Pacific Palisades Beach, Ocean and Road Views

We add some vistas of the ocean and beach from the Bel Air Bay Club. 

The arc of Santa Monica bay. 

Pacific Coast Highway.  Every time I looked there seemed to be a host of bicyclists traveling south on PCH. 

Confab at the lifeguard shack. 

Beach umbrellas seeing light usage. 

Sailboat on the ocean.  Find the photog? 

Flowers and Pots at the Bel Air Bay Club

Attended an event at the Bel Air Bay Club out in Pacific Palisades.  Gorgeous venue.  This is the first of a series of posts.  We start with the flowers. Feel free to correct or add flower names in the comments section. 

White flowers in the foreground. 

White orchids floating in air. 

Purple orchids

Off kilter white vase

Blue vase.  From my blue period. 

Red bougainvillea.  I have no actual idea what flower it is, so please correct in comments.  From my red period. 

Give or add correct names in the comments please! 

Annenberg Community Beach House, Santa Monica

These photos are of Santa Monica Annenberg community beach house.  The last set of photos were also taken here.  We were at a function at the Marion Davies Guest House, not shown in this particular set of photos. 

American Gothic, Los Angeles style.  Your friendly neighborhood photog and spouse reflected in windows.  The camera replaces the pitchfork. 

Walkway decorated with a beach ball. 

Annenberg Community Beach House.  Entry to the pool area, just off camera to the right. 

A random Goodyear blimp advertising software.  I think this blimp is following me around.  It was watching in an earlier post. Scroll to the last photo of this San Pedro transportation post. 

Santa Monica Evening at the Beach

Visited Annenberg Community Beach House in the evening and took a few pictures.  This set are of the beach and ocean and silhouettes against the setting sun. 

The emptiness of the beach and parking lots when people are absent. 

A near-empty patio and the Santa Monica pier extending in the background. 

Trees and patio furniture against the sky. 

Small palm tree silhouettes. 

And a distance shot into the sun.  Sand, path, and palms. 

Empty volleyball courts.  And sand sand sand! :-)

More from Friendly Valley/Vista del Canon

Photos from Friendly Valley/Vista del Canon/Valley View Elementary neighborhood of canyon country.  These are from my non-red period.  I don't know if the saharan quality of Canyon Country comes through in these pictures, but I was out walking and quickly agreed to be picked up so I wouldn't dry up and blow away.  You can see aspects of Canyon Country's cloudless blue sky. 

Zig-zag fence on the hill. 

Magnificent trees.  I love these overblown aging beauties. 

But beware the ides of march, the chain saw jaws that bite and take you down.  Ashes to ashes y'all. 

My blue period.  The Canyon Country sky is blue, but little else.  This truck proves to be a man-made blue splotch in a hot dry day.  Speaking of dry, that yard could use some water. 

A pair of chubby cheeked houses.  This one almost pagoda style. 

Same design with architectural and automotive details changed. 

And a non-chubby cheeked house.  Looking oddly down on us from above. 

My Red Period

Taking a break from San Pedro posts (there will be more!) and posting some pictures from the Friendly Valley/Vista Del Canon (insert appropriate tilde there somewhere)/Valley View Elementary neighborhood of Canyon Country. 

This particular series is from my red period.  Photos with a reddish splash to them. 

Two chairs having a conversation, laying out in the sun.  Can't have been out too long, because the sun would fade and splinter the paint.  Wonderful looking chairs, and I thank the homeowner who placed them out for me to witness. 

Wish I knew flower names.  If you know the name, please tell us in the comments section!

Original Poppycock Popcorn in convenient litter size containers.  On grass. 

Sign Sign: Instructions for Visitors

Our second sign post.  It's unclear who the owner of this property is, there are at least three different corporate names on the various signs.  Here we have instructions how visitors can expect to be treated, what they're allowed to do on the property, who the powers that be will call should you enter the property, where to connect to water mains if you wish to put out fires, what to expect if you dig.  Also where parking is allowed.  Very handy instructions overall.  The sign department here is pretty busy. 

Gosh, who would have guessed?  And whoever Rancho is, they're relatively quiet -- I couldn't find a web site for them, though there appear to be plenty of government filings. 

Somehow I doubt this is in case YOU have an emergency.  A copy of the above sign is to the left but, behind the fence.  Unfortunately I didn't get the sign below the red pipes. 

If the fence didn't clue you in that you weren't welcome.  Odd that they are more worried about weapons than anything else.  Hmmmm.

A government sign along the way.  You can see several signs posted on the fence. 

Wow, federal offense to deface, damage or destroy this sign.  Don't "d" the sign dude.  No mention of extermination, erasing or eradicating.  Notice this is a Chevron sign. 

For you fire aficionados.  Connect here.  A little graffiti, and other signs. 

This was across the street, and they don't like you to smoke neither. 

Rancho's entrance.  The sign says beyond the hefty five mile per hour speed limit notice with [my comments in brackets]:

• Extinguish all smoking materials, lights and open flames.[fair enough, all that dead plant life must be flammable.]
• Turn off all radios.  [Don't like my music?  Sorry to disturb]
• No smoking allowed. [Didn't we cover that already?  Or do they get a lot of people trying to barbecue on the property and they need to distinguish what they want extinguished?]
• Only authorized vehicles and personnel are permitted beyond parking area.  [So all you unauthorized personnel hang out and barbecue in the parking area.]
• Park vehicles headed out.  [We're not friendly.  Every second sooner you can leave, the happier we are.]
• Visitors report to office via pedestrian gate.  [I'm reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, so mention of pedestrian gates sends a shiver up my back, what if its a portal to another dimension?  Will we be able to get back?  Can I have my water boarded as well?]  

They fly the flags of USA, CA and CA -- that's California and Canada.  

Is that like being on the endangered species list?  Be careful with your graffiti, it could lend you in a federal penitentiary. 

For those of you who haven't gotten the point yet. 

I hope I didn't loiter.  For some reason blogger insisted on rotating this photo.  I have no idea why.  Maybe it got tired of uploading informative sign signs.  This sign says ConocoPhillips, the third company associated with this area. The ConocoPhillips sign was pasted over an older name. 

Artistic Signs in San Pedro

This is the first of two sign posts (pun intended) from San Pedro.  Here we see artistic/artsy signs from around San Pedro, including shots of some graffiti.

Here is a shot of signs for little fish theatre or at least for their parking.  I wasn't clear on where the actual theatre is, it could be that building but I doubt it.  You can see the heavy load building owners have for painting over graffiti.  I'm not sure why I consider this art per se, but it's going in this post none-the-less. 

The sign says "Liberty".  On the wall across the street from the little fish theatre parking sign.   

This oddity is one of those mandated public art associated with new buildings.  This laser ray would shine down at night on pedestrians and track them.  I'm sure the pedestrians found this exceedingly uncomfortable.  Clever idea, but best left on the shelf.  Just sitting there, it's not that pretty.  Looks a little like a Pixar reject from an open casting call for a lamp.

The last of the public art.  This from a table on someone's lawn advertising painted rocks for sale.  I thought they were pretty.  Go buy one. 

Fetus is not for sale.  Probably available for painting over if you contact the owners of the waterway.  Graffiti may be painful (I've got plenty of graffiti shots from San Pedro), but bigger more practiced graffito do rise to the level of art. 

For example, this graffiti decorated wall.  The combination art and social commentary is dripping with what?  Irony? Sarcasm?  Fakery? 

San Pedro Transportation: Alternative Vehicles

This is the third of our San Pedro transportation posts, featuring human powered vehicles.  
This bike and skateboard were stowed on the side of the house.  No locking mechanism immediately in view. 

And here we have the bicycle/boat combo pack.  Seems like the bike would interfere with the boom swining around.  Either you stow the bike inside the boat or leave it on shore when you go sailing.  I suppose you could tie the bike to the dock with the same ropes you tie the boat down with too. 

Ok Waldo, find the transportation device.  It's the skiff in the lower left corner.  But officer, the skiff was just lying there.  I had to take it.