The War Goes On

Once again, I'm home alone. That means a blog update, I guess. Maybe this will be my new modus operandi. Well, that and there's about a month and a half of catch-up to do...cheers, the cavalry is here.

The young women of our ward held a carnival and a very high earning bake sale (cupcakes and pies going for like, $50, which is more money than I typically spend on groceries a week). John was most interested in the mini golf.

And the treats. Don't forget the treats.

I got bored and decided that we'd go to San Francisco over the Memorial Day weekend.

John wanted to run away in Nowheresville Central Valley.

A bridge on the way in to San Francisco. I was stunned by the lack of toll--after my experience back east I was prepared to spend $10-15 at least.

San Francisco is a great city, architecturally. With the hills and tight twists and turns, there's ample opportunity to show off multiple sides of buildings.

The first place we hit was the newly opened Museum of Modern Art. Supposedly it was to have an enhanced mobile tour...for iSheep only. I thought that surprising for an area that also is home to Google HQ.

A view from the balcony.

John wanted to see how little the people were below him.

"It's abstract, John."

For some reason, this was one of my favorite exhibits. Here the artist went all over the world and photographed water towers of all shapes and sizes. It's remarkable how varied the designs are that fulfill a somewhat basic purpose.

A view from Yerba Buena Gardens.

"Please, we're in public."

John was wondering why were spending 20 minutes in the park taking selfies.

After the night in our hotel near Union Square, we went to a beach in Alameda, across the bay, to meet my cousin and KB. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures myself. I have some pictures of us on the way (we took all public transit).

It was a lovely day, 70s, plenty of sun. Low tide made it a bit harder to wade in the water, but the sand is fun enough for the little guy.

"I'm a man on a mission..."

A view from our cable car that took 15 minutes to turn on to Embarcadero. We really could have walked quicker...

Of course, we get into the Exploratorium an hour before closing. In the mad dash I only got a couple of pictures. This place is fantastic and I will want to return. I even managed to score a new copy of the Explorabook (several years out of print now), which basically instilled in me the desire to become an engineer. I'll give it to John when he's old enough to appreciate it for what it is rather than just yanking out the magnet and whacking stuff with it.

The chain here reminded me so much of Neal Stephenson Seveneves (I disliked the second half of the book, but the first half is fantastic).

This may seem boring, but after reading a couple of books about Martian soil, I've come to appreciate how big a deal it is that Earth's dirt is spontaneously fertilized by bacteria and other organisms.

I failed to take any pictures of our romp in Chinatown--suffice it to say that you need to visit there midday, rather than early evening. The last morning we were in town, we thought we'd hit a breakfast spot, along with half of San Francisco. We ultimately settled on the #49 spot on Yelp, which turned out to be pretty good, in my opinion. John liked it too.

We returned home, and I had to buy a metric ton of camping supplies, including a tent. I had to set it up in our backyard to reassure myself that I could actually do it.

We learned that there is a splashpad at Dalton Park, but it's only activated on the weekends.

Finally, we took advantage of the pool I'm paying a couple of hundred bucks a month for.

Not content to end our adventures, I procured tickets to the Angel City Chorale, featuring Christopher Tin. The guy writes amazing music (seriously, check it out), and he was there as guest conductor.

It was our first trip into Los Angeles by way of the Metro, which was pretty slick. Except for missing our bus, which necessitated an Uber hop to make it to the concert on time.

To say I was excited would be an understatement.

They also performed this little number.

Back in Glendora, we discovered Foster's Freeze. It's basically Dairy Queen.

I went on my first scouting death march trip to the Valley Forge campground in the Angeles National Forest (basically, over the mountains from our home). The terrain and weather were perfect. The hike in was pretty forgiving.

It was the hike out that killed. 2 miles, 1200' elevation increase, with 600' in the last half mile or so.

Disneyland was next on the agenda. More happy faces on this trip.

We even got to see the Green Man Group.

After Alison and John absconded to Houston, the mountains began to burn. Fortunately, nothing came our way; they burned northward. The fact that it was 45°C didn't help matters.

I guess John's having a hard time at Grandma Debby's.

Welp, 'til Alison goes out of town again...