Monthly Archives: May 2019

Blog-iversary Number Five

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Five years ago today we put our first post on line.  For several years before that, the two of us had been taking Meredith’s mother Margaret to various museums and historic sites around Los Angeles.  We went up to see her once or twice a month at the board and care home in the San Fernando Valley where she was living at the time.  Taking Margaret on those outings was both a way give her some fun diversion and also a way for us to visit with her that was interactive and meaningful.  After a while we thought, if we are going to all these museums, why not review them?  Our eldest daughter helped us create the blog, and we have been posting ever since.

Margaret passed away in June 2016, and not a day goes by that Meredith does not think about and miss her.  We continue to blog about museums, and occasionally hikes and other discoveries.  Our focus has shifted more to San Diego, but we still go up to Los Angeles from time to time on the weekend to see special exhibits at museums up north.

On our calendar for the coming months are: (1) the Hollywood Dream Machines: Vehicles of Sci-Fi and Fantasy exhibition at the Petersen Automotive Museum, which is open now and will run through March 15, 2020, and is co-sponsored by the Comic-Con Museum; and (2) the University of San Diego’s Christ: Life, Death and Resurrection art exhibition, which runs September 13 to December 13 and will include Michelangelo’s brush drawing The Three Crosses along with other Italian Renaissance master works on loan from the British Museum.

Stunning Landscapes

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San Diego Natural History Museum
Balboa Park
May 19, 2019

On the spur of the moment, we went to see the 50 Greatest Landscapes exhibit at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, because we saw an article about it in the San Diego Union Tribune that morning.  Fifty of the best landscape photographs published in National Geographic magazine are displayed in the museum’s fourth floor gallery.  They are arranged by season.

All of the photos were striking.  Among the Winter photos, we particularly liked one that showed a dusting of snow in Monument Valley and another that showed the Norway sky lit up by the Northern Lights.  In the other sections we liked an interesting time lapse photo of firefly trails at night; autumn frost on trees in a Romanian forest; and chinstrap penguins on a blue iceberg near Candlemas Island in the remote southern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean.  The landscape photos will be on display through June 23; after the exhibit closes, a similar collection of National Geographic wildlife photos will open June 29.

Admission to the museum was included with our annual Balboa Park Explorer pass.  Regular adult admission to the museum is $19.95; there are discounts for seniors, children, students, and military.

Looking out from the fourth floor we could see a bird’s eye view of the giant fig tree next to the museum.  We remember years ago, when we could walk under the tree and climb on its roots and lower branches.  Now, for the protection of both tree and park visitor, there is a fence all the way around the it.

Desert Interlude

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Borrego Art Institute
Borrego Springs Natural History Association
Borrego Springs
May 5, 2019

We took a Sunday trip out to Borrego Springs to meet up with some high school friends of Meredith‘s for a picnic lunch.  Their school was in Palo Alto, and just one classmate lives out in the desert, but several others came from different parts of southern California and two friends from further away.  It was a nice gathering.

We arrived in town early and puttered around for an hour before meeting up with the group.  Our youngest daughter jokes that our super power is that we can find a museum anywhere, and sure enough we found two different educational offerings to while away the time.

We very much enjoyed the Borrego Art Institute gallery.  The exhibition was summer themed and featured local artists’ paintings and photographs with mostly desert scenes.  It is a gallery, not a museum strictly speaking.  The art is offered for sale, but the Institute is a nonprofit organization and runs classes as well.  There was no charge for admission.  We put a donation in the box by the door.  There is an excellent restaurant next to the gallery – Kesling’s Kitchen — which is owned by the Institute.

We had a little time left before the friends gathered so went across the street to the Borrego Springs Natural History Association.  They operate a bookstore, and there is a garden behind that building with a variety of native plants.  We enjoyed strolling around.  They had a lovely stand of about eight or 10 native palm trees.  There were several butterflies in the pollinator area, but we did not see any hummingbirds.  Maybe next time?

We first visited Borrego Springs in 1986 when our oldest daughter was a baby.  We went in the spring to see the desert flowers.

We have been back several times since.  The desert landscape is stark, but beautiful.  The most memorable trip was probably our worst experience – when the three girls were very little, we drove there and back (about 2 hours each way) with two small children and a baby in the back seat of Bob’s compact Toyota Tercel.  Nonstop complaints of “she’s touching me” spurred us to trade the Tercel in for a minivan; spread the kids out so no one could touch anyone else!