Recess!!!

We walked about 10 blocks to this park in the city yesterday. Melissa got a break as we let her stay home, if you can call doing her John Tyler studies on the laptop a break. The playground was fenced off with barbed wire at the top and padlocked. We had to ask one of the families with children nearby to open it for us. Security is very high in Cali and very important. Unlike the USA, security guards are well respected and well equiped to handle any unrest. They augment the police department to free them up for emergency response and regulating the streets. While we were walking near our home recently, I was questioned by police as to our reason for being in Cali, where we were staying and for how long, and if I was carrying a weapon. All this while we were with our escort. Speaking of emergency response, while at the mall or most public places you won't find fire alarms. What you'll see is every 100ft, a hose and nozzle to put a fire out. Everyone has access to them. Imagine, instead of pulling an alarm and waiting for the fire department to arrive, you simply put the fire out yourself in it's early stages. In a somewhat related story, fire related damage to buildings in Cali is extremely low.