BIG TRIPS, LITTLE TRIPS
in and out and out and about
Blueberry picking…sweet! May through mid-July…
http://www.underwoodfamilyfarms.com/pick_your_own_blueberries.html?no_redirect=trueJoshua Tree indoors
http://www.bungalowintheboulders.com/
Joshua Tree outdoors
Birch Aquarium and Foodie Training Day
It was a random day off of school for the kids, so off we went to La Jolla for a day at Birch Aquarium, Mount Soledad and two additional stops at places that have been on my Yelp radar. I surprised the foodies-in-training by breaking up the long-ish drive with a stop at Devilicious Donuts, a new place in Mission Viejo that’s trying a little too hard to shake up some very standard-quality donuts. The bacon bar was good but not enough to make me want to go back. On the other hand, the two foodies that didn’t have the bacon bar wanted to go back a.s.a.p.
There was no stopping allowed after our sugar break until we reached Mount Soledad for gorgeous views of San Diego and beyond. The foodies loved that they could see Mexico to the south and “home” to the north. They were super excited (hyper and obnoxious) and a little upset (had tantrums) about all the photos I was taking but I reminded them of future bacon donut credits and that turned things around very quickly.
All that fresh mountain air made us a little hungry (I think that’s what I’m supposed to say to make an excuse for eating again, right?), so we went down to Pacific Beach and searched for the little heavenly hole-in-the wall known as Oscar’s Mexican Seafood. It’s a clean but tiny place where the fresh fish choices change daily and the aguas frescas do too. After I had already ordered, someone enthusiastically recommended the spicy shrimp taco, so I have that as my main reason to go back. The foodies liked their battered fish tacos and quesadillas well enough but they probably wouldn’t willingly pick mahi-mahi over mac n’ cheese. The biggest card I can play in making the oldest foodie go back would be the little packets of Tapatio that he had never seen before. Thank goodness for this blog, which will help me remember that little tidbit of information, and lead me to a spicy shrimp taco…
Birch Aquarium was as fun as ever and we stayed until the gift shop shut its doors and the cleaning people gave us the stink eye. They still have a really great collection of seahorses and the three huge tide pool touch tanks are still filled with a great variety of local examples of starfish, anemones and fish. Because we were able to catch a tide pool feeding, we were able to see the aquarium’s famous 50 year-old (and possibly 50 lb.) lobster stagger out of its hiding place. My favorite creature of the day was the wolf eel and the foodies liked the moray eels. They were all out and especially interactive and so darn cute/ugly that the foodies and I all picked the eels as the best part of the day.
Before we left we spent some time sitting and admiring the view of La Jolla cove below the aquarium. There was no time for a walk around town, which was fine with me; spicy shrimp tacos and a La Jolla walk are enough to make me want to visit again very soon.
(Source: aquarium.ucsd.edu)
Looks like we’ll be spending the month of February in San Diego…
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Bonita Museum & Cultural Center
California Surf Museum
Coronado Museum of History & Art
Flying Leatherneck Aviation Museum
Gaslamp Museum at Wm. H. Davis House
Heritage of the Americas Museum
Japanese Friendship Garden
Junipero Serra Museum
La Jolla Historical Society
Living Coast Discovery Center
Lux Art Institute
Maritime Museum of San Diego
Marston House & Gardens
Mingei International Museum
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Downtown
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, La Jolla
Museum of Making Music
Museum of Photographic Arts-
Oceanside Museum of Art
Reuben H. Fleet Science Center
San Diego Air & Space Museum
San Diego Archaeological Center
San Diego Automotive Museum
San Diego Botanic Garden
San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum
San Diego Chinese Historical Museum
San Diego History Center
San Diego Model Railroad Museum
San Diego Natural History Museum
The New Children’s Museum
The San Diego Museum of Art
Tijuana Estuary Visitors Center
Timken Museum of Art
USS Midway Museum
Veterans Museum & Memorial Center
Visions Art Museum
Warner-Carillo Ranch House & Museum
Water Conservation Garden
Whaley House Museum
Women’s Museum of California
this picture has answered life questions
Agreed! So that’s how it’s done!
(Source: rowky, via flavorpill)
Mary Smith earned sixpence a week shooting dried peas at sleeping workers windows.
A Knocker-up (sometimes known as a knocker-upper) was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution and at least as late as the 1920s, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time.
The knocker-up used a truncheon or short, heavy stick to knock on the clients’ doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. Some of them used pea-shooters. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until sure that the client had been awoken.
There were large numbers of people carrying out the job, especially in larger industrial towns such as Manchester. Generally the job was carried out by elderly men and women but sometimes police constables supplemented their pay by performing the task during early morning patrols.
Photograph from Philip Davies’ Lost London: 1870 - 1945.
Great little bit of nonsensical history to share with the kids, especially the eldest sleeping beauty. He would need a pound of peas hitting his window to get him up in the mornings.
(Source: collectivehistory, via perzadook)
