Celebrity Sighting

This happened a while ago, but I forgot to include it in my previous catch-up posts. I was walking into a local supermarket and noticed a very, very tall guy walking in front of me. I looked up and thought "Hey, that looks like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!". Then I thought "nah, couldn't be". But I looked back up (way up) at his face one more time and thought "I think it is him!". Just then, some guys across the parking lot yelled at him and, without looking at them, he signaled a "V" peace sign in their direction and steadfastly continued walking on. I'm almost positive it was him, especially since a shopkeeper later told me than he lives in nearby Playa del Rey and people frequently see him in this area.

Feeding Frenzy

I wandered to the beach this afternoon for a brief stroll, not expecting to stay long or see much. But soon I spotted a few dolphins. They were farther out than usual and hard to see, so I headed to the Venice Pier to get a better view. I couldn't find them again and was just about to go home when I noticed them swimming near a large collection of water birds. The birds were in a frenzy, flapping around and repeatedly dive-bombing the water. So I whipped out my trusty binoculars to see what was going on. I was stunned to see not only dolphins and birds in the mix, but also sea lions!! (Well, I'm guessing they were sea lions. They could have been seals - I can't tell the difference from a distance.) Several sea lions were vigorously swimming around in a porpoise-like fashion, with their heads and tails bobbing in and out of the water. This was a breath-taking sight to behold: dolphins, sea lions, and sea birds all swimming around in a frenzy in a very small area. I figure that one of the groups must have scared up some fish, and the other animals came over to partake. This was so cool to watch!

(Aside: it's amazing how difficult it can be to distinguish birds from dolphins from sea lions in the water! Yea, I know they look pretty different on land :). But when you look out on the ocean, all you see is a dark appendage (head, fin, or tail) sticking out of the water for a brief second and then it disappears. I've hallucinated many a dolphin that turned out to be a sea bird! Or a surfer. ;)

Venice Canals

Someone gave me a tip that I should check out the Venice Canals around Christmas time because many of the bridges and homes are decorated with holiday lights, and one house in particular has an especially elaborate display that is not to be missed. Wow, they weren't kidding - it was incredible. And the canals are gorgeous even without the holiday lights. Pictures are here.

Dolphins!!

My biggest thrill (and greatest surprise) here in Marina del Rey is that I frequently see dolphins swimming in the surf just a few blocks from my apartment. I love dolphins, so I'm on a tremendous high every time I see them. I bought a new camera with a good optical zoom to try and get some decent pictures. (If you happen to be on the MDR beach and see a strange woman with a huge grin on her face acting like an excited 2-year-old and running along the beach while frantically snapping photos of the ocean, that would be me. :) I got lucky this past weekend and saw a pod of probably 6-10 dolphins swimming in the surf for over an hour! My first attempts at photographing them can be found here ... I know, I need to do better. ;)

Los Angeles Zoo

Visited the Los Angeles Zoo. Not an elite zoo, but pretty nice. Had many unusual creatures that I don't think I've seen before. Pictures are here.

Venice boardwalk

Checked out the Venice boardwalk (which is not a true boardwalk, btw, to those of us who grew up on the east coast -- it's paved concrete, no wooden boards at all). What a trip. Lots of tattoo parlors, bong shops, street artists (some good, most not so good), and a seemingly infinite number of shops selling t-shirts and cheap souvenirs.

As I was walking toward the boardwalk from the beach, I heard a loud boom coming from the ocean. When I turned around, I saw two pirate ships out on the water throwing smoke bombs at each other. They were putting on quite a show for whoever happened to be walking along the beach. Awesome.

A Christmas Carol

Dec. 14 : Went with some folks from ISI to see "A Christmas Carol" at the First Lutheran Church in Venice. One of our colleagues, Ulf Hermjakob. played the Ghost of Christmas Present. The role of Ebenezer Scrooge was played by Orson Bean (who also wrote the adapted script). Kinda unreal to go a free play in a smallish church and see Orson Bean. That's LA, I guess. :)

The play was very cool and a bit unusual. Was more low-key than most performances you see in a theater, and they sometimes played off this for laughs. For example, high-tech visual effects were not really an option. So to illustrate the effect of Scrooge "flying" off with the Ghosts of Christmas Past and Present, they ran a couple of dolls along a clothesline across the ceiling of the church. The whole performance was a bit campy (in a good way!) and had a lot of humor in it. I'm still new to the area, but this performance very much seemed to match the spirit of Venice.

Boat Floats

Dec. 8 : I went to the Marina del Rey Boat Parade. What a hoot! I'd never been to a "boat parade" so wasn't sure what to expect. But it is exactly what it sounds like. Spectators (like me) go to Chace Park at the edge of the marina and line up along the docks to get an unobstructed view of the water. After a brief fireworks display, boats circle the marina in a continuous loop while an emcee announces who owns each boat as it passes by. The boats are decorated with holiday lights, much like people decorate the front lawns of their houses, and some contain props such as giant Santas.

The boats ranged in size from tiny to large, and from barely decorated (just a few strings of lights) to incredibly elaborate displays. The most elaborate boats had animated light shows set to music, sometimes with singers and dancers on board. Some of my favorites were: a giant, animated nutcracker; animated seals that tossed gifts back and forth; and sailboats and "pirate" ships that had lights run along all their masts so that the entire boat was outlined. A couple of boats pulled tiny boats behind them with a plastic Santa at the helm.

My favorite boat had animated reindeer "running" on the left side of the boat, with an animated dolphin "porpoising" along the front of the boat. Way cool. Most of my pictures didn't come out (esp. of the fanciest boats) because it was dark and the boats were moving, but here's a blurry photo of a boat with a Christmas tree in lights.

Rendezvous with a Raccoon

Oct. 31 : I went exploring around the marina this evening and saw a large bird that looked like a Great Blue Heron sitting on the rocks below me. I watched him for a while until he turned and saw me, looked me straight in the eye, and flew off making a raucous noise that made his frustration with me all too clear.

I also watched a small bird repeatedly swoop down and gently touch the water with its bill as it flew just a few inches above the water down the length of the basin. When it finally flew back up to the sky, it left a thin trail of disturbed water in its wake. I have no idea what kind of bird it was, but this was fascinating to watch!

As I reached the end of the marina, I noticed a raccoon walking on the docks. There was no one around and it was very quiet, so I watched the raccoon go about its business for about 20 minutes. He (or she, dunno) walked from one end of the dock to the other, at one point even climbing some stairs up onto a boat and thoroughly inspecting it. Down on the dock, he peered over the edge a few times and looked into the water, perhaps looking for fish. A bit later, he picked something up off the ground and cracked it with his teeth. I couldn't see very well so I don't know what it was - perhaps a mussel or clam. Finally, he sauntered up the exit ramp back to the mainland. I stepped away so as not to surprise him when he walked off. The exit had a locked gate, and I assumed that he would squeeze under it. But to my surprise, he climbed up and over a side fence and startled me by walking along a small ledge straight towards me. But before I could move, he slipped under the main fence, noticed me standing nearby, and quickly scampered across the street where he disappeared from view. The space under the fence was slightly larger than the gap under the gate, so perhaps that's why he exited that way.

I have never observed a raccoon for so long or so closely. He was a stunningly beautiful animal, with a nearly perfect bandit facial mask and ringed tail. His ears were slightly rounded, and his body shape was noticably different from that of a cat - less length but wider and more round. What I will remember most, however, is that he had a presence about him that conveyed both a dignity and an intelligence that epitomizes wild animals. His actions were so deliberate, so purposeful. No doubt he had done all of this before. I felt privileged to have had a brief window into his life.

Aquarium of the Pacific

My first trek was to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Pretty nice, though not of the same caliber as the very best aquariums (aquaria?). As the name implies, this aquarium focuses exclusively on sea life in the Pacific Ocean, and the exhibits are divided into 3 sections representing different ecosystems of the Pacific.

The aquarium didn't have many large animals, except for a couple sharks, seals, and sea lions. But the smaller displays were terrific and contained some unusual things that I hadn't seen before, such as "sea apples". And they had a wonderful display of mudskippers, my favorite fish! (If you haven't seen them before, they are fish that walk and sit on land, literally! The aquarium had a whole bunch of 'em mostly sitting around on rocks, with a few walking around (they have a floppy gait reminiscent of sea lions).

Marina del Rey

Am renting an apartment in Marina del Rey, about 4 blocks from the beach. :) Click here to see pictures.

(You'll notice a whole slew of blog entries in December. I'm using the Christmas break to catch up on a backlog of stuff I've been meaning to post, and also take some pictures I've been meaning to take!)

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I decided to chronicle my adventures in California this year, primarily for myself so that I don't forget all the little things that are worth remembering. And a blog seemed like an easy way to do that, with the added bonus that other curious folks can follow along if they want. So here it is ... the only thing I will guarantee is that the updates will be sporadic at best! :)