After Palomar, William drove on to his cousins Ron and Mickey's house in San Diego, where he stayed the night before going to the meeting. Dang he didn't get any pictures of them! He had a nice time though.
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William took a Delta Airlines flight to San Diego (via Atlanta). It departed from Concourse B in the new terminal. Neither William nor Elaine even knew there was a Concourse B! When he figured out how to get there, William really liked getting there through this underground corridor. It is dimly lit with huge lava- lamp-esque panels. They're accompanied by eery music. It's really very relaxing, and lots better than cinder blocks would have been. |
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More lava panels |
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We flew on separate planes to Ontario, California, a very pleasant airport east of Los Angeles, in San Bernardino County. |
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At the rental car desk, William couldn't resist upgrading our rental to a convertible PT Cruiser. Kinda stupid considering the gas prices at the time - pre-Katrina but still very high. Also,the weather turned out to be too hot much of the time to enjoy having the top down. It was still fun! |
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Inspiring scenery en route to Tehachapi from Ontario, CA |
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The scenery had so much variety on the way to Tehachapi. |
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Here is another fascinating view! Ya gotta love the desert! |
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William enjoys the scenery and the 100+ temperatures - BUT IT'S A DRY HEAT!!! Dang! He forgot his touring hat, so we had to get a temporary replacement at Kmart. |
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Terri prepares to go on a little journey with Elaine. |
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Preparations continue. |
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Almost ready |
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Terri and Elaine head out. |
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While Terri and Elaine were out, Dad and William went fishing. |
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Beautiful weeping willows lean in the wind at the fishing pond. A welcome, cool spot. |
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More weeping willows. |
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Fishing tackle |
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When Dad and William got haircuts, the barber recommended that we go to dinner at Moessner's, a local orchard that serves, well, dinner sometimes. Terri could not resist recording the picturesque fly tape near our table for posterity! |
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Moessner's "dining room" was decorated with animal horns. Some were held together with the altogether ubiquitous duct tape. |
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Dad and Elaine pose under the horns. |
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Terri and William at Moessner's. |
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Mr. and Mrs. Moessner and Dad visit in the sales room. |
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The family poses by the car in Tehachapi. |
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Terri, Rocksie, and Buddy |
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Monroe |
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Dad and William |
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Just prior to going to California, William and Elaine saw a segment of "Six Feet Under" on DVD which featured two characters visiting the Watts Towers in L.A. The towers weren't ID'd by name, but William recognized them, though he had never been there. On their way to California, William asked Elaine if they could to take a little detour to see them. |
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As you can see, she agreed. So we left Tehachapi early enough to allow time for a visit. The towers were built from 1921 through 1955 by an Italian immigrant named Simon Rodia. He built them after work using scrap materials and concrete. He didn't have access to scaffolding, so he built the towers ring by ring, attaching himself to each ring with a window washer's harness. |
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The tallest tower is 97 feet tall. They are all decorated with sea shells, bottle bottoms, broken crockery, rocks, and other scrap materials. They have withstood earthquakes, riots, and wrecking balls. During the Watts riots, people seemed to protect the towers and they stayed out of the mayhem. |
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Rodia first built and decorated a wall across the front of his triangular double lot. Here is one section. |
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Entrance to one of the towers. We actually arrived in Watts too late to go on a guided tour, so we had to content ourselves with walking around the outside. Next time we'll get there a little earlier! |
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Another section of the wall |
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The towers viewed from the other side. |
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More towers |
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More towers |
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Leaning towers (just kidding) |
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A tower top |
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More top details |
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Bridge between two towers |
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More bridge work. What a labor of love. |
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These structures are complex and layered. |
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More complex layers. |
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William reviews the history of Watts which was carved in stone on the new plaza at the tower site. It tells Watts' story from neolithic native Americans, through Spanish dominion, to Mexican sovereignty, to today. Watts was an independent city until it was annexed by L.A. during the depression. Of course the history on the ground covered the riots and the aftermath. This was the vantage point the characters from "Six Feet Under" used when they admired the towers. |
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The history stone about the riots |
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and the subsequent renaissance (that might be wishful thinking!) |
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They built an arts center next to the towers, with a convenient parking lot. |
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Sculpture in front of the arts center with the towers in the background |
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Anti-smoking mural near the arts center. |
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After we finished in Watts, we went to Venice for our obligatory toe-dipping in the ocean. It was a beautiful day - and much cooler down by the ocean (85 degrees!) |
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The water. |
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Elaine poses by a tower at Venice Beach |
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Getting a henna tattoo is becoming a Venice Beach tradition for Elaine. MAYBE someday she'll get a real one! |
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The tattoo in progress. |
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A street sand artist. |
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We ate at the Sidewalk Cafe |
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Tacky shops along the boardwalk with some pretty windstreamers behind. |
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Sunset on the Pacific |
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Time to leave Venice, with the obligatory bag of kettle corn. |
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On our way out we spied Asher street and couldn't resist taking a picture. |
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We stayed in Ontario, CA, for the night, and then Elaine flew home to Michigan. I drove to San Diego, but made a couple stops on the way. The first was at the Pala mission, a Spanish sub-mission founded in 1816 to minister to (ie convert) the Indians living in points east of Mission San Luis Rey on the coast. It is the only Spanish California mission that still ministers primarily to native Americans. The bell tower, shown here, is somewhat unique because it was located away from the church - actually next to the grave yard. |
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A funeral vestment on display in the museum at the Pala mission. |
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The garden at the Pala mission |
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More Pala gardens |
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Pala mission exterior (behind that pesky tree!) |
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Cactus on top of bell tower (symbolic of Christ conquering the desert (both literally and figuratively). |
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After touring the Pala Mission, William continued up the windy California highway 76 to Mt. Palomar. It's situated at an elevation of 5600 feet. When it was finished in 1949 it was in a remote part of southern California. Now light pollution from San Diego has reduced the effectiveness of its 200 inch mirror to that of a 140 inch mirror. Please turn those lights down! |
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It was named after George Hale, who built Caltech's other telescopes and got this one started, though he didn't live to see it to completion. (Edwin Hubble was the first to use the new telescope in 1949). |
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They have the actual telescope chamber very dimly lit, to keep the temperature down and reduce condensation on the mirror and lenses. So you can't see much up there. Here is a model of the mirror. |
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Here is part of the telescope. You can't look through it. Of course
I was there in the daytime, but even at night they don't look through
it. Instead they use cameras with long exposures to collect the
light from the stars. After Palomar, William drove on to his cousins Ron and Mickey's house in San Diego, where he stayed the night before going to the meeting. Dang he didn't get any pictures of them! He had a nice time though. |
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William's object in driving to San Diego was to attend a meeting for work at EDS. He didn't get too snap-happy there - this was the only picture he took - that of Larry Miller, a manager about 6 degrees above William in the EDS organization. He's shown here on a video screen since the hall was too big to see him up close (800 people in attendance). |
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After the conference, Tim Hardy and Jim Celen picked William up at the hotel, took him out to a fine lunch, and delivered him to the airport for his return to Michigan |