California Trip (Part 4) - Downey

For most tourists visiting Los Angeles, Downey isn't the sort of city you'd want to stop and visit, unless you were staying in L.A. for several months and you've run out of stuff to do. The only "tourist attraction" in Downey is "The World's Oldest Operating McDonalds." That's it. Ok, it's also the city where the Carpenters and James Hetfield (of Metallica) were born, but they've long since moved away (or died.)

Having grown up in Downey, though, I still visit the city regularly just to see what's new and what's changed. I took the family to see the old house I grew up in. The new owners have painted it and added a strange brick wall around the side yard. I have to admit, it's hard to look at your childhood home with new owners living there. It's kind of sad. I had always hoped my mom could live there until the day she died. But unfortunately that's not the way things turned out.

Downey has changed quite a bit since I was a kid. It's now become a primarily Hispanic, working class city. A lot of the old restaurants I used to go to are gone. "Salvatores," an Italian restaurant that was there since I was a kid, went out of business, as did the 70's style "Foxy's" restaurant. No great loss as far as Foxy's is concerned, but I did enjoy Salvatores. The grocery store "Beach's" (the place where I got my first job) is still there, but when I went inside, it was pretty empty. I don't expect it to last much longer either.

As for Downey's one big attraction, the old "McDonalds", the city doesn't seem to be taking good care of it. The museum next to the restaurant is filthy, and the bathrooms were totally disgusting. If this is your biggest tourist spot, at least try to keep it clean.

The one thing that Downey does have going for it, though, is its location. It's only a 13 mile drive to downtown Los Angeles. This is why my mom's old house sold for nearly half a million dollars. Location, location, location. But would I buy a house there? No way.

(Pictures: 1 & 2. The Oldest Operating McDonalds in the World. 3. The house I grew up in, now painted blue. 4. The street I grew up on, Puritan St. 5. Beach's Market, my first job. 6. One of the better restaurants in Downey, the South Pacific Thai Restaurant.)

California Trip (Part 3) - Santa Monica

Of all of the beaches in Southern California, the one in Santa Monica is probably the best. It's definitely the most famous. The pier there is historical, and it's been featured in a lot of movies. Santa Monica is the city that Long Beach is trying to be, but failing miserably (more on that later.)

In the past, our family has always traveled to California during Christmas, so it's always been cold. This time was sunny and warm, so it was the kids first real experience at the beach. They really enjoyed it, but they seemed to like the sand more than the water.

On the day we were there, there was some sort of art exhibit displayed on the beach. Over 4,000 crosses were put into the sand to represent the soldiers who have died in Iraq. (see picture above) They were also displaying photographs of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, some of them extremely gory. I understand and appreciate what the artists are trying to do, but since this is a beach filled with small children, I'm not sure this is appropriate.

(Pictures: 1. The famous Santa Monica sign. 2. Sara in the sand. 3. The art exhibit on the beach. 4. The pier. 5. Christy and Kyle walking in the sand. 6. Santa Monica)

California Trip (Part 1) - Disneyland

We just got back from our five day trip to California. One of the first places we went was (naturally) Disneyland. It was Sara's third time there, and Kyle's first. Sara loved it, as always. Kyle just gets excited at everything. I think we could have taken him to the post office, and he would have been equally as excited.

Sara is now 40 inches tall, which allowed her to go on more rides than the previous years. However, we now had to pay for her to get into the park (unlike Kyle).

Admission to Disneyland is currently $69 for adults, and $59 for kids. So for the three of us to go, it cost us nearly $200. Once Kyle is a couple of years older, then he will be $59 as well. Food is also ridiculously overpriced there as well, and it's not very good.

So...there's a reason we only go to Disneyland once a year.

(Pictures: 1.) Christy, Sara & Kyle at the front gates. 2.) Mickey Mouse's house. 3.) Sara and Kyle meet Mickey. 4.) Sara & Kyle meet Pluto. 5.) The Materhorn (which Sara was finally able to ride.) 6.) Sara in New Orleans Square.

Movies With the Wife

My wife Christy and I recently decided that we would try to make Saturday night our "movie night." Once the kids had gone to sleep, we would watch either a movie we had rented from the local Blockbuster, or we'd watch something that I already own that she hadn't seen before.

Watching a movie together without the kids interrupting it every few seconds had been a challenge. When we were first living in a one bedroom apartment, the kids slept in the living room, so we really had no opportunities to watch "grown up" movies. If we wanted to watch a movie, it had to be a Disney movie or some other cartoon. We now, finally, have some freedom.

The challenge I face now is trying to find movies that have Mandarin Chinese subtitles. Christy can watch movies without the subtitles, but she often has no idea what's going on. Imagine someone whose primary language isn't English, trying to watch a Woody Allen movie without subtitles. You're just better off not watching it at all.

We have a blu-ray player in our house, and many blu-ray discs now feature Chinese subtitles, but not every one. And sometimes the movie is mis-labeled. The disc will say it has Chinese subtitles, but it will actually be either Cantonese, or "simplified" Chinese, which Christy hates.

It's really hit and miss to find something with Chinese subtitles. "Batman Returns", for example, has Chinese subtitles, but the sequel "The Dark Knight" does not. Why? It's bizarre. I wrote an email to Warner Brothers and I told them that they need to include the subtitles on more of their movies. Of course, they didn't reply back. On a "Region 1" blu-ray disc, Taiwan is listed as one of the territories, so why not include Chinese subtitles on every disc?

Sometimes, even when we DO have the subtitles, Christy still doesn't share my taste in movies. I tried to get her to watch "A Clockwork Orange" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" and she couldn't make it through either one. And she hated "A Clockwork Orange", even though she only watched about 40 minutes. Then last night we watched the James Bond classic "Goldfinger", and she didn't like that either.

"Oh, this is so bad. The acting is bad. The story is stupid. And he just treats women like they are his toys." Christy said. "I like the new James Bond movies better."

To some extent, I agreed with her. "Goldfinger" has some surprisingly banal dialogue. The villain, Goldfinger, keeps James Bond alive for FAR too long, just so he can kill him in the most dramatic way possible. What is the benefit of blowing up James Bond in Fort Knox when he could have been offed much sooner? And Goldfinger just lets Bond walk around his compound leisurely, drinking martinis and having sex with his pilot. What the hell? Then the pilot, Pussy Galore, suddenly has a change of heart at the end and decides to join Bond to defeat Goldfinger. Why? Because they had sex together? Give me a break.

We printed a list of Yahoo's "100 Movies to See Before You Die", and "Goldfinger" was on that list. Personally, after just watching it, I prefer the new "Casino Royale" with Daniel Craig. "Quantum of Solace", the newest one, is not quite so good. Our next movie together will most likely be "Blade Runner", another movie listed in the top 100. I have a feeling Christy won't make it through that either.

A Year in Austin

This month marks the one-year anniversary that our family arrived in Austin.

Austin was never one of our top choices of a place to live once we arrived in America. I knew very little about this city, other than it being the capital of Texas, and I've never been fond of Texas. I had always dismissed Texas as a state full of too many gun-totin', cowboy-hat wearin' rednecks. Those people do exist here, but not in Austin. Thankfully, Austin is different.

As luck would have it, we live in the most liberal, open minded city of Texas. The wide cross-section of people who live in Austin is probably its best feature. It's just too bad there aren't more interesting things to do here. Weekends are a challenge to find something that our family can do for fun. We often have to drive far outside the city just for some excitement. Also, it seems like most major concert tours seem to bypass Austin completely. Yes, we did have Bruce Springsteen here last month, but what about The Eagles, AC/DC, Coldplay, Green Day, Metallica, Elton John & Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, ZZ Top, and many others? All of these bands are playing (or played) either in Houston, Dallas, or San Antonio, but NOT Austin. Austin is the "music capital of the world", so what's going on? To give the city some credit though, they DO have "Austin City Limits" (ACL), which will feature Pearl Jam, in early October.

Like I had mentioned before, I grew up in Southern California, so it's tough to compare Austin to L.A. I do miss the beaches and the palm trees. I miss the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, The Getty Center, the Griffith Park Observatory, the shops and restaurants on 2nd street in Long Beach, and so much more. Maybe if I had grown up in Emporia, Kansas, I would think Austin was the greatest city ever, but that's not the case.

The only major city we have yet to see here in Texas is Houston. I expect there is probably a lot to see and do there, since it's the biggest city in Texas. However, I have heard only negative comments about Houston from people who live here in Austin. They seem to think it's an overcrowded city that has no charm whatsoever. We'll find out pretty soon. My wife Christy just discovered that one of her old friends from Taiwan lives in Houston, so we'll be going out for a visit within the next month or so.

A lot has happened in the last year. Our family went from living in a studio sized room at the "Extended Stay America" hotel, with no jobs and an uncertain future, to a pretty decent, two bedroom apartment. Christy and I both still have jobs, but the future is still uncertain. It's just not quite as bad as it was. In this economy, though, our luck can change very quick.

As long as we're still making (and saving) money, we'll stay in Austin for a while. It's inexpensive here, and there are far worse places we could be living (Detroit, anyone?)

(Picture: Austin at night)

Granger

On Sunday we drove out to a small farming town named Granger. A colleague of mine at work invited me to a picnic at a place called Wilson H. Fox Park.

The town of Granger (as of the last census) has a population of 1299. We saw farms (and cows) everywhere. There was also a pretty nice lake where you could swim, fish, or go kayaking.

It took about an hour to drive out there, and it was fun, but not a place I'm likely to go back to. My friend David in Taiwan wrote to me, and told me that the nicest place to go in Texas would be Corpus Christi.

Sure, I'd love to go to Corpus Christi, if it weren't about 5 hours away from here. We're right in the middle of Texas, so farms and lakes are pretty much all we have close by.

(Pictures: A nice view from the park. 2. The babies enjoying the flowers. 3. My co-worker Lourdes and her son cooking on the BBQ. 4. A view of the lake. 5. Christy and Kyle. 6. One more view of the lake.)

The Dr Pepper Museum

The Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Texas is considered a historical landmark, but unless you’re a real Dr. Pepper fanatic (like my friend David in Taiwan), you probably won’t find this place to be all that interesting (and at $7.00 a person, it’s a bit pricey for what is essentially a 45 minute visit.)

Over 3 floors, you’ll learn a lot about the history of Dr. Pepper (and the soda industry in general.) Some of it was interesting, some of it wasn’t. I wasn’t really sure why they had a display of clocks telling you the time in other parts of the world (like Bagdhad). What does this have to do with soda?

There are many old cans and vending machines on display. The one I liked was a pre-WWII vending machine, which was run on the “honor system”, meaning that you can take a Dr. Pepper, and they trust you to put in some money after you take it. I can see why this wasn’t around for very long.

The other part I found somewhat interesting was a display of all the Dr. Pepper clones, including Mr. Pibb, and Dr. B. There are literally dozens of sodas trying to copy Dr. Pepper.

Once you get to the third and final floor of the museum, there isn’t much left that’s of any interest. There was a small theatre showing never-ending commercials for Dr. Pepper, and a memorial to “Foots” Clements, the Chief Operating Officer of Dr. Pepper.

When you’re finished, you can go to their old-fashioned soda fountain and get an old style Dr. Pepper with sugar cane instead of corn syrup. This tasted a lot better than the canned soda, I thought.

So, overall, it wasn’t really worth the 90 minute drive to get there, but thankfully we also were able to visit the Cameron Park Zoo on the same day. I wouldn’t go to this museum again unless a friend of mine (ie David) came out to visit me and insisted we go there.

(Pictures: The family explores the Dr Pepper Museum)