We went to the botanic garden yesterday and enjoyed the magnificent orchids on display. The two pictures below were of a couple of prize winners. Both are as beautiful as they are exotic.
California
The 2007 Orchid Show — Preview
The annual gathering of the Southern California Orchid Society is this weekend. We are members of the South Coast Botanical Gardens and since our facility is host to the event, we plan to attend today. All I can say is the show and the orchids and flowers on sale last year were breathtaking. I took this shot last year. Click the image for the large view.
I’ll be posting today’s pictures here later.
Flight of the Pelicans
Saturday, during our visit to the cliffs at Point Vicente, we saw this flight of California Brown Pelicans soaring along the shoreline in the updrafts.
The four lead pelicans are seen in the image below. You can see the entire flight of ten by clicking on the image. See this article for a close up of a California Brown.
The eleventh bird in the large picture is a seagull who was also soaring the cliffs.
After the Rain
Overnight, we had considerable rainfall – at least for drought-stricken Southern California. Damsel and I knew that there would be clear air down by the ocean, as is typical after rainfall here. When we drove to the Palos Verdes Peninsula, we were not disappointed.
Damsel took this picture of Point Vicente with the Lighthouse to the left and Catalina Island in the distance. Click on the image below for the deluxe full-screen version.
Basking on a Buoy
Whenever we take the Catalina Express to or from Catalina, we never fail to see several California Sea Lions basking on the harbor navigation buoys. Damsel took this picture as we passed into the harbor returning to the San Pedro Catalina Terminal.
Pinnipeds are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection act, and organizations such as the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur (we are supporting members) provide rescue, rehab and restoration to the habitat for injured critters.
It’s not uncommon for sea lions to rest on buoys; they will also often gather at marinas and wharves. These man-made environments provide them safety from their natural predators: orcas and white sharks.
You can click on the image for a larger view.
The Casino’s Art Deco Mermaid
I know that we’ve been putting up a lot of images from our recent trip to Avalon, but we took over 800 pictures and many of them came out quite good (if I do say so myself). We will probably be posting these over the next few weeks in the afterglow of a wonderful island getaway.
This beautiful tile mural is over the box office in the foyer of the famous Casino in the City of Avalon on Catalina Island. She has been restored form the dark days of the 60s to the 80’s when this gorgeous structure fell into disrepair. Luckily, the whole place is looking good, although some places around the building could use a power wash. Nonetheless, this is one of the several wonderful aquatic murals in the Casino’s foyer. Click on the image below to see a larger version.
Island Patrol
When you are on an island, everything you consume has to be barged over from the mainland. In the case of groceries and gasoline, the entire delivery truck is loaded onto the barge and brought to the island and barged back empty. This causes the prices for such commodities to go way up.
While you can’t cut down on groceries and such, you can do something about fuel consumption. In order to cope with 5-dollar-per-gallon-plus gas prices, most Catalina Island residents drive small golf-cart sized vehicles since the town is rather small. You also see motor scooters and we saw a Segway while we were there.
One interesting vehicle we saw was this motorized stand-up three-wheeled solution which the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department uses to patrol the streets of Avalon. Click on the picture below for a large close-up.
