What a great weekend!
One of the things I love about the weekends is the chance for us to go out as a family and spend time making memories. With the kitchen still in the final days of its rebirth, these days we like getting out of the house and eating. But we also live in an amazing community and region, and we’re only 30 miles from one of the great cities of the world!
This weekend was a reminder of both.
On Saturday, the wife took kid #3 to an evening birthday party at one of those trampoline places. #3 is a megawatt battery of energy who is as physical as they come. Cake and jumping–that’s a win-win in her book. While they were off, #1 and #2 and I went out to “Second Saturdays,” one of the best things about Pomona. As the name suggests, it happens once a month in the downtown arts district. Galleries usually schedule openings or closings that night. There are vendors, music, and on super hot days like this weekend, a lot of families looking to cool of with the evening breeze and evening shade.
We grabbed dinner and visited the opening of the annual Aztlan art show at The dA Center for the Arts. The Dodgers game was on, too, but I felt like I could use a little break from the tension of watching it at home, so I decided to DVR it. It was on the big screen while we at our veggie burgers in downtown and after Greinke gave up those homers, I felt like I made the right decision.
The Aztlan art show has been bringing Chicana/o and Latina/o art our community for 13 years now. The opening is always fun–not only a chance to see some amazing art but also other things, like danzantes.
The kids loved the Aztec dancers more than the paintings and sculptures, but how can stationary art beat feathers, drums, and amazing moves? After the smoke and sweaty heat of the gallery, we headed out for desert.
We drove a little farther than we had to for frozen yogurt, mostly so we (I) could hear some of the game on the radio. On the way back home, we caught the 7th inning, including “the slide.” I got home in time to watch the final innings live.
On Sunday, we all went into the city to watch a beautiful outdoor production of the Popol Vuh story of the Maya (or K’iché). It was done by the Center Theater Group in Grand Park and it was AMAZING!
It’s a wonderful story made all the more wonderful by lovingly-made masks and puppets, some larger than life. The color, the detail, and the size all complimented the 100% community production. It was so much fun to watched the wonder and surprise in my kids’ eyes as the play unfolded. The 5 year-old (#3) even gasped at one point.
The best part, of course, was being with other Angelenos–mostly Chicana/o families, single folks, couples–watching such a visually-moving piece of community theater that was culturally relevant to the audience.
We’ve been locked in the triple digits for days now but our memories of this weekend won’t have much to do with the weather–or the various emotional meltdowns of 3 kids (or their parents).
LATINO LIKE ME 