Today I read my Sunset Magazine from cover to cover. Got on-line to hopefully find the First Person article by Anne Lamott but instead I found the article on Portland’s Chinatown in Spring with all the cherry blossoms blooming: Portland day trip: Old Town Chinatown. Sounds like great fun. I do love Portland.
Portland is very kid and family friendly. This Deliciousbaby link has some good ideas. Our family has enjoyed the Children’s Museum, the Oregon Zoo and Powell’s Book Store. Some other suggestions are on Disney’s family.com site. OregonMom.com is even more plentiful. That should keep you full of ideas for a while!! Have fun!!
Known as the “shortest railway in the world,” the Los Angeles landmark Angels Flight is planned to reopen on April 15th with its runs up and down Bunker Hill. Current plans are that it will still only cost a quarter, but that might change in the future. It had closed following the death of an 83 year old man and injuries to seven others when the brakes failed on one of the cars in 2001. The California Public Utilities Commission has recertified the railway after Angels Flight Railway Company fixed the defects that caused the accident.
Joe Thompson, the Cable Car Guy, has this Angels Flight info on his website. Dace Taube’s Angel Flight page has a 1996 Quicktime movie and several old photographs from 1898-1960. Try this link from LAist of the funicular railway for a Rich Alossi video of test runs last January as noted by Zach Behrens. Check out Mike Ebert’s Virtual Ride from Saturday, Feb. 24, 1996, when it reopened a short distance away from its original site after an almost 27 year absence.
When our daughter was small she loved to go to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, CA. A couple years ago it closed. Just saw that there will be a great Re-Opening on March 20, 2010. Check out the photos in the San Jose Mercury News article By Mayra Flores De Marcotte! How great will that be for the young adults with small children of their own who remembered the fun they had in the park so long ago! As part of the Measure P Safe Neighborhood Parks and Recreation bond measure approved by voters in 2000, the park closed in 2008 to undergo a $72 million green renovation. Sneak-A-Peek of the ‘new’ park here! Here’s a list of the Yelp Old Memories – it will be fun to see how the new ones after March 20 will compare!
Oh my gosh! I laughed out loud! What an entertaining woman! Gotta love her! Check out http://5kidswdisabilities.wordpress.com for just wonderful blogs! What a great ending to a frustrating day!! Oh, my! How she made me laugh! There is always something extra going on! What a special person – couple – to take in these kids and to have such a great outlook! Kudos to you! 🙂
Check out my other blogs for ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too! 🙂
The new Polar Bear Plunge is due to reopen with new features on March 26, 2010, at the San Diego Zoo! Until it opens, you can learn a little about polar bears right at this San Diego Zoo link. I have other links at my 11/11/09 blog here – just in case you missed it! 😉
The San Diego Zoo is very excited to have the exhibit with new activities for people to explore a day in the life of a polar bear.
Check out other blogs for ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
The Feb 13th Orange County Register had frog facts and an article by Eric Carpenter called Can you ribbit? which sounds much more interesting than its on-line version Giant toads, poisonous frogs move into Muzeo, although the words were the same – but either one brings fond memories of my sister Lori. Not that she is a frog, mind you, but that she likes frogs, collects frogs and tolerates every-frog-item-I-see-I-usually-buy-and-send-her frogs! Actually, Chris Carpenter’s article highlights the exhibit Frogs: A Chorus of Colors at the Muzeo in Anaheim from February 13, 2010 – September 5, 2010. Check out the video highlights with zoologist Sandy Mangold and then there are also the photos. Sandy and the frogs flew here from Pennsylvania. Kermit isn’t here but there are over 150 live frogs! Have fun! The Muzeo hours are 10-5 7 days a week. More info here.
National Wildlife Federation’s Wildlife Watch is a national, nature-watching program created for people of all ages. The National Wildlife Federation can use your help to track the health and behavior of wildlife and plant species nationwide. You can also learn interesting tidbits on the Wildlife Watch website – wildlife news and facts, new ideas for attracting wildlife to your backyard and community. Check it out now on www.nwf.org/wildlifewatch and see what all is available to do!
Once you are finished with exploring your own back yard, you can get more ideas from NatureFind. It is an online destination database you can use to easily find a perfect spot for watching nature close to home. It also helps you discover what parks and trails are near you.
All you do is enter your zip code and check what activities you are interested in at http://www.nwf.org/naturefind to learn what is available around you!
Harlem Globetrotter Nate “Big Easy” Lofton taught some special lessons to kids at the Discovery Science Center as captured by Michael Mello in the Orange County Register. Photos and Video also document the presentation. Lofton’s visit was part of the kick-off for the new Secrets of Circles exhibit at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, CA. The exhibit will be available for kids to explore through May 2.
Two years ago Globetrotters Eugene “Wildkat” Edgerson and “Sweet” Lou Dunbar visited the Anaheim Boys and Girls Club on a Friday afternoon for similar life lessons.
One of the Harlem Globetrotters community outreach programs is C.H.E.E.R. For Character which aims to teach kids Cooperation, Healthy mind & body, Effort, Enthusiasm, and Responsibility.
Those of you in the Long Beach area should circle the dates of August 6 and 7 on your calendars for a family outing! A few days ago I saw that Long Beach will be part of the worldly Flugtag craziness this year. Flugtag, sponsored by Red Bull, is coming to Long Beach in the summer of 2010. Still in the early stages of planning, the weekend of August 6-7 at the Pine Avenue Pier at the Pike at Rainbow Harbor will be a buzz with Flugtag pilots. Flugtag (German for “Fly Day” or “Air Day” or “Air Show”) is an opportunity for ill-fated “pilots” in creative craft to attempt to launch off a pier – to land usually soon after in a body of water.
The event is world-wide. The cities chosen to hold the USA part of the fun this year are Long Beach, Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Philidelphia and Miami. More than 80,000 people watched Flugtag in San Francisco and Portland in past years. It originally started in 1991 in Vienna, Austria, by Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz.
The hilarious article that caught my attention was written by Tim Grobaty In the Long Beach Press-Telegram on Jan 14, 2010. Check it out!
Willamette Week Online from Portland ,Oregon, has some behind the scene words and video from 2008 of Flugtag in Portland. It has embedded the U.S. record flying banjo set in 2007 at Red Bull Flugtag Nashville – the banjo crashed early but the flying part with pilot continued for an amzing 155 feet!
www.redbullflugtagusa.com has lots more info and videos! The other page links also have many more funny antics to watch. Enjoy!
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