Where there’s a train, there’s a cow

Earlier this week I took advantage of the San Diego museum program called “Free Tuesdays” by taking my three year old for a surprise visit to the San Diego Model Railroad Museum right after his morning preschool. We didn’t have much time since we had to drive 25 minutes to San Diego Balboa Park, park really, really far away from the museum, enjoy the show, drive back and be back at school by 2pm to pick up my five year old.

I still managed to see quite a lot of cows during our short visit. I found the first one on a sign for a coffee shop. I apologize for the blurry photo. This is what happens when you try to snap a picture with a squirmy, excited three year old hanging on to your other hand. If you want to see a clear picture of this sign I took one in 2011 (click here). I just remembered this is a cyclop cow (I can’t believe it didn’t make it to my Top 10 Best Cows of 2011).

Daniel's Coffee Bean sign with a cow in San Diego's Balboa Park

 When we entered the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, my son wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As soon as he spotted his first moving trains through one of the display windows, he refused to go any further. It took a lot of convincing for him to understand there were many more trains to see.

I’m glad we got a chance to look at the various displays or I would have missed this large ensemble of cows:

Lots of cows at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum

 Even the retired volunteers (should I say they’re all men?) know the best company for trains is cows. And not just one, but a whole herd. Wow cow!

Happy Moo Year!

Happy Moo Year! I hope 2012 brings you good health and happy events, as well as plenty of cows. I started the year with many, many cow sightings so I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

We went to the San Diego Museum of Man this afternoon and visited the exhibit about early mankind. There’s a man-made cave with duplicate caveman paintings, including this Auroch, the ancestor of the European cattle:

Auroch cow cave painting at the San Diego Museum of Man

 Next we proceeded to the Children’s activity center of the museum, which mostly displays an Egyptian theme. But right on the wall of the room where you can build a pyramid out of wooden blocks, I found this very interesting article on cows in India, appropriately titled “Holy Cow”:

Holy cow in India

 Take a minute to read the third column of the article to learn more about “cow catchers”. I think our 2011 runaway cows could have used a few of those.

Finally, on our way back to the car, we walked by the San Diego Mingei Museum, which focuses on Asian art. An enclosed art display window opposite the entrance contained this cow sculpture:

Cow sculpture at the San Diego Mingei Art Museum

 Now, my husband says it’s a goat, but I think it looks like a cow (the horns are pretty obvious). What do you think?

It’s another cow stuck in a claw machine

Since we’re now proud members of the San Diego Natural Museum, we spent the morning there and then took my mom out for some yummy Chinese lunch. I don’t know what it is with Chinese buffet restaurants, but they like to feature claw machines. From personal experience, I want to guess at least 50% of claw machines keep cows prisoners, and this one was no exception:

Cow stuck in claw machine at Chinese buffet restaurant

Look how cute this one is with its “hearty” cheeks and red hooves. Will someone please rescue it before Valentine’s day? It’s at Sunrise Buffet in San Diego, California.

What a nice set of horns you’ve got there!

We enjoyed a beautiful and surprisingly warm Fall morning at the San Diego Safari Park and took the railroad track-free “train” ride to see many African and Asian animals in a natural environment. We saw rhinos, giraffes, many types of gazelles and antelopes, Cape Buffalo (yes, a bovine!) and even a few ostriches. Towards the end of the ride, we stopped by for a close look at the Angola cows the zoo has on display:

Angola cows at the San Diego Safari Park

A set of horns on the Angola cow can measure up to 9 feet long. Quite impressive! And even though the cows look pretty mellow, you probably wouldn’t want to piss them off. So hold off on the “your mama’s so fat” jokes…

Angola cow horns

Our cell phone cameras stopped taking pictures after this, but the cow sightings didn’t stop and we actually saw A LOT more cows today:

1) On our way out of the Safari Park, I noticed a large herd of Holstein dairy cows right across the road. I have never seen it before so it may be new. Something to be on the lookout during our next visit.

2) When we reached the first intersection, we saw cattle grazing on wild grass on our right. I’m guessing these cows will not see a happy ending.

3) Finally, as we drove by a local farm advertising many things for sale, from strawberrys and tomatos (yikes, someone needs a lesson in spelling!) to ostrich eggs and ostrich jerky, we saw what looked like a petting corral. The pen included llamas, ostriches, sheep and… cow calves.

Again I apologize for the lack of photos but we were quite unprepared for such an overwhelming sight. 

Tomorrow’s Halloween but somehow I doubt I’ll see any cows when we go trick or treating. What do you think?

I saw today’s cow at the San Diego Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

We paid a visit to our local science museum this morning, San Diego’s Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. We haven’t been there for a long time - I’m guessing about two years - so we had a lot to look at and play with. The Kid City area was remodeled last year and our kids are a great time trying out every single activity.

We eventually managed to pull them out of there and visit the rest of the museum. There was quite a lot about natural disasters and weather / geological events and we learned a lot. That’s when I noticed this large panel about spring boxes:

Cows on panel at San Diego Reuben H Fleet Science Museum

I actually learned about spring boxes, something I never heard about before today. Cattle ranchers use them to prevent water springs from overflowing and wetting the land. This water can create quick sand, which could lead the cows to a fast, tragic end. So there you have it, cows on an educating panel at the science museum. Cows really are everywhere.