TRAIN MUSEUM
at Old Sacramento

After the media event -- you know, the one about budget cuts planned for Medi-Cal? the one where Dane jumped up and down behind me to get on camera while NBC was interviewing me? Yeah, that one. Well, after the media event, the kids and I hoofed it over to Old Sacramento again from the Capitol building. There, we stopped for donuts (of course, it's 'tradition' now) and then went to the old school house, and then finally on to the train museum.

I'm not sure the kids grasped the historical reasons behind the train hub there -- how Sacramento started out as a gold boom town, and what the trains meant to travelers crossing the Sierras, and the significant contributions Chinese workers made to the railroad -- but they caught glimpses of all that and sure liked the trains.

They also liked sitting in the theater to watch the train movie.

And crawling under trains. (Probably not supposed to do that.)

In California, state history is studied in fourth grade, so this is where all the fourth graders in northern California end up on a field trip at some point during the school year. There were probably six classes here while we were visiting.

Since we probably won't live here when the kids are in fourth grade, it's probably just as well we took care of this trip in K and 1st. Not sure the history lesson will stick, though. We'll have to save that for Washington's timber museum* or something. (Or Oregon's?)

*Actually, we've been to the Washington State history museum in Tacoma and it encompasses more than timber...

BADM STRIKES AGAIN

We didn't renew our Bay Area Discovery Museum membership this year since Dane was in Kindergarten and Aubs seemed plenty busy. However, we returned with friends Josh and Abby (mom, Camille) yesterday and shut the place down! We got there when it opened and we left when it closed (10am to 4pm).

The most exciting part for the kids was the new exhibit called "Joshua's Journey," a full-on wild west exhibit about a black cowboy. The kids could dress up in cowgear (I wish my camera battery had been charged): they had boots, spurs, chaps, hats, prairie dresses, bandanas, sombreros, and plaid western shirts galore. The kids could lassoo cattle from a wooden saddled horse and rope in the wooden calf. They could sit around a campfire next to a covered wagon and cook up supper -- there was even a triangle and spoon to call in the gang for chow. Overall, we probably spent 2-1/2 hours in there.

It was a gorgeous sunny Bay day, so we were lucky to spend the rest of the time outdoors at the play area. They searched for buried treasure in the "sunken ship," played Star Wars out at the stick maze (hard to describe that place), dipped their bods in the mock tidal pools, shoveled gravel in the gravel pit, and climbed up the crows nest.

The old standbys in the art room and train/fishing boat room were great fun, too.

Today we're home cleaning up because Uncle Kai and Jason Hickman come tonight for the weekend! They're going to an all-day concert in SF tomorrow with Mick.

NIGHT AT THE DE YOUNG
April 20, 2007

Maureen, Jackie and I visited the DeYoung on one of the museum's special Friday nights. We took in live music, a glass of wine, and the Vivienne Westwood exhibit. (Her fashion sense didn't fully speak to any of us though, which might not be any big surprise.)

Earlier that day, Aubrey and I had picked Maureen and Jackie up at the SF airport and taken them to Tennessee Valley Cove for a bike ride and hike up the cliffs. I hadn't considered how astounded they'd be by the landscape here; I forgot just how breathtaking that place can be to new eyes.

More to post later on their visit from Bellingham...

New Year's Eve

Home alone at 9 p.m. with the kids in bed. Mick's picking up neighbors from the airport. Maybe he'll be back by 10 and we can stay up to just get crazy -- maybe play a word game or something.

Went to the DeYoung Museum today with Amy, a friend here in Sausalito (her twins are in Dane's kindergarten class). We caught the very last day of the very last city for The Quilts of Gee's Bend Exhibit -- which was gorgeous, inspiring, moving. Between the crafts(wo)manship, the history of the region and its poverty, the singing, and the female camaraderie it was a treasure to carry forward with me.

Perhaps I'll write more when I'm feeling more articulate.

For now, I'll pick up my newest book interest: The Gift of Travel: The Best of Travelers' Tales, an anthology of excellent travel essays.

Anyway, Happy New Year everybody. Sorry I didn't do Christmas cards -- Dane got the flu the day we were supposed to take pictures for them and with Mick's intense schedule after that we sort of never recovered. (Of course, it didn't occur to me to do something different than I'd planned.) Maybe we'll do the traditional President's Day card or something.

Happy, Happy New Year. (This officially marks the halfway point for dental school for us, by the way. Almost too cool for school...)

GROSSOLOGY 101:
A Day at the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley



What's pictured here, in no particular order: the kids and...

*The skin wall -- complete with moles, hairs, pimples, and bruises

*The burping machine

*The digestive process -- in the mouth, down the esophagus, into the stomach, and out the intestines

*Body Pinball

*A cool snake and snake shirt (photographed just for Jan/Grammy)

*A giant game of Operation

*A building created from a blueprint (alas, not part of grossology exhibit)

*A flower created by Aubrey (also not gross)