For the July 4th weekend, we decided to go on a day trip to Six flags with the cousins. It is 90 minutes away and in all our years of living here, we never visited this theme park.
It is a combination of Sea world, Disney's animal kingdowm and Universal all in one for a third of the price. Granted there are some give and takes for the price but the end result when you have a bunch of kids running around on a sugar high, a great place to spend the day!
We went in as soon as the park opened and stayed there till the park closed. Pretty much on our feet the whole time. Here are some pictures.
There was a seal show. The seals did a good job but the people in the show were too loud and annoying. The volume was too loud. Hope the seals dont hear the same frequencies we do at the same volume!
Then the little dolphin show. It was amazing. There was also another big dolphin show called Drench, but we missed it. The little dolphin show was better than the ones we have seen at Sea World.
These 4 female dolphins were so synchronized and trained. They did a hoola hoop on their nose, threw a ball up with their "hands" and caught it in their mouth.. amazingly well trained.
Then we moved on to land animals. The tiger show was something we have never seen before. Five bengal tigers, jumping across 10 foot concrete slabs, climbing up 20 feet in one leap..
and diving into water and swimming! Have not seen that one before..
The butterfly garden was beautiful. Lots of large and small butterflies, well maintained, multiple security guards to make sure folks did not have both doors open to let butterflies out.. it was nicely done!
This one was the size of my palm!
Then we saw "feedom".. a Bald Eagle that was rescued. She posed for pictures a good 50 feet away. Was happy to get this "portrait" of her. Truly majestic and regal! On a good note, the extender and lens are fixed and seem to work okay after the repair.
The highlight though, was the fireworks. In all our life we have watched a lot of new years, disney, 4th of July fireworks. This was the best. Nice seats on a gallery. Very decent crowd. Great view of the fireworks launching pad across the water. The quality of the fireworks was also great. It was very well organized.
Tried a slo-motion video of the first part of the fireworks on the new iPhone 6 plus. However not sure if it uploads as a slow motion video.. it is on my youtube as a separate video..
Was too tired to even take the canon out after the long day.. Sometimes the best camera, is the one you can hold!
Loved this day trip. It was really a pleasant day, less crowded rides, happy kids and parents after being on our feet the entire day. Cannot ask for much more!
One thing I have recently cherished is trips on the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) trains in Asia. On a given day they do 300 km/hr speeds on the steady stretch and on a good day 420 km/hr. Was told that this is not the top speed and it goes higher on other days.
The recent record in Japan is 600 km/hr!
This was going to be a long post on "why can't we do this in the US of A?" The country that built the Hoover dam cannot build a single high speed rail line? at least for a "we can also do this" reason?
Then realized that the answer was simple. Our politicians are inept. Hoover dam came about because of some clever interstate deal making by visionary politicians. Today the country is so polarized that bullet trains have something or other to do with abortions, gay marriage and desert salamanders.
We live in a funny world. I am glad that at least I got to ride in a train like that in this lifetime. Going to take my kids on one of these trips and show them that the outside world is not necessarily what the local news media portrays it to be!
The best education we can give our kids is to take them around the world and let them experience firsthand what is going on in other parts of the world, where it is safe to take them.
Have recently started seeing posts on Facebook for TBT (which I learned was Throw Back Thursday)!
Old pictures are being posted for TBT. Given this blog has 60% of stuff that is nostalgic, there is a lot of Throwing back
One thing that specially stands out is that Jr. is a splitting image of my sister. Just looking at her face when she dresses up makes it a throw back event.
Last weekend was busy for her, what with a Saxophone performance that was followed by a dance performance. Her dance school celebrated yet another annual day.
She did an "okay" job as per her mom, sister and other critics. I was just standing in the back taking pictures and a video and going "awww. what is her rush to grow up?!" A short video clip is here. She danced for 7 minutes and we heard there was a lot of huffing and puffing going on at the end. If only she came to Yoga class with me, she can learn to breathe between steps better.. but one can only wish..
On the one hand there was the lecture from her mom and me which usually goes like this:
San : We work so hard to put you through all these classes, so you better not disappoint us..
Me : when I was a kid all my parents could do was put us through a CBSE school. they could not afford to pay for extra curricular activies. I had to grow up and learn things at a much older age which makes it harder. You learn faster when you are a kid. So don't miss this chance..
Little One : (who does her usual armchair quarterbacking, after she has backed out of every class in less than a month) You are not dancing even the same compared to last year. You have to improve!
Then I go through a remorse period thinking "maybe we are pushing her too hard?!" and San, who is the sanest voice in the house says "NO! we are definitely not."
We all have our own benchmarks to compare things. Most of my comparisons are considered "foul" by San and the kids because my growing up was in a "different time, different world under very different circumstances".
All that said, my sister did not dance. She did learn to sing. If she ever wonders what she would look like in a dance costume, she need to look no further!
That was Jr. posing after we reached home. January went by fast. So fast that this is the first time I took out the Canon this year! Given pictures become few and far between from Jan to Memorial day, here is a photo of the little one!
This one is also in a rush to grow up. Sigh!
Our sincere hope is that all these activities teach them the importance of "trying" and "persevering" to accomplish something and that the end result is that they feel proud of what they have achieved.
Jr. performed with the Kennedy Middle School Jazz band at the Folsom Jazz festival. Unfortunately I missed it because of travel.
However, we got to see her perform at CMEA at San Mateo's Aragon high school last weekend.
The kids were amazed by the sound quality in the auditorium. They also got to experience a "clinic" where prominent Jazz band teachers came and gave them detailed feedback on the performance and tips to improve.
We had a great time watching the kids perform so well and be so enthusiastic about learning!
These kids have come a long way in such a short time. It is great that their teacher and school push them and make them challenge themselves.
My phone ran out of memory. This video got cut off. Hopefully next time will have a full video..
Sunday, July 5, 2015 at 10:43PM ;)
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