Category: Places

1. Zoo is the truth. Visit it. Get a membership. Visit it a few times.
2. Yes! The carousel started running again that week at Balboa Park after a six month rehabilitation. What a gem! Gorgeous carvings. It has character, which the carousel at Legoland lacks.
3. unfortunately, the miniature train at Balboa Park, is uneXceptional.
4. We’ll be back next March and with another set of 2-day passes to Legoland. (They charge almost nothing for the second day, aside from the $30 parking charge.)
5. Visit the ships at the Maritime Museum. It’s awesome. We spent all day (without even taking the harbour tour). I could not imagine packing myself with a bunch of dudes to explore the world. I hope to return ten years later when they’ll be old enough to savor the exhibits. They also enjoyed the park across the street.
6. Unimaginably bigger is the Midway Aircraft Carrier. After the Maritime Museum closed, we walked to this ship and holy hell, that thing is massive. We’ll visit in five years when both kids are old to understand its enormity.
7. The years as a project manager of large construction projects taught me the value of money. What we saw ain’t cheap, forty or four hundred years ago.
8. Several active warships were docked across the bay. Super-empire!
9. Regrettably, the kids (five and nine) aren’t old enough to enjoy art museums. But that’s not so disappointing when it’s a small free jewel box like the Timken Museum of Art.
10. Quirky Spanish Village Art Center was also fun, but nerve-wracking while manhandling a five year old to keep him from touching everything.
11. Preferably, art should be touched, but that’s not my call in someone else’s studio.
12. On the other hand, you can touch the art at the New Children’s Museum. Not cheap ($76 for the four of us), but the Whammock! by Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam is worth every penny. My daughter is aging out of the museum, so it was a bittersweet visit.
13. Nighttime festivities at the zoo freed me to wander Balboa Park on my own for two nights (we only bought one adult membership for my wife since it came for coupons for my entries).
14. Mingei International Museum was cool. High craft meets high art. Next time I’ll pay to peruse the second floor gallery.
15. Lovely to hang out at the May S. Marcy Sculpture Court and Garden. I sketched a few sculptures, eavesdropped on a couple of conversations, and enjoyed the evening as the sun set.
16. Kicking it on the the stairs in front of the Timken Museum was a joy as a group of youngsters danced to a bluetooth speaker. I miss living in a real city.
17. Jump! One young fellow was lying on the ground. As a middle aged fool, I assumed he was stretching his back. He suddenly twisted himself upside down in a flash.
18. I enjoyed a couple of hours at the Natural History museum. I wasn’t into the taxidermy, but stared for a while at bones and hand-drawn botanical illustrations.
19. How did he grow up so fast? After the zoo closed, we checked out a moth event outside the Natural History museum. The boy asked great questions for the entomologist. I didn’t realize he was so fluent in English.
20. Go to the Fleet Science Center. (According to my coworker who grew up in San Diego)
21. For $229, the Balboa Park annual pass (2 adults and 4 kids) is a no-brainer in future visits.
22. Even though the AirBNB was in a great location, it was a little grimy. But we had a place to sleep and cook for a week at a reasonable price. It came with fleas.
23. Dogs! But the landlord’s dogs were super cute. Our boy Drew During our waits for Dinner. I also started watching Bluey with the kids. It’s Dang great!
24. Cute library alert! Vegas libraries are big community centers, so it fun to check out the little University Heights public library. I found a Mutts alphabet book and an illustrated copy of Kipling’s Just So Stories.
25. Bordertown Primm has a dead Outlet Mall on the way home. There are only two stores still open with the rest filled with murals. The only reason it hasn’t been abandoned is because it’s attached to a casino. I hope it stays alive, it’s the best rest stop, clean, unused, and air conditioned. Especially since the claw machine gave us a Pickachu for $1!
26. A week away from podcasts and writing, though I sketched a little. Before the trip, I suspected that I needed a break. In retrospect I sorely needed it. If you’re not sure, take one.

Three years after our country shut down, we went on our first vacation, for a week out in San Diego.

Finally getting out of Nevada made me a little sad about the time lost. But I was also grateful for the massive privilege to take a week off and not have to worry about it.

One big mental shift on this trip was my constant worry about time. Trying to optimize a trip is madness but I couldn’t help myself. I’m not sure what happened to the young man who spent a lovely spring afternoon on the Seine just reading Raymond Chandler. Maybe he’ll return one day.

Legoland

• Kids (just 9 and almost 5) loved it.
• It’s not a big park, but it took two days to get everything out of it.
• The second day was drizzly which worked great — shorter lines and the rainy day pledge means we get free admission for a day within the next year.
• What didn’t work great was the Technic rollercoaster. Totally not worth an hour wait.
• Pretty amazing to stumble across my childhood friend my first day at the park. It’s a small world.
• The boy was scared of some rides the first day, but then enjoyed them on the second day.

San Diego Safari Park

• Gorgeous views.
• Tons of walking.
• Make sure to visit the botanical gardens at the top of the park.
• Worth a day, definitely a great perk for locals who are already members of the main zoo, but wasn’t a highlight. Most likely way better for the animals than the humans.
• Wait until the Elephant Valley construction is completed before visiting if you’re out of town.
• Bring Binoculars.

San Diego Zoo

• Every bit as amazing as I remembered it.
• Even with the disappointment that the Great Pandas have been recalled back to China. (Fortunately I found out before we arrived).
• There was a long line for the tour bus in the morning. By the afternoon there was no wait. I presume it was the same dynamic for the Skyfari gondola.
• The was the only park we didn’t stay till closing time, only because they had extended hours to 7pm for Spring Break.
• Maybe next time I’ll bring some sketch books and we can draw some animals.
• Hopefully the next visit won’t be in such a rush, cause we’ve now seen most of it all.

La Jolla

• We got lucky with free admission to the Museum of Contemporary Art (2nd Sundays and 3rd Thursdays).
• Coming from a city without an art museum, it was amazing. But I’d have a hard time paying $25 per adult since the kids didn’t have much patience.
• Wrangling an 4 year old around priceless art is tiring. International travel is at least two or three years away.
• If you go to the museum, check out the Orange Wedge.
• Also check out Adriana Varejao’s disemboweled painting.
• Free parking in the city is a nice perk. Keep an eye out on the signs, every street has different rules for how long you can park.
• We got to walk through to tide pools at low tide. This was dumb luck as well.
• The momma seals and pups at the “Children’s Pool” are cute, even if you could only watch them from above since that area is closed between Dec 15-May 15 to protect the seals.
• Always good to revisit the Pacific Ocean.

COVID-19

• We’re still COVID cautious. Thankfully we got nary a side-eye for being masked up the whole trip.
• Recommend the 3M Aura and VFlex N95 masks. V-Flex comes in two sizes, and the smaller size was perfect for the kids. I’ll be curious how they feel when it gets warmer.
• We stayed at an AirBNB. Flushed out the house when we first arrived, including running a Corsi-Rosenthal box for the first night.
• Not eating out removed a decision point throughout the trip. Less fun, but simplified the travel.
• Our pattern was to have a big breakfast, get to the attraction, play till the 5pm close, eat a PBJ Sandwich in the car, and go home to cook a late dinner around 8 (or 9!) pm.
• We also kept Kind bars in the backpack.
• Since we didn’t eat out, getting an AirBNB near a supermarket was critical. We brought plenty of stuff from Vegas, but you always need something.
• I just realized that the Take and Bake Pizza from ALDI’s is the first non-frozen, non-home prepared meal we’ve had in 3 years.
• I didn’t go in, but my wife reported that ALDI’s isn’t all that. Very sparse, which explains the equally empty parking lot.
• It might be my bougie privilege speaking, but I appreciate that California charges for plastic bags. It’s long overdue to make these perks not-free so they aren’t freely wasted.
• As for illness, let’s see how things go in a week. So far so good, but given our long hibernation, I’m assuming we’re the freshest meat out there for all the latest germs out there (corona and otherwise).

Detour Home

• We took a detour home through the desert. Added an hour to the drive time.
• I love driving 2-lane highways. My wife was not amused.
• Not sure I’d do it in summer, it would be terrifying to have car trouble with that heat.
• There some cute shops in Joshua Tree and 29 Palms. Make sure to gas up in one of those two towns, it’s a lot of nothing after that. (And gas was cheaper than in San Diego!)
• I wish we stopped at the little Wonderland Books shop, but we were in tired, heading home mode.
• It was awesome to see the big restored Roy’s sign at Amboy. They’ve cleaned up the lobby. Worth a stop for a couple of pictures.
• The highlight of the detour was the Kelso Depot. The building is nicely restored and the National Park Staff were super friendly.
• Because we didn’t get gas at Joshua Tree, we had just enough gas to make it to Vegas, but had to refill before landing at home. It gave us one last ride — the kids’ first car wash. They squealed in delight.

With the free admission day in Legoland, we’re now pondering a summer visit. Might as well revisit the beach and Zoo. Add one day at Balboa Park and a visit to the New Children’s Museum (which we loved in 2019) and we’re back for another full week.

Some bureaucrat at the California Office of Tourism just earned her wings.

I was a freshman living on the north side of campus. The shop was on the west side.

It was a rough year in the dorm. I escaped by hiding in bookstores and read the entire Sandman series in his shop.

Comic Relief had a simple rule. Read what you want but don’t sit down.

Beyond that, they were really totally chill. I went through the Blade of the Immortal series in that shop as well.

I was a poor student, so I read a lot but only bought the occasional comic, but they were cool about it.

Hopefully I repaid their hospitality with many purchases after I graduated and got a job.

The other night, I thought about Rory, a big guy with long stringy blond hair and a big black wrist stiffener. A jovial presence in his kingdom. I remember hanging out with him a few times as he smoked a couple cigarettes outside on University Avenue. I still think about his warnings about acid free tape (there adhesive was acid free, but the tape membrane wasn’t).

He was a gracious host. After all my free loading during the college years, I willingly bought much of what he recommended to me. There are plenty of obscure graphic novels on my shelves from his store.

I also fondly remember the time when I picked up Frank Miller’s Yellow Bastard from his Sin City series. A couple days later I returned it. I was a bit embarrassed, but that book was just too dark. A great novel, but I couldn’t have it in my house.

No judgment. No big deal.

He moved his shop to a bigger place right before I moved out to Texas. A few years later he passed away. The shop is now gone.

But the memory of Comic Relief still lives fresh in my mind’s eye. It was an institution, for a moment. Thankfully I was there for it.

These small institutions that enrich our lives are always but fleeting. This haunting reality is a bit of a downer, so I just try to be grateful in the moment. And when they’re gone, I remind myself that it was a boon to be at the right place at the right time.

It was a lovely day, so we drove out to a local detention basin at the western foothills near our house. There wasn’t any good parking. All the nearby developments were gated communities, and we didn’t want to take our Odyssey up a gravel utility road.

So we drove back down a long suburban block to the closest elementary school. Fortunately, this extremely upscale development had created a linear park along the thoroughfare. This was no mere sidewalk. It wound back and forth and looped under itself (twice!) with unnecessary pedestrian bridges buttressed by gabion walls. Along the route, there was a large lawns which was populated with little mounds. The kids loved running up and down this bumpy plain.

At the end of this luxurious walk, we turned up the gravel utility road, slipped through a gap in the guard rail at the storm channel, and suddenly found ourselves in the middle of the desert.

At the upper rim of the basin you could look all the way out to the Strip.

In the bowl, you could only see the hills and sky.

A few months ago, I had hiked alone to this detention basin via a decidedly less bourgeois route, coming down from the hills via an arroyo, following the storm channel into this space. I already knew this was a pretty cool spot, and it was nice to share this place with the rest of the family.

Admittedly, the gratuitous walk with fancy trashcans that looks like planters is also enjoyable, but the pleasure of the linear park is dampened by its artifice. In contrast, the detention basin is real, a piece of infrastructure that exists because we insist on occupying this desert valley.

Unlike the linear park that tries to be something, this basin just is.

We moved to Las Vegas to be closer to our parents, but the timing worked out perfectly for me to get a job with Bunnyfish Studio right as Tony Hsieh was pouring funds into the improvement of the East Fremont District via his DownTown Project.

I only met him once, briefly at our office in the Emergency Arts Building. He was swinging through and dropped by to say hello the principals. However, I can personally attest to the veracity of those stories of an unassuming billionaire with a backpack walking around town, at least during the day.

I could have met Tony more often, however we had moved to Vegas to be closer to family and to start our own, so I did not indulge in the tech startup nightlife. From everything I heard, it was a heavy mix of working hard, and partying harder, (for good and ill).

During my time in the middle of the East Fremont district, I worked on two major renovations, the John E. Carson Motel and the Bunkhouse Studio. Both were glorious extravaganzas where we were asked to dream big and allowed to achieve some of it.

As with any client, it wasn’t all unicorns and roses, and ultimately I decided that I could not bet my career on a single patron. I changed firms after eighteen months, a week after the Bunkhouse opened, but a few weeks before DTP announced a big round of layoffs.

Ironically, I was working on yet another DTP project with my new firm. It was not completely surprising when we found out that even the largess of a billionaire has limits. But saying the magic had faded implies that there was some magic in the first place. And those of us lucky to be in the middle of that scene certainly felt it during that time.

A couple years later, I worked on the project that replaced the maze of artist galleries and offices at the first floor of the Emergency Arts Building with a couple chain restaurants. During demolition, I walked by the our old office. The mural the bosses had commissioned as a backdrop to our tiny room was still there, patiently waiting its turn to be turned to dust. This building wasn’t owned by DTP, but the Beat Coffeeshop was the nexus of that exciting time. As I grow older, I’ve come to realize the fleeting nature of these moments. It was bittersweet to play a hand in the final erasure of that time on East Fremont.

This Friday, we found out that Tony Hsieh passed away due to injuries from a house fire in Connecticut. The news of this tragedy brought back a rush of memories. As any good architect, I have sharp opinions about everything, but 2013 and 2014 around Downtown Project really was a special moment, and I was fortunate to have played a small role during that time.

Last year, the renovated Ferguson Motel finally opened up with a new massive sunken courtyard punctuated by a coffee shop. It was a completely gratuitous gesture that was half a decade late, but when this pandemic ends, I’ll go down there and buy Tony an espresso. Maybe I should have done it before he passed, but it’s too late for that, so this is the least I could do.

Rest in peace Tony, I hope you found it.