The glamour that is - Stockton

The weather's been cold, so I had plans to take the girls back to the Children's Museum in Stockton. The first time we went there, they both had a lot of fun.

One Monday, a few weeks ago, I had planned to bring the girls to the museum, but after checking the web page I saw that they were closed on Mondays. The next time we were going to go was January 2nd, but though that was a Friday the museum was closed for the holidays. Today, there was nothing keeping us from going to the Stockton Children's Museum.

The museum was nearly empty, and we had a lot of fun. Amelia was sliding down a tube slide that Diana wouldn't enter. Eventually, Amelia told her younger sister that the slide would be fun and not to worry. She went on to reassure her sister by saying that the dark slide was "not so deep in monsters."

Amelia, Diana and I also had fun in the museum's art center. We glued small colored pieces of paper and yarn, adding a few sparkly bits of glitter near the end. We sat all of our papers on the designated shelves to dry. Sadly, the art room was closed while we were exploring the museum. I guess our artwork will now be part of the permanent display.

It was very difficult to get the girls to leave. Luckily, the museum closed at four.

Before leaving the house I charted a path from the Children's Museum to a couple of nearby historical markers. I was grateful to be leaving the museum at four, even though that wouldn't give us quite enough time to travel to Historical Markers outside of Tracy. (I decided it was best if we eat at home because of my checkbook and my diet.)

Downtown Stockton, if you haven't seen it, is very nice. It seems very obvious that the city is working extremely hard to revive its downtown region. The rest of the town, however, still doesn't look so hot. I hate to say it, but maybe this tagged marker is simply a reflection of its surroundings.

Honestly I can't say which is worse - the stolen landmark off Highway 205, or the graffiti on Historical Landmark #513. Amelia immediately noticed that someone had painted on this landmark and wondered where the paint had gone. I wondered if the people who spoiled this marker read the plaque before messing it up. The story is actually quite interesting, and I'm learning a lot about California during this quest.

Lisa