California Dreaming

Last week was vacation time for me, and it featured a family trip to the Southwest, including the Grand Canyon, San Diego and a stop at Disneyland in Anaheim. The original Disney complex, which opened in 1955, pales in comparison to our Disneyworld in Orlando that came along some 16 years later.

In order to give the earlier park some individuality, they added the California Adventure in 2001, which is a 55-acre spread replete with replicas of some of the Golden State landmarks, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Cannery of Monterrey. I won't even get into the inanity of having a mini-California experience for people who are at the time in California.

As you visit the California-themed area, you are assaulted by California-linked music, such as "California Girl," "California Dreamin'," "Ventura Highway," ad nauseam. That would preclude us from establishing a Florida Adventure here, since there aren't that many tunes about our state. Once you get past "Moon Over Miami" and "Tallahassee Lassie," there isn't much left with which to bombard the senses.

If they wanted authenticity in the West Coast experience, they should have the whole 55 acres shake violently every few hours. Of course, according to some doom-saying seismologists regarding the San Andreas Fault, Disneyland may have the added allure of being an island adventure some day.

Berry Picking

On the plane home, I was leafing through the current copy of "The New Yorker" magazine and was flabbergasted to see a lengthy article about the Plant City Strawberry Festival queen and her court. Given the recent notoriety of this very urbane publication because of its satirical cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama dressed as Muslims, burning an American flag, I was steeled for what would surely be a patronizing pejorative piece about our cherished institution.

Much to my surprise, it was anything but that. Written by a Plant City native and Pulitzer Prize winner, Anne Hull, it was a nostalgia-filled reflection of small-town values as embodied in the pageantry of the Queen's Court. It reflected on how those values might be evaporating.

New Museum

We have a plethora of specialty museums, from those dedicated to the Holocaust, Salvador Dali, the Ringling Circus, firefighters and more. Yet another is opening this Saturday in Largo called the Armed Forces Military Museum, which at 33,000 square feet will be the biggest of its kind in the state of Florida.

Among the myriad of artifacts will be Saddam Hussein's uniform, found in one of his palaces, and the only known one in the United States. There are an abundance of items reflecting our U.S. military. You're invited to come join me for the opening ceremonies at noon. It's located just off Ulmerton Road, to the west of Belcher in Pinellas.

Jocularly,

Jack