Petersen Automotive Museum

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.

Tio's Tacos

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.

Home-made Church

I would seriously consider going to a church like this.

Weird artifacts thrown together to make a fountain

Cool Plastic People made of McD's happy meal toys!

Look Closely, they are peeing (and lactating) in the buckets!

The Doo Dah Parade!

Last weekend I drug my family to the Doo Dah Parade. I have wanted to go for a couple of years, but life and responsibilities have interfered, this year though, I would not be deterred (Although I almost forgot about the whole thing). Also, I didn’t want to get there and have to fight for and squeeze into a spot, so I told Kellee we were leaving early and set my alarm for three-thirty AM. I know it might sound overboard to get up that early, as it did to Kellee, but you should take into consideration that I get up around this time to get ready for work, so it’s nothing new. Besides, I am learning quickly how long it takes to get three girls out the door and a two and a half hour window is cutting it short!

Thank the Lord, we made it out the door at six am, I was already stressed out that every inch of curb space would be taken leaving me to scour in frustration. Seven o’clock is already too late to try and find sitting room for one of the great parades in America…or so I thought! When we arrived the streets were empty! Pasadena was a ghost town. Actually there was one family that was crazier that me and was already set up for the day (though I can’t be sure they got their family up as early as I). I shouldn’t have to tell you how embarrassing it is when your beloved is sooo correct, but we had a good laugh about it and she knows how stressed I get trying to ensure we get to places with time to kill (though that rarely happens).

Since we had what seemed like an eternity of time, we decided to go get breakfast! Yeah, that’s right I made my family suffer until we got on location. Afterwards, we had our pick of the streets and wouldn’t you know I chose the spot littered with broken glass and fellow parade watchers who happened to be stoned out of their mind. After no time at all, I realized I needed to move for my sanity and my children’s safety. We found a better spot at the end of the block and later on were surrounded by a family oriented crowd. Our friends the DeShazos came too, as Elsa has been wanting to see the Doo Dah Parade for awhile, as well.

The parade was everything I hoped for and more! I’ll admit there were a few lewd moments or floats that left me somewhat disappointed. But over all I was captivated and enthralled by almost every entry into the parade from the Raelians to the synchronized nap team. I won’t get into detail about the parade I would rather just post the pictures. Next year is a foregone conclusion for me, my section of curb is already saved!

Atlanta Redux

This is finally my last post on a cross-country trip I took this past summer, and to be truthful, I’m worn out writing about this excursion.

From Richmond we drove to Jonathan’s home in Maryland, but it seems that Jim and I were not ready to settle into relaxing at our friends' home, so we had him drop us off at the Metro and made our way to Washington D.C. to get a couple of drinks. As I remember it, Jonathan was supposed to pick us up around 12:00 am or so, but passed out from a long drive home. Thus, 12 turned into 2 am! I had to be up and ready to go by five so I could make my flight in Baltimore at 6:15 am. Suffice it to say, I was groggy, and had hot-eyes from the lack of sleep.

Jonathan’s wife graciously agreed to wake her and the kids up early to take me to the airport. We were running late and got lost for a brief minute but I made it on time with a couple minutes to get through all the security hassles and onto my plane. I was exasperated and out of breath by the time I made it to my terminal, but I made it and on time! The only problem was that the crew didn't. I mean I was there, the other passengers were there, and the plane was there…but there was no crew to fly the damn thing. Apparently, whoever puts these flights together forgot to tell the crew they had to fly out in the morning! So the crew, I take it, did what I did the night before and checked out DC after dark.

So there I sat on the ground waiting for two hours for someone, anyone to fly me home. Finally, a groggy hot-eyed crew showed up to take me to Atlanta. This in itself was another problem, because I missed my lay over flight by 45 minutes! So now I had to shuffle my schedule around and try I find another flight home…along with all the other passengers. Luckily, I managed to get one of the last tickets on a flight to Orange County eight hours later. The help desk in Baltimore told me once I got to Atlanta I could finagle a better ticket. This was not the case! After arriving in Atlanta the help desk lady scoffed at this assertion (Note: Atlanta does not offer Southern Hospitality at their airport)! She said even if this was the case and it was certainly not, that there were no other flights! I told her I would take anything, it didn’t have to be posh OC, I could go to the Ghetto of LA or stretch it out to Long Beach, I could even go to Ontario if she would let me! I tried to tell her this wasn’t my fault, her company was sleeping on the job. I wouldn’t mind taking another flight with another airline (actually I would prefer it!). But there were no flights! Everything, every airline was full! I would have to wait eight hours to go home.

When we had passed through Atlanta on our trip, I lamented how this was one city I would have liked to seen more of on the expedition and one day I would return. I never dreamed my return would be two days later! So, I was stuck in an airport in Atlanta for eight hours. I couldn’t believe that I could be back in the city again and not be able to check it out because I was stuck in the airport! So, I resolved to go out and explore. I found an old man who was working at the airport to direct me on how to get to anywhere that was safe and had something decent to eat. As luck would have it, Atlanta is not as backwards as their airline hostesses would allow you to believe. They actually have a metro that will take you from the airport to the downtown area. The old man pointed the way and told me what stop to get off to get a nice bite to eat at Hooters.

So off I went to explore. I found my stop and found Hooters. However, my wife hates the whole concept of Hooters, so even on an empty stomach I declined the delightful smells protruding from the eatery. I just figured if there was one place to eat in the area then there should be more, I was right but none of them looked appetizing. So, I continued to walk and found Olympic park. Nice place. A Beautiful open area with lots of sculptures. I then went to the Coke Museum. I thought about going in but at $15 bucks a pop (pun intended) to walk through, and I was down to my last $40-50 dollars, it wasn’t worth it. I mean, Hey! If it was Pepsi it would be a whole different story, but this was Cocoa Cola, what’s the big deal? So I simply opted for a Photo Op with an old style Coke bottle with the facility behind me.

What made me really like Atlanta was a small piece of ground near a freeway exit that was used as a homeless hang-out and littered with trash, it was a little area dedicated to Folk Art. Very cool sculptures that can’t help but to bring a smile to your face.

Speaking of which, I met a few folks while on my walk around the town. One gentleman walked up to me and asked me if I was racist. I thought of telling him, “Of course not, I deplore Lincoln.” But didn’t think he would get the humor so I just opted to dispel any fears that he might have of whitey walking around his town and affirmed that I was not in fact a racialist. He apparently wasn’t buying my pathetic attempt at being politically correct. He indeed wanted proof, by helping a poor black fellow out and giving him some of my change. He was disheartened when I told him that he probably already had more change in his pockets than I did.

I then met another pleasant man while walking around. He came up to me to... well, just to talk I suppose. He too was a homeless man wearing not so much a gruff beard as it was a chin strap. He was quite pleasant and I suspected any minute he would pull a switchblade and rob me of my last remaining cash. He had noticed my Dodgers hat and began talking baseball and Basketball with me. In fact, I was quite startled by how much he knew about sports, especially Los Angeles Sports and he was quite shocked I was not a Lakers Fan! We kept up our delightful conversation and I assumed he was just waiting for the right moment to shank me, when he looked up and commented on the gray clouds looming in the distance. I looked up to politely agree, when my jaw dropped to the ground and my startled body froze at the sight. It was summer and had been quite humidly hot in the Big A, so what I was gazing into was not computing into my southern Californian brain. These were not gray clouds or even dark clouds for that matter. This was the abyss opening up. It looked much more like the nothingness in the Never Ending Story. My heart sank as I remember the torrential down pour we had to navigate driving through on our first trip. So, I immediately said my good-byes and departed in haste, running to get back to the metro before I was swept away by an Atlanta flood. I couldn’t believe how swift the storm was upon my heels. As I came upon the last city block the rain began to pour. I decided at that moment that I had had my fill of the city and headed back to the airport for the last hour and a half.

There was plenty I missed; I had really set my heart on going to Stone Mountain to see the confederate leaders carved into the side of the mountain. I also wanted to eat lunch at Richard Blaise’s restaurant, but seeing that I wasn’t planning on walking around the city, I was completely underdressed and a little smelly. I also found out later that they have a muppet museum where they have the Dark Crystal Puppets on display; that would have been worth seeing. Maybe, my next trip across country, I’ll get stuck again and can see all the sights I missed.

Overall, it was a pretty good trip.

The Cracker Barrel

The Cracker Barrel is the southern version of Denny's (maybe a bit better). You can find one near most highway exits in the south. So, why am I blogging about a restuarant chain? Well, because of how badly Jonathan wanted to go there. It would seem every time we stopped for a bite or to rest he would suggest that we eat at the Cracker Barrell. While in Tupelo, we were searching for a place to eat lunch, when Jonathan piped up again, "Oh there's a Cracker Barrell!Do you guys want to eat there?"

"Is the food good?" Jim asked.

"No."

Jim and I looked at him baffled and dismayed. We strongly replied that we were not going to eat where we knew the food was no good and opted for a sandwich shop located in the same shopping center.

However, later in our trip, somewhere in North Carolina, when we were all short on money and it was late in the evening, we finally caved into Jonathan's insistent suggestion. The food was actually pretty good. They stuck with their southern flare and the ambience was down-homey. We later found out that Jonathan always stopped with his family at a Cracker Barrell while they were on a roadtrip. This tidbit of info put the puzzle pieces together for us on why Jonathan was so importunate on going to the Southern Denny's. After all, isn't that what a roadtrip is all about? Creating Memories and holding on to family traditions.