EXPLORING IN ORANGE COUNTY

Usually when people visit Orange County in California they spend time at Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, The Aquarium of the Pacific, and/or take in an Angels baseball game. Sometimes they spend three or four days there and see little but the inside of the Convention Center. But if a person is fortunate enough to have residents take them to see the sights, they can get a whole different view of the area.

You learn that snails go for a walk after the rain...

even though they only have one foot.  And if you touch them...

they go home; no matter where they are.

Mushrooms grow big in wet weather.

REALLY big.

There are lots of amazing rocks that are worth carrying for a block or two until you find a cool flower.

Stuff falls out of the trees...

...like poky chestnuts...

and bumpy pine cones.

Crossing guards hold out their arms when they walk across the street.  They carry a stop sign, but a stick is a good substitute.

Weekword HISTORY-Maria Angola

La Catedral in Cusco, Peru is a Catholic church built on the foundations of the palace of Inca Wiracocha.  It is made in part from stones from other Inca temples. There are two steeples filled with bells.  If you look carefully you can see the HUGE Maria Angola bell which hangs almost out of sight behind the other smaller bells.

The bell was made in 1655.  It weighs about six tons and is over two meters high. It is said it can be heard twenty-five miles away and is the largest bell on the South American continent.  It is made of gold, silver and bronze.  When it was cast it had a partner--The Magdalena, which was dropped by workers during a storm at the edge of Lake Titicaca (241 miles-388km-- away), where the bells were made.  The people of Cusco now say the echos from the first peals of the Maria Angola each morning are actually the tolling of the Magdalena on the bottom of the lake.

See Anairam's blog for more weekword posts.

SOME BEACH SOMEWHERE

Yeah, the price of airline tickets was too cheap.  DH and I got on board for LALA Land.  Our son and his family treated us to a day at their favorite beach.  Idaho and the cold seemed SO far away.

The water was clear and blue, though a little salty.

Grandpa helps with the sand castle.

They said, "California's the place you want to be."

The Mom

The Dad

Me and the big sister

It was a great day at the beach.

I didn't write it.  It was nicely printed along the passageway under the Pacific Coast Highway on our way to the parking lot.  But my sentiments exactly.

On a different note.  In my estimation the money Californians spend to make their cell towers to look like palm trees, oil rigs to look like light houses, women to look like Barbie and men to look like Ken--that amount of money--would probably come real close to balancing their state budget.  Just a thought.