Canada Day boat race

The weather was perfect in Grise Fiord this Canada Day.  One of the community events is a sailboat race for kids, held on the pond in the middle of town.  Kids build their own boat and they race them across.  I missed the start of the race- my balcony looks out on the pond but I guess the crowd was keeping an awed hush during the race.  Here are some photos from the end:

The boats are pretty impressive!  The winds were light but they were all moving well.  Love the little flags on some of them.

Cool gingerbread houses

I was in Phoenix briefly last weekend and I saw an exhibit of movie-themed gingerbread houses.  These two were my favourites.

You can't really tell in the photo, but the "Up" house was even levitating, it was somehow balanced on a narrow thingy of some sort underneath.  Isn't it amazing?

I liked "Whoville" too:

I'll have more photos from my little trip to Phoenix and Las Vegas in the next while, so stay tuned...

Baldwin Hills

I went for a hike on the morning of American Thanksgiving (a pre-emptive calorie burn) at the Kenneth Hahn recreational area, which is a state park in the Baldwin hills.  This park is only around a 10 minute drive south of where I live.

Like most hikes around L.A., this park's trails go up a hill.  The Baldwin hills are not as high as the Hollywood hills, but still have amazing views of the city, and from a different vantage point.

Here are a couple of photos of the hill on the way up- it's mostly grassy and open.

This I think is part of the "Olympic forest" but I'm not certain.  When L.A. hosted the Olympic games in 1984, they planted a tree from each participating nation in this park.  True to L.A. custom, nothing in this park is well signed, so I'm not sure if this group of trees is part of that forest or not, but it probably is.

The trail has great views in almost 360 degrees in places.  This is looking northeast towards downtown. You can see snow caps on the San Gabriel mountains in the distance.

Here's a closer-up of downtown with the mountains behind.

The photo below is looking north and slightly west.  The taller buildings in the right background would be Century City.  Santa Monica is in the left background, with the Santa Monica mountains behind.

Looking north, Hollywood hills in background, San Gabriel mountains behind.  See that tall building in the right middle ground?  I live near that.

Looking west and slightly north.  Malibu would be in the distant background.

To the south, oil wells!  Still pumping.  I think the land this park is on was part of the oil fields, and I think the park hopes / plans to take over the oil field that is still pumping once it's pumped out.  Not sure what that timeline would be.

I think this is part of the same park, but it's geographically separated at the east, and it and is irrigated and much more manicured.

The next three were taken on a minor trail at the top of the hill.  Some nice trees up there.

I liked this park, I'll go back.  There's another park a little south of it with a 300-step staircase, I want to go try that soon too.

West Hollywood Halloween Carnival

I'd heard about this event last year after the fact from a friend, and this year didn't want to miss it.  I went with a photography meetup group that goes every year.

It's quite the event!  There aren't too many activities, just a few stages with bands, and a stage where people could get up and show their costume, sing a song or dance, etc.  Mostly it's just people in costumes walking along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, out to be seen and to look at everybody else.  Everyone seems to have a camera, and everyone is both posing for pictures and taking them themselves.

Here are a few pictures...

Christmas preparations

I'm not done with Nevada yet, this is only first intermission.

Here are the Xmas cookies I made today, they're frosted shortbreads.  On Christmas Day my bike club is having a ride for "orphans", i.e. those of us whose families are out of town, so I'm going to go to that and take the cookies with me.  The club is going to go out for lunch during or after the ride, so that should be a nice way to spend the holiday with friends, being so far away from home this year!

Christmas at the Grove

The Grove is an upscale outdoor pedestrian shopping mall across the street from my apartment complex (but around a 15 minute walk from where I live, as I live in a very large complex.).  I took a few photos yesterday of their very impressive and expensive Christmas decorations.

To me, even with Christmas decorations everywhere, it just doesn't feel like Christmas!  This is my first Christmas in a warm climate, and it's making me realize just how important the environmental cues are for feeling "it's holiday time".  I also find it a bit weird that there is no southern interpretation of the holiday in the decorations- everything is conifers, snowmen, and fake snow (which they have shoot out at intervals at the Grove, and I sure hope it's non-toxic as I did taste it- not snow, not cold, but suitably flavourless).  It just doesn't fit the climate, and I think if they had something more suitable in flavour to the climate and geography, that maybe it would feel more like Christmas.

 

 

 That's part of the farmer's market decked out in garland in the photo above, it's right next to the Grove.