Vox Publica

One of our favorite date night activities - particularly now that we have children - is going to a hot tub for an hour. The hot water and bubbling action help us relax both our tired muscles (try sleeping with a baby in your arms!) and our exhausted minds.

Our favorite hot tub place is Piedmont Springs on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. It's a small place with only four hot tub rooms, but we really like it. The hot tubs are large and are half covered by the ceiling of the open dressing room and half open to the sky. We like this arrangement as when it rains, you can either stay on the open side and feel the rain, or move to the covered side. There isn't too much light, so you can get a nice view of the stars on clear nights. There is bubbling action courtesy of a number of jets. Beyond the hot tub, all there is is a small dressing area with a shower and a wooden seat. The whole facility is very clean, inviting and relaxing. The receptionists are also very friendly and we always feel welcomed and relaxed. Finally, at $14 per person per hour, it's one of the cheapest hot tub places around. It's highly recommended.

When we can't get a hot tub at Piedmont Springs (there are only four, after all), we head to Albany Sauna. Built in 1934 by Finnish immigrants, this facility is older, more rustic and probably more "authentic" by Scandinavian stanrdars. It's also much more expensive ($20 per person per hour) and less friendly.

The hot tub rooms are very attractive in their own way. The hot tub/shower area is made out of wood, and the the hot tubs themselves seem to be built out of some rock-like material (but that my just be my impression). The hot tubs seem smaller, but they are still long enough for me at 5'1" to extend myself in them. They are completely under the sky, but annoyingly there is a rope light at the top of the walls which might look attractive but it interferes with the view of the sky.

I like Albany Sauna, but I find the staff very unfriendly and I often feel unwelcomed as I wait for our hot tub to be ready.

We've also gone to Hot Tropics in San Lorenzo once and never again. This place actually seems to operate as an hourly hotel, something that seems to also have been noticed by their neighbors. The rooms are plain and anticeptic, with no atmosphere whatsoever. They smell strongly of disinfectant and the hot tub was foaming with the remains of the cleaning agent. It was not a good experience.

Finally, we've been to Hot Tubs on University Ave. in Berkeley. We didn't like this place either, and I also suspect is better aimed at the casual sex business. The cavernous rooms had no atmosphere whatsoever, but they did offer a sauna and a bed in addition to the hot tub.

If anyone knows of other nice hot tub places in the Bay Area, please let me know!

I asked for suggestions of places where to take my 3 yo when we're visiting her grandparents in the Los Angeles area. These are some of the suggestions we've gotten. If you know of other places, please make a comment.

You'll see that this list doesn't include the LA Zoo - my parents took her during her last visit and they were very disappointed. There were very few animals and these were far away from each other.

The Long Beach Aquarium
Santa Monica Pier
Train Museum in Griffith park
Kids Zone @ 4th and Broadway (indoor play area)
Huntington Botanical Gardens
Descanso Gardens
Exposition Park

Last Saturday we threw our 3 year old a birthday party at Sulphur Creek Nature Center. It was great, we couldn't have chosen a better place to have a birthday party.

Sulphur Creek Nature Center is a wildlife education and rehabilitation facility nested in the middle of Hayward's suburban sprawl. It seems almost miraculous that such a slice of nature, complete with its tall trees, singing birds and humming critters, can appear so suddenly after blocks and blocks of houses. The park is pretty small, but large enough for 3 yo's to run around. They have cages with rescued animals, lots of birds (even a huge golden eage) and a couple of coyotes. The children LOVED looking at them.

The nature center building includes an exhibit hall, with aquariums/terrariums with life fish and lizards, and a birthday room/classroom in the back. Birthday parties ($120-160) include a one hour presentation plus 3 hours use of the birthday room. In summer/nice days you can have the party outside on the picnic tables, but it was rainy the day we had the party so having the birthday room was great.

The presentation is carried out by Christine, a wonderful docent that knows both how to entertain and how to control raucous little children. It includes an introduction to two animals, a puppet show and a craft. You get to chose the animals from a long list of small mamals, snakes and a couple of others. We chose a chinchilla, as we figured it'd be a treat for everyone to pet this, the softest animal on the planet, and a duck, as I figured kids often get to chase ducks but practically never touch them.

I was extremely happy with the way all of it went. The puppet show was first, and about half the kids paid attention half the time - not bad for a bunch of 3 yo's who were mostly interested in chasing each other. Then they got to see the animals, they had to seat on pieces of carpet as the docent talked about the animals and had everyone pet them (twice!). They also got to feed them - a seed in the case of the chinchilla, a worm in the case of the duck - either out of their hand or out of a plate, that was great as some of the little kids were reluctant to get the animals so close to their hands. Kids also got to see the chinchilla take a "bath" in extremely soft ashes - and got to feel these ashes. The kids also made a circle around a sheet that was placed on the floor for the ducks to walk around, as they quacked and pooped. They all LOVED it. Hey, we adults loved it too!

After that the kids were taken to the birthday room for a craft. They seemed less interested in this.

The birthday room includes two long tables - one tall for the adults and a short one for the kids. It's a classroom so the room it's pretty crowded, but there is some counter space, a sink and you can refrigerate/freeze a couple of small things (the refrigerator/freezers are mostly filled with the staff's stuff). The room is mostly a classroom so it doesn't have any birthday decorations and there isn't any room for them, though we managed to hang a Happy Birthday sign over the wall. There wasn't a place to hang our pinata, so Mike held it while the children pulled the strings. We had about 7 children and 10 adults and the room was pretty much at capacity - you can have up to 20 children, but that would be too many for the room. About half the people we invited came, however.

In all, the birthday party went great and I will probably hold another one for one my daughters at Sulphur Creek in the future.

California Adventure gets a bad rap. Amusement park aficionados complain about the lame rides (and for the most part they're right), Disney fans are disappoined at how generic the park looks (and they're right too) and parents of small children complain there isn't much for them to do there. They are wrong. Thursday I took my 3 year-old daughter to the park and we had a great time. She enjoyed herself much more there than at Disneyland, and I'm already planning to take her back next year.

We wouldn't have gone to California Adventure at all but we got "free" tickets with our Disneyland ticket purchases. It was a deal for residents of Southern California, they only asked for one ID when we purchased the tickets at the park, and not at the entrance. The tickets had to be used by April 28, so we (my brother, sister, Mika and I) went yesterday.

The park is considerably smaller than Disneyland and most amusement parks I've gone to (though it's probably about the size of Parc Asterix in Paris). It has a limited amount of rides, and perhaps for that reason it's only open from 10 AM to 6 PM during the day. We got there probably a little after 11 am and we still managed to only do about 2/3rds of the park even though we didn't stop for lunch. Most of the rides are for children who are at least 40" tall; our daughter is considerably shorter than that so that limited what rides we could all go into. For much of the time, Mika and I went together while my sister and brother rode the big-kid rides. Sometimes we switched and Kathy took care of Mika. We got several fastpasses, which made standing in line not as big a deal (and we went on a day which was supposed to be rainy, though it was beautifully sunny) and a couple of child switch tickets.

We started at the Paradise Pier section, an area made to look as a waterfront traditional amusement park, and thus reminiscent of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. This is were most of the big rides are located. Mika and I went to King Triton's Carousel, a run-of-the-mill merry-go-round with whimsically shaped and colored sea animals. There was no line when we got there and Mika enjoyed herself. We then headed to the Sun Wheel, a large ferris wheel with swinging carts. As is the case with ferris wheels in general, the line here moved very slowly and when we got to it, the ride wasn't that thrilling. The swinging was kind of nice, and at first it scared Mika, though once we started making funny noises when the car swang she started enjoying herself. Still, even though you only get two rounds around the wheel I was bored before we exited. I wouldn't go again unless there was no wait at all.

David and Kathy went to all the rollercoasters on this area, and they weren't thrilled by any of them. They said some were fine, but in general not as thrilling as those at Magic Mountain. I don't like rollercoasters so the only I went to was Mulholland Madness, which must be one of the lamest rides in the world. It's just a small rollercoaster with some sharp turns and short falls and nothing else. Take my advise and skip it altogether.

Mika enjoyed the S.S. Rustworthy, a small area with two water cannons (they really should have put some more, even in a day with so few children it was hard to get any time at the cannons) and some "sprinklers" that shot water randomly. She had a blast trying to guess when the water would come and get herself wet. She wasn't too succesful, but she played here for a loooong time. She also loved the Golden Zephyr, some rocket-shaped gondollas suspended on wires that go around and around. She'd liked a similar ride at Disneyland. The line was pretty long but she wanted to go on it again after she was done going once.

Our second stop was the Golden State, a small area made to look like the California wilderness. There isn't much in this section, the only ride is the Grizzly River Run, where you ride in a circular "raft" down "rapids" and get wet in the process. The ride is made to look like it's going through an abandoned mine, and the scenery is quite nice, but the ride itself is less than thrilling. You get more wet and have more fun at similar rides at Great America and Magic Mountain. I wouldn't have bothered going twice, even though with the fastpass we didn't have to wait at all.

Our 3-year-old was too short for this ride, so she spent her time at the Redwood Creek Challenge, a little outdoor playground that has a couple of stands, several high-platforms (where Mika decided to play house) and lots of hanging and rope bridges. For older kids they also have tire rides and a rock climbing wall - Mika wanted to do it but once again she was too short. She had a great time in this section, though and was able to spend about an hour playing here with no purpose. Also in this area they have the "The Magic of Brother Bear" show. Kathy saw it with her but she said Mika enjoyed it. She did like seeing the bears, once she got over her fear that they would eat her. She hasn't seen the Brother Bear movie yet, but I'm planning to rent it now that she's seen the show.

This area of the park also features examples of California's industry - from a tortilla factory to a winery. We didn't have time to explore this section, but I'd like to next time.

Our next stop was Soarin' Over California, which I loved. This is an IMAX theater where your seats rise so that your feet are hanging down. The movie are scenes of California's scenery shown from the air, so you get the impression that you are flying through the whole state. It's quite wonderful and I really enjoyed it. The only down side, aside from the wait (and we had fast passes) was that we were in the second row, so we couldn't avoid seeing the feet of the people on top of us hanging down. That took a bit away from the illusion. Try to get the first row you can.
Mika was too short to go on that ride, but fortunately there was a mister outside and it's amazing how much fun a little kid can have just playing in the fine mist.

Our next stop was a bug's land where we hurried to It's Tough to Be a Bug!, an amazing 3-D movie. Mika has seen A bug's life so she was at least familiar with the characters (she hasn't seen most of the Disney movies, which was really a minus for enjoying the two parks). We were able to get in with no wait, and after a bit of trouble Mika actually put on the 3D glasses. The movie was amazing, I won't give up any of the "secrets" that make it so enjoyable, but let me just say that I had no idea 3D effects had come so far. You really feel like you can touch the bugs flying in front of you. Indeed, the second time Mika saw the show she tried to grab one.

I went off to pump after that, and Mika stayed with my siblings who after taking her to see the show again, took her to Princess Dot Puddle Park, a water play area. Fortunately it was nice and sunny by then and Mika enjoyed herself a lot. She also got very wet, fortunately we'd brought a change of clothing.

Unfortunately we didn't have time to sample any of the other rides in this area as I wanted to catch the Aladdin Show. Mika decided to throw a tantrum on the way there (she wanted cotton candy, I wouldn't buy her any) so getting to the show wasn't fun and we were pretty late getting there. We grabbed seats at the last row of the balcony, so we were pretty much as far away from the stage as we could be. Still, I really liked the show. The production values were very high, the staging was gorgeous and the show pretty interesting. Mika hadn't seen the movie before, so she couldn't really follow the action much, but she was still mostly interested and even though she was really tired by then, she paid quite a lot of attention. I'd certainly recommend you see it.

It was 5:30 PM by the time we got out and as we were so exhausted we decided to head home. On the way out we passed on the Disney Animation building and we decided to go in. I'm glad we did because it was really cool. We headed to the Sorcerer's Workshop area, which is divided into three rooms. In one, you can look into Snow White's stepmother's mirror and hear it talk and see how animation works. In another, you can find out what princess you are most like (Cinderella, in my case, which seems very unlikely) and in the last and most fun part, you can sing part of a song or read a couple of lines of dialogue and hear it juxtaposed to part of the movie in question. We had a lot of fun doing that. It works better if you've seen the movies in question, but fortunately one of them was "The Lion King" which Mika really likes (unfortunately, we didn't see any other Lion King references in either of the parks, Mika would have LOVED to meet Simba).

After that it was time to go and off we went.

In all, we had a great time and as I said above I'm looking forward to going again next year.

Nostalgia Monday I went to Disneyland for the first time in 20 years. My last visit had been during the 30th anniversary and I barely remember it. My first visit, only three years later, is instead chiseled into my memory.

Like every other kid in the world I had dreamt of going to Disneyland one day. From the shores of the La Plata river in Argentina, that dreamed seemed fully unattainable. But the illness of my sister, the search for an ever-ellusive kidney, had deposited us in Southern California and after checking into the hospital and securing a car and a place to live, going to Disneyland was the first thing in the agenda.

For months before our trip to the US I had wished myself to dream about Disneyland before I went to sleep. But I didn't know what to dream about, the few pictures of the place I'd seen had not given me a fair image of what Disneyland was. I'd been to one amusemant park before, the Italpark in Buenos Aires. Its bumper cars, ghost train, small rollercoaster and even its flying dumbos assured that however high my dreams, the reality of Disneyland would not disappoint. Today, after having been to several amusement parks in the US and Europe, Disneyland just seems like just one more. But back then, it was a complete new universe.

Lines must not have been much of an issue in 1981 because I remember jumping from one ride to the next, being enchanted by the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean, feeling included by the little gaucho in It's a Small World (my mom's favorite ride), being amazed by the submarine ride and excited to drive a car in Autopia. Even the tea cups and Tom Sawyer's island were amazing fun. That first visit, and the one that followed a few months later when our aunt came to visit, was pure magic. As I recalled it and recounted it to my husband, I wished that our daughter could feel the same, while knowing there was no way she could. Without much exposure to Disney, much less awareness of Disneyland, for her this would be just another place.

And it was.

The park

We “ chose” to go to Disneyland a Monday in April, right before the celebrations for its 50th Anniversary. I thought the park would not be crowded, that people would chose to wait a week and see wha new Disneyland had to offer. I was wrong, as the place was full of people. Who knows? Perhaps Disneyland is never uncrowded anymore.

The park has not changed much in the last twenty years. There were several new rides of which I tried four, but in general they've replaced others which have closed. There is a new section, Toon Town, which is very cool for little kids, as they have things to climb into and explore in addition to rides.

This time around, Disneyland didn't feel any different to me than any other amusement park. Watching the people rush from ride to ride, wait in interminable lines and in general look hurried and tired, took away from any magic I might have once felt.

The rides

We started our visit in the New Orleans area. We were able to go to both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion without having to wait in line. Both rides were very much like I remembered, I was once again amazed at the special effects and animatronics (considering how long ago they were built), though of course, they weren't as cool as I'd once thought them to be. We also took on the Winnie the Pooh ride, which was nice and colorful but it went too fast for a 3 year old. Indeed, this was a general complaint about all the children rides at Disneyland, they moved too fast for little kids to take in the action.

We then continued to the Indiana Jones ride, for which we'd gotten fast passes. Even then, it took like 20 minutes to get out of the ride, including the loooong walk to the carts and standing in the shorter line. The ride was enjoyable (and it also went too fast) but not particularly thrilling. I would have been terribly disapointed if I'd had to wait more than what I did. One particularly cool special effect doesn't work well if you're not seated in the front seat, though another one is more thrilling if you're further behind. Next time I go to Disneyland, I'll probably skip it.

Little kids are not allowed in this ride, so while we went Mika spent time at the Tarzan Treehouse, she seemed to enjoy herself there.

We were then off to fantasyland. We took on the Snow White and the Pinocchio rides, both were too short, too fast and a bit scary for Mika, but mostly uninteresting to her as she didn't know the stories. Without knowing the stories, they don't make much sense. Still, the lines for these rides were fairly short which made them worth it. We also stayed in a LOOOOONG line for the Peter Pan ride. I'd forgotten about it, but I'd read you went on flying ships and wanted to do it. It was cool, but once again way too short for the wait time and there is no way I'd wait in line for it again. Mika, again, was unimpressed.

She was much more thrilled by the King Arthur Carrousel, it's amazing how for little kids the basics are often the best.

We then headed to Toon Town, where we'd gotten fast passes for the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin. We didn't need them as even at mid-day, there was no line at all. The ride was OK, fast and colorful, but again nothing special. None of us were impessed.

The rest of Toon Town was fun, specially for a toddler. Mika loved Chip & Dale's tree house, Donald's Boat, and the other little buildings and props she could explore. Next time around we'll spend more time in this section.

We went to the Blue Bayou for lunch, which ate about an hour and a half of our day. After that we headed to Tom Sawyer island. Waiting for the rafts was a drag, but Mika enjoyed herself exploring all he caves and jumping on the suspended bridges. This section made me wish I was a kid again.

We tried to go to the bountiful farm, but it was closed by then, so we headed back to Fantasyland, where Mika and Kathy braved the long wait for the Flying dumbos. Mika loved it, though, which made it worth it.

It's a small world was also a winner, we all could agree it was great. The dolls are beautiful and seeing them gives you a nice, warm feeling. The song is also catchy and had us sing it for the rest of the day.

We were then off to Tomorrowland where we waited in line for what's probably the 2nd most stupid ride (after Muholland Madness in California Adventure) in all of creation: Autopia. I've never been in a more boring ride in my life. Alas, Mika LOVED driving the car and she wanted to go again - the wait was too long, however.

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, another new ride, was actually a blast. You go in two-person carts which you can turn around, and have guns that you aim at targets that you try to shoot. Mike was quite good at it, but even little kids can get points by just shooting aimlessly. At the end of the ride, you get a digital picture which you can e-mail home. It was great and Mika enjoyed it.

Finally, Mika headed to Astro Orbitor, a ride where you spin around in rockets that you can direct up and down. She loved it too.

Conclusion

In all we had quite a good time. I was annoyed by the long lines, and next year I'll try to find even a less busy time to go, but getting there right at opening time was good for at least getting some rides in. Next year I'll also get Mika more acquainted at least with the stories behind the rides so she can be more excited about it. Who knows? perhaps by next year she'll be into princesses like practically every other little girl anyway. She'll also be tall enough to be able to take on other rides.

Yesterday we went to the California Academy of Sciences which is now conveniently located in downtown San Francisco a few blocks away from BART. The building is pretty small and there wasn't much to see beyond the aquarium. Their ant exhibit has closed and a new one on chocolate is opening soon.

The aquarium is much smaller than it used to be, but they have several big tanks with multiple windows in addition to smaller tanks with one or two species. The kids (3 yo) were pretty interested in looking at the fish, though not for very long.

There is a small area with penguins and you can see them being fed at specific times. They have small bean bags where people can seat and the kids just enjoyed playing in the area after glancing at the penguins for a few minutes.

Upstairs there is a toddler room where they enjoyed playing with other kids for a while.

In all we probably spent about 2 1/2 hours there, though you could see everything in well under an hour if you were by yourself.

As the place stands I don't think it's worth the $7.00 admission, but it's free the first Wednesday of every month (yesterday). It wasn't inordinarily crowded either. Lunch at the Grow Cafe was good.

An article in today's Clarín discusses an unusual tourist attraction in Latvia: The Karosta Prison. The prison was built in 1900 and functioned as a military prison under Latvian, Nazi and Soviet regimes. After it closed down there were plans to demolish it, but it was saved by its neighbors and then turned into a tourist attraction. Now you can take tours of the prison, and even stay there for one or more nights and experience what real prison conditions were like. These come complete with freezing cells and cold water, bad food and autocratic guards. Those disobeying, can be punished by being put on solitary with no food or water, or being made to perform exhausting physical excersises. Apparently, this is a turn on for some tourists.

There are many places in the Bay Area where you can go with your preschool-age children, but very few where you can go, sit down, sip a mocha and talk to your friends while they play. Play Cafe, in Oakland, is exactly that.

This new hang out is a hybrid between a grown-up Cafe and a Children's Museum. It has a counter where you can order the usual cafe-stuff (coffees, teas, soft drinks, pastries and even fruit/veggie plates and hot dogs for the little ones) and a large room with (less than comfortable) tables and chairs. But the fun for the kids are in the little play areas that surround the room. One is a "Malt Shoppe" and features a play kitchen complete with tons of plastic food, a selling counter and an eating area. This was perfect for Mika as she loves asking people what they want to eat (and then telling them she doesn't have any). A second one is a theater area, complete with a lighted billboard, beautiful costumes, a puppet theater (with puppets, of course) and a camera/screen. There is also a very large, very deep ball pit and a classroom with art and other learning materials. Finally there is a little area that is made to resemble the outside with a hopscotch game, a picnic table and a play-BBQ grill. All the toys are very high quality.

There were several small toddlers there that day and they seemed to be having fun, but I think the place is probably best for kids 2yo and older who are into "pretend play" - the ball pit, though, is fun for everyone. There isn't much space to set down a baby - and my 7mo got bored quickly, but my 3.5 yo had a blast.

Play Cafe is free for the month of August, but will then charge $4.25 admission per child. A family membership will be $45. I can imagine that in rainy afternoons it will be very, very popular.

Earlier this week, I spent three days in Seattle with my girls. We stayed near the Seattle Center, at the Hampton Inn (which, btw, is a great place to stay with kids), and visited some of the nearby child-friendly attractions. There is quite a bit to see in Seattle, and 3 days wasn't enough. Indeed, I discovered after my first day there that it's too tiring for me to go out with the girls for more than half a day.

Our first day we went to the

Woodland Park Zoo

Seattle's zoo is considered one of the best in the country and for good reason. The animal habitats are large, complex and beautiful. The animals themselves look clean and healthy. It's clear that they are well taken care of - indeed, the focus on the animal's welfare comes at times at the expense of zoo goers. There are so many places for the animals to hide, that for a couple of hours at mid-day we could barely find any - something that proved quite frustrating. When the animals are out, you can usually see them from many angles - most habitats include large, impecably clean and scratch-free glass windows that sometimes allow you to be face to face with the animals. Indeed, Mika had a great time "playing" with a very friendly siamang through one of these windows. A whole family of gorillas was comfortably sitting next to another, and we couldn't have felt closer to the enormous tapir who obviously wanted some attention while he half-napped.

The zoo is quite large, there are some inclines but it's not particularly hilly (at least compared to the Oakland Zoo). In addition to the animal habitats, it has an African village which provides opportunities for pretend-play (not that a 3yo needs much in the ways of opportunities). From the school there are wonderful views of a grassy field populated by giraffes, zebras, deer and hippopotami. The children's zoo is not as cool as Oakland's, and the petting zoo closes at 3 pm, but it has a small play area resembling a vegetable garden which Mika loved.
My favorite part was the butterfly enclosure, a little area where you can stand while large colorful butterflies fly around. My 7mo loved it, though my 3yo was bored quickly. The garden outside is quite nice. This is a temporary exhibit, unfortunately.

We probably saw 2/3 of the zoo in the 5 hours or so we were there. It's definitely a place I'd go back to with the kids.

The entrance is $10 for adults and $7 for kids, but there is a $1 off coupon in one of the coupon-books available with other tourist flyers. Unfortunately our membership in the Oakland Zoo didn't give us a discount on admission. We rented a stroller for $4, though next time I'd make an effort and bring my own (I didn't want to try dealing with a double stroller and two bus-journeys each way). The rental had a hard plastic seat with no head support and couldn't recline. There was space for a diaper bag but not much more. Most annoyingly it made the most horrible and loud sound as it went and I wouldn't be surprised if it scared away many of the animals.

We ate at the Rain Forest Food Pavilion, near the West Entrance, though next time I'd definitely bring a pic-nic lunch. The Pavilion features several food outlets, supposedly each with a different menu. When we visited, however, only three of them were opened - one serving ice cream and the other two serving the same type of fast food (hot dogs, corn dogs, pizza, salads). Drinks were unbelievably expensive, $3.50 for juices or soft drinks, though milk was just $2. We shared a cheese pizza ($5) which tasted like a micro-bake concoction. It was edible but just that.

To get to the Zoo, you can take bus number 5 from downtown - it runs on 3rd Avenue for a few blocks.

The next day we decided to stick close to Seattle Center. Our first stop was

The Children's Museum

I hate to say it but I was somewhat disappointed by Seattle's Children Museum. It's quite large and its many "exhibits" are well made, of quality material and greatly detailed - but they seem to be there to be looked at rather than played with. Indeed, much of the stuff kids would want to play with is encased in plexiglass, providing endless frustration for little ones which can't quite understand why they can't play with it. This is particularly the case in the Global Village Exhibit. Here you can go visit a tailer shop, a beauty shop and a house in Ghana, a house and a store/restaurant in the Philippines and a house and a sushi store in Japan. Visit but not really play, while there are garments you can try on on the tailor shop, there is little you can use to try different hairstyles at the beauty shop - and practically no food to play with at any of the stores and restaurants. What it's there is behind plexiglass and inaccessible, or plastic food with no ethnic ties. You can open the drawers in the kid's room in the Japanese house, but only to find toys behind plexiglass - just like in the shelves and other places. I understand that kids might lose or break the actual toys or food boxes if they had them, but without them there isn't much they can do but watch and go. On our second visit there, my little girl wisely took some plastic food from the Grocery Store in the "Your neighborhood" section to cook it in the grill outside the Ghanaian house, but that certainly didn't teach her anything about Ghanaian food. If I lived in Seattle and visited this museum often I'd probably bring my props with me.

The larger amount of plastic food made the grocery store in the your neighborhood section more fun, and Mika played there a lot - but there seemed to be little point to the restaurant next door. There were instructions on how to make Mexican food, but nothing that approximated it. There was a pretend fountain soda machine - but no glasses for the pretend soda to go into. Some pots and pans where to put pretend food to cook would have been fun too. It was specially frustrating because Michaela LOVES to play restaurant and this should have been an ideal setting.

The theater area is pretty cool in that there is a large stage where kids can perform, though it'd be nice if there were more costumes for them to change into (the ones available seemed old and weren't very colorful). They have a cool sound/light effect board - kids can push buttons and play different sounds & have different lights appear on the painted background. My 3.5 yo is a little too young for this sort of play, but I can imagine it'd be fascinating to an older child.

The baby area seemed to be the most popular place - unfortunately because of the museum policy of having to be with your kids at all times, it was filled with children over 3 (it's supposed to be for newborns until 3 years old). Some parents don't seem to care that their older kids get in the way of the babies - but you'll encounter inconsiderate parents everywhere. This area has some foam structures - fun for babies to play around -, a water splashing area and some games. Indeed, this was the only water playing area we saw, perhaps it's because Seattle is such a wet city they don't need more water at the museum.

The center of the museum is taken over by a plastic forest. It has a couple of caves, a hill and it's all in all very well made - but here again there was stuff behind plexiglass and a command to not climb anything that limited creative play.

There is also an art area, a kids radio station, a "clog" area, a media area and a special exhibit on the magic schoolbus. These areas required some parental involvement (at least for a 3.5 year old) and with the baby on tow I decided to skip them. We'll give them a try next time we visit Seattle and the museum.

Admission to the museum is $7.50 for adults and childrens, but we got in free with our Habitot membership.

There is a lunch court on the floor above the museum, but with standard mall-food. If you want your kids to eat a healthier lunch, I'd recommend packing one and eating it at the museum.

After the museum we headed to the Fun Forest an "entertainment pavillon" with rides and carnival-type games. Being a weekday, most of the rides weren't working - but we managed to hit the ferris wheel and another kiddy ride. In all they have ten rides for little kids and a bunch more for adults. Rides are quite expensive, tickets are $1 each and the kiddie rides cost 2 tickets each (so $2 a ride). You can get 10 tickets for $9 - a marginal saving - but after doing that I found that you could get a coupon for 12 tickets for $6 at one of stores selling t-shirts in front of the Space Needle. It may be worth it for you to head there first. On weekends you can buy all-day bracelets for $20. When we returned to the Fun Forest the next day, none of the rides were working - so don't count on riding any during weekdays.

Our last stop that day was the Space Needle - the UFO-shaped tower which defines the Seattle skyline. Mike and I had eaten at the Sky City restaurant, on the top, a few years before but I didn't want to spend the $ to do it again (the food was fine, but very expensive at $30-40 for entrees). Mika wanted to check it out, so we paid the fee ($13 for adults, minus a $1 off coupon available in the Seattle coupon book - free for kids under 4) and went up. Mika enjoyed it, though I'd say that she liked having been there more than actually being there, if you know what I mean. Camila really liked the wind.

The next day, our last in Seattle, my plans were to visit Pike Street Market and the Seattle Aquarium. Alas, the aquarium was closed (it reopens on 9/17) so we'll have to leave that for another visit.

I quite enjoyed Pike Street and the Pike Place Market, there are dozens of stores selling all sorts of things in a building that not just looks but feels and smells old. While the building is pretty stroller friendly - there are ramps all over the place - most of the stores are too small and crowded to make it easy to peruse their merchandise while pushing a double stroller. While both my girls were great, I'd really like to return here without a stroller for leisury shopping. As it was all I managed to buy were some flavored hazelnuts and teas.

Our next stop was the Seattle Waterfront. We stopped for some lunch at The Fishermans Restaurant and then headed outside to Pier 57 where Mika had a great time playing with another little girl. They sealed their friendship with a ride in the carousel. We walked some more on the waterfront, had some ice cream, and then my two girls fell asleep as I made my way up pine street to the monorail for our trip back to Seattle Center (and a short visit to the Children's Museum before flying back home).

In all we had a great time and I look forward to our next visit to Seattle.

Before our trip to Seattle last month we spent a long weekend in the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. We had visited the area exactly thirteen years before, on the labor day weekend of our first year of marriage. We had loved it then, and figured it was time to return.

We flew in a Saturday afternoon, and after getting a car (more about that in the next post), we headed to Port Townsend where we'd decided to stay the night. We all enjoyed taking the ferry ride, specially Mika for whom it was a new experience. She'd been on boats before, but probably too long ago for her to remember.

The drive to Port Townsend was pretty nice, so much rain makes for a very green scenery. The town itself is very pretty. Nested in a hilly site next to a harbor, Port Townsend bloomed almost overnight into a beautiful town sometime last century on news that the railways were coming to connect the town and the port with the rest of civilization. On news of the railway, there was a building boom in the town and many large and beautiful Victorian mansions were built, it's fun to just drive through the town and look at the houses from the outside. Many of these have been converted to B&Bs, and they offer a cozy place to stay (with two little kids alone, we stayed at the Harborside Hotel instead). Downtown Port Townsend, on the lowest street by the water, has been converted into a swank shopping & dining district with boutiques, restaurants and tourist-directed shops. It's quite pleasant to stroll through the whole area. The harbor itself is also pleasant, so in all it's a good place where to stop for the night. For dinner, we went to the Surf Restaurant, which if nothing else was quite child friendly.

Our first stop on our second day of the trip (after driving around Port Townsend looking at the houses again) was Olympic Game Farm, a large facility where they keep and train wild animal for use in Hollywood movies. You can take a car tour of the park ($9pp) and see the animals, There are two kinds, deer, elk, llamas, bisons, etc. which roam free and will approach your car, and bears, rhinoceros, etc. which are behind electric fences. You can buy sliced bread at the gate ($2 a loaf) to give to the animals, while I have to wonder how good a sliced-bread diet is for wild animals, no one can argue with the fun factor of having the animals come to your car. Mika needless to say, loved it. While the bears are behind electric fences - and a close look at those incredibly long claws make it clear why - most of them are trained performers and have an amazing ability of catching bread thrown at them on mid-flight. Again, a great show for the kiddies.

Of course, in retrospect I'm not sure about the ethics of visiting that sort of place. As much fan as we had, I felt guilty about supporting an environment where wild animals are trained - in the case of wild cats & dogs, are confined to small cages - and eat so much bread. I don't think I'd go again.

After the park both girls fell asleep, and our moto is that as long as they are sleeping, we won't stop, so we were able to make it all the way to the Enchanted Forest at Olympic National Park. This forest, on the west side of the park, is the only temperate rain forest in the world. When we visited thirteen years before, the place had reminded us of a fairy tale forest, a place where at any moment you could run into a fairy or a leprechaun. Trees fall on the ground, and new trees grow from the fallen trunks, while moss hangs from evey available surface. It was truly one of the most beautiful places I've been to. This time around, it was much less exciting. Apparently the forest is going through a dry spell (who knew a rain forest could be dried?) and the little moss hanging on the trees was pale brown rather than bright green, many fewer trees seemed to be growing on top of others. It was nice, but not nearly as beautiful as we remembered it. Mika, however, had a blast. She loved climbing the trees, hiding behind them and playing hide and seek and looking for leaves and other things (don't worry, we didn't let her remove anything). The forest is mostly stroller friendly, too, which helped with Camila.

We didn't have a place to stay that night, and we decided to see how far we could make it. However, as we started to drive south, the sun started to fall and Mike wanted to stop somewhere to see the sunset at the beach. I suggested that we drive on to the Kalaloch Lodge, a resort located at the beach. When I'd check out their website online it seemed that it was sold-out (that tells you, don't trust their website) but once we got there we found out they had a room, so we unpacked and headed to the beach. The beach in front of the hotel is beautiful, there is a lot of driftwood (large, white, dried trunks) which gives it kind of an eery feeling, and large rocks that make for tide pools full of sea life. Alas, the beach is very popular but large enough that you can find some degree of solitude. It was great to be there.

The next morning we took a free guided tour of the tidepools a few kilometers north of there, and while the tour guide left much to be desired in terms of knowledge and ability to present material, the tide pools were great. We saw dozens of star fish, anenomes, tube worms, razor clams and sea snails, and again, Mika had a blast. If you can afford it, it may be worth staying in this area for a couple of days.

After a big breakfast back at the lodge, we made our way back to Seattle - a long 5 hour drive. We took the southern route, so we got a quick view of the lake and of a couple of lumber towns before taking the hour long ferry ride to Seattle. The girls both cooperated by sleeping and generally being quiet (it wouldn't happen now), so in all it was a pleasant drive.

Last September we spent a couple of days exploring the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. After spending an afternoon exploring the Enchanted Forest we headed south looking for a beach where to watch the sunset and a place to stay for the night. Kalaloch Lodge offered both and much more.

The lodge has a central building with a foyer, a restaurant and a gift shop downstairs, and several rooms downstairs. In addition, they have 44 cabins, many of them with gorgeous views of the beach. The hotel itself is practically on the beach, though you do need to walk about a hundred yards from the lodge to find access down to the water. The beach itself is beautiful, filled with large white logs which have drifted in through the years and tide pools with sea urchins, star fish and other little critters. Even though it was cold at that time of year (you can light a fire if you are so inclined), it was absolutely beautiful. I had the best time walking on the beach, seeing the immensity of the sea and the sky reflected on the wet sand, looking outwards and inwards.

We stayed at the Becker’s suite and found the room quite comfortable. The suite itself is huge, featuring a king size bed, a fireplace, sofa, TV, a bookcase filled with books, table and chairs, fridge, coffeemaker and an incredibly view of the sea. Our only complaint was the room was quite cold, there is no thermostat in the room itself and the heat doesn't seem to travel up well. The fireplace didn't help much - though it was nice.

I think we paid about $160 a night - down from the regular $260 a night rate, which is still steep for us. But it was so beautiful that we think it was worth it.

We just got a flyer on the mail saying they are having a sale - stay one night, get the second night free. If you want to use the limited-time offer the code to ask for is BOGO

They also advertise that you can stay a night at each of the three properties they administer (Sold Duc Resort and kale Quinault Lodge are the others) for $300 (though I'm sure it's for the cheapest rooms) or at 2 of their properties for $200.

If we lived closer to the peninsula I think we'd take advantage of the offer. But alas, we don't :(

I think one of the reasons why I married my husband Mike is his sense of direction. When we were young, he could get us anywhere we were trying to go often on the first try. And he would even remember how to get there the next time around. Sure, he got us lost in Bilbao, but that was the exception rather than the rule. His general sense of direction gave him such an aura of competence that I found terribly appealing.

My friend Lola and I, on the other hand, are like that museum curator from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who once got lost in his own museum (not such a difficult task, mind you, some museums are virtually labyrinths). So it came as no surprise to anyone that when we decided to spend the weekend at Tomales Bay - a narrow stretch of water an hour north of San Francisco - it took us practically the whole day to get there.

To be fair, we started out late (that's a Lola trait, I may be many things but I'm very timely) and then of course we were starving so we stopped by Joaquin Deli for lunch before we headed out of town. And I had to return some books, buy some cat food and get some $$$. But anyway, it couldn't have been after 2 pm when we finally got on the road.

We decided to go through the East Bay and take the Richmond-San Rafael bridge 'cause I usually like to avoid driving through San Francisco. It's waaaaay too easy to get lost there (and yes, Lola and I spent an evening driving through the city trying to find the Bay Bridge once). And the maps (damn maps!) showed that there were roads heading west from 101 to 1 both in San Rafael and Petaluma. Ha! Yes, I'm sure the roads are there. But where? where? Mike, in his ugly Americanism, cursed at how badly marked roads and streets were in Salta and Jujuy - but that cannot compare at all with the lack of signage in Petaluma. We spent 45 minutes driving through town trying to find the road to Tomales. Twice we got off the freeway at the "Bodega Bay" exit, it did us little good, that road is very well hidden.

So we continued north, managed to find the road to Sebastopol - from where we knew we could head southwest to Tomales - and drove through the town. We must have been at least half an hour past it when I thought of asking Lola if we might have possibly passed the town. So we turned back and after an expressing stop at a McDonalds and at a supermarket for some drinks (Lola was paranoid that we wouldn't be able to find any food on the coast), we headed out of Sebastopol again. Or we tried. Here the confusing roads and lack of signage got us again. But it only took a couple of circles around the town before finding the correct road.

Amazingly we made it to 1 and Bodega Bay without further mishap. Of course, we didn't know that, so we stopped at a mini-market to find out how to get to 1. The guy looked at us like idiots when he told us we were on 1 and then proceeded to give us directions for Tomales. He told us about a shortcut. We thanked him and got to the car and laughed. A shortcut, yeah right. I had images of Wrong Turn in my mind. If there was something of which I was sure is that if we took a shortcut we'd get lost. Maybe not raped and killed, but definitely lost.

Fortunately, a guy who was at the store when we were asking for directions came to our car and told us that the shortcut directions were actually wrong and told us how to get to Tomales. That involved pretty much staying on the road, not too surprising as Tomales is on Highway 1 after all.

The rest of the trip went well, we arrived at Valley Ford, had dinner at Dinucci's Italian Dinner (Lola, once again, was afraid there would be no food in Tomales - alas, she was wrong, they have their own, albeit more expensive, Italian restaurant) and then made it to Tomales before 10 PM.

In Tomales we stayed at the Continental Inn (review to follow), a very nice B&B.

The next day we *amazingly* managed to not get lost at all. We spent the morning walking through tiny Tomales (Lola is a photography frenzy so this took longer than it should have), and then stop by a quick stroll at Dillon Beach. I could go on about how beautiful this area is, but in reality all of western Marin county is so unbelievably beautiful that there isn't much of a point in comparing one beautiful spot with another one.

We stopped at Hog Island Oysters for Lola to feast on tiny, live creatures (or, as she puts it, to give meaning to their deaths) and then drove around the bay to Inverness where we had lunch at Priscilla's. I had never been to Inverness before (though I must have driven past it) and was amazed at how small it was. I'd heard about Manka's, the famed lodge and restaurant, and I expected it to be in a somewhat larger town. Alas, it was pretty - as was the drive to Point Reyes and the beaches around there. We spent quite a bit of time at the beach, looking at the stones. Unlike at Dillon beach, parking here was free.

Then we headed home, an espectacular drive, yada yada. We found the bridge and, most amazingly, we made it from the Golden Gate to the Bay Bridge without getting lost ONCE (though once again, the 101 could be better marked). OK, so we had to change lanes at the last minute a few times to get into the right freeway/exit, but we made it!!!!

A brief but great and so very relaxing holiday. We finished it off by going out to dinner at Vo's and then chatting away the evening in front of a fire at home.

We'll definitely have to do this again - and now that I know Mike can handle both kids by himself we can :)

Last night Mike and I went to Watercourse Way, an amazing spa and hot tub place in Palo Alto. We've been there twice before, but only because it's so far away from us (it took about an hour to get there, more to get back due to an accident in the freeway), that it's hard and expensive to do it when we have a babysitter at home. But the kids were away with their grandparents and we had the time.

Watercourse Way is without doubt the best hot tub place in the Bay Area. We have explored those in the East Bay, and while we like Piedmont Springs, it really can't compare. Watercouse Way rooms are incredibly beautiful, somewhat reminiscent of ancient Roman baths, and extremely relaxing.

This time we had the six drangonflies room, which we've had before. It has a wood hot tub - 4 feet deep -, a cold dip well, and a large shower with steam. In addition there is a single bed, with new white linen, to rest from the heat. I think the hot tub has six jets. Sitting there you feel all your stress disappear. I hadn't tried the steam bath before, but we also found it very relaxing and just fun (though the steam is pretty hot). The shower is big enough that you can hide in the back and not be able to see anything at all. The room has light peach walls and a small wall water fountain, which I think help make it even more relaxing. I'd highly recommend this room.

I think the time before we went to One Pine, which was larger, but not as beautiful. It also had a wood hot tub, but it had a sauna instead of a steam shower.

There are several rooms that have large (perhaps six feet long?) tiled tubs, very reminiscent of ancient roman baths. Unfortunately the rooms are pretty small, and they don't have a cold plunge or steam or sauna. They are still beautiful, but I think I prefer the larger rooms.

Next time I want to try the nine bats room, which also has steam.

Watercourse Way
165 Channing Ave
Palo Alto, CA