California
I’m sitting at the outside bar at the Long Beach Airport drinking a beer and waiting for my flight back home.
It has been a pretty quick but lovely trip.
The above photos are from a nice trip to Olvera Street that we took to eat some great Mexican food and walk around a bit. Frida Kahlo is everywhere!
Cris and I always try to go to Huntington Beach. This day was cool, grey, and rainy. Lovely.
I really like wandering on and under the pier.
It wasn’t very crowded due to the weather.
A Ruby’s chocolate shake always hits the spot.
I don’t remember Zoltar from previous years. He will tell your fortune though.
I am kind of attracted to photographing weird stuff.
I wonder how many times the Life Ring has been used.
The nearest In n Out is about a 30 minute walk from Lynne’s house. So much to see along the way!
My brother-in-law John knows so much about LA and it is amazing to spend a day with him cruising around. This is the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Brentwood. It is referred to as the Sturges House but is most famous for the fact that Jack Larson the actor who played Jimmy Olsen on the Superman TV show, lived here for many years. It was to be auctioned a few years ago, but didn’t sell. It is now abandoned and in rough shape. Shocking.
It is in a very quaint and beautiful neighborhood.
Check out this deck from below. It is nearly the size of the house which is only 1400 square feet. I am always saddened and amazed that such an important house can sit abandoned and empty. Especially in Brentwood!
John grew up in Palos Verdes, which is to me the most amazing community in the LA area. It was nice to go there for a coffee before driving back to Tustin. This fountain is in the center of the little commercial area.
Thanks for following!
Beach Snow / Jellyfish
It is easy to see where the high tide line is here.
There were several of these interesting gelatinous creatures that had been washed up on the beach.
I want to call them jellyfish, but I’m not sure. They might fit into the cnidaria phylum, but I would appreciate anyone who could tell me what they are.
I love looking at the patterns that form when the tide is going out. This could be a photo taken from 20,000 feet, even though it isn’t.
New Year’s Day 2018
Wishing you all a happy and productive 2018. Thanks for following this silly little blog.
This is the annual Polar Bear Plunge on the island. It takes a special kind of person to run into the Atlantic when the outside temperature is 30 degrees.
Baseball / A Different Huntington
Something is going on out on the mound. The Angels lost to Kansas City yesterday, but it was a nice day for baseball.
It seems my two current favorite places in Southern California have Huntington in their names. This is the pier at Huntington Beach. It was just past noon today when I took this, and the morning haze had not yet burned off. A lovely, cool day to walk on the beach.
Olive at the Beach / Dolphins?!?
Today is Olive’s last day at the beach this year. The weather is incredible and she has been so happy being in the water almost every day.
We bought her this green flying saucer type thing which really soars on a windy day. She swims out to get it and then comes right back.
Except yesterday when Cris was playing with her. Olive paddled out to the saucer and then started to swim out a bit farther into the ocean. Cris couldn’t figure out what was going on, and then spotted dolphin fins. Olive must have sensed them as well. It is hard to know what kind of interaction there would have been if she hadn’t come right back when called. You would like to think that it would have ended in a nice “Flipper-like” scenario with lots of cavorting and intra-mammal bonding, but you never know.
Thanks to Bob and Kath for having us in the house again this year, and it is so great that they have been here for the latter part of our stay. Heading back North tomorrow.
Olive at the Beach
Due to the great generosity of my brother and sister in law, we are back at the beach for a bit. Olive is thrilled.
Happy New Year to you all.
Beach Flower
It is wonderful to come to a place in the month of January where wild plants are still flowering. In all our miles of walking the beach, this was the only blossom we have seen.
Anyone out there have any idea what plant this is?
Star / Higgins Beach
We are up in Maine for a few days. The Christmas tree came down earlier today and some of the stars fell off on the way out of the house.
Cris, Olive, and I had a lovely walk on Higgins Beach just before the sun went down.
I’ll try to post before the New Year, but if I don’t get the chance, happy end of 2015 to all of you, and best for 2016
Huntington Beach
We went to Huntington Beach today. Lots of reasons to go, including the Purina Proplan Incredible Dog Challenge Western Regional competition. Yesterday was the dog surfing, which I am really sorry we missed, but today was the “dogs leaping into water competition”, which I have always wanted to see live. It was great, and there were tons of dogs there just hanging out.
Including this guy just chillin’ in the bleachers.
I got a chocolate milkshake at the Ruby’s at the end of the pier.
It is always nice to look down at the surfers.
It was nice and cool in the shade of the pier.
We then walked down the beach for a couple of miles. Lots of people, very diverse and interesting, and the water was so clear and refreshing. I haven’t taken my shoes off and walked in the Pacific for a very long time.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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