The only one I'd ever been to before, back when I was coming to the San Diego ComiCon in the 1980's, was the Natural History Museum. I remember that one of the coolest things was an exhibit of full-scale animatronic dinosaurs -- something that was unusual at the time, but now is fairly common. Jeannine and I decided to go there first.
It seemed to me that the layout of the place was completely different from the last time I'd been, but as that had been at least nineteen years earlier, I suppose it just could have been faulty memory. But they still had some cool dinosaur stuff, including these life-size replicas of an allosaur...
... and a type of duckbill dinosaur -- Anatosaurus maybe?
One of the things that drew Jeannine's interest in this section of the museum was this beautiful painting and display of fossilized ammonites...
... in part because ammonites loomed large in the life of Mary Anning, the young English woman who found so many fossilized sea creatures on the shores of Lyme Regis, and Jeannine had written a picture book about her a few years ago. In addition, the things were just fascinating to look at. Jeannine particularly liked this one with a delicate pattern of fern-like vegetation somehow impressed on its surface...
... and this one appealed to me for its slightly "mutated" look.
We moved on to the arboretum, the one housed in what appears to be a quonset hut type building made of slats of slightly rusted metal, but which is actually wood. Here's a shot from the inside...
... and one of a nifty spiky pink flower which caught my eye.
From there we walked over to the Museum of Man, where we saw these huge castings of Mayan sculptures. Very impressive.
We didn't have time (or the energy, to be honest) to see all that we wanted to see that day, so the following day we came back and checked out the Air and Space museum, a veritable treasure trove for anyone into the history of air and space travel. Here's one view from the first section of the museum, with a number of WWI-vintage biplanes.
Nearby, we saw this display of Amelia Earhart and one of her airplanes which Jeannine agreed to pose with.
The museum had a relatively new exhibit about life beyond Earth, which was pretty neat but felt more oriented towards kids, so we didn't spend too much time there. But in one of those odd coincidences, I was brought up short by something in this display, which I think was supposed to represent the concept of "talking animals" as one aspect of how people have thought of the possibility of alien life (or something -- I didn't read the signs too carefully).
As I scanned the display, my eye was drawn to a group of small but familiar figures near the center...
I just can't get away from these dudes, it seems. -- PL
6 comments:
You really can't get away can you. I mean no matter what you do or where you go, you will always be one half of the TMNT. You see it as a bad thing but you should look at it as an honor. You may be greatful I dont know I just hope one day you will see what everyone else sees. One of the few that have a legacy, just to name a few, Stan Lee, Bob Kane, Kevin Eastman, Jack Kirby, and Frank Miller. You see the TURTLES! as something that holds you back when really they pushed you forward in life. I enjoy your work and everyone else's that have given tmnt since issue one. Thanks again for your time.
they are pretty special little dudes
Peter, I love the irony in your comment, ''I just can't get away from these dudes, it seems.''
I'm sure its an honor that "they are everywhere".
You'd love the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. if you really enjoyed what San Diego had to offer the next time your in the area. About three hours of fun and not a wasted minute.
I wonder what you added to your sketch book after that trip. The zoo could have brought ideas for mutants while the dinosaur fossils bring imaginitive images.
Great Pictures. I like it when you post your photos. It lets me see things I normally would not be able to see. I won't be going to San Diego any time in the foreseeable future. Thanks for sharing.That last photo was strange. Bipedal turtles, how odd. ;)
That looks like one of Bill Stout's murals behind the ammonites. He also did a couple of really big murals at the Houston Natural History Museum.
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