Manhattan Beach

Rounding out our California trip was a stay at Michelle's aunt and uncle in Manhattan Beach. We purposely didn't plan too much so that we could take in the beach:


go for a bike ride up to Marina del Rey:


And a little shopping and eating at The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, that I had talked about last year on our visit there.

What was interesting about this time was that I bought the coolest action figure ever at a toy store called the Puzzle Zoo:


'Nuff said. I will be the envy of all the nerd kids on my block. Worship me. I almost bought this following set just for the reaction that I would get from Scott. It's basically all his favorite people: Lenin, Che Guevara, Malcolm X, Ghandi, Mao Zedung. Sorry, Scott, no Von Mises action figures.

Farmer's Market

Our California adventures continued on Friday with a visit to The Farmer's Market. It's been around since the 30's and is a popular place to see Hollywood types shopping or eating lunch. We had pretty slim pickin's when we were there on Friday, just a couple of D-List actors - that curly-haired guy from The Bob Newhart Show, the unfortunately named Peter Bonerz (I'm sure he wasn't picked on as a kid):


and "The Mechanic" from Fight Club, Holt McCallany (also on the show Heroes), most memorable to me for the line:

MECHANIC --- "In death, a member of Project Mayhem has a name."

JACK --- "No -- !"

MECHANIC --- "His name is Robert Paulson."

But we had a nice lunch, jambalaya from The Gumbo Pot and a decadent brownie from local favorite Dupars.

Disneyland

Our California trip started out with a visit to Disneyland:


This was the first time that we actually stayed at a hotel near Disneyland. We stayed the night before and after. It made it very nice as we could walk to Disneyland and didn't have to rush.

We had a blast, had great weather and Alex was able to go on a lot of rides that he was too young to go on 3 years ago. Favorites of Alex included Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, an interactive ride:


and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, a ride where you actually get in subs.

After a full day, just by accident, Michelle came upon a sandwich, the Monte Cristo, that we'd never had before at a little diner next to our hotel. It's ham, turkey and swiss on bread dipped in egg batter, deep fried and then covered with preserves. Obviously it's a heart attack on a plate and doesn't sound like it would be good but it's fantastic. It's origins are sketchy but the sandwich appears to have been popularized in LA and specifically at Disneyland.

Mormon Trail

Outstanding 5 mile hike on South Mountain. Lots of up and down and great scenery including heiroglyphs:



... outstanding views of the Valley, including downtown:



More pics on Alex's blog.

What We've Been Up To

I'm a little behind on posting pics from our excursions. So, here goes:

March 23rd - Phoenix Art Museum. One of my favorite artists at this museum is Philip C. Curtis. He resided in Arizona for quite awhile and actually was one of the founders of the Phoenix Art Museum. His paintings are distinctly surreal (as are Alex's):



March 25th - Our best friends' E & J's daughter's baptism:



... and Luke Days - The Air Force base's annual show of force. A bit rah-rah for me but I'm an airplane nut and they put on a pretty good show:




April 15th - Alex with a devlish look at the Glendale Jazz & Blues festival downtown:



May 8th - Diamondbacks/Phillies baseball game. Alex and his friend Adrianna are meeting Baxter, the Dbacks mascot:



May 13th - Camping with the folks at Kaibab Lake near Williams:


That's Alex and my dad in the boat.

Also in Williams is the Grand Canyon Railway. While we were there, they had a special event, Day Out With Thomas, where they got to meet several of the Thomas the Train characters and went on a 25 minute ride on a train made to look like Thomas the Train:





May 22nd - Alex's kindergarten Awards Ceremony:


He's a smart kid and a bit of a teacher's pet. I guess they don't fall far from the tree.

June 3rd - And finally, Kids Faire out at University of Phoenix Stadium:



We got to meet a lot of characters and see performances by Barney and Strawberry Shortcake (yay). Well, at least Alex liked it.

Palm Springs

We took a short (very short) trip to Palm Springs, which is a 4 hour drive from Phoenix. Michelle's cousin Holly had a timeshare there and Michelle's mom and sister were visiting for a week from Iowa. So, it would have been pretty dumb of us not to have made the short drive out. Plus, we got the added bonus of it being gorgeous there.


Alex hamming it up with Aunt Jill and cousin Holly, respectively.


Holly's condo was literally right next to the mountain. Breathtaking views.


I'm not sure which of these things is cheesier -- the fact that Sonny Bono was ever a mayor and congressman -- the fact they made a statue of him -- or the fact that I took this cheesy picture of my family in front of it. You be the judge.

Happy 6th Birthday Alex!

Fun on the slide - with and without Mom

Cake and toys