Last week we took a drive to the harbor area; while we were there, we stopped at the 22nd Street Red Car Station. Damsel took a photo as this holiday-decorated trolley pulled into the station.
I have a special interest in the Red Cars, since my Grandfather was a motorman during the 1930s and 1940s. On a rainy day last year, we took a ride on the red car.
It was with good foresight that we decided to archive our photo files on an external hi-capacity hard drive. The dual computer crash last week could have been a greater loss than we actually experienced. While looking at some of Damsel’s old photos, I ran across this shot of the historic Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro, California. Click on the image to enlarge.
Here’s some of the lighthouse’s history from the Point Fermin Lighthouse website:
Built in 1874, the Point Fermin Lighthouse was the first navigational light into the San Pedro Bay. Phineas Banning, with the support of many local businessmen, petitioned the Federal Government and the US lighthouse Board to place a lighthouse on the point in 1854. Although the Lighthouse Board agreed funding and land disputes delayed its construction until 1874.
Paul J. Pelz, a draftsman for the US Lighthouse Board, designed the Stick Style Victorian lighthouse. The design was used for six lighthouses built between 1873 and 1874, of which three are still standing, East Brothers in San Francisco Bay, Hereford Light in New Jersey, and Point Fermin. The Stick Style is an early Victorian architectural style and is simpler in design and decoration than the later high Victorian period. It is characterized by its gabled roofs, horizontal siding, decorative cross beams and hand carved porch railings.
If you’re nerdy enough to have a pair of 3D red-blue or red-cyan glasses (like me), then you might enjoy this 3D anaglyph photo I took of the lighthouse at about the same time.
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.
On our last day on the Island, we got up early and I captured this picturesque sunrise over Avalon Harbor. You can click on the image to see the 800 by 600 pixel image.
While we were in Avalon, I snapped this panoramic view from our hotel room balcony. Click the image below for the full-sized panorama.
Camera: Canon A710s. Software: ZoomBrowser Stitch.
During our entire visit to Catalina Island this week, we enjoyed some of the most perfect weather we’ve ever seen while visiting one of our favorite places. This photo of the famous Casino in Avalon was taken at sunset; the mainland California San Gabriel mountain range can clearly be seen in the distance. That mountain range is about a hundred miles beyond Avalon.
Today is our anniversary. We were married in the city of Avalon on Catalina Island. We would be blogging more about our excursion, but unfortunately, the laptop is malfunctioning and we’re unable to download our photos. That will happen later this week when we are home again.
Meanwhile, we will be going out to seal rocks today to visit our piniped pals. Enjoy this picture Damsel took last year from the boat.
