(no subject)
Last Saturday I got up early with Journey and we drove to JPL for the open house which was supposed to start at 9.
Big mistake.
At 8:40am I was on the 210 about 3 miles from the exit when I saw the slow lane had stopped. I got off a few exits early and tried to go through surface streets to JPL. The GPS led me to the back gate where they turned people around. They were only letting people in through the front. So we parked in a residential neighborhood. Unbeknownst to me, that neighborhood was on the opposite side of a reservoir from JPL. Journey and I thus walked 45 minutes, approximately 2 miles in 95F heat to wait in line about 30 minutes at JPL to get in. Once we did get in we managed to go through a fairly short line at about 10:15 for the earth sciences exhibit which was advertised as kid friendly. She saw some plankton and satellites and got a primitive 3D viewing device and played with a neat sandbox that projected topographic lines onto the random mounds of sand people kept making. But then we tried to go to a second exhibit and by that point it was noon and JPL was literally so full of people you could not walk at a normal pace -- like Disneyland, only 10 times worse.
So we headed out the front gate. Journey said she couldn't walk back to the car and I believed her ... it was brutal coming here, and it was only hotter later in the day. A parking lot attendant volunteered to watch Journey while directing traffic and I could go get the car, but then it turned out they had shut off all vehicular access to the front gate, and so there was no way I could pick Journey up.
I took the step of flagging down a retiree in a car and asking if he could give us a ride as far as he could. He grudgingly let us in and I was profusely thankful for the 3/4 mile drive down the road. Journey's first ride in a car without a safety seat.
We walked the rest of the way except 10 minutes from the car Journey could do no more so I once more was bad parent and left her in a shady driveway with all our supplies (thank god I had packed almost 2 liters of water) and walked/jogged as fast as I could to the car. Which I overshot having gotten confused despite having a smartphone and GPS. I blame the heat. Finally I got back to her with the car. She said she was a little sad and scared to be alone and had cried but when I met up with her again she was happily eating peanut butter crackers.
I apologized to her for the very horrible day and promised her she could eat as much ice cream as she wanted at Souplantation, and we did so. Except I forgot my wallet and had to climb back downstairs to the parking garage to get it. And then Journey had an accident in potty and I had to make a second trip back to the car for spare clothes. So my legs were pretty destroyed by the end of the day.
But it was a memorable day nonetheless. I probably walked more that day than I had in all the days after my hip surgery, combined.
Oh yeah, we were supposed to meet Ron and Pilot there. Ron decided to try to drive in. He texted me at 9am to say he was on the freeway exit line. And then he texted me at noon, just as we were leaving, saying that they had gotten in. Three hours to drive into the parking lot. Luckily they hadn't shut down incoming cars at that point!
Big mistake.
At 8:40am I was on the 210 about 3 miles from the exit when I saw the slow lane had stopped. I got off a few exits early and tried to go through surface streets to JPL. The GPS led me to the back gate where they turned people around. They were only letting people in through the front. So we parked in a residential neighborhood. Unbeknownst to me, that neighborhood was on the opposite side of a reservoir from JPL. Journey and I thus walked 45 minutes, approximately 2 miles in 95F heat to wait in line about 30 minutes at JPL to get in. Once we did get in we managed to go through a fairly short line at about 10:15 for the earth sciences exhibit which was advertised as kid friendly. She saw some plankton and satellites and got a primitive 3D viewing device and played with a neat sandbox that projected topographic lines onto the random mounds of sand people kept making. But then we tried to go to a second exhibit and by that point it was noon and JPL was literally so full of people you could not walk at a normal pace -- like Disneyland, only 10 times worse.
So we headed out the front gate. Journey said she couldn't walk back to the car and I believed her ... it was brutal coming here, and it was only hotter later in the day. A parking lot attendant volunteered to watch Journey while directing traffic and I could go get the car, but then it turned out they had shut off all vehicular access to the front gate, and so there was no way I could pick Journey up.
I took the step of flagging down a retiree in a car and asking if he could give us a ride as far as he could. He grudgingly let us in and I was profusely thankful for the 3/4 mile drive down the road. Journey's first ride in a car without a safety seat.
We walked the rest of the way except 10 minutes from the car Journey could do no more so I once more was bad parent and left her in a shady driveway with all our supplies (thank god I had packed almost 2 liters of water) and walked/jogged as fast as I could to the car. Which I overshot having gotten confused despite having a smartphone and GPS. I blame the heat. Finally I got back to her with the car. She said she was a little sad and scared to be alone and had cried but when I met up with her again she was happily eating peanut butter crackers.
I apologized to her for the very horrible day and promised her she could eat as much ice cream as she wanted at Souplantation, and we did so. Except I forgot my wallet and had to climb back downstairs to the parking garage to get it. And then Journey had an accident in potty and I had to make a second trip back to the car for spare clothes. So my legs were pretty destroyed by the end of the day.
But it was a memorable day nonetheless. I probably walked more that day than I had in all the days after my hip surgery, combined.
Oh yeah, we were supposed to meet Ron and Pilot there. Ron decided to try to drive in. He texted me at 9am to say he was on the freeway exit line. And then he texted me at noon, just as we were leaving, saying that they had gotten in. Three hours to drive into the parking lot. Luckily they hadn't shut down incoming cars at that point!