The Lighthouse

"Anythin' for a quiet life, as the man said when he took the situation at the lighthouse." - Charles Dickens. When I saw this lighthouse I couldn't help thinking how cool it was. It's found at Palos Verdes Penninsula near Los Angeles.

Spring in Solstice Canyon

Today Joe and I went to Solstice Canyon to a hike I read about in a guide book. We read about the hike: 2 miles inland from the Pacific in Malibu, with wild flowers and the ruins of a stone family home gutted by wildfires. These are all Joe's pictures.

Cream tastes good people!

Today I bought the first strawberries of the season. Of course I just had to have a bowl of these beauties with some cream on top. And not just any cream, Clover Heavy Whipping Cream. You can see someone else in the home likes Clover Cream too. Yummers!

The Opera

Can you find Joe and me in the picture above? We went to the Opera today and saw Das Rheingold by Wagner. The performance was great and so was the fact that we only payed $20 a ticket. Anyway, this opera was written almost 150 years ago and is mostly about a guy who chooses riches (symbolized by a gold ring) over love. Also, they have a big screen above the stage that scrolls the words they sing, so you can actually follow along. How fun (I don't know WHO that girl was snoozing in Row K of the nosebleed though - it certainly wasn't me!).

Culver City and the Getty Villa

Today Joe said at noon, "Let's go to the Getty Villa." So we did. It's museum right on the Pacific in Malibu that holds art that is from 8000 BC to about maybe 250AD. Yeah, that's some old stuff! I thought it was cool the way there was this 6000 year old figure of a lady feeding a chicken. I mean really! I really loved the quote above. So many times recently I've caught myself watching birds, insects, bees, flowers growing OUT OF ROCKS and thought, "Hey if those flowers can make it in THOSE conditions, I've got it made." Cool to see it on a wall somewhere and cool to think about now.


Later on (the pics are out of order, I don't know how to fix it yet!) we went to Culver City, which is where The Wizard of Oz was filmed. Another angelic day here in the City of Angels.

Anza Borrego

Joe and I went camping in Anza Borrego. The drive there is crazy, the roads wind around and around and this area is VERY remote. One friend we met said that when he drove in to Anza Borrego from Palm Springs, he felt like he was driving on the moon. I concur, except that Earth hosts many more wildflowers than the moon!!! Above you can see our campsite (taken at midnight with a long exposure and full moonlight) and some of the flowers from our trip.

The Moon, etc.

"Today was like one of those fly dreams...I gotta say it was a good day..."Ice Cube wrote this about a certain type of good day. Today was like that for Joe and me. He found out today that he gets a WHOLE surprise week off!! Mr. J. hasn't had a week off since...Las Vegas/Utah 1/08? That's a long time. I visited Topanga State park and got to visit with the moon (peeking out at 4PM, rising throughout my hike) and some rocks. Joe's working on some new drawings. Yeah, I gotta say it was good day. Y'all know where Ice Cube's from, right? LA, of course.
PS Stay tuned for a possible camping advenure later this week.

Surfliner

Joe and I took the Amtrak Surfliner up the coast from LA to San Luis Obispo on Sunday. I don't even know how to explain it, the beauty of the trip was just overwhelming. From arid, desert-like rock outcroppings, up through emerald green hills dotted with grazing cows, all the while next to an incredible strip of the Pacific Coast. BEAUTIFUL. There were the coolest other passengers, too. Down here it seems everywhere you go there are people of several continents represented. An Asian guy as cute as a cat, a Middle-Eastern guy reading Bukowski, a young white girl from LA with her iPod and video game...then, there's US. ; ) Oh and BTW, we'd have never had this experience if Joe hadn't forgotten a key the first time we drove to the bus stop. We missed our origninal trip and "had to" go on the second train - which took a different route!! A good lesson - "forgetting" the "key" can be a good thing!