Summer day activities: Southern California, Days 6-7 (22-23 July 2014)

Reversing the norm

For a number of reasons we reversed the norm this day, Saturday, and had a quiet morning followed by an active afternoon. Len and I started by lunching at a chain restaurant called Rubio’s, which describes itself as “coastal inspired fresh Mexican food”. We both had salad, mine a very tasty chicken and mango one.

Carolyn then joined us, having had a tradesman at home beforehand. It was a hot day, so what to do? Ah yes, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (RNPLM) would be cool (temperature-wise, we mean, though perhaps the other-wise too?), and had been completely remodelled since I’d last visited (when it was called the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.

We started by watching the film – and it started with his resignation. We figured they thought they’d get the tricky bit over first! After the resignation, the film ran through his earlier life, explaining that his career was one of “coming, going and coming again”. Other themes through the film, and the museum displays were that he was “not a quitter” and wanted to be seen as a “peacemaker”. Whatever we think of Nixon, there is a bit of a sense of a Shakespearean tragic hero, a man with some good qualities brought down by a flaw.

I couldn’t quite work out the logic behind the order of the exhibits in the museum – which may be due to the order we walked around it. Did we follow the approved route? We’re not sure. The displays were mostly thematic – early life, Watergate (which was covered at some depth), the Vietnam War, and so on. There was, of course, some focus on his achievements and political values. He also established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was known to support civil and women’s rights, and of course opened up/improved the USA’s relationship with China.

The museum includes a LOT of text but also a smattering of interactive elements. The grounds include beautiful gardens, popular for events like weddings, and the house he was born in, which Len toured (if you can call looking through such a tiny house “touring” it). As numbers were limited, and Carolyn and I’d had both seen it before, we gave it a miss this visit.

Overall, we enjoyed the visit – and more than once considered the difference between this Republican President and the current one. How will they stack up against each other!

Dinner and the movies

What else do you do on hot days? You go out for dinner and to the movies, so that’s what we did next, coming home first to pick up Emily. (Unfortunately Hana was working her shift job).

Carolyn and Emily humoured us by agreeing to eat at Marie Callender’s. This chain is famous for pies – and it was traditional for us when we lived here to have dinner here on our way home from long road trips. They also do some decent food, and I had a good grilled salad with nicely (that is, not overcooked) carrots and broccoli. Len, Carolyn and Emily also had pie – Cherry for Len, Razzleberry for Emily, and a Lemon Cream one for Carolyn. The looked as delicious as their reputation suggests.

The movie we chose was Baby Driver, which, interestingly is rated R in the US (but their R is for 17 years and above), and MA15+ in Australia. I was initially put off by the R rating, fearing excessive violence, but on deep questioning of Emily who had seen it, convinced me it would be OK, and it was. Indeed, we all enjoyed it a lot – despite the action violence at the end. It’s a stylish movie, which uses music well (particularly if you know the music, which we oldies didn’t so well) and has a great cast. It’s a heist movie, but a clever one.

Visiting the OC Fair

Carolyn and her girls love going to the Orange County Fair, so I decided to give it a go, while Len stayed home to properly recuperate from the previous days’ unwellness. The first fair was held in 1890, the year after Orange County was founded. They started as mainly livestock exhibitions and horse races, but at the turn of the century, a “carnival of products” was added, and the fair became an annual event. Other events were added over time, such as a rodeo. The Fair’s location moved around the county until 1949 when it moved to the current site in what is now the City of Costa Mesa. It is now a 23-day festival. I’m not sure we have any quite that long in Australia. (Our little Canberra one is only 3 or 4 days, I think.)

I think I’ll just list the main points of interest to me, to make this a faster read:

• This year’s theme is “Farm fresh fun” though I admit I discovered this through the website
• I needed to get my ID checked and a bracelet put on before I could buy a wine in the Wine tasting Room (They took one look at me, though, and gave me the bracelet!)
• There was a Pearly Whites station for teeth whitening, where people reclined in chairs and had a mouthpiece in their mouths, with a strange blue light glowing, and a tube attached to some equipment somewhere. It looked like something you’d see in a dystopian movie. It was very popular, with every seat taken, so, sadly, we had to give it a miss!
• There was a food concession stand selling Australian Battered Potatoes, aka our potato scallops, but … well, you’ll see in the pics below. Of course, I loved checking out – though not necessarily trying – the food concession stands. Amazing!
• There was a table setting competition, involving people creating table settings to various themes, like Crystal, Metallic, Fruit and Vegetables. I’ve never seen this before. For some reason, the judges’ comments were displayed next to each setting. Each setting has to include a menu, and judging included whether the settings matched the menu – eg one judge said “too many pieces of silverware for menu”. This person came second in the Crystal competition even though, on their setting, “the cow doesn’t fit in”. The winner in this section had “good linen”, pretty napkin rings, and the judge “liked how the candles are at different heights”. An Honourable Mention setting was liked but “fork doesn’t match dessert” said the judge. The lemon-decorated setting in the pics, won its Fruit and Vegetables section, even though there was “a plate missing”. The judge thought it had “cute décor”, a “well thought out menu” and “nice use of fake folige (sic)”. I was fascinated.
• Carolyn and I also enjoyed the Collections competition, which included Red-headed dolls, Dalmations, Fortunes from fortune cookies, and electric fans. As an archivist I totally got this of course. However, they were hard to photograph, so you’ll just see two parts of a large Nativity Scene collection.

It was a long day. We left home at 10.30am and returned just after 6.30pm, with the drive being 30mins each way. We had a lovely dinner at home of blackened baked fish and a cauliflower, rocket (arugula) and quinoa salad, sitting outside.

We finished the evening by watching some recent episodes of another political satirist, Late night with Seth Meyers, who said things like “One of the impressive things about Trump’s presidency is that things keep getting weirder”. Regarding Trump’s complaint that Sessions should have recused himself “before” he took the job, he pondered

How would he recuse himself before he got the job? That would be like someone trying to get a construction job and then saying their best skill is worker’s comp.

That made us all laugh.

Today’s trivia

Richard Nixon met his wife Pat in 1938 when they both auditioned for the Whittier Community Players’ production of The Dark Tower.

Pat Nixon’s real (maiden) name was Thelma Catherine Ryan, but she was nicknamed ‘Pat’ by her father because she was born on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day.

Today’s images

Still

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