The Charles Schulz Museum

No goose chases, wild or otherwise, this morning, but there was lots of activity on this last weekend of summer at Spring Lake.  After Labor Day, the swimming lagoon and water park close as well as the kayak and boat rentals. Families were staking out picnic tables in the shade and transporting coolers, big containers of food, chairs, dogs and kids to their chosen spots for a last summer hurrah.

We had to take M to the Flying Goat for a famous Aztek Mocha, or in her case, a hot chocolate, and were treated to a test run of the signals on the train tracks. This was accomplished by rolling up a freight train loaded with lumber to the depot, while blasting the train whistle, screeching the brakes and clanging the signal crossings…all no more than 20 feet from us. Conversation was all but impossible but families with kids,  and people from the nearby Farmers' Market all turned out to watch. It reminded me a bit of those remote islands where everyone turns out to watch the weekly plane flight land.

There have been complaints from people living along the tracks about the noise. If this was an effort to figure out how to mitigate it, I think it was a failure. When we lived in Berkeley we could hear the Amtrak horn clear across town so despite pleas for 'quiet zones' I don't see it happening, especially after watching four guys in 'official' day glo vests and hard hats getting paid overtime for working on Sunday, lounging around drinking coffee. 

It always takes about of town visitor to get us to local attractions, and so it was with M who wanted to visit the Charles M.Shultz Museum. I have posted a picture of the lobby because I think it is a wonderful building featuring a giant mural made from thousands of small tiles, each with a 'Peanuts' strip featuring Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown before he can kick it. 

It is fun just to wander around listening to people laugh as they read the wonderfully curated displays of Peanuts strips, but there are also interactive programs, a library and Charles Shultz's studio moved in every detail from his home. It even features a vintage television with a video of Schutz drawing his characters and talking about how each one was born.

Thanks, M, for reintroducing us to this well designed, fun museum. I have put a picture of you in front of the mural in the extras.