Essay Series #4: On Voids Left Behind By Lost Theme Parks

I was watching this one video on Youtube from a channel called Defunctland, and reading some of the comments about the subject just had me thinking so I wanted to write my thoughts on the matter. It’s interesting how the loss of an amusement park can leave behind huge voids for their communities. Even in heavily populated places with numerous parks per capita, the loss of one can cause an enormous ripple effect of emotion among those who grew up with a now defunct park even with other alternatives to choose from. In a city which hardly has any amusement parks to speak of, the loss of one (likely the only one) may very well be the end of the world comparatively speaking in their devastating impact.

Consider Houston, the main subject of the video I watched, and the loss of Astroworld. When the park was demolished in 2005 it came off as an unexpected smack across the face to its patrons and left behind nothing but a giant parking lot occasionally used for the yearly rodeo; the wounds have still yet to heal and continue to linger without a sufficient replacement for what was lost and the nearest amusement parks of any significance/equivalence being hundreds of miles away.

Astroworld

 

In my case, I’m spoiled with a variety of amusement parks where I live like Knott’s Berry Farm, Universal Studios, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Legoland, SeaWorld, and of course the one and only Disneyland Resort. With the exception of maybe SeaWorld which has been struggling in recent years, many of these parks are going strong and show no signs of stopping anytime soon (at least as far as I know as an outsider anyway). The only similar experience I have that relates to what Houston dealt with is the loss of our main water park Wild Rivers back in 2011, which was once over the hill from where I currently live. Even here however the loss didn’t sting quite as badly for me because of the proximity of other water parks like Soak City next to Knott’s Berry Farm and Raging Waters in San Dimas (though I hardly went to those) and because the park was on borrowed time anyway.

Knott’s Berry Farm

When I was volunteering at Camp James next door to Wild Rivers in 2008 there were always talks about how this year or the next could be the very last one for both the camp and the water park as the Irvine Company, the owner of the land (also once home to Lion Country Safari for those older than me), wanted to develop new residential complexes in the area. Due to public pressure the lease would be extended, saving both Camp James and Wild Rivers for another day and allowing us to breathe a collective sigh of relief until the inevitable occurred. The inevitable finally came when the Irvine Company stopped extending the lease and the fun would come to an end in September of 2011. Camp James would move to a smaller location in Newport Beach and there is fortunately a new, larger Wild Rivers park in the process of (hopefully) being opened in Irvine’s Great Park by 2019.

Random Park Standing In For Wild Rivers

I’m not entirely sure if the void left behind by Wild Rivers is comparable to what Houston lost because at least Wild Rivers was replaced by something useful for people, in this case new housing for residents, whereas Astroworld was replaced with an empty lot that serves no real purpose, so essentially nothing. The proximity of other amusement parks also lessens the blow liked I said before, but the feeling of emptiness I get at seeing a beloved local landmark like Wild Rivers being wiped off the map is still the same. There may be a silver lining for Houston however, as a new replacement park is being built, one that would apparently be “the new Astroworld” so perhaps all is not lost for Houstonians. Sometimes it takes paving paradise and putting up a (literal) parking lot to realize what you’ve lost and seek to create something better in the future.

 

Making Sense of the City

Oh, the city of angels, you are quite the paradox to behold. A city of great wealth and wretched poverty; of laidback lifestyles and obsessions over personal appearance; of fine culture and petty nonsense; of natural wonder and industrial decay; of remarkable history and short-term memory. It is but a miracle that I have explored your vast recesses and sprawling domain on your giant concrete rivers filled with scores of polluting death machines for miles on end.

Had I not seen what others overlooked, I would not have recognized the innate beauty that lies within you, the essence of La La Land. There is more to you than the mindless chatter about celebrities as if they all congregate at a certain spot just for the hell of it while tourists gawk and shove cameras in their faces; more to you than insecure, shallow aristocrats who cling to botox and plastic surgery as their fountain of everlasting youth; more to you than a broken highway system which knows of nothing but endless gridlock and furious drivers.

From your natural surroundings stretching from the ocean to the mountains and deserts, to your world-class museums, gardens and concert venues, your mysteriously alluring movie palaces hidden in plain sight in downtown’s historic core, not to mention the numerous amusement parks in the region, you are an incredibly fascinating and enriching city with much to offer those who dare to uncover you.

 

A Trip To The Getty Villa (05/13/2018)

The Getty Villa is one of my favorite spots in LA as it combines great classical art with beautiful gardens and a lovely atmosphere amidst the recreation of an ancient Roman villa from Herculaneum. I had initially planned to see the Getty Villa on my own one day, but then decided to ask my mom if she wanted to join me only to realize that Mother’s Day was coming up so my idea ended up becoming the main event we would do to celebrate my mom’s big day. We meet up with my brother who is the car behind us as we enter through the gate and start exploring.

Gardens

Herb Garden

We start outside in the gardens because my brother was finishing up his coffee and food and drinks are not allowed inside. There are a variety of plants that would have been known about in Roman times like papyrus, mint, olive trees, foxglove, asparagus, grape vines and wooly yarrow. The gardens continue around towards the main courtyard where there is a large fountain lined by statues and flowers. It is a very peaceful and relaxing spot while you look around at the beautiful Corinthian columns and wall paintings, and the fact that the fountain was filled with water after having experienced a drought last time I went made this visit feel much more complete. We shoot the breeze at a bench looking at the flowers until my brother finishes his coffee and then head inside to look at some art.

Neolithic and Bronze Age Greece

Harp Player

The interesting thing about this museum that’s changed ever since the new renovation is the emphasis on chronological order of the artifacts rather than themes, which makes it easier to make sense of what I’m looking at so that’s how I’ll organize these sections in my post. The first room of artifacts is from the ancient Cycladic culture which is very early in Greek history, ancient even by ancient Greek standards. There are a lot of sculptures in this room with flat appearances and blank features, though they probably would have been painted when they were new; this is otherwise reminiscent of modern art from around the early 20th century and it’s these sorts of sculptures that made an impact on their own work. The minimalist nature of Cycladic sculpture is an interesting starting point for a culture that would come to prefer representing the human body in a more natural and accurate manner.

Archaic and Classical Greece

Attic Panathenaic Amphora with Lid

After seeing a temporary exhibit on Palmyra (I’ll get to that later), we walk into the room based on the Archaic and Classical eras of Greece. This is where we see examples of the famous black-figure and red-figure pottery that featured many figures of Greek mythology like the picture above of Athena raising her shield. We don’t stay too long in this room but admire the artistic style present in these images, while raising some eyebrows at a few of the more *ahem* interesting images on display (viewer discretion is advised).

The Etruscans

Appliqué depicting the Sun God Usil

In the next room over is the museum’s collection of Etruscan artifacts. The Etruscans were predecessors to the Romans (who they ruled over early in their history) and displayed a lot of similarities to the Greeks while maintaining their own unique identity as a culture. Not much to say about this one except that some of the artifacts are very cool to see, like the applique of Usil shown above and some neat paintings like this one.

Hellenistic Greece

Statue of a Victorious Youth

The period of expansion after Alexander the Great spread Greek culture from Europe all the way over to India, bringing the artistic techniques they pioneered and perfected with them. Some of the best pieces of the museum’s collection are here including the Victorious Youth bronze statue, a laurel wreath made out of pure gold, and some pristine ancient coins. This is the last room downstairs we see before going up to see a temporary exhibit and art from the Romans.

The Romans

Statue of Jupiter (Marbury Hall Zeus)

We go upstairs and almost the entire second floor is dedicated to the art work this culture produced, which makes sense given their closer proximity to the present day and the vastness of their once mighty empire. There are numerous sculptures, frescoes, and mosaics lining the hallways and filling up large rooms so it’s nice to see the different forms of subject matter they tackled, whether it be paying tribute to the gods/emperor or more trivial matters like hunting or boxing.

Late Antiquity

Head of an Emperor (likely Justinian)

This is a pretty small room but does have some cool artifacts that were different in appearance from the rest of the Roman works. There is a shift away from statuary towards silver work (like this piece) and jewelry; whatever statuary is present is more abstract and geometric in nature compared to the classical statues from before. It seems to represent an interesting middle ground between the ancient artistic styles and the coming Middle Ages that I find extremely fascinating.

Temporary Exhibits

Palmyra: Loss And Remembrance

The Beauty of Palmyra

After seeing Neolithic Greek art and before seeing the Archaic and Classical Greek Art, we see this one exhibit regarding the works of art that came out of the ancient trade city of Palmyra, located in modern-day Syria. The thing I find fascinating about the funerary busts on display here is the fusion of classical Greco-Roman elements with the stylistic choices of Eastern cultures like the Parthians, which is where some of the more abstract  features have their artistic origins. Sadly they represent some of the last vestiges of this obscure culture as ISIS invaded Palmyra in 2015 and rampaged the city, so it’s important that we preserve whatever is left in order to recall their achievements and history.

Plato in L.A.: Contemporary Artists’ Visions

Play-Doh

When we go upstairs we start with the contemporary art exhibit which is inspired by the works of Plato and his philosophy. There are some interesting exhibits like a giant rock which you look through a hole and see a recreation of the Allegory of the Cave, a giant mound of Play-Doh (which sounds like Plato, get it?), and a book shelf which my mom notices and waxes nostalgic over how she would find vocabulary words in a large dictionary book back in her school days. We aren’t as impressed with the contemporary art as we are with the ancient art, but I still think this is pretty interesting to see nonetheless just for how Plato still resonates with us thousands of years later.

All-in-all, I had a wonderful Mother’s Day at this museum and it was a pleasure to come back after about three years and waiting for the new renovations to be complete. I’ll leave off on this lovely Fayum mummy portrait since I didn’t know where else to put it in the article but still want to share it. Take care!

Mummy Portrait of a Woman

 

 

 

A Trip To Mission San Juan Capistrano (04/22/2018)

Ah Mission San Juan Capistrano, they don’t call you the Jewel of the Missions for nothing! I’ve been coming here for years now and every visit seems to be better than the last! I joined a Meetup group who wanted to hang out here so I figured I’d come here after visiting Mission San Gabriel Arcangel last week (which was just okay and I didn’t feel compelled enough to write an article about it). When most people in the Meetup group arrived, we went inside and began exploring.

We got some free audio tour headsets but decided to look around on our own instead as the audio tour would have taken up too much time. We first looked at some barracks, where some of the soldiers slept on beds made out of leather and raw hide, and one room with a short video presentation about the mission’s history surrounded by paintings which turned out to be merely computerized reproductions (I could tell by the obvious pixels). The architecture of the mission has a special photogenic quality and the gardens in the surrounding courtyards are quite lovely, with vibrant flowers blooming and fountains filled to the brim with lily pads.

Boxing the gardens in are long arcade corridors where we walked through and explored some of the rooms including the kitchen and bedrooms with small doors where we have to bend our heads to get through so as not to bump them against the wall. Down the hallway is a room about how President Abraham Lincoln returned custody of the missions over to the Catholic Church after having been secularized under previously Mexican control and next door is an exhibit dedicated to Junipero Serra, the founder of the mission who was canonized a saint by Pope Francis back in 2015. Around the corner is the Serra Chapel, which is perhaps the oldest building still standing in the state of California having been built in 1782.

Inside the chapel is a quiet, mystical space filled with the smell of incense, art work that’s hundreds of years old, including a golden Baroque retablo from the 17th century, and devotional red candles for people to light up in prayer (you have to buy candles at the gift shop I believe). On one’s immediate right when first walking through the entrance is a small dark room dedicated to Saint Peregrine, the patron saint of cancer patients. I walked inside and saw a written prayer book in front of a statue of the saint which not only includes prayers to find a cure for cancer but also wishes for solutions to large-scale threats like climate change. After going through the chapel we walk around and take more pictures before resting in the shade while waiting for another member to join the group.

While most members of the group chat amongst themselves while waiting for the additional member to arrive, I decide to go on my own for a bit and take a look at some of the infrastructure the mission needed for self-sufficiency and some more artifacts in a few of the rooms we haven’t looked in. The chimney-like structures in the picture above are pretty fascinating as they are basically metal furnaces or bloomeries and they are the oldest facilities of their kind in all of Califonia, having been around since the 1790s. There were also some rooms I looked around in that had an exhibit about the Acjachemen tribe who lived here for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived and old artifacts dating back to the mission’s founding including a tabernacle and statues from the old stone church.

Speaking of old stone churches, there are the ruins of the great church that used to stand here before crumbling in an earthquake back in 1812. Even in its ruined state, it is quite a sight to behold and almost has an evocative eeriness to it when you consider the people who died in the church’s collapse during a mass. In a way the feeling I get looking at this stone edifice reminds me of the Alamo in Texas, which was felled by war instead of Mother Nature and unlike the stone church in California was eventually rebuilt. Even though the original church was never rebuilt and is left in its ruined state (hauntingly beautiful though it may be), a basilica very similar to how it would have looked back in the day is just down the street from the mission itself.

This basilica was built more recently in the 1980s but the architecture is highly reminiscent of the style of churches the Spanish were building when they were originally colonizing the region, down to the bell tower and white adobe surfaces. Inside the church is a breathtaking space that is even grander than the more intimate Serra Chapel and is a hint of what the original stone church would have looked like in its prime.

The room soars with its vast arches and along the walls are painted surfaces of floral patterns and images of various saints, along with altars dedicated to people like Saint Peregrine and John of Capistrano (the mission’s namesake). The centerpiece of the basilica is of course the massive golden retablo which is over twice the size of the retablo in the Serra Chapel if not more so. When I first laid eyes on it I was floored by how massive it was and just how much it dominates the area it resides in, and this is before the lights were turned on. Once the lights were turned on, it shimmered like a jewel box and you could see the different colors within the impenetrable golden aura. After snapping some pictures, the group was off to happy hour at one of the local restaurants and I was ready to go, having finished seeing what I came to see.

My Trip To The Reagan Presidential Library (03/18/2018)

As someone who likes to learn about the world around me, I thought visiting a presidential library to examine one moment of our country’s history would be a good place to start. Ronald Reagan’s library in Simi Valley is the second presidential library that I’ve visited personally, the first being Richard Nixon’s library in Yorba Linda as it’s much closer to where I live. Even though my political beliefs would be well to the left of Reagan in many areas such as economics, foreign policy, drug policy, etc., I figured that visiting his library would be a great place to learn more about the man and reflect back on a little bit of 80s culture.

Driving up hill towards the museum/library provides some nice buildup with various flags on the side of the road featuring every president leading up to FDR and seemingly skipping past 8 presidents to get to a flag of Reagan, though they do amend this by featuring the remaining presidents on the reverse side of the flags as you’re leaving for the day. After finding my parking space, I walk over to the California Mission inspired facility towards a water fountain, behind it is a statue of the Old Gipper himself next to the entrance. Directly in front of the door is the place to get tickets (a whopping $25) and to the right of that is the entrance to the museum. I walk down a small hallway that features a portrait of the 40th president and some quotes which leads to a statue of him and his wife at the end. I turn right into a small theater which plays a clip show of Reagan giving some speeches accompanied by some patriotic show tunes.

The museum proper begins in the next room, which goes over his formative years growing up in Illinois and includes artifacts such as his family bible, football uniform, and information related to his Irish ancestry. I walk through a hallway filled with stories about how he developed the public speaking skills he was famous for into a room talking about his stint as governor of California and his 1976 campaign, which includes some flashcards that talk about the decisions he made as governor on issues like the environment, education, welfare, and taxes. Another hallway is filled with images of the supposed chaos of the 1970s which is meant to contrast with the next room going over Reagan’s victory in 1980. I then walk into a small dark room which shows a clip of Reagan’s assassination attempt soon after he was inaugurated which transitions people over to a room displaying items like Reagan’s bullet-ridden suit and the gun that shot him.

Soon after I see another room which replicates the Oval Office as it appeared when Reagan was president. Depending on the times and the president’s personal tastes, the Oval Office always has a distinct appearance with every transfer of power, with details like the red and gold drapery and floral carpet, not to mention a jar of jelly beans, being unique to Reagan. Sadly this Oval Office replica is blocked off and not as accessible as the one for Richard Nixon, which you can walk around in and even sit at the main desk. The next room goes over life at the White House and covers somewhat mundane topics like dinner etiquette and Nancy’s fashion sense before heading over down a long hallway. This leads to the signature attraction at the museum, which is a whole SAM 27000 plane that once served as Air Force One.

On board the plane is a treasure trove of retro 80s tech and there’s even a briefcase which is said to be the notorious nuclear “football.” I’m not exactly sure if this is a replica or not, but just imagine that the fate of the world lies in the hands of whoever possesses this briefcase (and scarily enough still does). Down the hall of the plane features the president’s temporary office, a conference room, and seats for members of the press. After getting off the plane I head downstairs and look at some of the other vehicles used to transport the president before going upstairs and continuing the tour.

The next series of rooms in the museum go over Reagan’s domestic and foreign policy, though I find this part pretty lacking. There’s not much information (if really any) about Reagan’s flaws or mistakes in the museum overall, but here especially one might come away with the impression that everything he did was perfect and beyond reproach. There is virtually nothing about the AIDS epidemic and the administration’s lack of action to combat it or about the assistance lent to right-wing dictators in Latin America for example. And while there is a small section dedicated to Iran-Contra, it feels swept under the rug in the grand scheme of things. It’s understandable that the library would like to highlight the positive aspects of course, I enjoy seeing the flashcards Reagan used for his famous “Tear Down This Wall” speech in Berlin for example, however I feel the Nixon Library does a better job at presenting its subject in a more objective light, warts and all. The Reagan Library by comparison feels more like a sacred shrine with its hagiographic and idealized depictions of the actor-turned-politician. The main museum portion ends with more patriotic music playing as I end up in the gift shop.

After seeing a pretty interesting traveling exhibit about Genghis Kahn, I walk outside and bask in the beautiful scenery. All around the museum is the gorgeous Simi Valley which reminds me of when I was in the Sicilian countryside only with more suburban homes scattered here and there. There is a nice piece of the Berlin Wall with a butterfly on it and just before I walk over to my car I pay a visit to the Reagans themselves at their humble tomb. I remember hearing about Ronald’s death when I was in 4th grade and it was only just recently that Nancy had also passed away. I may not agree with them politically, but I thought I might pay my respects to them regardless and hope they rest in peace. With that said, I get in my car and drive back down the hill in preparation for the nearly two hour drive home.

My Trip To The Bahamas (12/22/17-01/02/18)

This Christmas and New Year’s break, I traveled with my family to the Bahamas. For this post I thought I’d try something different and log every day of my trip as it went along, essentially like a journal. I wanted to capture every memorable detail so that it conveys the scope of my trip and gives everyone an idea of how it went. So here we go!

Day 1 (12/22/17):

I travel all the way across the country while dealing with the effects of a fever. I take three flights from Orange County to Dallas to Miami to Nassau before arriving at the Minderella at about 12:50AM. I say hi to some of the workers and my dad and stepmom before heading off to bed.

Day 2 (12/23/17):

I spend the day relaxing and recovering from my illness as the Minderella sails off, where she’s going I have no idea. I give my dad a package meant for my stepmom. My younger brother finally meets up with us after being stranded in Miami Airport. While I had met up with him there the night before, he had to wait for the next available flight in order to make it to Nassau.

Day 3 (12/24/17 – Christmas Eve):

We go to this one island with small palm trees and a sand spit. There are tables and chairs set up which were supposed to be where we would eat lunch but the weather is not ideal for eating outside, so they were merely there for us to meet. It is a cloudy day, which I prefer because I don’t have to put on any sunscreen. I explore and walk around the island and come upon a cone shell which apparently had a snail inside that was still alive.

Day 4 (12/25/17 – Christmas Day):

Everyone wakes up and gathers around the Christmas tree exchanging gifts with one another. Afterwards we have brunch and talk amongst ourselves before getting ready for a trip out to two locations. We first visit this grotto called the “Thunderball Grotto” (featured in the James Bond film of the same name) and watch family members jump through a hole in the top of the ceiling of the cave. The next location was a beach where pigs swim up to nearby boats begging for food. We land on the beach and walk amongst the pigs as they interact with one another, including a couple where one pig is growling and barking at the other. We have Christmas dinner later that night (I ironically have some ham) and go around the table telling one person what we appreciate about them, something we started the night before. A fireworks show goes off in the background while all of this happens.

Day 5 (12/26/17):

I wake up and my fever and sore throat have mostly recovered by now, with the awful parting gift of an inflamed salivary gland beneath my tongue which my stepmom treated with canker sore medicine. We eat lunch before going on a smaller boat called the Grand Duke in order to go fishing. We didn’t catch anything, but it was still a nice, albeit slightly nauseating ride in the open ocean. We go back and have a refreshingly less formal dinner that included buffalo wings, caesar salad and pizza.

Day 6 (12/27/17):

The Minderella sails off to another location, where she stops I’ll soon find out. I record a song on the piano called “Luminescence” to be published on Youtube when I return home. A tender takes us over to a nearby beach where we have wings, chips, and ribs for lunch. They have lemon pound cakes (which I have half of one) and s’mores for dessert. Even though it starts out hot and sunny, it becomes gradually cooler and more cloudy until rain prompts us to return to the Minderella. We go to this one stop near some mangroves where there are some sharks we could feed, but it’s not what we expect so we leave almost as soon as we arrive.

Day 7 (12/28/17):

A fever returns to my body and while the inflammation under my tongue has receded by now, the two lymph nodes in my neck are swollen and I’m hoping this is the last stretch of illness that I have to deal with on this trip. I have trouble sleeping the night before as a result. A long time family friend named Jennifer arrives with her husband after we have some Mexican food. The boat moves on to our next location.

Day 8 (12/29/17):

Sorry fish 😦

The last of my sickness might finally be going away now. The revived fever is gone and the swelling in my lymph nodes is receding. Things might be looking up for me at last health-wise just before the trip climaxes on New Year’s. The family heads out on the Grand Duke for another fishing trip. Even though I personally didn’t want to catch/kill any fish, I reeled in a wahoo out of a stoic sense of duty in satisfying those around me. My hope is that the fish I caught is at least made into a good, nutritious meal. My older brother Skyler meets up with us later in the day and we exchange late Christmas gifts.

Day 9 (12/30/17):

Today is my dad’s fifty-fourth birthday. It appears most of the group had left for another fishing trip without me, so I spend much of the afternoon relaxing outside while listening to a podcast. The rest of the group returns and we head off to a small beach with white tents where we eat an Asian-style lunch. My older brother and I spend time building a sand castle complex before he destroys it as we leave for a snorkeling site around a sunken plane. It is a full-sized retro aircraft made in what appears to be the 1940s and was apparently used for drug smuggling.

Day 10 (12/31/17 – New Year’s Eve):

The boat sails off towards its next destination. We stay on the boat for most of the day before we take the tender towards the Atlantis Resort for some gambling. I played mostly Black Jack and Roulette’s at the casino, cutting myself off from playing at a certain point so that I didn’t lose anymore money. Later in the night we eat at a restaurant called Luciano’s where the food was pretty terrible but at least we had a great view of the fireworks to ring in the new year 2018.

Day 11 (01/01/18 – New Year’s Day):

We return to the Atlantis Resort to visit the water park portion during the day. I had not visited this place since I was about six or seven years old. We try to get into the water park, but there are complications preventing us from entering for the time being, so my dad and stepmom try to see if they can buy tickets while the rest of us take the younger girls to get their pictures taken on a decorative throne (Poseidon’s throne supposedly). We are able to make it in and eat lunch before splitting off, with most of our time being spent to reconnect the disparate factions of this large group. When we finally regroup we go to the aquarium at the end of the day, seeing moray eels, giant sea bass and a large manta ray in a haunted Atlantis setting before heading back to the boat. After dinner I go to bed in preparation for my journey home tomorrow.

Day 12 (01/02/18):

I get up and eat a quick breakfast with all of my bags ready. I am then transported to the airport and make my way back home to California.

 

 

 

A Trip to Balboa Park (11/25/2017)

Yesterday I went down with my family to celebrate my birthday (which was on the 23rd) down in Balboa Park. They had apparently never heard of this place before, so having gone once before I thought I’d introduce it to them. This place was built back in 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition and features mostly Spanish Colonial Revival architecture along with more modern buildings from later expansions. Today it serves as a cultural center for San Diego and is basically this city’s version of New York’s Central Park.

When we first arrived, a woman with jumper cables asked us if we could help her restart her car. It didn’t work and even though our door was open and there were many other parking spots available at the time, a middle aged man was insistent on parking in the spot next to us as we were attempting to help out the woman with her car. After this little bit of madness in the parking lot, we walked over to the park itself and started with our first museum of the day.

The Museum of Man

My older brother made the comment that this looked more like a church rather than a museum so he thought it contradictory that this would be displaying scientific things inside. It’s a beautiful building with a facade reminiscent of the Spanish Baroque movement known as “churrigueresque.” Inside features some giant plaster reproductions of Mayan stele which might sound unimpressive though they have history in their own right, being over a hundred years old.

The Early Man and Egyptian exhibits upstairs feature some cool facts and relics though the presentations feel a tad outdated. It’s not a big deal though as long as everything being shown is factual and scientifically verified. I enjoyed this one skull that you could play with like a nutcracker in the Early Man exhibit and a headless mummy on display in the Egyptian exhibit. There is also a Cannibalism exhibit across from the museum that was pretty interesting. Inside is a shipwreck presentation where we played a game of drawing straws to see who survives that I thought was fun. Definitely worth a visit.

Air and Space Museum

After lunch we made this place our next museum. The architecture is built in the sleek Streamline Moderne style of the 1930s and is actually pretty big inside. Right when you go through the front door, you see a model of the Spirit of St. Louis with an old 70s-style animatronic of Charles Lindbergh himself. My mom was creeped out by it, commenting that it was staring right at her. I made the comment that it looked like something out of a Kraftwerk music video, so I thought it had a certain strange charm to it.

Next to that is a cool space exhibit with a moon rock, astronaut suits, and the Apollo 9 command module known as “Gumdrop.” Inside features a lot of paintings of aerospace pioneers like the Wright Brothers and even more recent names like Richard Branson. There are many historic planes going back to World War I and through the Cold War, though there isn’t as much information about more up-to-date technology from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars for example as I would have liked. Perhaps they wouldn’t have as much space left for them, but what they do have is still fascinating to see nonetheless.

Timken Museum of Art

Probably the most timeless of the museums we visited, this is a small art gallery which is free of charge. The architecture definitely stands out from the others with its 1960s modernism but somehow still works really well and looks really charming in its own right. There are two wings, one on both sides, with a central core of sofas in the middle as you walk through the entrance. One wing features post-Renaissance art which includes work from John Singleton Copley, Anthony van Dyck, and the only Rembrandt painting to reside in San Diego (that of St. Bartholomew).

The next wing featured more religious art from what looked like the Renaissance and Middle Ages, including these Russian Orthodox icons which I thought were beautiful, particularly the large one in the middle. There was also a special exhibit featuring impressionist artwork from Monet of the French coastline, however I was not allowed to take pictures of it. Our time at the museum all-in-all was short but sweet.

Botanical Building

This is one of the most beautiful and photogenic buildings in all of Balboa Park, it’s really one of the more iconic structures in all of San Diego as a matter of fact. Like the Timken Museum of Art, the Botanical Building is free of charge to enter and features an indoor garden. A lot of the plants seem a bit interchangeable and green so it was a little hard to make out distinct kinds of plants. We really liked this one exhibit which featured leaves that you could rub between your fingers and left behind a strong scent like mint for example. It looks like the Venus fly traps were killed by people trying to feed them (perhaps throwing pennies in their mouths) so there were signs telling people not to feed them and were possibly being replaced. I didn’t take any pictures inside but this is still a nice place to potentially take someone on a date.

Natural History Museum

The last museum we visited that day was the Museum of Natural History. There were cool exhibits revolving around what this area used to look like back in prehistoric times and fossils from the Ice Age, including those of mammoths and giant sloths. One exhibit I thought was interesting was their collection of shelved specimens of animals being put on display. The collection of animals that stood out to me was this group of morpho butterflies which had wings that appeared to be almost holographic in nature! They were really quite stunning.

Like with a few of the other museums some of the presentations were a little outdated, these computer displays for example showing information about earthquakes in the Pacific Rim going no further than 2005. The last thing we did before leaving was seeing this 3D show about the Galapagos Islands. I was surprised they didn’t talk about the finches as much, knowing how important they were for Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, but it was still entertaining to watch (despite this little kid who kept yelling about every little thing on screen behind me).

Overall I had a great day with my family and I’m glad I got to show them something new that we could maybe return to one day. I certainly would love to come down here more often whenever I’m in the San Diego area.

 

A Trip To Mission San Luis Rey (11/05/2017)

I remember working on the California Missions project back in 4th grade and the one I was assigned to build and make a trading card of was Mission San Luis Rey de Francia. Up until now the only mission I had actually visited in person was Mission San Juan Capistrano, which is the one closest to where I live. Now that I am able to drive myself and seeing as how this is the second-closest mission to me, I decided to make the forty-five minute trek down to Oceanside and take a look at this historic landmark for myself.

The first thing I saw here was the church, which is very beautiful and well preserved. The mission has been around since 1798, though this is the third church building which dates to around 1811-1815. Walking through here reminds me of when I was in Europe, everything from the dome to the statues and painted walls is evocative of the Old World and is a wonderful bit of culture right here in Southern California. Even though I’m not religious by any means, let alone Catholic, this is still a peaceful place to sit down and quietly meditate while chant music plays in the background.

The next thing I saw was the museum which featured some interesting artifacts from the people who lived here at one point (and still do, since there are about thirty Franciscan friars who tend to the property). The museum talks a bit about the daily life of the inhabitants and the purpose of the missions, which was to preempt the Russians from making more territorial claims and convert the Native Americans to Catholicism. The Spanish treatment of the Native Americans is underplayed as I don’t believe the indigenous community was treated quite as fairly as the museum makes it seem; there is however a memorial dedicated to the Natives who died outside in the cemetery.

Another fascinating piece of history displayed in the museum that I thought deserved its own segment is this document sent to the mission in 1865, since it has quite a story behind it. As the Spanish Empire collapsed in the 19th century, Mexico gained its independence much like the United States did from Great Britain in the 18th century. Mexico took with it all of the land that would one day become California (what was then known as Alta California) and secularized all the missions it contained. Mexico would soon after lose Alta California to the United States in the Mexican-American War and the Americans would rename it as simply California, the 31st state of the union. Fifteen years later, Abraham Lincoln responded to a bishop’s request to have the missions returned to the Catholic Church by dong just that with the stroke of his pen, just about a month before he died. You can still see his signature there today.

The last noteworthy site that’s worth mentioning is the oldest pepper tree grown in California. A Peruvian sailor brought with him some pepper tree seeds from South America and gave them to the mission who planted the seeds in 1830, twenty years before California became an American state. This tree does not produce the kind of peppers we use for food, but clusters of rose-colored “berries” that can be used to treat wounds and infections because of its antibacterial and antiseptic qualities. It is really cool to see this nearly two-hundred year old tree alive and well.

Overall when it comes to the California Missions, this is my second one visited, so that makes two down, nineteen more to go!

EDIT: I forgot to mention the thirty or so Franciscan friars who still live here, so I included that in this post.

 

Five Cool Places in LA That Are Free To Visit

Living in Southern California is not easy for the thrifty spender and Los Angeles is an expensive city overall. If you’re living on a tight budget, going to Universal Studios or seeing an opera production at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion is pretty much a non-starter unfortunately. There are however some great places to explore and check out in the area that are free of charge, whether it’s by yourself or with a date.

1. Getty Center

This museum was designed by Richard Meier in 1997 and is set up in the hills overlooking Brentwood and Century City. On a clear day you can see a panorama from Santa Monica  to Downtown LA and even Orange County in the distance. It is designed to be like a modern American interpretation of the Acropolis in Athens and is the perfect place to see lovely gardens, architecture and world-renowned names in art, including Van Gogh and Renoir. Even though parking is $15, the fact that everything else is free is priceless.

2. Getty Villa

Like the Getty Center parking is $15, however you do need a reservation to access this museum as it is a bit more intimate. This is where the Ancient Roman and Greek collection is housed whereas the Center displays everything from the Medieval era onwards. To suit the nature of the collection, the museum is designed to be like that of an ancient villa that was buried underneath Vesuvius. It’s also near Santa Monica so after you’ve had your fill of culture you can go by the water afterwards.

3. The Broad

Like with the Getty Villa you can reserve your ticket in advance, however you can wait in a line that stretches around the block if you’re so inclined. This museum is relatively new and features Eli Broad’s art collection which is primarily contemporary art from World War II onwards. The abstract building suits the vibe of the modern works inside and contrasts nicely with the flamboyant Walt Disney Concert Hall next door. And speaking of which…

4. Walt Disney Concert Hall

Even though seeing a show here obviously costs money, you can actually get a feel for this Downtown landmark free of charge. Believe it or not, there are stairs that go around the outside of the building so you can climb around it and feel the outside of the steel walls. When you get to the back there’s a lovely garden with a fountain made out of smashed china plates that’s dedicated to Lilian Disney and is really unique. Guided tours are available through this link if you want to learn more.

5. Griffith Observatory

Another place that gives the Getty Center a good run for its money in regards to views of the city is this famous hilltop icon. You can see the Hollywood sign and the whole expanse of the valley running from Los Feliz to the ocean beyond. Everything inside is also very neat to see, showcasing Art Deco murals, a fully functional Tesla coil and other science exhibits like a planetarium show and a periodic table containing samples of the corresponding elements. Be sure to bring a jacket at night however, it can get a little chilly up here.