Rail Fair at Ardenwood Farm

Sunday, September 3rd, Frank and I took Alex to a Rail Fair held at Ardenwood Historic Farm. The light, breezy weather was absolutely gorgeous - ever so slightly warm in the sun and ever so slightly cool in the shade. To leave our home in Livermore, pick up Alex in San Ramon, and drive on to Ardenwood in Fremont took just under an hour.

Ardenwood Historic Farm offers a glimpse into life on a family farm between 1890 and 1930. Step back in time as you explore the remnants of the once vast estate of George and Clara Patterson, whose family farmed the land for over 100 years, beginning in the 1850s. East Bay Regional Park District has operated the property as a fully functioning, turn-of-the-last-century farm since 1985.

 

The poster at the entry gate hinted at lots of fun ahead, although it is hard to tell from the serious, determined look on Alex's face.

We stopped off to get some cold drinks and then went on to a model railroad exhibit in one of the first buildings off to our left. Frank eagerly plunged on ahead. Alex preferred to grab a seat on an old trunk near the entrance and thoroughly enjoy the sunshine and his lemonade, a new found favorite beverage of his. Even posing for pictures outside afterward at a photo op spot, Alex's priority was slurping with satisfaction on that all precious lemonade. Of course we bought him at least one more later on during the outing.

After the model railroad exhibit, further straight on were hutches for rabbits and chicks. Alex liked feeding straw to the bunnies. Frank and I were a bit apprehensive about what his reactions would be since his own bunny had passed away only a few weeks earlier. We had worried needlessly; Alex was fine.

We walked on over to the Deer Park Station to catch a ride on a train of ~15 minute duration. The train went up and back and did not do a loop. At the far end passengers needed to disembark and let those waiting at the station board for a ride back in the opposite direction. Rather than walking back we elected to wait for the train to complete another round trip. Then we road it back in the return direction.

Along the way we saw antique farm equipment and old railroad locomotives.

We stood and watched as a train passed by the railroad crossing. The green car pulling the train is "Katie", a diesel locomotive. At either end of the train run, we watched Katie disconnect and move from one end of line of cars to the other end to pull them back in the opposite direction.

The Rail Fair ran from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We were there from about 11:00 AM until 3:30 PM, leisurely strolling the grounds, having a comfort food lunch of hot dogs and mac 'n cheese. Later we ate home-baked goods for snacks... and lemonade, of course. It had been an enjoyable, low-key outing.

Ponder: The Cat Who Saved Books

The best parts about The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa ©2021 are the title and the cover art. The worst part about The Cat Who Saved Books is the contents.

Rather than spend my time writing a summary, here is the book description from Amazon:

Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for—or rather, demands—the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners.

Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. Through their travels, the cat and Rintaro meet a man who leaves his books to perish on a bookshelf, an unwitting book torturer who cuts the pages of books into snippets to help people speed read, and a publishing drone who only wants to create bestsellers. Their adventures culminate in one final, unforgettable challenge—the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter . . .

The description sounds enticing, but the weak plot is confusing and the characters are so underdeveloped that I never bonded with any of them - even the cat. I bought this book for my husband since he loves cats and books about cats. He read all of it (because it was a gift) but was unimpressed. I wanted to read it to see if it was appropriate to pass on to my bookworm granddaughter who reads fantasies. I was captive in an airport and on airplane. Lack of any other reading material is the reason I read as much as I did. I only got halfway through the book before quitting and I rarely stop midway in a book. To be more forgiving, perhaps I can rationalize that something was lost in the translation from the 2017 copyright. I would have given The Cat Who Saved Books zero stars, as I do for books I do not finish, but the cover and title deserved at least one star. 

★☆☆☆☆ Awful but I read most or maybe even all of it

Ponder: Stupid Things

Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old ©2021 by Steven Petrow is a humorous yet insightful read. It is classified as a self-help book, in the non-fiction genre. The author was 64 years old as of the copyright date for this book. I am 70 years old at the time of this post so many, many, things really hit home. If younger folks would read this it would help fill a generation gap; but, I suspect if the reader is not yet experiencing some of the situations in the book, either personally or in respect to a loved one, the messages will not resonate. I am sharing the Table of Contents to show the situations addressed and my response to them. 

I am surprised I did not get a sore neck as much as I was bobbing my head in agreement with most of the topics of Part I about "today" and fewer, but still many, of the topics of Part II of "tomorrow". Having friends of a variety of ages "today" is very valid and keeps me learning. The "Organ Recital" topic where older folks discuss their health ad nauseum is a point not to be taken lightly. In Part II the "Leaky Pipes" topic gets real. I will admit that some of the topics in Part III about "the end" brought tears to my eyes; however, others truly gave me a heads up and were deserving of some serious thought.

But don't just rely on my point of view.  Stupid Things I Won't Do When I Get Old was awarded 4 stars on Amazon and per Google books it is described as...

For fans of David Sedaris and Nora Ephron, here is a humorous, irreverent, and poignant look at the gifts, stereotypes, and inevitable challenges of aging, based on the wildly popular New York Times essay from award-winning journalist Steven Petrow...
A Highly Judgmental, Unapologetically Honest Accounting of All the Things Our Elders Are Doing Wrong

The Google link actually has some clickable links to chapter excerpts. With the right audience, this book is definitely worth 4 stars. If my son and daughter were to find the time to read it, it would be a great conversation starter.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience

With my husband and close friends (my age, of course), I would selectively up its worth to 5 stars.

★★★★★ Great! Read it!

OKC July 2023 Part 2 of 2

Sunday, July 30th was a stay at home day, playing games and eating in. The weather was still blisteringly hot so this was a good decision. Jeremy zotted over to the dojo to pick up Autumn from her sleepover after her highly-welcomed breakfast of donuts. Even physically fit martial art students enjoy the sweet pleasures of life.

Autumn painted and assembled a 3-D wooden craft kit of an octopus I had brought along in my suitcase. She was so engrossed and did it with such independence. I felt proud of her and also of my success in gift selection for her.

Throughout the day we played games. Isaiah took major interest in the Go Fish and Uno card games.

As well as Go Fish and Uno, Autumn enjoyed playing Quirkle with us, a tile game of matching shapes and colors. Later her mom Robin joined us, too.

For dinner we had home-cooked turkey chili which Autumn and Isaiah made. They browned the ground meat under Jeremy's supervision and added three different kinds of beans. Jeremy gave them free rein to choose which spices to add; they sprinkled them in independently. The resulting chili was excellent and extremely tasty, even for me who is not a fan of turkey.

In the evening, after dinner, Robin, Jeremy, Frank, and I played El Dorado, a card deck building game which Frank and I have played with them before, on previous visits. Each player travels over a terrain of jungle, waterways, or dessert with the tools of machetes, oars, or coins. I guess I gained no wisdom from prior experience because, of the four of us, I came in dead last. I did not have the foresight, or knowledge of game strategy to build my deck of cards with what was needed to be successful in the future, instead of instant gratification of the moment. Hence, I sadly got left behind.

On Monday, July 31st, once inside the Science Museum Oklahoma,  Autumn and Isaiah headed straight for the play structure within CurioCity immediately off to the right of the museum lobby. This elaborate multi-level playground is good for delivering at least 30-45 minutes of parents and grandparents sit-on-their-butt-and-rest-and-observe time.

Around the play structure are other fascinating hands-on curiosities. There is device that for lack of a better name I call the ball popper. A tight fitting bowling ball sized "eyeball"  is manually raised via kid power (or grandpa power) within a narrow clearance tube. A basket at the far end is filled with small lightweight balls. When the "eyeball" is dropped, the air pressure pops the little balls up into the air, even as high as the ceiling depending on how many small balls are loaded in the basket. Fewer balls cause higher flights. Not one to just observe, this intrigued Frank. He would raise the "eyeball" repeatedly as long as kid power gathered up all those small balls and reloaded the basket. 

Wending our way through CurioCity we came upon a bed of nails. First a "victim" crawls into a replica of a wagon as would be in a gypsy caravan and  lies flat on a thick plate of plastic. The jury is still out on whether, with the punch of a button, the plate lowers or the nails rise up from within a grid of holes in the plate. Either way there is definition a sensation throughout the victim's body when contacted with the nails. Autumn tried it out first, convincing us it was a weird sensation that we had to experience.

I tried next and it did tickle in a weird way. The nails did not poke into the back of my head but when they were retracted I did feel a bit dizzy for some unknown reason.

Frank was a bit reluctant to do it but succumbed to pleas of, "Please Grandpa...". Fitting his 6'4" frame within the confines caravan wagon was a bit tricky but with some scooting and shuffling, he managed. He did not find the nails pleasurable.

What I experienced as a bit of dizziness, hit Frank like a ton of bricks as full on vertigo. There was a line of kids waiting to use the attraction so Frank could not just continue to lie there. Robin supported him and led him slowly hand-in-hand to a the nearest restroom. He went in and entered a stall only to be confronted with a child height toilet. He made do and emerged 10 minutes or so later, mostly recovered, and only needing to sit and rest a bit. This was when all of us took time out from exploring to have a snack. 

Isaiah had seen a balloon artist in another part of the museum and we went there for him to get a sword and shield made for him. He was so thrilled with them.

There was a display with a pendulum to illustrate resonance. By flinging out a magnet on a string, attaching it to the pendulum drum, drawing and releasing the pendulum toward and away from you, you could substantially increase the amplitude of its swing. Frank and the kids played with this for quite a while.

This piece of artwork of a bird in the palm of a hand drew me in. It is an ode to the art of creativity. Normally a science museum caters to the logical left side of the brain. This structure called to the more artistic right side of the brain. I enjoyed its uniqueness and message. Be sure to peek inside. 

The remnants of creativity are carelessly strewn in the little creator's haste to make tangible from the intangible.

This model of a streamlined electric locomotive built for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), in the northeastern United States is called a GG1. It brought back strong memories for Frank as he exclaimed his nickname for it, "a GuggaUnity"! Frank routinely rode passenger cars drawn by one of these back and forth between Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC in his college days at Saint Joseph's University. Per Wikipedia about the Pennsylvania GG1 class 

The GG1 entered service with the PRR in 1935 and later ran on successor railroads Penn Central, Conrail, and Amtrak. The last GG1 was retired by New Jersey Transit in 1983. Most have been scrapped, but 16 are in museums.

Look closely at the next photo and see the letters A.T.&S.F which stands for Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe. There is a song on YouTube about this rail line.

Frank truly enjoyed looking at this train layout and more especially so when his grandkids joined him.

Frank and Robin pose near a model of a roundhouse.

Robin took a picture of Frank and me with Autumn and Isaiah before leaving the museum.

On the way home we stopped at GameStop to let Isaiah pick out a promised birthday present for his recent July birthday. Seeing what my grandkids picked, pointed out to me the wisdom to letting them pick out their own gifts since I do not have a clue what they like as they get older.

He picked several Minecraft blind boxes where a treasure is hidden inside a boulder of sorts, and the fun is in digging it out to find the surprise.

Autumn selected a Disney dance game for an X-box that has popular tunes from Disney movies such songs from Descendants including “Evil like Me” and “Rotten to the Core”.

Robin had had the foresight to put a pork roast in the slow cooker before we left for the museum. We had a juicy, delicious meal waiting for us when we returned from a long, but exhausting, day of fun.

Tuesday, August 1st we said goodbye to the kids in the morning. Shortly after lunch Robin took Frank and me to the airport. We had a 4:30 pm flight that left pretty much on time and took us via a connecting flight through Phoenix home to Oakland airport arriving 8:00 pm. Both Frank and I caught some decent naps on the first leg. The second leg had a poor baby who cried pitifully, (actually screamed, probably painfully), the whole way. I felt so bad for him and his mom but thankfully most passengers were understanding and many tried to be helpful. It was so nice to see the patience and goodness come out of people. A small blessing was that the flight was on time.

Overall, we'd had a great trip and were pleased to have seen the grandkids in their own environment and to have learned their own interests. We were, however, glad to be back on home turf. We walked out the door of the airport terminal to a blast of cold air and cool breezes. Oh, what a relief from the 100℉+ temperatures we had cooked through in Oklahoma! Never the less, we would not hesitate to make the trip again ... though perhaps we would plan better than to visit in July.