Newport Beach Bike Ride

We drove up to Newport Beach this morning and biked around the very tidy and upscale beach community of Balboa Island.

 This is the famous Newport Wedge - famous for huge summer swell waves that practically pound body surfers, body boarders, and crazy board surfers into "dry" sand.

There were some kids out, but the waves were small.  It was fun for me to at least see this spot in person.

This is The Wedge on a big day (photo: Jeff Divine).

 We rode around checking out the island homes and then took the ferry across to Little Balboa Island.

 Uh oh! We became terribly seasick on the 3 minute ride.

I spotted this VW stretch limo - someone's metalwork creation.  Then we came home.

Weekend Shenanigans

Thursday, raucous good fun with Andria and kids - check.
Friday, bike ride to San Onofre State Beach for sunset happy hour - check.
Friday and Saturday nights, camp out under the full moon in our backyard - check.
Saturday, eleven mile hike in wilderness area and dinner in Temecula - check.
Sunday, a day at the San Diego Zoo - check.

The following are a few snapshots of the past few days.

 We rode our bikes through a part of Camp Pendleton and into the state beach park at San Onofre.  In the winter this 6 mile stretch is fairly deserted.

 A selfie of us getting ready for the sunset.

 It was another unusually warm January day.  We had our little picnic as the sun went down.

 When we got home, Yummy D gave us that, "And where have you been?" look.

 Saturday, we returned to the Cleaveland National Forest to hike the Tenaja Trail down into San Mateo Canyon.  It is a wilderness area that offers a fair degree of solitude.  The streams are unusually dry for January due to our three years of drought.

 San Mateo Canyon  going downstream.

 San Mateo Canyon going upstream.

 On the way home, we stopped in Temecula for some food, music, and a beer.

 Sunday at the zoo, and a most magnificent rear end of an okapi.

The chimps were a real crowd pleaser!  Caution, may not be suitable for children.  Go to the following link:    http://youtu.be/T0KdlK8jpqc    I couldn't upload video through Blogger, so I have to try YouTube.  Sorry for the hassle, but I think you will find it worthwhile.

 There is underwater viewing of hippos through long windows.  Notice the cloud of feces, which is food for fish and worms.  Hippos are so graceful moving around underwater!

 They can stay submerged for about 5 minutes.

 We got a chuckle out of this exhibit because there were only about three zoo birds.  The rest were local great egrets, and great blue herons just hanging out for a free meal.

 Polar bear feet are about the size of dinner plates!

 If you are an elephant, this is where you come for a manicure or other health needs.  I noticed plenty of escape holes for humans!

This secretary bird likes to go to the office wearing sneakers.  And so ends an action packed weekend.

New Year Trip to Palm Springs

We spent January 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Palm Springs.  We opted to go to an early movie (American Hustle) on New Year's Eve, get up early, and drive to Palm Springs.  We had reserved a little apartment which was once part of the Gloria Swanson compound for a time.  There are six bungalows, each preserved in it's 1930's style.  Our hosts, Steve and Kass, maintain the beautiful gardens.  They were exceptionally warm and friendly folks.

This was the view from our front door.  We were treated to Costa's Hummingbirds bathing and drinking from the fountain.

We swam numerous times and found it hard to pry ourselves away from our lodging at Arenas Gardens.  The location was perfect - about three blocks from the stores and restaurants of Palm Drive, but quietly nestled up against the steep slope of the Santa Rosa Mountains.

At first we felt like we were staying at "Grandma's" house, but soon were captivated by the charm and feel of it all.

Our kitchen had a beautiful old Wedgewood oven.

We brought our bikes, shown here in our back patio.

We took a ride around our end of town, and saw many amazing homes and this rather tame roadrunner.

Bighorn sheep are found in the nearby hills and mountains.This one was some one's yard art.

We prepared for the trip by watching Sunset Boulevard, starring Gloria Swanson.  Gail also dug out color coordinated items of the period, including drinks, dishes, cigarette holder, robe, clothes, and more!  Fun!!!

We brought along this puzzle that Gail had from the "Rhode Island House".  This puzzle was hand sawed in 1934.  The pieces not only follow the outline of the picture, but they form separate figures themselves.  They were very popular in the early 1900's and then again in the Great Depression years.  Made by Parker Brothers, each puzzle was sawed by a woman, who developed her own figures and style.

 Looking back at our apartment behind the umbrella on the left.

 There were quiet sitting and barbecue areas around each little home.

 OK, we finally got out of the compound again and went for a hike up nearby Tahquitz Canyon on Indian lands.  A tribal park ranger pointed out a bighorn sheep that was at the top of a ridge.  They are very hard to spot unless they are on a ridge with the sky behind them, otherwise, they look just like the boulders around them.

 Our tribal ranger, Robert Hepburn, explains the medicinal use of some plant, I think.

 The trail ends at 60 foot Tahquitz Falls, site of the 1937 Frank Capra movie Lost Horizon.

Hiking back by ourselves, Gail and I were excited to spot more bighorn sheep.  I took this photo through my binoculars.

 We saw about five or six in this area.

 On our last day, we stopped at The Living Desert, a desert botanical garden and wildlife park.  They have rescued desert animals from North American deserts and African deserts.  There is also a state of the art wildlife hospital that the public can go into and even watch surgeries.  We liked the park's educational mission, lack of  "Disneyland" b.s., and the reasonable admission fees.

We were in awe of  two Mexican wolves that had a very large and interesting enclosure.  They seemed suspiciously like German shepherds, though.
Well, that's about it.  We had a very relaxing, pleasurable vacation and have vowed to "see in" 2015 in a similar manner.