J. is a bird: November 2011

The Occupy movement has been an important historical event regardless of your political leanings. One that I did not want to only observe on TV. But with most of the news being centered on either New York or Oakland, I wasn't sure what to expect when we decided to head downtown to get a first hand look at Occupy LA.

What we found was a camp that encircled City Hall. It reminded us a little bit of a Ren Faire camp, but with less costumes. There was an information tent, which also doubled as a acceptance site for donations. There was a tent selling "99%" protest art, a yoga class was in progress, and a young lady (I think she was probably 7 or 8) approached my son to let him know there was a children's play tent as well. There was even a mobile health care unit on site.

The encampment was clean and seemed relatively safe and peaceful. The cops were almost bored. There were more people like us, taking pictures for their blogs or twitter feeds than there were news crews.

I'm not sure what will happen tonight when the Occupiers are evicted from City Hall. I'm glad that I was able to take my children down to experience this movement, in all its peaceful glory, even if the most interesting thing they found was a cool tree to play in.

Update Nov 28th @ 5:00PM PST:

The camp still stands! Check out the OccupyLA webcam here

All photos by Damon Cason Reiser

Palm Springs

This was our first trip to Palm Springs. My kids have an excuse, they're young and can't drive yet. My husband and I on the other hand do not. My husband was born in LA and yet has never been to PS and I've lived in LA since 1986 and I've never been to PS. So as a part of my stay-cation, we took off for Palm Springs for two days, with my In-Laws in on the trip to make this my "multi-generational-travel stay-cation" trip.

I'm a planner by nature and sometimes drive my family nuts by over planning. In an effort to curb my "over-planner" ways, I've been waiting to book things (rooms/tickets etc) at the last minute, which is why we found ourselves checking into the questionable Caliente Tropics Resort (?!) instead of the nice townhouse I had my eye on. But to our great relief the place was surprisingly decent. The rooms were clean and we booked the Tahitian Lanai Queen/Queen. The pool was awesome. It was perfect for kids. It had a huge 3-4' section in addition to the usual 6-8' deep end. It also had a hot-tub that wasn't too hot. The tiki torches worked and it had free wi-fi!!!

The downside was that the cabanas were closed for lawn re-seeding. And there was no on-site restaurant. But for the price, we were still pretty happy we weren't giving our children an education in grungy hotels just yet.

With no on-site food available, dinner ended up being the famous Sherman's Deli, that was just ok in my book. Breakfast was at the all important IHOP and that was much more fulfilling. We shopped at The Alley which had plenty of pre-season deals to be had. But the main attraction and reason for our trip was The Tram.

I loved The Tram and the kids loved it too. Ok, my son loved it, my daughter was a bit more blasé about the ride up.

The tram takes you from just above the desert floor up Chino Canyon to the mountain station, at some 8500 ft elevation. Once you are at the station, you will find viewing platforms to take in the view of Palm Springs and those iconic wind mills. There is a cafe, a sit down restaurant, a bar and of course another gift shop.

On the back side of the station are hiking trails. The first part of the trail is cemented in for those with less practical foot wear (me). And there are benches if you want to take a breather (me again). Once the cement ends, it's a short dirt walk to the ranger station and (thankfully) bathrooms to use before hauling yourself back up to the tram station for your ride back down.

Tips:

1. Take a jacket, it was in the 40's F up there so a bit chilly for us Angelenos.

2. If you get motion sickness, take your preferred aid before you get on the tram. The tram rotates to give all riders a good view and during the accent it will rock at each of the 5 towers it will cross to get to the top. I didn't know this and was green for several minutes after we landed.