Thursday, August 21, 2025

Extra Bits from California

Some pics that didn't make their own post from the California 2025 trip...

YouTube has offices that we visited on the day we headed south from San Francisco.

Massage chairs are the best!

Sad she had to leave

With the YouTube logo

Almost tall enough for bunny ears

Photo booth results

What a ham!

They also had a video game console that was a lot of fun. Killer Queen is a bee-themed game that allows up to ten players simultaneously!


We visited the Barney Schwartz Park in Paso Robles to have fun at a playground. They also have a large artificial lake and a couple of geocaches.

Playground #1

More of the first playground

View on the way to the second playground

Turtles in the lake

Spinner at the second playground

Blocking the slide

Tables are turned!

We had a lunch at Tin City, a collection of restaurants, wine shops, beer brewers, and other sellers, all under corrugated roofs.

Tin City Sign

We ate lunch at ETTO. I had eggplant parmesan, my go-to for Italian eating (too hard to make at home but so delightful).

Eggplant Parmesan

For dessert, we walked over to Negranti Creamery, which has ice cream. It's claim to fame is that the flavors are mostly made from sheep's milk. I had the peanut butter chip, which was nice but not great. I would try something else if I visited again.

Ice Creamery (we ate too fast to take pics)

I did some geocaching in the town of Atascadero, which has an amazing city hall.

Atascadero City Hall

We thought we would try a local wine, so we bought Paso Dragon from a local supermarket. It was ok, not my favorite. Again, I would try something else from the region before going back to this.

Hard to resist a wine with "dragon" in its name!

In San Luis Obispo, we went to a playground to use up some time before the mission opened. Our kids tried their hardest to go up a roller slide. They eventually succeeded!

Facing a challenge

We stopped for lunch in Solvang, a city in California that was settled in the 1940s by Dutch descendants. They made the town very Dutch in its architecture and food and decorations (we drove by wind mills, so I was not able to photograph them). We ate lunch at Ellen's Pancake House (I had the pineapple dutch pancake--a lot of pineapple chunks folded into a thin and delicious pancake). 

Sample of architecture

Pineapple pancake (with bacon pancake in background)

More un-Californian architecture

Of course we stopped at a bakery and got some danish to eat!

Cheese danish and cinnamon roll

Our next stop was Ventura, California, with a playground near our hotel (in addition to the Mission and, later in the day, the Reagan Presidential Library). 

Swinging too high!

Crossing a rope bridge

See-saw siblings

Beach and Pacific Ocean

Unloved playground equipment

Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Los Angeles 2025

We did a lot of random stuff in the Los Angeles area in addition to the theme park visits.

We visited a playground near the Rose Bowl that was fun, but not big fun. A lot of summer camps were there swapping in and out of the playground.

Spinning for fun

Dad takes a spin

We went up to Griffith Observatory, balked at the parking cost, and did a quick shot with the Hollywood sign before going back down the hill.

Sign alone

LA as seen from Griffith Observatory

Us with the sign

We went downtown to Grauman's Chinese Theater, a famous venue in Hollywood that has the Walk of Fame outside its courtyard and the footprints of Hollywood celebrities inside its courtyard.

Less famous but colorful El Capitan across the street

We did not go to see this movie

Proof I was there

We saw lots of celebrities' marks.

Harrison Ford on walk of fame

Harrison Ford in concrete

Roy Rogers, Trigger, and his pistol

Abbott and Costello and me

Comparing hand sizes with Black Widow

Comparing hand sizes with Thor

Harry Potter gang

Could be a Potter

Not far away is a branch of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum but only posed outside with the Hulk (they have a 4D exhibit with Marvel characters inside but we were not sold on going inside the museum).

Can I hold him back?!?

Strangely unworried about the situation

Another store even further away had some recreations of famous villains, like the Predator.

Predator ready to get me

We saw a BTS-related billboard (along with several posters of the same).

Can you really love Jin more?

Back in Pasadena, we had custom coated and filled cream puffs at Beard Papa's.I had the green tea eclair with vanilla filling. Yummy!

Green tea