Obama has landed!

He is attending a conference at Sunnylands, a former ambassador's mansion with beautiful gardens and great birding that is usually open to the public. We are hoping to go have a look. But not this week.

We know of the presidential visit from personal experience. Two reasons. One, yesterday A, R, and H went to the Air Museum and all of the vintage planes were shoved out onto the tarmac and all the people who worked there were bustling around, all a-twitter, preparing for "something big" that was going to happen there. No one was saying for sure, but there was a certain amount of nudge-nudge wink-wink going on. And it was very HOT on the tarmac, so everyone hoped that there was a VERY IMPORTANT reason why all the planes were outside not inside the way they usually are.

Snuffling away with my desert cold, I didn't join them, but I understand a good time was had by all -- (not including BO, whose plane hadn't landed yet) -- climbing into the cockpit and messing with the buttons on a section of a WWII Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar transport plane, operating a flight simulator, gazing in awe at a Vietnam-vintage Huey helicopter and hearing stories from a docent who had flown one of them in that war, and many other aeronautical moments. It sounds like an interesting place, preserving planes from WWII, as well as the Korean and Vietnam wars, most of them in flying condition, and serving up some hands-on history lessons as well, although I'm sure, slightly slanted. Or maybe a lot slanted. But for a little boy in love with airplanes, a morning in heaven.

Two, this morning the same sector of the family went to Cathedral City's Second Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival, getting up at FIVE A.M. to have a pancake breakfast and watch the balloons inflate. FIVE A.M.!!!! (Not me. Sniffle sniffle. Snore snore.) And when they got to the appointed place they found the pancake breakfast all right, but the balloons had been moved -- not allowed into that particular airspace because -- Guess Who was coming. You would think they would have worked that all out ahead of time, but apparently not. The organizers only got word yesterday afternoon from the FAA that the planned ballooning would not be allowed because of the presidential activity. I don't get that. And the organizers were not too swift with the contingency plan. The people at the pancake breakfast weren't exactly sure where the balloon inflating was going to take place. "Oh, over there someplace," they said, waving their hands vaguely around in circles. So our early risers were confronted with chaos and lack of signage when they arrived at what they thought was the festival site and a lot of unknowledgeable officials.  However, eventually our intrepid trio did find the balloons and saw them inflated and saw the race and found it beautiful and thrilling and very interesting. When I saw the pictures, I really wished I had gone, but I was also really glad that I didn't get up at 5 o'clock in the morning only to stumble into Confusion-and-Misinformation-Land. I hate that kind of stuff. So I stayed home and played my ukulele and glanced at the sky occasionally and caught a few glimpses of balloons flying and listened to birds twitter and enjoyed the coolness of the morning air. It had to suffice.

Later we drove through the sweltering heat (89°F today) and found a used kid-sized driver and putter for H at Golf Alley, a second-hand golf store. He is set now. Still insists on his unique grip. But okay. It's only a matter of time.

(All these photos and several others appearing in earlier posts are A's. Not mine. Especially since I wasn't there. I figured I'd have to fess up sooner or later. Now seems like a good time.)