Weekend Wanderings

 Now that my exams are all done and summer has arrived, I actually have time to spare to go out and enjoy the city we live in. So while there is still plenty to share about California, I thought I'd mix things up for one week and share a trio of events that I was able to take in recently. Below is the affordable housing protest at the art gallery.

While I do agree that housing in this city is disconnected from reality, the people at the protest didn't really have a clear message of what they wanted or even what they were protesting for (against foreign owners? raise minimum wage? magically make more land?) Vancouverites themselves were clearly uncertain how they felt about the issue as well since there were perhaps 200 people there, but for pro-marajuana day there are thousands in every direction.

 Next up was the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival (Vancaf) which is in its 4th or so year and gets bigger and better every year. They had 2 full exhibition rooms of artists plying their wares and sharing their creativity which is a real boatload of fun to be around. I actually went on both days since one trip can be a little overwhelming and I didn't want to miss anything.

 Finally, I went to a local Show & Shine to see everyones nice vintage toys. Most everything there was a collector's piece from a time when there was a whole lot more chrome and leather going into car design.The highlights were a very nice firebird and a vintage corvette, but I thought the picture below better shows the mix of cars and people.

Strange sightings in the sky around LA

 We saw quite a few strange things up in the skies of Los Angeles, like this Ultralight craft which looks far too big and heavy to me to be supported by what looks like such a small wing. That said, they were contentedly soaring across the ocean and clearly know what they were doing, so it's clearly a viable vehicle.

 We've seen the Good Year blimp both times we've been in LA, but I particularly like the marquee in this picture. As far as I can tell, the pilot was just fine and we just had good luck in the timing of the photo... though being L.A. its equally likely that there was a superspy chase culminating in a zeppelin battle which we were totally unaware of.

 I'm not sure if it was because President Obama was in town that weekend, or if I'm just not used to seeing military aircraft randomly, but this helicopter was an unexpected sight. There were quite a few traffic and civilian choppers as well, but this one in particular looks a little more warlike, though I could be completely misunderstanding its mission. Either way a neat sighting.

Aboard the Queen Mary

The RMS Queen Mary served as an ocean liner from the 30s to the late 60s as everything from a luxury liner to a WW2 troop transport until its retirement as a tourist attraction/hotel in Long Beach. Kathryn and I initially weren't too keen on what we thought would be a kitchy tribute to excess, but changed our minds and thoroughly enjoyed our time onboard.

 We had free roam of most of the ship (which ones again, is a great place to bring a wide angle lens) and also took a behind-the-scenes ghost tour. I continue to not believe in ghosts, but our guide had excellent delivery and knew his stuff. It was also a great opportunity to peer around some creepy bits of the ship like the old pool and where the boilers used to be. (Part of the contract to keep the ship in Long Beach involved a guarantee to remove any transportation functionality, so the enormous furnaces that once powered it were removed).

 Its been awhile since I shared a fisheye planet with everyone, and I was particularly pleased with the way this one from the front of the ship turned out. Having lots of wires running overhead forced a particularly interesting perspective to avoid cutting anything out and I very much enjoy the binary feel the final image has.

 

As a quirky aside for this picture, near the bottom left there is a large white dome (click on the image to enlarge, as always) which once housed Howard Hughes's "Spruce Goose"

California Marine Mammal Assortment

 We saw quite a few different marine mammals in California and want to share a few highlights in a single post. Starting off, Grey Whales were making their annual migration from Mexico to the Arctic and all along the coastal highway we could see the puffs of their breath as small groups passed us by. Kathryn was quite delighted to look for them for hours and while they were hard to photograph or see very closesly, it was enthralling to look out for their plumes of exhalation. This was a new species for us both and an exciting opportunity.

 We have seen Sea Otters in the Aquarium numerous times, but both hoped to maybe catch a glimpse of one in the distance. They are very rare in B.C. so we assumed they would be rare elsewhere, but in California they seem to be doing just fine. We saw groups of them at least half a dozen times, including this heap of mothers with sleeping babies on their tummies all rafted in kelp near Monterey.

California Sea Lions were certainly the easiest of all our marine mammals to spot as they congregate in large numbers on piers and beaches across the state. They also grunt at each other 24/7 so they are pretty easy to locate but still very charming to see them lounge around on land or dash about in the water.

Hearst Castle Interiors

Much like the exterior, the interior of Hearst Castle was an amazing collection of repurposed European art and furniture. Below is the view of the dining room with a full antique table, mideval tapestries, and engraved ceiling. This photo was taken near the enormous fireplace at one end of the room and apparently as guests stayed longer throughout the week, if they became less interesting to the hosts, they were seated closer and closer to the fire in one of the least subtle dining arrangements ever.

 The billiars room was similarly adorned with antique tapestries and carpets. Its hard to see from the photo below, but the ceiling was being restored to reveal its original etchings and paintwork which had been damaged by decades of smoke and the general passage of time.

 We showed you the Neptune pool in our view of exteriors, but there is also another indoor pool at the far end of the property. To ensure that the "over-the-top" per square foot of the property was maintained, the floor and walls of the indoor pool area were inlaid with gold.