never looked around this beautiful site or explored the grounds.

We had a great time wandering around, looking at all of the different art shops that were open at the time… less than half, I’d say, but we picked up flyers about a bunch of upcoming local events, classes and restaurants. There’s a WINE AND CHEESE AND CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL!! June 26th, people, mark your calendars- I know I am!

Bonus:

I kind of covered the hidden agenda, but it was a total compromise. Stone Brewing has an appetizer that can convert any vegetable hater- Deep Fried Brussels Sprouts, with Pancetta and a Honey Balsamic dressing. Holy Explicative, these are great, and I’m glad I got to introduce my friend to this snack and the lovely Stone restaurant.

We are trying for the fair again later this week. We are bound and determined. And I will make Annika try fair food- corn dog or funnel cake… her choice!

Taking the Triplets to the San Diego Symphony for a Musical Triple Play

We took “The Triplets” out to the symphony last night. “The Triplets?” Well, the family joke is that The Girl is 18, The Boy is 14, and between the two of them it is like having twins of 16. Now throw in The Boyfriend, and you get… 15-year-old TRIPLETS!

When I was young, I don’t remember going to the symphony, the theater, or operas. I don’t think we ever visited any of the cultural venues of Los Angeles County. There’s a lesson for aspiring parents- decades later, your kids probably won’t remember if you took them to specific activities! Save a boat load of cash and make up trips, and add in some family anecdotes to make it all seem real: “Oh yes, child, don’t you remember going to the Big City Ballet to see ‘Die Fledermaus?’ Strauss was your favorite as a toddler! Yes, you were three, and so excited to meet the Prima Ballerina backstage that you were sick all over your father’s shoes, so we had to take you home immediately after the show.”

No, seriously though, we went to ball games, on fabulous camping trips all the way up the coast to see redwoods and old family friends, and so many field trips as a school child, my parents didn’t need to revisit the La Brea Tar Pits or Natural History Museums with us. We’d covered that with the schools. My father usually had one of the great Southern California Jazz stations playing on these drives thereby placing a love of Coltrane, Davis, Bill Evans, and Brubeck in my heart. Thanks, dad, I am forever grateful!

I did, however, want to go to symphonies, ballets, operas and other events as I came into my own adulthood, and wanted to bring my children. When they were very young, both accompanied us to Indianapolis’s wonderful outdoor jazz festival- the Indy Jazz Fest, but no symphony or theater. Poor children, no Die Fledermaus for them, they had to settle for B.B. King, Keb’ Mo’ and more of our family’s favorites, like Los Lobos, Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi… the list went on.

Last night’s concert was the season finale for the San Diego Symphony. What a fabulous choice of pieces they performed! We love Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 2. We were also introduced to a newer composer, Aaron Jay Kernis. His 1990 “Musica Celestis” was amazing- particularly because I don’t tend to like newer compositions.

A wonderful evening overall. And I love the architectural details found in the symphony hall and snapped a few photos to hold me over until next season. I hope you enjoy them, too!

Navy Bay Bridge Run

I did it! I ran across the Coronado Bridge on Sunday morning with about 10,000 people, The Boy and The Husband. The Boy ditched me immediately after we crossed the start line, but is forgiven because he had a finish time of about ten minutes better than me, so, good on him.

While this was for a great cause, and I had a great time running with our neighbor’s SDG&E team, these runs with the 5 a.m. wake up times cause me to seriously to question my sanity… or at least decision making abilities.

We ran across the bridge with a reservist who told us about his five tours on active duty, and dozen more as a reservist. He had speakers tucked in a backpack playing military running cadences for the group’s motivation- it sure helped me get up the bridge. When asked, he suggested that civilians who are interested in donating time and treasure to returning soldiers should look into the Wounded Warrior Project for a reputable organization to guide us.

Before we actually hit the Coronado bridge, we passed a mariachi band playing for the throng, but on the other end of the bridge was the Navy brass band to help us finish- what a great way to wrap up the run!

This honorable man ran the four plus miles in full gear and holding the flag. He wasn’t the only one I saw running with a flag and gear, either.

From the home page of the Navy Bay Bridge Run you can read that “this annual Navy-hosted event includes the public in raising money for the Navy’s Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR) programs.” It was an honor to run with these men and women on active duty, reserve and retired status, and all us civilians pitching in a tiny bit to bring attention and funds to America’s navy personnel. An honor and a privilege.

Last Call for “The Discovery of King Tut” Exhibit at San Diego’s Natural History Museum

“Everything old is new again.” Several tours of The Boy King have made the U.S. and international circuits many times over the last eight or nine decades. I’d never seen the recreations of Howard Carter and his teams’ discovery of the nearly untouched tomb of Egypt’s King Tutankhamen until this weekend.

If you are a child of the 70s and 80s as I am, you remember the variety of hype surrounding the world tour of some of these treasures. We had the incredible National Geographic spread, the cover that we still all think of when the subject of Egyptology is mentioned. In fact, I found this image of that March 1977 National Geographic cover on an Etsy.com site, so if you want it, click on the photo for the link to purchase… We also had Steve Martin’s fabulous parody with the excitement surrounding 1970’s revival tour. Lol.

This exhibition focuses on the discovery and care taken in recording the splendid artifacts uncovered, and though none of the items on exhibits are the original objects, the fascination remained intact. The actual treasures stay in Egypt now and tour no more.

If at any age you had ever watched the television specials, read magazine articles or pored through books, you were probably fascinated with the detail of this lost king’s rediscovery. The really interesting aspect of this tour is how with much care, the size and placement of the tomb’s rooms and objects are shown exactly as they were found. I was surprised by the size of the sarcophagi and coffins, and astonished to see the amount of objects catalogued- even though this was a small number of reproductions! After seeing photos and drawing and television specials since my childhood, it really was exciting to view in person the scale and placement of all the relics and the chambers in which they were uncovered.

Carter's Illustrations — Carter’s Illustrations

Collar from Carter's illustrations — Collar from Carter’s illustrations

The tour displayed reproductions of Carter’s drawings of what he found and descriptions of their placement. One of the biggest finds was the largest amount of period textiles ever to be discovered but unfortunately not cataloged as well as the traditional treasures of gold and precious stones.

I’m trying to find where this tour is headed next, but the information is proving difficult to unearth… lol… apropos for this post, no? The company putting on the tour is Premier Exhibitions, Inc., and are also behind other mega-popular tours such as “Bodies, The Exhibition,” and “Titanic, The Artifact Exhibition.”

Since Premier Exhibitions is being so stingy with next tour dates info, I’ll leave everyone with the one clip that we all remember whenever The Boy King, King Tut is talked about:

San Diego Earthworks- Earth Fair in Balboa Park…

San Diego Earthworks and 400 volunteers held the San Diego Earth Fair in Balboa Park with sights, smells, and spirituality on display today. I wouldn’t doubt the numbers that are said to attend- upwards of 50-70,000 people are estimated.

A view of the crowds... — A view of the crowds…

Grilled burgers and chicken sandwiches and we omnivores were outnumbered by the great vegetarian fare to be had everywhere. At the south end of the park, food vendors were cranking out the treats with some nice music to be heard while you eat- some good folk rock tunes.

I was hoping for more concrete information to be shared by vendors and city agencies. I’d like to know more about water conservation in our very thirsty, very dry state but I found very few of the 300 the booths were of this type. There were more hemp products and shea butter lotions than you could shake a didgeridoo at, many different Eastern religions and philosophies ready to share their beliefs of love and respect, but they greatly outnumbered the booths with active answers. There were some… but nowhere near as many as I hoped there would be. Show me real products that are sustainably produced, give me real statistics how America’s Finest City is doing well, and where we can improve. How can businesses and neighborhoods become more involved? I just couldn’t find these booths.

Once section was dedicated to vendors and educators working with recycled materials- way to go, folks, there were some really nice succulent planters for sale made from repurposed fencing wood. The blog “Cool San Diego Sights” got a photo of this booth, and a couple others that I missed but would have like to see- the Urban Farming activists and the Gleaning Queens in particular are two that I am really disappointed to have missed. Please read about The Glean Queens and ProduceGood.org on Richard’s blog Cool San Diego Sights!

There were alternative cars displayed, from hybrids and electrics to this nifty three wheeler- “an enclosed, soft-sided motorcycle” was one passing comment I overheard.

I didn’t get any photos (kicking myself) as we stood in a short line to enter and ask questions of a Tiny House owner who brought her home for all to see. She shared how she uses her composting toilet, altered a livestock watering tub to use as a shower, and how she used a hand-powered washing device for laundry. “It’s like a giant salad spinner and uses only two gallons of water to wash and rinse,” she explained to a couple of kids. She let one of them scamper onto her counter to access stairs to her loft- his big smile and wide eyes showed how much he liked being allowed to climb on the counter.

An Earth Day festival is usually associated with a lot of smaller movements all coming together to share information about themselves, but I think vendors and public organizations also miss a huge opportunity to educate a large number of people in what we all share- responsibility.

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