Dolphin surfing

There are rewards for getting up early.  The pleasure of knowing that you've gotten more done before 9 AM than most people will all day.  The peace of getting things done or just watching the news without the phone ringing.  Starting your day with exercise.

Today:  Watching dolphins cruise the surf only 100 feet off shore.  When I used to body surf a lot, I had some fun times when they literally surfed right next to me (but far more gracefully).

Yo was ecstatic when she spotted them.  I counted 12 individuals, but there may have been up to 18.   By far the largest pod I've ever seen up close.   All looked pretty mature, no juveniles that I could see.

All I can tell you is that our day got off to a spectacular start.  I love California.

An old video

Lately I've realized how much I love creating.  I am an engineer and other stuff by training, but by no means a drama/theater/arts major.

I've made quite a few, not many I can share with the world because I am not sure the subjects would be happy to be in the internet (which lasts forever).

Here's one I made of the gremlins.  It's 1/3 them doing what they want, 1/3 me telling them the general idea and letting them ad-lib, and 1/3 filling in the blanks by telling and showing them exactly what to do.  (Rough numbers, but they get the acting and directing control while I take the editing/post-production control.)

Bottom line -- I let them do what they wanted, let them make up their own plot -- and made a fun film of it.

This was made a while back with less than perfect technology at my hands, and posted via the internet so forgive the graininess.

One thing I'm proud of, if you pay careful attention -- how the music beat is so closely tied to the video.  Sadly, all of my videos to date have been made in an hour or two, so what I post is not perfection.  One day I will make the perfect video.

Frogs

We recently took the gremlins to a local museum in Anaheim that professes to be centered around music.

It's actually two small museums.  One has a very lame exhibit supposedly about jazz greats.  Guess what?  No music, no real exhibits, just about 100 small black-and-white portraits.  Admittedly, great photography but boring when you realize that you have no idea who the majority of the people are and there is no information to help you out.

But... here's what all four of us loved - in the other hall is an exhibit of frogs of all types from all around the world.  The large gremlin stole my camera from me and took hundreds of pictures.

Ugly and hostile-looking:

Proud and dignified:

Huge, fat and slimy (we named him Jabba the Hut):

Cute:

Colorful:

Friends:

Bug-eyed:

There were lots more.  We loved the tiny and hugely colorful poisonous Dart Frogs, but they were just too tiny to get pictures of.

There's also a room full of interactive exhibits (computers, games, etc) that we had to literally drag the Gremlins away from.

For what it cost, this was an immense value.  We got a good 3 hours of entertainment for practically nothing.  It's in Anaheim about 1.5 miles northeast of Disneyland.  Link:  Muzeo

Awesome machines

Clickety-click below to see some video. This was a great day.
There's a full screen option at the lower-right. It looks like four arrows.

Venice

Apparently named after its Italian cousin due to its relatively lame canals, Venice Beach, CA is one nutty place to visit.  A weekend spent walking on the boardwalk never fails to entertain and shock.

There are plenty of regular characters who exist only to amuse (and sometimes disturb) you in the hopes for a small handout.  Unfortunately, we didn't see the guy who for one dollar will let you (literally) kick his ass.

But we did see the Gold Dust Guy.  He remains perfectly still until you drop some money into his bucket.  Then he dances and screams for precisely three seconds before resuming his statue-like stance:

And of course Marijuana Man, who clearly pays regular visits to the many "medical" marijuana clinics on the boardwalk:

This guy is a mainstay... he rides around on his home-made roller skates while very poorly playing a portable electric guitar:

All of these guys somehow get tips.  I loved the guy below.  This was by far the strangest clown I've ever seen.

But some of the street performers are pretty impressive.  This acrobatic group was amazing - I wish the pictures could show you their impressive strength and agility.

Yes, that guy has launched himself over two other guys and is somehow five feet in the air upside down.

And finally, a somewhat less impressive acrobatic feat:

Saddleback Mountain

We got a late start, so we can't yet check this off our list of things to do.  But We did make it most of the way up to the 5,000+ foot Santiago Peak.

We got out of the house at about 10:30, after the gremlins left.  A long drive brought us to the end of a long, very rough dirt road with several water obstacles and plenty of boulders.

We finally got our climb started around 12:30.  Right from the start, we were treated to beautiful Rose Creek, still running high from the recent rains.

We were giddy as we turned off the popular (translation:  easy) trail, which leads up to a small waterfall and instead began the true climb up Holy Jim trail.  The canyon opened up below us and views toward the ocean began to become visible.  Before we knew it we had climbed 2,000 feet. - a good excuse for a quick rest.

A few miles from the summit, we did a quick calculation and realized we needed to turn back in order to make it off the mountain before dark.  We were hardly tired at all, and a little disappointed not to make it to the peak, so we made ourselves a promise to come back before the weather gets too warm.

善光寺

Want to get a sense of Japan?  I wish I had taken more pictures and some video... but this says a lot.  Make your mouse go clickety-click on the picture and then make sure you also click on full screen and have your sound on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEyDY6enw-s

Don't call it "Frisco"

That is one sure way to tick off a local.  I lived here for a few years so it was fun to show Yo the "other side" of San Francisco that most visitors don't see.  I purposely steered us away from the typical tourist fare.

Of course, I wouldn't begrudge her the chance to ride a trolley car and view the Golden Gate.

We made a stop to tour the Pompanito.  It's the same class sub that Grandpa Charlie served on in WWII. Yo was in heaven exploring all the different compartments and climbing all over.

Our favorite stop was the Museum of Modern Art, or MOMA.

No, the below picture is not a comment on our relationship!  I just love the black, white and gray with the only splash of color being Yo's face and hand.

Yo's absolute favorite piece:

Changes

This has been yet another year of change.  After our adventure in the Sierras, life has brought us back to Orange County, California.  (Please don't call it "The OC.")  As always, we look for new things to do outdoors.  Crazy things (keep tuned to this channel for the latest).


We have gone from this:

To this: