At the Zimmer

 I have been wanting to check out the Zimmer museum for years, and I'm glad we finally did. They have great stuff to do there like fly a plane, play on a water table and make new irrigation routes...

 build a home in a construction zone, serve the community as a fire or medic in a real ambulance truck or...

 jump in a ball pit off a rescue raft. That day, they also had a special event of the critter squad who brought all kinds of exotic animals; some you could touch and others, well, why would you want to pet a scorpion?

 The other big event that week was the loss of the second front tooth during his basketball game. We were short players, only four came, so Milo ran to the bathroom with Lyman, pulled his tooth and came back to finish the game!  He looks too cute for words.

Ball Pit!

Reagan and the Adobe

 We went back to the Reagan Library because they was a special traveling Lincoln exhibit. While we were there, we saw some favorites from the last visit such as videos and exhibits about the Reagan's in California and the White House.

 Milo liked Air Force One so much he went through twice.

 They have a thoughtful exhibit about the fall of the Berlin Wall inside the museum which helps explain how unjust the wall was despite how pretty this piece outside is.

 And of course, the reason we went again, President Lincoln. Milo liked looking at his stovepipe hat and the bloody pillow his head was on the night of his assassination. I liked all the set pieces and costumes from the recent Lincoln film with clips from the movie playing beside.

 We also hit one of our favorite summer spots the Lenois Adobe ranch museum. These grapes on the vine are nice, but check out the two missing front teeth on this cute kid!

 Our buddy joined in for the fun; they pumped water from the well, fed the livestock...

 loaded some hay bales with the help of a pulley and sang along with the ranch band. I love this summer program! 

Milo's Jam

Galena for an Anniversary

On July 4th weekend, Milo and I flew to Chicago to see K and M. We spent one night at their home, before loading up the car and driving to Galena, IL where a house with their friends awaited us.

Here is Milo and K in their garden in Chicago. That is a happy garden in a green, green wonderland. It's like Oz there!  I loved it.

The first day/night we went to the riverbed to watch the fireworks. It was an impressive show!  The fireworks were super LOUD, and also very beautiful over the little river. The next day, we came back into town to tour President Grant's home. It's part of the national, historical registry or something, so it was very authentic. Milo is really into presidents especially Lincoln, so he loved learning about Grant with his relationship to Lincoln. We read his biography before coming, so the tour guides speech was very familiar to him.

In one of the outer buildings of Grant's home, there is a fun display of all the presidents and the pets they brought to the White House. From chickens, an alligator, bald eagles, mice to Obama's single dog Bo.

These three gave this wooden carving of Grant a new hat!  This is pretty much how kids were with Daddy- hanging on him for three days with Daddy smiling like he liked it!  It was hard to know who to tell to settle down! 

Galena is a great place if you love historical properties, Bed and Breakfasts, good food  and small shops full of things you don't really need- like a bag of gummy worms!

Rotten Eggs

"Last one to the top is a rotten egg!" Daddy was all for following these two up, but the rest of us stayed at the bottom shaking our heads. What was at the top?  More stairs! 
FYI Galena is filthy with these stairs as the town was once on a huge river where big steam boats came in, but now the river is very small and fit only for row boats. So, the town has this tight terraced landscape with plenty of steps. 

Spot It!

Milo LOVED playing this game!  Thanks Connie and Kelly for introducing it to us!

Galena Part Two

On day three in Galena, we went into town again to tour the Belvidere Mansion. It was very grand and beautiful (mostly) but had only a fraction of the historical authenticity of Grant's home. There were drapes from the set of Gone with the Wind. Why?  There was a lot of stuff from the Liberace auction. Why?  It was fun though, and Milo loves historical properties. He walked in an upstairs bedroom and said, "This room is amazing!" 

Molly, Amber, K, Lesli, me and Mom in the Garden at the Belvedere.

Milo had two snaggle teeth the whole time. They really got in his way of all the fresh corn on the cob!  In the car on the way to the airport, he lost one, and the other is barely hanging in there now.

The house K and M rented was so awesome. 6 beds, 5 baths, 3 living rooms, 2 dining areas-one in and one out, pool table, foozeball and a hot tub!  Thank you to K and M for hosting so we could celebrate their 15 years of marriage. They are one of my favorite couples- truly meant for each other.

Here is one last look at me and mom!

If You're Going to San Fransisco...

 be sure to take Milo- because he loves that city!  We had a great trip to San Fransisco where Lyman was playing with Steve Tyrell, Actually, I am so impressed that we had such a good time considering Milo vomited 4 times and had 3 bouts of diarrhea while we were there. Poor baby had some kind of yuck, but we carried on as he had no other symptoms and was still leaping around when he wasn't being sick.Staying copped up in our hotel room was not an option. The first day we planned to go to Alcatraz, but found it sold out for the next two weeks solid. Lesson learned. Buy tickets in advance for that tour. Instead, we went to the Aquarium of the Bay at pier 39 which Milo loved. For the three days we were there, he kept asking to go back there.

 Buddy Steve came along this first day and was up for all our 6 year old wanted to do.

 Here is the illusive Alcatraz Island. Next time.

The last stop on this day was Ghiradelli Square on Fisherman's Wharf. Milo and I had chocolate dipped (mine with nuts) waffle cones with vanilla ice cream. I ate the whole thing on this beautiful, warm, sunny, blue skied day by the bay.

Sea Lions

Day Two

 Day two was Cable Car day! We got an early start at 9:30 to avoid all the long lines to board at the main turn around station (the day before it was an hour plus wait!)

 We road the car to the Cable Car Museum which wad fun and informative. Lyman was a little bored, but I liked the history and engineering.

 This museum is also the powerhouse which runs the cables all day at 9.5 mph continuously. 26 cable cars can be operational at a time in the city. The cable cars use no electricity except for the running lights at night. San Fran is the only city left in the world with cable cars; they are part of the municipal transit and the city charter. They are super fun and make charming clanging and ringing sounds.

After our day on the cables, a generous fan of Steve's treated us to an amazing meal at his steakhouse in Nob Hill (I think). We had huge skillets of fresh seafood, tomato/chorizo soaked sourdough bread and huge butter tender steaks with a sample of delicious desserts with the whole band. It was so nice!