Last month, I visited the Museum of American Heritage. Located at 351 Homer Avenue in Palo Alto, the Museum offers a free peak at American’s not-too-distant past.

During my visit, the Museum of American Heritage had a special Lego exhibit. An ordinary city block with the ubiquitous 7-Eleven convenience store and Starbucks coffee shop.

Santa and Rudolph out on a mid-day sleigh ride.

The exhibit also include Lego trains, ships, planes and carnival rides. I was particularly impressed with the moving Lego Scrambler.

Inside the museum, I saw an antique phone.

The museum also featured an Underwood typewriter. I am absolutely shocked that Amazon sells typewriters. I guess these relics have not been completely banished to the history bin just yet. However, you can imagine what happens to a typewriter when it is placed in a location accessible to children. The kids want to push all the
keys at once, thereby jamming them altogether.

The glance into the pantry of generation’s past was illuminating. Some brands have endured to the present while others have disappeared off supermarket shelves long ago.

The final treat was a glimpse at confederate money, with 2011 being the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War. Perhaps, the last place you would expect to find confederate money is a small museum in California.

Last month, I visited Legoland in Carlsbad, California for the first time. Having never visited this amusement park before, I wanted to see how it measured up to the incomparable Disneyland. I had already heard about the models of international destinations rendered in Lego. I was quite impressed with the Lego version of the San Francisco cityscape, though I don’t know that the kids were similarly amazed.

Besides the Lego models, Legoland also offers an assortment of fun boat and airplane rides. I enjoyed a good laugh at the Splash Battle in Pirate Shores. As I rode the ship, I thought the ride was about soaking the patrons in the other ships with my water cannon. However, I was greatly mistaken.

Here’s how the ride really goes. My water cannon had a limited targeting range. Along the edge of the track, people on land have access to water cannons that can really soak those aboard the ships. And, I could not target my water cannon to fire back. Just completely defenseless. If anyone is manning the land-based water cannons, riders aboard the ships will get soaked.

The other attraction worth noting is the Fun Town Fire Academy, where your group races a manually-powered fire truck across a track, “put out” a fire using a manual pump, and then race the fire truck back to the starting block. These interactive, competitive attractions really stood out and made Legoland fun for the adults too.

Mount Diablo State Park (CA State Parks, Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, Reserve America) is located in Contra Costa County near the communities of Alamo, Danville and San Ramon. A visitor center is located at the summit of Mount Diablo where you can absorb a 360° view of the surrounding region. I could see the Golden Gate Bridge from the summit with the naked eye. However, I did use an inexpensive set of binoculars to confirm the sighting. During my visit, the center was closed on account of employee illness. However, the observation deck was still open to public access during this time.

The sunset, as viewed from the Juniper campground.

The Juniper campground features a trail that ascends up the mountain. On a hot summer day, I had no interest in heading up that trail.

The Juniper campground is quite large. The campsites varied in size and shade. Some sites were more exposed and had better views. However, even the interior sites with more trees were no match for the howling wind that swept through our campsite starting around 4 a.m. Hard to sleep while the tent is rattling around.

The Juniper campground does have running water near each campsite. In addition, the bathrooms are located at the far end of the campground with toilets and hot showers.

Once the sun sets, the sky really lights up with all the stars aglow. Right before the trip, I purchased Star Walk for iPad to see whether the iPad could make astronomy any easier. Incredible! Of course, with the iPad Wi-Fi model, Star Walk could not determine the precise location. However, I was able to enter Walnut Creek, CA, which was not far away. Star Walk works pretty much as I had expected. When I lift the iPad up to the sky, I can see the various stars and constellations in front of me. However, not all objects displayed on Star Walk were visible to the naked eye, so there’s some interpretation involved. Star Walk was not a mirror image of the sky. As I panned across the sky, Star Walk would track my movement and display the relevant celestial objects in my view. Simply amazing. A lot more fun than reading a compass and manually looking up star charts.

Yesterday, I visited the Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, CA. The park just re-opened the previous weekend after an almost two-year renovation. When I arrived shortly after 10 a.m., I already saw a long line of cars waiting outside the toll booths. The parking lot itself was already about a third full. I saw a number of parties park outside the parking lot and walk in. $10 is a bit much for parking, but you can buy a $40 for 10 visits parking pass at the admission booth. From the parking lot, it’s only a short walk to the main entrance.

The entrance features a number of whimsical sculptures, such as this delightful pig family. The park features additional sculptures inside.

When you enter the park, the first ride I encountered was the Keep-Around-Carousel. I loved all the different animals, such as zebras and ostriches. This carousel was a bit different in that I could only hear music whenever I passed the attendant’s booth. No centralized pipe organ music typically found in carousel rides. Actually, I couldn’t figure out whether the music I heard was part of the ride experience or just something the attendant’s were listening to at the moment. Riding a merry-go-round in semi-silence is odd. Also, the ride operators have not completely worked out the kinks in their system. The kids were all seated on their animals for a long, long time before the ride started.

I encountered the same problem on the Pacific Fruit Express Family Roller Coaster. The one minute roller coaster ride takes two quick laps around the short track. However, it took 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 minutes to unload / load the passengers each time. They really need to work on turning around the rides to keep the line moving and the kids happy.

The longest wait was for the Danny the Dragon ride, located at the back of the park. If you really want to ride on the dragon, come early and head straight for the back of the park. Compared to Disneyland, the lines here don’t look long. But, for whatever reason, the line was moving just too slow and we ended up skipping this ride. Too long a wait in the hot afternoon.

Oh no! Dorothy and Toto kills the WIcked WItch of the East.

The puppet theatre features three different shows throughout the day. I saw the Three Little Pigs show, which offered a humorous twist on the original story. Overall, a fun day for the family. Oh, we also packed lunch because I read that the food service was a bit slow. The park has a lot of picnic tables, and only one place selling food. Pack a lunch and save some time.

The California Department of Transportation offers a fast-loading page for looking up road conditions. If you plan on making a ski run to Lake Tahoe this winter, you could select “Add to Home Screen” to create a button for that page on your iPhone. For example, I-80, which runs from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe, currently shows the following alerts:

This highway information is the latest reported as of Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 23:35 .

I 80
    [IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA]
    A HIGH WIND ADVISORY IS IN EFFECT AT THE SAN FRANCISCO-OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE
/IN SAN FRANCISCO/ (SAN FRANCISCO,ALAMEDA CO) - TRAVEL IS NOT RECOMMENDED
FOR CAMPERS, TRAILERS OR PERMIT LOADS  

    [IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & THE SIERRA NEVADA]
**FOR EASTBOUND TRAFFIC:
    CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW
TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM 1 MI EAST OF BAXTER (PLACER CO) TO THE
DONNER LAKE INTERCHANGE (NEVADA CO) 

    EASTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED AT APPLEGATE (PLACER CO) - DRIVERS MUST
HAVE MINIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS ARE
PROHIBITED 

**FOR WESTBOUND TRAFFIC:
    CHAINS ARE REQUIRED ON ALL VEHICLES EXCEPT 4-WHEEL-DRIVE VEHICLES WITH SNOW
TIRES ON ALL 4 WHEELS FROM TO THE DONNER LAKE INTERCHANGE (NEVADA CO) WHITMORE
(PLACER CO)  

    WESTBOUND TRUCKS ARE BEING SCREENED 5 MI WEST OF RENO (WASHOE CO) - DRIVERS
MUST HAVE MINIMUM CHAINS IN THEIR POSSESSION IN ORDER TO PROCEED - PERMIT LOADS
ARE PROHIBITED

Unfortunately, after you search for a particular highway, the website displays the results without changing the URL. So, how can you bookmark a particular highway?

http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roadscell.cgi?roadnumber=80,280,680,101,580,680

This covers all the major routes from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe. You can manually enter any highway numbers into the URL string and bookmark that page. Better than typing in a bunch of highway numbers into the search field every time.

Located in Anaheim, CA, Disneyland offers Southern California residents and visitors an incomparable experience. If you live in Orange County, you may not realize what a gem you have in your backyard. However, if you ever venture to Northern California or out-of-state, you will quickly discover that no place quite delivers like Disneyland. The park is absolutely immaculate, which is no small task considering the thousands of people who pass through the turnstile throughout the day. Additionally, Disneyland constantly refreshes the attractions so they do not feel tired and dated—like I have seen at other theme parks. The breadth of attractions is equally impressive. For young kids, no one caters to them like Disneyland does.

I went during the Friday before Labor Day and really lucked out. Except for the 90 degree heat, Disneyland was absolutely fantastic. For the most part, I encountered 5 minute wait times for most attractions.

If you are visiting Disneyland in the near future, I would recommend avoiding the Harbor Boulevard entrance. The Harbor Boulevard entrance is closed. Instead, signs will direct you to off-site parking at Anaheim Gardenwalk. Ugh. Not an ideal arrangement if the weather is hot and you have kids in tow.

I also attended dinner at Ariel’s Disney Princess Celebration. Located in Disney’s California Adventure, Ariel’s Grotto offers families with young girls an opportunity to dine with their favorite Disney princesses. As you enter the Grotto, you are presented with the opportunity to take a photograph with Ariel—the princess, not the mermaid. You are only permitted one photo per group, so if you are dining with friends, you cannot have your own photo with Ariel, at least initially. However, Ariel does come around to the dining tables later on with her friends, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Cinderella and Belle, for photos. Where’s Mulan for the Asian children? I found the food to be surprisingly good. I had the tri-tip, which I enjoyed. Another dining companion had the redfish, which was also well-received. In addition to the main entree, your table also receives appetizer platters and an after dinner dessert plate. All very delicious, for a price.

With the general election just 3 weeks away, now is as good a time as any to start focusing on all the ballot box issues. In California, Proposition 8, which eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry, is a bit curious. Its supporters claim that “Proposition 8 is about traditional marriage.” Indeed, I saw an advertisement in a regional Chinese newspaper for a rally in support of traditional marriage. However, cultural differences being what they are, the advertisement explicitly stated that the traditional marriage they were referring to involved one male and one female, as opposed to the traditional marriage found in Raise the Red Lantern. God forbid that some royalists show up at the rally urging Californians to follow the ways of late Ching Emperor.

In all seriousness, I just don’t understand how Proposition 8 protects marriage. It may protect the definition of marriage. However, for people that are contemplating marriage or who are married, it offers no assistance or support whatsoever. Proposition 8 supporters offer that “the best situation for a child is to be raised by a married mother and father.” Great! But, how is banning gays and lesbians from getting married going to help working parents raise their kids. Uh. If Proposition 8 was really about protecting marriage and raising kids, it would offer tax relief to married couples with children.