Air, Space, and Spreckles.

IThe San Diego Air and Space Museum has room for improvement. 

We paid $48 to get in, and I had high hopes that this would take us from 10 AM to the 1:30 PM I'd planned for is to arrive at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion. 

And Keagan had chosen this museum over the USS Midway and the Fleet Science Center. 

I was happy I wouldn't need to fight the 'put on more sunscreen' battle. 

It was promising at first. 

Seamus posed a bit. 

It's always nice to meet an astronaut. 

And greet Charles Lindburgh. 

We progressed through WW1 with interest at the scariness and primitive appearance of the aircraft. 

We stayed interested through WW2. Especially learning about the zeppelins. 

Then it was on to stewardess uniforms and the history of Southwest Airlines and a lot of creepy mannequins. 

Pretty much nothing was interactive. 

The boys did find an exhibit they enjoyed. 

They pretended to land on Mars. See them deal with gravity!

There were a few simulators. 

Ok, ok. So the rest of the kids haven't graduated from preschool. 

Yes, that's a toddler table to the left. And they couldn't fit in the pedal-able Spirit of '76 replica.

We took some time to feed Seamus his breakfast of pizza and chips. Keagan had  nachos. It was about 11:15 AM. 

So, we took a second trip through, and a bored young employee was working hard  to get people into a 4D movie. 

It was free, we needed something to do. 

(That's not gel. That's just bedhead. Combing your hair is for noobs.)

Eventually our movie controller walked in. Told us to enjoy the show. Checked her texts. Walked to the door, clicked on the movie. Checked her texts. Closed the door. 

This movie was a 15 minute adventure of three flies hitching a ride to the moon with Apollo 11. 

Riveting. 

The door opened. Our leader checked her texts. Returned one. Asked us if we enjoyed the show. We smiled and thanked her. 

The rest of the time was spent in sibling disagreements, admiring dogs, listening to this guy play the digereedo  

We also explored hiking trails, which we dubbed Jurassic park. 

I had planned to do a Bruce Lee split reenactment, but it turned into this. 

Keagan told me not to twerk. As if. 

But the hours of wandering around botanical gardens was worth it. 

Seamus has two t-shirts and a sweatshirt, all featuring the Spreckles for back to school. 

He got to sit front and center at the concert. 

And he was able to meet Dr. Carol Williams. 

Airbnb: thumbs up!

Hotels and eating out are both expensive, so I looked into airbnb. Airbnb is a service where people rent out a room, apartment, or home for an agreed upon period of time and price. 

I found Matt's place advertised, all told, for three nights for $450.   Matt is from Turkey and is a college student, though probably mid-30s. It was a one bedroom apartment with a pull out sofa. The kitchen was stocked and had all of the amenities you could need. Including band aids and neosporin!  Try getting that  at a hotel. 

It was in the historic and somewhat upscale Gaslamp District. Very close to Balboa Park, which of course was our first priority. 

Here are some pictures. 

The view. 

From the balcony. 

I think it was furnished by IKEA. 

Which is fine by me. 

The outside. 

Landscaping. I don't think anything non-succulent grows in SoCal. 

Did I mention it was well-stocked?

Voodoo

Today was pilgimage day: Voodoo Doughnuts and Powell's City of Books. 

But first, Voodoo. 

Portland prides itself on being laid back. I think that they smoke a lot, and a variety, and have a thriving adult entertainment industry. It doesn't even seem to be confined to one part of town. 

I told Keagan that he's a gentleman, so he needed to stand under this sign. 

We passed this:

Adjacent to this:

Several blocks later, we arrived here:

But look at this line!

It was a lovely neighborhood, as promised on TripAdvisor. 

Hey, look!  A Powell's bag!

Bonus!  Hipster in the picture!

A very nice man said that if we just walked across the bridge there would be another Voodoo with no lines!

Sure. That's shorter than the line. 

We walked across a bridge where a man with a cute dog saw Keagan's Batman shirt. He started air drumming and singing the nanananana theme song. Keagan was pretty weirded out. 

What kind of ice cream social is this?

Eventually we reached Voodoo, Too. 

Yay!  No line!

Thankfully we had cash. So we looked at our options. 

We ordered a dozen. 

I first asked for a couple of the...um...key-shaped doughnuts. 

They're filled with Bavarian creme. 

The vegan version is much smaller. 

We rounded out our order.

There's a voodoo!

I made a simple choice.

Did you notice that bench in the background is shaped like a coffin?

Keagan enjoyed his choice:

Maple bacon. 

We loaded 'em up and moved 'em out. 

Modern Family

The one sort of family that our favorite tv show, Modern Family, doesn't include is the ones my kids live.

Shawn and I have been divorced for over five years. 

We unofficially agreed in our divorce that we could each join the other on vacations with the kids. 

In 2009 it was Washington, D.C. 

2011 was Disneyworld. 

2013 was Aunt Susie's while I attended National Gymnatics Congress. 

Now, in 2014, it's Seamus' organ camp in  Portland, OR. 

None of us had been out west, so we all wanted to go. 

When Shawn had a heart attack in February, that sealed the deal that we would all be going, though it was pretty certain we were all going to go anyway. 

Shawn's already there. (We are still in the air at this writing.). He flew in earlier. He attended the meet and greet for families and instructors. He will meet us at the hotel. 

So yeah, it's weird. We are staying at a Residence Inn. We will have to fight for the pull out sofa bed. The loser gets to sleep with both boys in the king size bed. 

But here's the thing. We divorced each other. 

The kids won't suffer because of it. 

Christmas Card Picture Fails

Thanks a lot, guys.