California Neon

These photos actually go back to my Thanksgiving trip to California. I'm always on the lookout for interesting signs.

The Hotel Del Coronado got their Christmas lights up and running right after Thanksgiving.

Christmas tree in the Hotel Del lobby.

Not neon, but a cool sign nonetheless. This is in Koreatown in L.A.

I saw this old-school Denny's sign in San Clemente.

The Wiltern Theatre in L.A.

Season's Greetings

Happy Holidays! I hope you have a wonderful holiday no matter what holiday you celebrate.

I actually put up my Christmas tree this year for the first time in 3 years. I rather enjoyed the atmosphere it brought to my living room.

A lot of these ornaments are ones that my grandmother bought for me. She would buy me one every year and put it on her tree until I had a tree of my own to hang them on.

Watching The Birdies

My brother-in-law is a big bird watcher, as are my mother and I, so none of us objected when he suggested a trip to a nature reserve during the Thanksgiving holiday.

There was a tree full of cedar waxwings.

A hummingbird. A black-chinned, I believe. I still can't get used to hummingbirds in fall and winter. We only have them in the summer here.

This was the only shot I got of a hawk that flew right over my head.

I watched this pelican for a while. He would dive into the water after fish and then take back off and do it over again. And again and again.

Black phoebe

I actually took this shot in my sister's back yard. It's another black-chinned, I think. There are several hummingbird species that are hard to tell apart! Oh, and notice it's raining. It was the first rain in over 5 months!

Seaworld

One of the things we did in San Diego was go to Seaworld. My sister was somehow able to get free tickets, so we decided to take advantage of them.

I hadn't been to Seaworld since I was a child. To me it has always seemed a little bit cheesier and more touristy than the zoo. Maybe because it has more of a focus on animals that are trained to do tricks? I kind of don't like the idea of training animals to do things that they wouldn't ordinarily do in the wild. But I can also see that maybe seeing these animals up close could possibly help inspire more conservation efforts. So I have some mixed feelings about the place. That said, I did enjoy getting to see some beautiful animals.

Orcas certainly are beautiful creatures.

They had a show that consisted of various animals performing, including this pig. This type of show doesn't bother me as much, because these are domesticated animals. And they said that all the animals in the show were rescue animals, so I think it's great that they were saved.

Dogs on a date.

After the show the gulls walked through looking for food.

They had some Clydesdales because until recently the park was owned by Anheuser Busch. Creeping corporatism!

Beluga whale

He am the walrus

This is an uderwater view of the same whale that was popping up out of the water.

This seal looks like he's making a concerted effort to ignore me.

These egrets were trying to steal fish that people were feeding to the seals.

You can even get a Shamu pretzel.