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!
Ashley Reservoir
Peter is taking the GREs today (please wish him luck) in an industrial park in West Springfield, MA and Cris and I have a few hours to fill. Friends had told us about the Ashley Reservoir which is nearby so we decided on a walk. This place is amazing. Less than 5 minutes off the 91 and so peaceful.
The fact that this place is so close to the Holyoke Mall and a major highway makes it even more surprising.
What is especially cool is the ability to walk across these causeways and feel like you are in the middle of a lake. Almost like walking on water!
Next time any of you are driving through Western Mass, take Exit 15 off the 91 and you are there. Sadly, no doggies though.
Willard Suitcases / UTMB / Otters
Well, this is quite amazing. I had an incredible week in Galveston, which was capped off by a lovely dinner with the resident Osler Scholars, after which this lovely bust of Dr. William Osler was presented to me . I have never in my life as a photographer felt so respected and acknowledged. I spent the week talking about the suitcases in a variety of venues and was able to hear so many interesting comments on the collection. It is difficult for me to say how important this week was to me, but it was such a positive, affirming experience that I am at a bit of a loss for words. Huge thanks to Dr. Dwight Wolf and Rosemary Lindley for everything they have done to support the project.
Before coming home, Cris and I took the time to go out to Moody Gardens. It was so cool to see these giant river otters.
Back home now and trying to decompress from an intense week. A little stressed today as it seems the willardsuitcases.com site is having problems. I have been on the phone most of the day trying to get it sorted. The link above still is still functional but if you just type in the regular url it is broken. Arrrrgh. Hope to get it sorted soon.
Leaves
I took a break from the computer earlier this afternoon to take Olive up into the woods.
Somewhere deep in my memory lives the idea that I have seen something like this before. But I find it quite amazing and wondrous that I saw two different instances of leaves attached to what appears to be a thin strand of spider thread floating in midair and moving with the light breeze. This made me really happy.
Have a great weekend everyone.
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.
DCA / Zoo
Catching an early flight out of DCA. I like airports in the morning. / I went to the zoo yesterday.
I have mixed feelings about zoos. The one in DC is pretty great though. I look at this zebra and feel bad that he or she is not out running around the Savannah enjoying what would be a normal life.
But then I go over to see the lions and I realize that at least the zebra isn’t constantly worrying about getting chased down and et by one of these guys.
The prairie dogs were not out and about, but it was nice to see this little sculpture near their exhibit.
I’ll upload more suitcases soon.
Big Stick / Water / Crocus
Now that the winter is (maybe…probably) over, it is nice to be able to walk in the woods without snow shoes.
Olive always has a funny look on her face when she is carrying a big stick. Once she has ventured into the woods and made the difficult decision as to her preference, she is all business.
This time of the year is great for her as she gets the opportunity to spend a lot of time romping in the streams that surround our neighborhood. By August, this waterfall is usually just a trickle.
These little guys are starting to pop up through the pine needles. Nice.
Paperwhites
Just before Christmas I bought the last four paperwhite bulbs at Hadley Garden Center. As they were the last ones, they looked a bit ratty. Since we were gone most of January, Cris didn’t put them into the jar of rocks until just after we got home. The first flowers came out today. A full foot of snow outside but lovely to have these beauties in the house.
I spoke to my friend John Wilson in Stratford-upon-Avon late last week and he said the daffodils are already coming up over there. I guess we’ll have to wait at least 6 more weeks before we see any here.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
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.
Howth
We have been spending most of our time in busy cities on this trip, so we decided to take the DART train to Howth yesterday and spend some time on the coastal path.
This is a lovely seaside fishing village, and since it was Sunday it was a bit crowded, but we really wanted to walk, so it was worth it.
As we walked through the carpark at the beginning of the path, we saw a guy in a superman costume get out of a taxi. We didn’t think much about it at the time since it was a few days before Halloween. We started our walk, and some minutes later looked down to a little island just off the coast and saw him jump off a diving platform. He is in mid-flight in this photo but it is a bit difficult to see him. Look for the red spot on the left. Wild.
It was a lovely day. Not too hot, not too cool.
Ireland is really green, and like Cornwall has a really interesting variety of plants.
I can never keep these things straight, but I think this is gorse. So lovely.
There were amazing views throughout the walk. In the foreground is an entire field of ferns that are just starting to turn brown.
At one point the coast path crossed an enormous golf course. We were instructed to stay quiet. We obliged, and we did see some golfers teeing off. It would have been a lovely day to play 18.
But by far the coolest part of the walk was when we went through the Bog of Frogs. It was boggy, but not noticeably froggy.
We walked well over 10 miles, and it was spectacular. It was great to get a pint and some fish and chips once back in Howth.
As we waited for the train to Dublin, a Carphone Warehouse advert kept scrolling through this sign at the station.
Once back in Dublin, we stopped at Mary’s Bar and Hardware for a whiskey. They really love JFK here. And the whiskey was nice.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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