Lopaka's visit

It's been about 30 years since I've seen my cousin Lopaka. I was a teenager, and he was a little boy at the time. His father brought him and his younger brother, Jason, out to visit California. 

This last week, he brought his family to San Diego for a vacation. My wife and I drove down to spend the day with him. We decided we could show them around Balboa Park on one of their site seeing days. We visited the Natural History Museum, where their son Ryan got to push lots of buttons. He LOVES buttons. We saw dinosaurs and mastodons. 

We had a nice lunch and talked about family. 

One of my favorite places in Balboa Park is the Model Railroad Museum. They have every gauge of model trains with huge displays. It's like a maze wandering around to see the various exhibits, especially for a toddler. All the halls had walls about 2-4 feet high with plexiglass windows so that you could look in on the display. Ryan was like a mouse in a maze, running down halls where he really couldn't see anything. But every 10-15 feet there were stairs available so that you can get a better view. Ryan ran from stair to stair, climbing to get a view of little buildings, cars and the occasional model train in motion. 

The best stop was in a room with lots of theme decoration for Halloween. The walls and windows were lower so Ryan could see a bit more. Best of all, they had a Thomas the Tank Engine (He's very useful) on a track perfect for Ryan's viewing pleasure. AND, the had a button on the wall outside that made Thomas run a circuit around his track. Ryan stood there and pushed the button repeatedly. So cute!

We finished off with a quick look at the Botanical Building and koi pond. 

All in all, a very nice visit. I'm hoping to see Lopaka, Aimie and Ryan again in coming years.