I grew up listening to Motown music so tonight's concert by Stone Soul was a blast from the past. Matt Gray, the lead vocal, had the sounds of the various artists down very well so that you could close your eyes and feel you were back at a 70s concert listening to some of the greats. You can see their website here.
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Motown from the past
I grew up listening to Motown music so tonight's concert by Stone Soul was a blast from the past. Matt Gray, the lead vocal, had the sounds of the various artists down very well so that you could close your eyes and feel you were back at a 70s concert listening to some of the greats. You can see their website here.
Location
Furman Park, Downey, CA 90241, USA
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Rives Mansion redux
Every day when I go to work, I drive past the Rives Mansion. I am really excited that there will soon be a new restaurant and wine garden in our neighborhood in such a potentially beautiful and historical location. I watch the progress being made and can't wait to see what it will look like when they are done.
Tags:
historical,
mansions,
oops,
reconstruction,
Rives Mansion,
statues
Location
Rives Mansion
Monday, July 29, 2013
On the fence
Golden Park is so far south in Downey that most people aren't even aware that it is still in Downey. Which is too bad, because it's a large and beautiful park with lots of room for all kinds of recreation. Yesterday, the basketball courts and baseball field were all in use, as well as a well-appointed children's play area.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
The turtle park
Continuing my review of the Downey parks...Brookshire Children's Park is a tiny little park in the south of Downey. Dedicated in 1971, it provides a small play area in a very densely populated part of Downey.
The most noticeable thing about this park is the giant turtle that challenges kids to climb on top. In fact, it's pretty unusual to pass by here, as I did today, and not see kids climbing the turtle.
The park is so small and out of my ordinary path that I forgot that Allison has actually posted about this turtle before. Click here for her childhood memories of this park.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
How does your garden grow?
I love this garden! Clearly the gardener has a sense of humor along with quite a collection of quirky items....all artfully placed!
"Grow a garden. When there's a food shortage in the future, you'll need it. And when people try to steal your food and you shoot them, you'll also need a good place to hide the bodies."
~ Jared Kinz, This Book Has No Title
Friday, July 26, 2013
Some pictures are worth less than a thousand words
Since the weather has been so off lately, I was worried I wouldn't get a good picture of the ocean. I was right. You could barely tell the difference between the steel-gray sky and the icy gray ocean. The horizon was no help either. It was just a gray blur in between. So I went to the harbor and took a picture of a boat instead.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Out of the ordinary
There is a neighborhood just west of Calvary Chapel, Downey, that is made up of some very well-kept houses and some not so well-kept. I was riding through the neighborhood and noticed this house. The bars on the windows certainly drew my attention, but what made me take this picture was the four satellite dishes on the roof. I thought, "Why would someone need four dishes? Even if they had four TVs. Maybe it's a safe house for the CIA?" Anyway, I thought it was interesting.
Does your imagination run wild when you see something out of the ordinary?
Tags:
houses,
serendipity
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Latin dance beat
Another Summer Concert Series night at the park for us. This week we listened to Sonoclip, a Latin American band. From their website, "Sonoclip is a band formed by six professional musicians from Venezuela, who combine the genre with its roots [in] POP [and] Latin-American rhythms, giving the result of a dance beat, contagious and easy to digest for audiences of all ages." You can view their website here.
These members of the audience certainly agree that the band creates a dance beat.
Location
Furman Park, Downey, CA 90241, USA
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Downtown Downey night
Last night we decided to go out for dinner. We ended up at Ichiban Sushi. It was yummy! My favorite was the soft shell crab, called the spyder.
It wasn't until later that I realized we didn't go out of town. In fact, we spent the entire evening in downtown Downey.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Here comes the sun
One of the last places we stayed was just outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Our room had a balcony and this was our early morning view. I sat outside drinking my coffee waiting for the sun to rise. It was a peaceful, lovely moment.
~ Todd Stocker, Refined: Turning pain into purpose
Friday, July 19, 2013
Home sweet home
After two and a half weeks, it's good to be home in Downey again. But when I looked through my backlog of Downey Daily pictures, I came across this one that reminds me of the farm and small-town houses that I saw constantly in the Midwest. Much of Downey was built in the post-WWII era. This house, with its appealing and open front porch, was built in 1921, and would fit in perfectly in any small-town neighborhood in the Midwest.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
A night at the Bowl
Tuesday night, my wife and I journeyed with fifty other Downey residents in a chartered bus to the Hollywood Bowl. The world-famous Hollywood Bowl is just 20 miles northeast of Downey and when you go by bus, even the LA traffic is easy. The city sells the tickets at $12 each, which included the bus ride, parking in the upper parking lot, and the concert seats. We checked it out and found that the seats themselves are $39 if bought from the Hollywood Bowl. They still have seats for future concerts if you are interested.
Before the concert begins, while the orchestra is warming up, there is still enough light to get a close-up of the iconic Bowl. I remember my first concert at the Bowl when we saw Credence Clearwater Revival. The crescent-shaped front section where patrons dine at their own tables was a water fountain back then. One of the band members jumped in after a set to cool off on that hot July summer night.
Tags:
concerts,
Los Angeles
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
DSB = Journey
Tonight my wife and I went to this week's Concerts in the Park concert, which featured DSB Band. They have been identified as "America's favorite tribute to Journey." You can read about them here. This is Scotty Kormos setting the beat for the band. The drummer is usually in the back, heard but not seen, so I thought I would put his picture on top of my post. By the way, he plays bare foot.
Location
Furman Park, Downey, CA 90241, USA
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Yellowstone colors
America's first national park, Yellowstone is pretty uniquely amazing. I did not realize it contains approximately one-half of the world's hydrothermal features. There are over 10,000 of these features, including over 300 geysers in the park. My favorites, however, were the hot springs because they offer such a dramatic range of colors.
According to the National Park Service website: superheated water cools as it reaches the surface, sinks, and is replaced by hotter water from below. This circulation, called convection, prevents water from reaching the temperature needed to set off an eruption. So you end up with these colorful pools of extremely hot water (most close to 199 degrees).
The picture above is the Grand Prismatic Spring. It is one of the most brilliantly colored and the largest spring, stretching 200 feet across. It is so big, you really don't see the spring itself except from the sides. The pool in the last picture is named Morning Glory. While it is much smaller, it allows you to get closer to see the entire pool from above.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Making a comeback
Tomorrow we will enter Yellowstone National Park. It's unlikely we'll see any grizzly bears or wolves in the park. And even if we do, they'll probably (hopefully!?) be too far away anyway. So tonight we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana.
We learned about what to do if faced with a grizzly. (If they attack defensively, drop and play dead. If they attack aggressively, fight for your life.) And we learned about their keen sense of smell, and watched them find food that had been hidden in their enclosure.
But my favorite animals at the center are the two packs of gray wolves (above and below). There is something beautiful about a wolf. These wolves are all captive-born. Gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, and the population has recovered to the point that the wolf is no longer on the endangered species list.
Listening to our guide explain their behaviors, I gained new understanding of my very wolf-like Husky back home. For example, face-licking is a sign of submission to the leader of the pack.
"The wolf is neither man's competitor nor his enemy. He is a fellow creature with whom the earth must be shared."
~L. David Mech
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Working together for art
Tonight, I'm staying in the historic downtown section of Kalispell, Montana. Downtown is very quaint, and a bit quirky, too.
There were several long murals. This mural was created by Pam Davis and her 5th grade classroom at Edgerton School. The students created poetry and artwork to honor their partner's lives. Another mural was created by the local juniors and seniors from Laser High School.
The murals are presented through the efforts of the Mural-Poetry project, a non-profit organization that works to "broaden awareness of the arts by preserving the value of history through the voices of our youth and the experiences of our elders. This project strives to unite the basic elements of our communities—businesses, schools and service organizations—to a common ground, providing a continual means of celebrating diversity, creativity and the strength of our cultural heritage."
Wouldn't this be a great project for our Stay Gallery along with our local schools and downtown businesses?
The quirkiness shows up at various local businesses:
Tags:
downtown,
historical,
murals,
vacations
Location
Kalispell, MT 59901, USA
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Abandoned places
North Dakota is beautiful. As we continue to drive both highways and the scenic byways, it does not disappoint. It is so green and fertile this time of the year.
Something that surprised me was the number of homes and structures (barns and such) we have seen that have just been abandoned–left to rot where they stand. It makes me so curious. What happened?
This small house was in front of a "neighborhood" of houses where there were people still living, but clearly you can see this is empty and rotting. The yard behind the vacant house was being "tended" by two beautiful horses who were happily grazing there.
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Universal truths
While walking with my wife around Downey Landing this evening, I spotted this display of items for sale outside a store on the sidewalk. I thought, what a clever marketing idea. Even if people aren't coming to Downey Landing to visit this store, they will see some of the merchandise, stop, and look around.
Tags:
Downey Landing,
sunsets
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
80s music
Last week I featured the first of eight summer concerts in the park here in Downey. Tonight I continue this series. The beginning of every concert begins with everyone reciting the flag salute. Can you still say the whole thing? "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America..."
Location
Furman Park, Downey, CA 90241, USA
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Let the sun shine
Today we drove north from Indiana and followed along the coast of Lake Michigan. At 307 miles long, it took most of the day to drive. We were on the Mackinaw Trail, heading from Kalkaska to Petoskey (close to Elmira) when we came across this sign on the side of the road.
I did not realize until I looked at a map that the same latitude connects Bordeaux (France), Krasnodar (Russia), the deserts of Mongolia, the island of Japan, and South Dakota just to name a few. Sharing the same latitude means that these very different places will have the sun shine down on them at exactly the same angle - sharing exactly the same length of daylight. I think that's kind of cool. It makes the earth seem a little smaller, somewhat more connected.
"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, July 8, 2013
Our third coast
Our country has two coasts, right? There's the Pacific and the Atlantic. So what is this huge body of water that is so big it gives the impression of being an ocean?
This is Silver Beach on Lake Michigan, one of the five Great Lakes. The Great Lakes form the largest group of freshwater lakes on earth, containing 21% of the world's surface fresh water. The lakes are sometimes referred to as the North Coast or "Third Coast." Traversing the shoreline of each of the lakes covers about 10,500 miles (17,000 km), roughly the distance of almost half the earth's equator. (Wikipedia)
The afternoon we enjoyed here was a reminder that you don't have to live on a "coast" to be able to enjoy the beach. In fact, the water here was warmer than our southern California ocean—and had the advantage of not being salty.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
University of Notre Dame du Lac
I didn't realize when we headed for South Bend, Indiana, that we were heading to the home of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame University.
This building is the library—9 floors of books. One of our hosts, a history major, studied here in his college days, and is still impressed, years later, by the huge number of books that were available in Latin.
The front of the library is adorned with the Word of Life mural designed by artist Millard Sheets. This mural is popularly known as "Touchdown Jesus" because it is visible from the football stadium and gives the impression that Jesus' arms are signaling a touchdown.
The campus is beautiful—almost enough to make me want to go back to college. (Even the new buildings maintain the same timeless character and ambiance.) The Main Building (the administration building) is topped with a gold dome and a statue of the Virgin Mary.
And everywhere, there are bikes.
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