(A work perpetually in progress)
The San Diego Zoo
Needs no explanation. My parents bought us an annual membership so we could drop in for an hour or two as often as we like. Biggest hits so far: the snakes, the snakes, the monkeys, the koalas, and the snakes.
Mariam Mother of Life Shrine
This beautiful statue of Mary is over twenty feet tall and can be glimpsed from the nearby freeway. It sits behind St. Ephrem Maronite Catholic Church. Around the base of the statue, the Hail Mary is written in English and Aramaic. Mary stands at the top of a curving staircase; under her base is a domed alcove upon whose wall is painted a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Simply breathtaking.
Balboa Park: Japanese Tea House, Spreckles Organ Pavilion
Our first pilgrimage to San Diego’s famous Balboa Park (not counting zoo trips—the zoo is part of the enormous downtown park complex) was the occasion of a happy meeting among friends: our pal Stefoodie and her lovely family carved out an afternoon of their San Diego vacation to spend time with my gang and our friends the Sanchezes. We met for lunch at the Japanese Tea House (mmm, teriyaki bowl…) and then wandered over to the Organ Pavilion, a large outdoor amphitheatre, the perfect place for moms to sit and chat while the kids ran up and down the aisles.
Here’s a new post with lots more pictures of the Japanese Garden and other Balboa Park sights.
And here’s one about our visit to the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park.
Point Loma Lighthouse / Cabrillo National Monument
I wrote about our visit to beautiful Point Loma, with its views of San Diego Bay and the Pacific, here.
La Jolla Cove—harbor seals!
Coronado Bridge
Silver Strand
Birch Aquarium
The kids (with grandparents):
Legoland
Del Mar beach
A bookstore owner in Missouri is burning his book collection to "protest what he sees as society’s diminishing support for the printed word."
"This is the funeral pyre for thought in America today," Wayne told
spectators outside his bookstore as he lit the first batch of books.
Strikes me as a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face, but I suppose I see his point.
Kansas City has seen the number of used bookstores decline in recent
years and there are few independent bookstores left in town, said Will
Leathem, a co-owner of Prospero’s Books.
"There are segments of this city where you go to an estate sale and find five TVs and three books," Leathem said.
Dozens
of customers took advantage of the Sunday’s book-burning, searching
through those waiting to go into the fire for last-minute bargains.
Mike
Bechtel paid $10 for a stack of books, including an antique collection
of children’s literature, which he said he’d save for his 4-year-old
son.
"I think given the fact it is a protest of people not
reading books, it’s the best way to do it," Bechtel said. "(Wayne has)
made the point that not reading a book is as good as burning it."
Ah, so it’s not just a protest, it’s a fire sale.
Do you think Tom Wayne’s bookburning will make people think about how much (or little) time they spend reading actual books? Will any passersby be moved to go home and curl up with a classic instead of reaching for the remote control? Or will they all be looking to see if they made the evening news?
May 29, 2007 @ 7:27 am | Filed under:
Carnivals This week’s CoH is up at About Homeschooling. It’s like visiting Alaska, sort of.
Insignificant bit of trivia: I just realized that I hosted both the 73rd Carnival of Homeschooling (last week) and the 73rd Carnival of Education (last July). This was a coincidence. But I am officially signing up to host the 73rd Carnival of Children’s Literature right now. Since those are monthly, not weekly, and we’re only on number 14 so far, I guess I’ll be seing you in about five years. Wow, five years. Do you think we’ll still be blogging?
