Or at least re-touched. 

Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship, spent three weeks in dry dock this summer for its decennial maintenance and came back looking better than ever in time to celebrate her 146^th birthday this Saturday, November 14.  The Maritime Museum of San Diego will give her a proper birthday party that day, complete with cake — and everyone is invited!

Built in 1863, Star of India sailed around the world 21 times before retiring when steam ships began to rule the seas.  After three decades of dilapidation, she was restored to her former glory through the efforts of San Diegans who donated their nickles and dimes as well as shipbuilding skills and man-hours.  Such a history of goodwill makes this landmark all the richer.

This ship is another reason why I love this town.  San Diego has such an impressive pantheon of cultural symbols for a west coast city, as well as a history of saving them from returning to dust.

And now we’re throwing them birthday parties!  Along with birthday cake to celebrate the Star’s 146^th. . .

• It’s Family Days at the Maritime Museum on both Saturday the 14^th and Sunday the 15^th.  Kids 12 and under will be admitted free.
  

  Insider Tip: Cover your ears!

• Making the Star’s birthday celebration even wilder, the Maritime Museum will stage more of its famous cannon battles on Saturday and Sunday.  You’ll get your chance to climb aboard our official state ship the Californian, or the Privateer Lynx and witness realistic cannon fights up close.  (Don’t worry, they forget to load the cannon balls every time!)

• If you prefer to have a bit more involvement in your ship battles, how about getting into one of the museum’s two decommissioned naval submarines for a life-size game of Battleship?  Would I make that up?  Sink or be sunk as you call your shots using radio communication.  And may the best sub commander win!

Star of India lives out her retirement alongside other historic beauties of the sea such as the steam yacht Medea and the steam ferryboat Berkeley, which houses most of the museum’s exhibits and displays, and you can go aboard and explore every one of them.  For an extra $3 you’ll be able to take a historic harbor tour aboard the 95-year-old Pilot.  What a party!

Be sure to hit up the International Visitor Information Center across the street (corner of Broadway & Harbor) for your discounted museum tickets.  For prices and details on the special programs and charters (which happen all year round) contact the Maritime Museum at (619) 234-9153 or visit www.sdmaritime.org.

Tags: downtown, fun, kids, maritime museum, museum, outdoors, san diego bay, things to do, what to do

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Halloween may be on Saturday, but that won’t stop the Gaslamp Quarter from “dressing up” in period costume the next day, Sunday, November 1, during the 9th annual Fall Back Festival.

The street fair includes “wild west” entertainment such as staged shootouts and rope tricks as three stages showing folk dancing, live bluegrass music and more.  Kids can participate in crafts and contests, pan for real gold, and learn about Caliornia history through puppet shows and live demonstrations of lost skills.

And, of course, there will be all the fun stuff you’d expect to find at any good street fair – food, face painting, caricature art, inflatable jumps and carnival games.

Fall Back Festival takes place on Island Avenue — between 4th and 5th Avenues — Sunday, November 1, from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.  (Remember, our clocks fall back one hour that day, too.)  Admission is $5 for ages 3 and older.  For more information, visit www.gaslampquarter.org or call (619) 233-4692.

Tags: downtown, fair, family, festival, Gaslamp Quarter, history, kids

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Art museums in Balboa Park display great works by artists and masters, both living and not-so-living.  But art — even great art – is an ongoing thing.  It’s happening now and it will continue to happen into the future.  That’s why Balboa Park provides local artists of the living variety with a venue to create and display their creative offspring.

The Spanish Village Art Center is home to 37 working artist studios that are open to the public every day.  Here, you can wander through and watch as art is created — clay thrown, glass blown, and tapestries sewn (among other art forms that don’t necessarily rhyme).  You can check out the local art all around and even support the artists by picking up a fresh piece for yourself.

One of my regular stops in the Village is Lucy Wang’s studio where she can always be seen creating one of her beautiful Japanese watercolor pieces or a rich 3-D painting that must be seen to be believed.  You heard me.  3-D.  I know there’s a better name for her deep, layered paintings, but 3-D really paints a picture, no?

There are also hot glass blowers like Jake Burksmith who put on quite a show when they do their thing.  Hot glass is a dynamic medium that’s fascinating to watch in action.  ATTENTION PARENTS: Even if you’re just across the lawn at the Natural History Museum, take a minute to stop by Studio 18 in the Spanish Village and see if any of the hot glass artists are creating.  Your kids want to see this!

The Spanish Village Art Center offers art classes for all ages almost every day.  I was just looking into pottery classes for the fam.  Children’s pottery classes are given every Saturday, rain (ha ha) or shine, and adults can take the class Tuesdays and/or Thursdays.  Check out the website for the full class schedule.

And Speaking of Pottery . . .

By the by, if you like pottery and ceramics but don’t feel up to the hassle of actually creating it, walk a few steps over to the Casa del Prado this Saturday, August 29, where Clay Artists of San Diego will hold their first annual Ceramics Show and Sale.

The show will feature unique and original pieces, both sculptural and functional, by 26 local clay artists.  If the word “ceramics” doesn’t exactly make your imagination dance, remember what I said about the glass artists and try to think outside the pot.  One thing artists are good at is making the ordinary extraordinary.

The Ceramics Show and Sale will take place in the Casa del Prado’s largest room — the Majorca Room (room 101) — on Saturday from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Tags: art, balboa park, kids, things to do, what to do

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On August 15 and 16, the National Park Service, in an effort to get across to us that our national parks are awesome, offered free admission into more than 100 national parks across the nation, and it just so happens that we have one right here in San Diego.

Cabrillo National Monument sits above the Point Loma shore where it is generally agreed Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, leading the first European expedition to explore what is now the west coast of the United States, landed his flagship the San Salvador in 1542.  (Cabrillo must have known he was in the right place when he climbed to the top to find this statue.)

It was his expedition that produced the first written description of the west coast of North America.  It would be another sixty years before anybody else would pay any attention to the region and, in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson would commemorate Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo with the national monument we all know and love today.

From this elevated spot in Point Loma, you can see San Diego — all of San Diego — on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.  And what’s that landmass just to the south?  Why it’s Tijuana, Mexico!  How many national parks can show you a bay, an ocean, and a foreign country?  Take that, Yellowstone!

It is easy to stand on this spot and imagine yourself in Cabrillo’s shoes –- the ocean at your back, looking over that big bay to the land beyond, rich with mountains, coastal plains and promise.  Now imagine you’re wearing thigh-high boots and poofy shorts.  That’s what it is to be an explorer, near as I can figure.

Much more than a monument, here you can:

• EXPLORE the tidepools and their unique ecosystem.
• HIKE the two-mile Bayside Trail.
• VISIT the historic Old Point Loma Lighthouse.
• CHECK OUT the bookstore.
• SEE the “Age of Exploration” exhibit in the visitor center.
• LISTEN to Park Ranger talks on Point Loma’s military history.

ATTENTION, KIDS! You can earn your Junior Ranger badge from Cabrillo National Monument.  Just ask for a Junior Ranger activity at the visitor center.  After you have completed the program in the park, you will receive the Park Ranger badge and oath from an actual Park Ranger or volunteer.  If that’s not cool, I don’t wanna know what cool is!

Cabrillo National Monument is open every day of the year, from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M.  Regular entrance fees are $5 per vehicle, and $3 per pedestrian, bicyclist or motorcyclist.

Tags: cabrillo national monument, kids, national park, outdoors, things to do, what to do

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When Sea World’s Happy Harbor closed for renovations, my boy (my only boy at the time) and I were bummed.  It was, after all, the best part of Sea World for us – a huge play area with lots of fun and safe activities.  We used to go to Sea World just to hang out there.  But when it reopened last summer as Sesame Street Bay of Play, it was so much more than before.

Sea World’s children’s play area had been transformed into an amusement park all its own within the marine park.  Families can bounce, climb, swing, slide, spin and fly in this giant playground complete with kid-friendly rides and a giant jungle gym with rope bridges, nets and slides.

Here’s a tip: bring your bathing suits as there are some good opportunities to get wet.  Even if you don’t plan on getting wet, your little ones don’t plan anything at all – they just do!  If you forget, there are bathing suits for sale right on site.

Along with Bay of Play, other Sesame Street themed activities include Lights, Camera, Imagination! – a “4-D” movie experience that will immerse you into the world of Sesame Street through cutting edge digital movie magic – and Breakfast With Elmo, where you can meet the little, red monster and many of his friends, including Big Bird, Cookie Monster and (my favorite) Grover.  As seasoned Sesame Street viewers, we were truly impressed as we got to rub elbows with these furry celebrities in person!

Tags: kids, outdoors, seaworld

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 As a budding kidologist, I find the New Children’s Museum downtown to be fertile ground for study.  For me, the children themselves are the exhibits here.  There are interactive stations of all kinds in every corner of the three-story building, but it isn’t until the children come along and lay their hands on them that we know what we’re looking at.  For example, we see the older children transforming a pile of angular cushions into a scale model of the city block on which the museum rests, while the younger tots may use the cushions as mere stacking blocks and landing pads. 

 There are plenty of opportunities for youngsters to spend their ample energy, like the room made entirely of cushions and mattresses where kids can literally bounce off the walls – a sort of cage match for the kiddies.  If your little friend isn’t ready for a nap after ten minutes in there, have him climb the rock wall a few times, or throw a dance party inside the giant, walk-in iPod, or ride the leg-powered, wooden “Segway” scooters. 

But not all of the interactive stations require kids to get physical.  They are also encouraged to perform thought experiments and write creatively.  Kids can answer questions about their feelings and observations about art and leave their answers in a public file for others to read.

Even outside the museum, passersby can see kids slapping new layers of paint on the Volkswagon Beetle outside, or creating clay sculptures – like the piece pictured below – that sit outside on a ledge to dry.

The museum also offers special programs, day camps, and school tours for all the different age groups – toddler through high school. 

Don’t miss the playground right across the street, on Island Avenue.

The New Children’s Museum is open every day except Wednesday.  Admission prices are $10 for adults and kids over 1 year, and $5 for seniors (65+) and active military (with ID).  Family memberships begin at $85.  Admission is free to all on the second Sunday of each month.

Tags: downtown, fun, kids, museum

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