…the ocean.
Winter solstice. The shortest day of the year was also sunny and warm, perfect weather for a hike in the park. The added bonus was the cleanly washed air after the recent rain, providing the happy hiker with a view of the ocean about 20 miles away.
That’s a sight one does not get to see too often from this particular spot. Whatever nice one can say about Los Angeles, “pure, clean air” is not among the attributes of the city.
Well, one can’t have everything.
Yes, it does not take any longer to cross the orbits of those planets (if one goes up to the Observatory).
And then there is
Poor Pluto. 76 years after his discovery in 1930 he was demoted to the status of dwarf planet.
Don’t worry, Pluto, I like you nevertheless just as much as your big buddies – and like to hop over your orbit.
1850: In a covered wagon from Independence/Missouri to California along the Oregon and California Trail (approx. 2,000 miles) – 6 months. Timed right, one left in Spring and arrived in October. That was under good conditions – if they were unfavorable, one might not arrive at all.
1858: First non-stop stage coach from St. Louis to Los Angeles (2,000 miles) – 20 days. Hard on the derrière for passengers.
1860: Pony-Express from St. Louis to Sacramento (1,996 miles) – 11 days. They took mail only, no passengers. Tough luck.
1876: First trip of the Transcontinental Express train from New York City to San Francisco – 83 hours and a bit. Now passengers can speed from coast to coast.
1923: First non-stop flight Long Island to San Diego (2.470 miles) – 25 hours 50 minutes. The plane had to be adjusted to carry the massive amounts of fuel needed. No passengers, sorry.
1929: First combined rail and air passenger service from coast to coast – 48 hours. No non-stop service, though.
2006: Traveling by car from New York City to Los Angeles – 31 hours 4 minutes. Some speed limits were broken while setting the new record.
About the last thing I expected to see on Catalina Island were bison. Right – I had not done my homework, otherwise I would have been aware of this story:
1924 a herd of 14 bison were transported to Catalina Island to act as extras in a silent movie (“The Vanishing American” ). After filming was done – and here the reports get a bit sketchy – the film company either left the animals on the island for cost reasons or because they could not round up the bison again to take them back. Be that as it may, the bison stayed and became a tourist attraction. They also multiplied and became reason for concern: The eco system of Catalina Island is rather fragile and was and is not set up to support several hundred bison, happily munching away on rare plants indigenous to the island.
Now and then some animals were taken off the island, but the herd grew to around 350 head – too many to stay there. At this point the Catalina Island Conservancy came up with the plan to return some of the animals to their home, home being the Great Plains. But would they survive there after 80 years in sunny California? Very quietly a herd of about 50 head were taken off the island and sent to the land of the Cheyenne, who were partners in this experiment. Surprisingly enough the bison adjusted within weeks to the different weather conditions, grew a nice thick winter pelt and thrived on the more nourishing grass of their old home.
After this test run, both the Conservancy and the Indian tribes knew that the repatriation would not harm the animals. With the help of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and some others, in 2004 funding was found to round up 100 bison, ship them to the mainland and transport them by truck the roughly 2,000 miles to South Dakota to the land of the Lakota tribe.
A short video can be seen here.
There are still bison on Catalina Island, a herd of about 150 animals. The island can sustain this many and for the visitor it is a wonderful experience to see some of these remarkable animals in the wild without having to travel 2,000 miles.
I like swans, especially Mute Swans (Cygnus olor / Höckerschwan). They are majestic, beautiful birds, elegant and fascinating when gliding over the water. They are also quite aggressive when tending their young.
I remember my last encounter with swans: I used to run at a lake near my house; after my cool down I always sat on a little wooden deck and fed the ducks with stale bread. On that particular day four cygnets joined the flock of ducks to get their share of the feast. However, it did not take long for the parent birds to come gliding along to take a good look at what was happening there. Apparently they wanted to make sure that I clearly understood that no hanky-panky was allowed with their offspring – one of the swans started to hiss and get into attack mode. I got the message and retreated. An attacking swan is not something very high on my list of “Things One Really, Really has to Experience in Life.”
So I was very pleased that my next swan sighting was of this pretty bird – fast asleep.
The romantic surroundings were quite fitting.
In Spring Casa Beach in La Jolla looks like this:
About 150 to 200 harbor seals use the beach as a resting place and rookery for their pups:
Once the pups are old enough to behave like proper teenagers (frolicking in the sea and having fun all day long), the older seals spend their afternoons, most likely, more like this:
Anything for a good rest before Spring comes around again and one has all flippers full raising the next generation.
All this can be watched from just a short distance away. Casa Beach is a small paradise for nature lovers big and small.
Unfortunately, this paradise is threatened. For years and years a battle has been going on between those who love this rare opportunity to catch a glimpse into the life of the harbor seals and those who consider them a menace, a pest, water polluters and squatters on a beach belonging to the humans. A short video clip can be watched here.
The latest news is that the City of San Diego and environmentalists have been overruled in their desire to keep Casa Beach for the seals. Now the case is supposed to go to Sacramento for a final decision.
I sincerely hope the seals will be allowed to stay. A 100 yard long stretch of beach is such a small price to pay for a year-round insight into the lives of these unique animals.
I like libraries. University libraries even more. My new favorite is the Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego.
Designed by William L. Pereira and finished in 1970, it sits on top of its hill as if this hill had been waiting forever and ever just for this particular building to be erected there.
To me the Geisel Library is an ultramodern take on the design of places like Himeji Castle in Japan.
Or maybe it just grew out of the ground, because in spite of all those expanses of glass and the rigid angles the structure looks organic, belonging there. It is quite easy to imagine how it slowly emerged from the ground, growing, growing to its full height, looking faintly otherworldly and yet fully of the here and now.
And then somebody came along and cleaned all those glass panes.
This weekend I went hunting. As I was going for the largest bear on Earth and some amazing architecture, my “weapon” was the camera.
Starting with the bear, that was easy to find (once you know where to look for it). No wonder, with a height of 23 ft (7 m) and weighting in at 370,000 lbs. (167,8 t) it can not easily be overlooked. This sculpture, made from massive granite boulders, sits in the engineering courtyard at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering in La Jolla. The artist is Tim Hawkinson. The piece was commissioned by the university’s Stuart Collection and erected in 2005.
Most interesting about this sculpture is the fact that seen from a slight distance the bear looks like a cuddly teddy bear. Just cute, sweet, like a toy left by a child on a lawn. Well, a rather largish child. But with every step closer this perception changes. The sheer mass of the piece becomes quite impressive. When one then walks away again and turns around, it is once again a sweet teddy bear. Any moment that child who left it there will come and pick it up.
Cool.
No, not around here in the Flatland, up on Snow Summit (8,200ft / 2.499 m) above Big Bear Lake.
It is pretty up there and really, really cold. Temperatures at night are already below freezing. By mid November the skiing season should begin.
Which means, of course, that I will stay away from there for the next 4 months or so. Maybe even a bit longer. Any place with 193 days below 32˚F / 0˚C per year tends to see me rather less often.
By 3 PM today 27 fires were raging in SoCal. They form a blazing triangle from Ventura County inland to San Bernardino and down again to the coast in San Diego. In San Diego alone over half a million people were evacuated and thousands of those will have no home to return to – their houses have burned down.
The city of Los Angeles is safe. We know how lucky we are and blessed.
With all those fires burning the fallout is the smoke. The sky today was grayish-yellow. A rather distinct smell of burnt wood reminds us all that others are less lucky than we are. Sunrise this morning was already quite a sight; come sunset, one could look right into the sun without danger of hurting ones eyes.
Though a phenomenon like this is spectacular, I would have preferred not to have been able to take this photo.
