Californa loves to play Rock Band!! He will pick up the guitar and play, sit down at the drumset and play...and grab the microphone and sing like an angel. I've got your future rockstar right here...he's a heartbreaker so hide your daughters :)
.jpg)
Cherub Rock
California's New Cell Phone Law Begins July 1st
After July 1st, 2008, it will be illegal for anyone to hold a cellphone to their ear and talk while driving. This is good news! I personally only use my cell in emergency situations. If I need to use it at all, I pull into a parking lot or off onto the side of the road. From now on, those who insist on holding their cell phones to their ear, will be ticketed. Say good bye to this girl to the right :)
(not me...I only use mine while I am parked somewhere)
The law states that Californians will still be able to talk and drive but only with a hands free device. Here are the rest of dos and don'ts comprised within this piece of legislation:
* everyone 18+ is prohibited from holding a phone while driving (except when dialing a number and receiving a call)
* 16 or 17 year olds are only permitted to use a phone at all while driving is for emergencies only.
* the first offense is $20
* subsequent offenses are $50 a piece
* the final cost for these tix after court costs are added in are $76 and $190 respectively
You would think that text messaging while driving is illegal as well, right? Wrong! It is illegal for 16 and 17 year olds, but not for those 18 and older. If texting causes you to make bad driving decisions, you'll get a ticket for that...
Cell phone tickets won't go against a person's driving record either and their insurance premiums won't increase.
Click HERE to read a full article about this new cell phone law...and go out and buy an ear piece:)
We Left our Hearts in San Francisco (Part 2)
Sunday (5/11/08) was filled with activity. We took a cab to the Golden Gate Park, the Exploratorium and the Palace of Fine Arts.
The Golden Gate Park is HUGE so if you ever go, wear your tennis shoes and be prepared to walk for days! It is bigger than Central Park and is the largest urban park in the United States. The Golden Gate Park is comprised of wilderness, museums, playgrounds, two lakes and a music concourse. Some notable features of the park include the Japanese Tea Gardens, the de Young Museum and the San Francisco Botanical Garden. We ate lunch at the de Young Cafe which uses only organic ingredients in their meals and serves many scrumptious vegetarian dishes...mmmmm!
The playground at the Golden Gate park was built in 1887. It has obviously been updated with the best and most current playground equipment over the years and was by far the best playground that I have ever taken my kids to...here are some pics of them having fun at the playground, in and around the park as well as walking in the woods:
Here we are walking on one of the many trails within the park and enjoying the playground eqipment. California was in heaven. 
Tennessee had an awesome time climbing throughout this rope structure. You can see him right in the middle in this picture. He actually got all the way to the top (yes...the child that is afraid of heights).
Check back soon for information and pictures of us at the Exploratorium, the Palace of Fine Arts and Ice Cream!
Tornadoes Touchdown in Southern California
First of all, I feel like I need to explain that the only time it usually rains in Southern California is in the winter...between the months of November and February. We hardly ever get thunderstorms but it does happen occasionally. Well today...and remember it is almost JUNE, we had tornadoes, hail, heavy rain, flooding and mudslides. I witnessed my day go from sunny to dark, followed by lightening, thunder and heavy rain.
I thought all we had to worry about were earthquakes and wildfires! Put your seatbelts on everyone,it looks like times are a changin'. Take a look at these pics taken today (from the L.A. Daily News and L.A. Times):
The tornadoes flipped a 30 car freight train and a semi-truck...if you want to see video of these tornadoes click HERE. Please remember that we don't get tornadoes here...this is strange weather for us.
Happy Global Warming everyone :)
100% Organically Grown
Back in April, we posted information about organic gardening and pictures of our own organic garden on the terrace of our condo. Click HERE if you want to view that post for the first time or to refresh your memory.
We have fruit and vegetables growing now. The raspberries were the first to produce fruit and many of them have already been eaten by Tennessee and California. Here are some pics of our fruits and vegetables...
The beginning of Merlot grapes...
Little green tomatoes...
Blueberries that haven't turned "blue" yet...
and Raspberries that have already been picked :)
We Left our Hearts in San Francisco (Part 1)
I am not sure if any of you have noticed but we have been gone for a bit. We went to San Francisco on vacation. The above picture is from the lounge on the top floor of our hotel. We love San Francisco...not more than L.A. - but we love it in different ways. We love the way that everything is centrally located, downtown is SAFE and everyone is so friendly. It is also very progressive.
We walked over to the Yerba Buena Gardens on Friday (5/9/08). The Yerba Buena Gardens were named after the original name of San Francisco...Yerba Buena which means "Good Herb" in Spanish. The "good herb" was wild mint that grew abuntantly throughout the area.
Here are some pictures of us enjoying the Yerba Buena Gardens...
After that we went to Zeum. Zeum is located within the Yerba Buena Gardens (along with a playground as seen above, a carousel, a bowling alley and an ice skating rink see www.YerbaBuenaGardens.com for more info). Zeum is difficult to explain so I took this picture within Zeum in an effort to define the experience that we had there:
According to Zeum's website they provide hands on experience in four main areas: animation, sound, music production and visual arts. While we were there Tennessee created a stop motion video, claymation, music production, directed and starred in two videos and utilized green screen special effects for his movies. California also created videos using green screen speical effects, manipulated blocks to build pyramids and constructed a 3-D sculpture through the use of legos on a wall. See them in action below:
On Saturday(5/10/08), we went to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was just breathtaking! The bridge is a mile and a 3/4 long so we decided to just walk part way. Between L.A. Mama being afraid of bridges and Tennessee being afraid of heights, it is a wonder that we even stepped foot on the bridge! We did though...and I thought it was wonderful - my fear was gone instantly! Tennessee...not so much. You can tell how he felt by the look on his face in some of the pictures below:
Here are pics of the boys in the cab on the way to the Bridge...
Here are pics taken of the Bridge:
...and drumroll...a pic of us on the Bridge eeek it's a long way down!
This is what Alcatraz looks like from the Bridge...
If you want to experience the Golden Gate Bridge but can't afford to make the trip, PBS has created an incredible documentary called "American Experience Golden Gate Bridge". If you are interested in this, click HERE to see more!
After we went to the Golden Gate Bridge, we took a streetcar all they way up Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. Riding in the streetcar was so much fun! San Francisco bought streetcars from around the world and refurbished them to use for mass transit within the city. I found a picture of our streetcar online and can be seen below.
This particular streetcar was adopted from Philadelphia...it was built in 1947. To find out more about this streetcar and all the others in San Francisco; click HERE.
We made it to Fisherman's Wharf, more specifically Pier 39. It was a nice sunny day and the temperature was quite mild. The boys befriended a seagull along the way...
We walked around and saw the sights and decided to go to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Here is a pic of us waiting for our table:
They told us it would be 20 - 25 minutes so we found some time wasters...California was getting tired and a little upset, so I checked on our table at about 25 minutes. They informed me that it would be 5 or 10 more minutes. After hearing them tell five other people the same thing, I realized that they had been lying all along and who knows when we would acutally be seated. This was the rudest thing that we experienced in San Francisco...when your children are hungry, you need people to tell you the truth!! We went back to the hotel and got take out :)
Check back soon for Part 2 of We Left our Hearts in San Francisco. I will post pics of our experience at the Golden Gate Park, the Exploratorium and the Palace of Fine Arts and eating ice cream :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
