Can't Stand the Heat...

Today's adventure in avoiding outrageous temperatures (today's high in Pasadena: 103 F) took us to Santa Ana, where the weather was really not much cooler, but where the air conditioning at the Discovery Cube was on full blast. The Discovery Cube gets its name from the giant solar panel-covered cube that serves as its signpost along Interstate 5. Inside, it contains a wide array of hands-on science exhibits for kids and their parents. Most of them were designed for kids a few years older than Tessie, but she really liked the "Gravity Well."

I can see us going back to the Cube often in the future, but probably not again for a couple of years.

After leaving Santa Ana via a most convoluted series of freeway on- and off-ramps, u-turns and missed exits, we drove ourselves to Seal Beach, where the weather was distinctly cooler. We walked out to the end of the pier to watch anglers haul up some good sized fish, and to observe the massive crowd both on the shore and in the water.

Dinner took us to Hennessey's Tavern, a threshold I have not personally crossed in about 15 years (i.e. since my bachelor days). Not much has changed, right down to the playlist on the jukebox. Tessie was her usual charming self, well behaved and cuddly. So cuddly, in fact, that our waitress told us as we were leaving that although she thought she didn't want to have any kids of her own, Tessie may have gotten her to reconsider!