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In San Diego, February is Museum Month. This means you can get a pass to visit 40 museums in San Diego for half off. This could not come at a better time, since it gave us lots of opportunities to go and visit San Diego attractions when the weather was not always beautiful, and Matt got to take Keegan to many different places when I had to work.

Keegan and Matt went to the Railroad Museum, the Downtown Children Museum and the Museum of Man. Together we went to visit the Midway and the Maritime Museum.

The Midway is a retired air carrier that is anchored in the San Diego Bay and it now being converted into a museum. I was actually interested into visiting it, since I have never been.

There was a huge line to get in, since we picked the most popular time, mid-morning. Keegan was incredibly patient, and we finally made our way to the entrance, about 45 minutes later.

As soon as we got inside we did not know where to start: there was so much to see. We got the audio tour, so we can understand as little more about what we were looking at. There were airplanes, helicopters, engines, and all sort of fun stuff to see and to climb on.

Keegan is still mesmerized and fascinated by headphones

He really liked to climb in the cockpit of various planes and pretend to be the pilot. The one with the teeth was my favorite one.

We were then able to visit the inside of the ship, including the living quarters. Pretty amazing that people could live in such small spaces for such a long time. Definitely not a job for me.

After the inside tour, we went on deck to see the planes still “parked” up there. Real retired pilots and sailors were at hand to explain in detail how you land and take off from the ship. It does not sounds easy…I can’t believe there are not more accidents.

And of course, there were more photo-ops available. I really hope he will not want to be a pilot when he grows up.

Keegan seemed very interested, and since he is in his “shoot-up everything” phase, he was fascinated by all the “shooters” on the plane. When he asked me if bad guys were flying these planes, since they all had bombs in them, I deferred the question to Matt… (-:

The following week, we moved to different kind of boats at the Maritime Museum. Two traditional sailboats, two submarines and a ferryboat are part of the collection. Keegan wanted to start from the submarines. The smaller one still had a working periscope. Pretty nice. His favorite one, though, was the one from the former Soviet Union, which was huge.

Before getting in, you can try going though a circular opening, which is the exact size of the doors inside the sub. Keegan fit perfectly.

Inside it was almost claustrophobic. Again, it hard to believe being in such close quarters, with lots of other people, and UNDER the ocean. Even after so many years, the smell of diesel permeated the sub. Keegan did not mind. He loved going through the small openings and playing with all the knobs and levers.

After the sub, we went back in time, visiting two beautiful sailboats, the “pirate Ship” and the Star Of India. Keegan was trying to fins shooters on the boats, and was quite disappointed when we told him there were none. We did show him the cannons, and that helped.

the pirate ship (but no one in custom today)

He was only marginally interested, but I loved moving about the ships.

Inside the Star of India, the biggest one of the two, they had a small exhibits on the immigrants, showing their cabins  and describing their lives during months long trips. At the bottom, there was a small play area, with  a tiny sailboat replica, where Keegan could pretend to steer the boat to safety and lift loads on board.

All this excitement really got him tired, so he usually passed out in his car seat on the way home. Lucky for us, he still finds the car seat comfortable… and even luckier for us, he is still taking solid naps!

To conclude the month, I went to visit the special exhibition in honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. While not as large in scale as the ones planned in England, it was very interesting. You were given a replica of the boarding pass, with a passenger name, and you followed all phases of Titanic’s short life, from design to sinking. Many real artifacts were shown, as well as recreated cabins and rooms. You could really get a feel of what must have been like to be on board. At the end, you could check to see if “you” survived the journey. I guess, my passenger was Mrs Annie Margaret Hold, traveling in second class, and she survived, while her husband died.

It was definitely an interesting experience, especially in view of the recent, similar sinking, of the Costa Cruise Ship off Italy, which fortunately had much less severe consequences…and which will definitively will not inspire any Hollywood movie.

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Happy Valentine’s Day! (a little late). In the past couple of years, Valentine’s Day has been a lot about Keegan and his little friends, and one of the “candy-eating” holidays he is looking forward to.

I was planning on making my own cards for school, but then life happened, with my car breaking down, and requiring time and effort (and lots of money) to get fixed. So, we bought cards instead, and we filled little goodie bags. Keegan, in the spirit with his Chick Magnet shirt helped out a lot filling in bags and adding cards, and personalizing cards for his friends.

This was supposed to be the photo fir our custom made cards, with a real lollipop included…oh well, next year.

On the big day, he brought his little gifts at school, and he was happy helping distribute them.

He really is a little heartthrob…

He came back from school with lots and lots of candies, cards and little surprises. The only thing he did not bring home was the card he made for us, since it mysteriously disappeared. Oh well, Matt helped him make a really nice card for me, so I was happy anyway.

When Matt came home with some pretty flowers for me, we had a small celebration. Keegan got a couple of books and an inflatable Toy Story punching ball, which he loved. He loved it so much, in fact, it immediately got a hole in it.

I guess we should invest into a m ore permanent one, since it really helped getting some of his energy out.

After he went to bed, we had our own grown-up celebration. Matt cooked an amazing dinner, and we talked about our 10+ year together (and 11th valentine’s day). We wrote our best memories and thoughts about each other in a set of two little booklets, called the State of Our Union, and it was really fun to read it and see how much we know about each other (and to still be surprised what how much we don’t know) and what great memories we shared. It was beautiful and very romantic.

I am happy to be married to such a wonderful guy.

 

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