I think I'm still recovering from our power packed Labor Day Weekend. What a hangover I had Tuesday morning - not of the alcoholic variety but of the tired variety. The four-day weekend was a little bit "play it by ear" but it worked out better than perfectly.
School was out on Friday so we headed to San Diego on Thursday night. We pulled in about ten and immediately got cozy, had a snack and headed to bed. The Bug has her customary tent set up in our lodging. This works out so well because we can stay up, have lights on and she is sheltered in her dark little cocoon of a tent fast asleep.
Friday morning we got up and headed to Old Town San Diego. We've been there lots of times but we always get requests for a visit to The Mormon Battalion visitor's center. It's such a fun place for children and families and anyone really will enjoy it. It's a great San Diego historical site. We were there for a long time while The Bug played and played. It's easy to make it a nice 45-minute visit. If the kids are interested in the play areas you can easily stretch it to another 45 minutes.
Then we walked all around Old Town and had lunch at an outdoor cafe. It was nice and peaceful, but the food wasn't so amazing or beautiful that I would recommend it excitedly. Friday night we had two appointments to catch, then by the time we got home we were tired out. So we grabbed a sandwich and had a lovely picnic in our room.
Saturday morning we headed to the beach and spend quite a lot of the day there. There was a family with a girl The Bug's age right next to us and they played in the water for hours. Due to the high tides and probably the time of the year, the shallow beach water was filled with seaweed.
It took two full showers to wash all the seaweed off of The Bug and out of her clothes at the end of the day --- and still I was combing bunches of it out of her hair after that. Wow, seaweed is a wicked little beast.
Once we got her cleaned up we headed to the base movie theater and caught the early evening movie. When that got out we headed next door for two lines of Disco Saturday Night Bowling. A big, long, fun day.
That night we headed home to take care of a couple of responsibilities here. Sunday we spent they day catching up on rest. A great nap and walk to the neighborhood park was just the ticket.
Monday was had another whirlwind day. Taking advantage of military family museum programs we visited The Peterson Automotive Museum and then went up the street to The La Brea Tar Pits. I had never been to the Peterson so that was a great first time visit for me.
I was really impressed most by the realization of how much the 20th Century was impacted by the creation of the car. How cities were built changed immensely once cars became plentiful, from the width of city streets to how buildings were built to accommodate cars. This had a huge impact on city life and created the possibility for tract housing to flourish in suburban neighborhoods.
Not only did community life change but it also changed how homes and neighborhoods were created. Adding carports and garages to homes became a major change in the history and evolution in the architecture of single family homes.
It was also interesting to realize how Hollywood and the Automotive industry grew up together and how much they impacted each other. World War II also had a major impact on the development of the automotive industry, post-war, as well. California, while far from Detroit, played a major role in the development of the auto industry in the United States and globally.
We still had a little steam in our engines when we got done at Peterson so we headed a couple of blocks east and made a quick 1-hour visit to the La Brea Tar Pits. This is one of The Bug's favorite places on earth. Since she was tiny she's been calling it "The Dinosaur Museum" even though there are not any dinosaurs there. But there are lots of skeletons of many other extinct but more recent animals. Right in the middle of Los Angeles sits this amazing and world famous fossil find.
At the end of our day we stopped in for a burrito at one of our favorite local haunts before we came home tired and ready for bed after a very fun-filled weekend.
What did you do for the holiday, friends? Rest and relax? Family barbecue? Big travel plans?
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