From the Passenger Seat: March 2009

Over the summer, my sister wanted us to go with her and her kids to the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. My niece had gone to a prom there and thought it would be a cool place to take my nephew. They had an exhibit at the time with life size models from the movie Cars and apparently the teenagers were able to get into the vehicles. I’m not sure that’s a good thing…letting teenagers at Prom get into the back of your display vehicles???!!! Maybe, the teens were mistaken and were taking it upon themselves to get into the vehicles.

Anyhow, we finally picked a day to check out the museum. When we got there we found out that the Cars exhibit was no longer, which sucked because this was the reason we drove out to LA! Sadly, my nephew who is only four could not understand and wanted to see Buzz. Nevertheless, there were plenty of cars to view, but again telling a four-year-old boy that he could not touch the cars did not go over too well. On the third floor they did have an interactive play area for young children, but it wasn’t big cars to jump in and out of, so it was not up to par. On top of all of that my sister admitted shortly after we arrived that all of them (her and the kids) had been up late, making them all cranky. Once they realized there was no Cars display and the interactive stuff was not going to satisfy the little tikes, we opted out of staying for a long period of time.

It’s not that the Peterson was bad, just not kid friendly. Though they do have the third floor of interactive-hands on stuff for kids, you could probably find and be more satisfied with taking your little ones to a children’s museum. It will probably save you a considerable amount of money.

Otherwise, the Peterson is a pretty cool museum. I enjoyed the displays they had out the week we went. There was the Hot Wheels collection that featured a car designed by Rat fink as well as some other amazing looking hot wheels.

They had the Batmobile from the 90’s movie, grease lighting, and the car from Speed Racer.

But my favorite exhibit was From Autocamps to Airstreams: The early road to Vacationland, which covered mostly travel trailers. I was amazed how far we have come since their inception into American culture.

Afterwards, I took my family to Pinks for Hotdogs. I have been there a couple of times before and I think I have even mentioned them on this blog before, so I won’t go into much detail. I was excited when we got there, because the line wrapped around the building. Now for most of you, I know this would be a deal breaker, having to wait thirty minutes in line for a hotdog. But every time I have been there previously the line was nil. So, I wanted the experience of the whole ordeal. I was enthralled and threw myself head first into the tourist experience.

As for the food, it’s great if you love hotdogs. No complaints. However, let me give you a small tip. Bring your own soda, preferably a 44 or 64 oz.. Some of the Dogs are spicy and a little 12oz. Can sold at a buck something a pop does not suffice!

On our way home, we struck gold when Faith had to stop and pee (I’m not sure if I meant that cleverness or not). Anyhow, we stopped in the City of Baldwin Park by a Target and apparently the city was having a meet your Police and Fireman day! The kids were able to sit on police motorcycles and in the vehicles with the canines. They could crawl through he SWAT and Fire Trucks. Faith loved it! This after all is why Faith was psyched about going to the Peterson Museum and funny enough, by the end of the day she was able to play in vehicles.

It was last summer and I’d been itching to go somewhere interesting with the family, but had to be patient and slow down a little with Verity. She hadn’t caught up to speed on staying in the truck for prolonged periods of time. So, when I heard about Tio’s Tacos I figured this was right up my alley and pretty close to my backyard. The place is only a city or two from me and is a relatively quick and painless drive, yet it has all the weirdness I crave.

We went for lunch and the place was packed with people from local business in the area and that’s always a good sign. The food was Mexican fare, but it had a different twist to all the normal places in the area. It was good. Tasty, but just different. I’m not a food critique (as much as I would love to be one), so I’ll leave it at that. While most chefs will tell you it’s all about the food, in this case it’s not, it’s about the restaurant. The owner is also an artist. So the place is filled with his folk art. Every nook and cranny has something to see. From the small chapel to people made from Barbie Dolls, the place is alive with folk art. The food was good and the place was kooky. The next time you’re in the Riverside area, I suggest you stay away from the mundane mega-chains and grab a bite at Tios.