Month: December 2006

Venice

One of the big advantages of Christmas is that Los Angeles empties out. Everybody goes somewhere else, to visit, for a holiday trip, and those choosing to stay behind enjoy uncongested freeways and beautiful parts of the city minus the usual throngs of people milling around.

An especially pleasant place to visit on Christmas Day is Venice to take a stroll along the canals

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with only these guys around:

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Yes, that’s something you’ll experience only at Christmas.

Of course one has to go down to the beach too, to enjoy the sun, the wind, the waves. At a pleasant 73 degree F not a bad way to spend Christmas.

Snow?

Bah humbug.

40.000 Years Ago…

the area of and around Los Angeles did look a bit different than today and slightly different animals wandered around, eating each other on occasion. Like these two guys.

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A wonderful place for those interested in extinct Ice Age plants and animals is the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits. These pits are a cornucopia of fossils for paleontologists and a fascinating place to visit for both adults and children. Nobody will be bored, because the whole place manages to give adults an interesting insight and overview of this period without leaving the kids bored to tears. Far from it. For kids this place is Heaven. Once there, one should not forget to visit one of the actual excavation sites and to spend some time in the atrium rainforest garden, which is a little hidden gem.

Demon Teeth

Squirrels – lovely and innocent, cute and cuddly, right? Delightful to watch, always making one smile? Sure. But there’s a dark side to the furry critters too – they are greedy and destructive when it comes to getting at food. This is what a bird feeder looks like after a squirrel had a go at it:

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The wood is chomped away, even the plastic has been gnawed at in a desperate attempt to get at the bird food.

Well, there is help available. By now the birds here get fed from the Yankee Whipper, 100 % squirrel proof. Don’t forget to watch the video. Big fun!

By the way, the squirrels get fed, too. Their favourite tree is now decorated with dried ears of corn for them to chomp at.