LAPD Wife

Piedras Blancas Lighthouse Tour

Jake's father, a retired Nassau County detective, is the type who would happily live in a lighthouse, away from the world and all of its noisy excess. I wonder if many police officers end up this way. It makes sense to me that after a career of dealing with crowds, noise, excess, violence and chaos that a person would crave peace, quiet, and the tranquility of waves crashing and the cries of gulls to the alternative.

In my father-in-law's honor, we visited a lighthouse in Central California for the grand tour a couple of weeks ago. Piedras Blancas, located six miles north of San Simeon on Highway 1 (near Hearst Castle),  was built in 1874. The lighthouse was originally 110 feet in height, but in 1949 the upper part was removed due to earthquake damage. Current height is 74 feet.

The name "Piedras Blancas" means white rocks in Spanish. The reason for this name is apparent as visitors view large stone outcroppings in the water covered in massive amounts of bird poo. The lighthouse is managed by the BLM and tour goers are met by BLM rangers and led by local docents. Our docent was a semi-retired professor from Cal-Poly who not only was good at reciting the dry facts of the history and use of the lighthouse, but also full of info and stories about local flora and fauna, shipwrecks just off the coast (BEFORE the lighthouse was there, in case you're wondering) and even had some cool skulls of local wildlife for the kids (and Officer Jake) to touch and see.

I had a heckuva good time taking photos. Nothing like lighthouses and the Big Sur coastline to inspire artistic tendencies. And Jake's dad is now contemplating life as a lightkeeper yet again. His Mom? She would never leave her bowling league. But we can let the man have his dream for now.

Miss me?

To my readers: I'm so, so sorry that I've been off the blog for so long. Vacation with no wifi turned into start of school chaos with the kids. I then took a big breath and the inlaws came in for a week visit. All this while a large contract with one of my better-paying clients fell into my lap that involved me commuting 2-hours a day downtown. I'm going to try to work in a mental breakdown somewhere, but don't have the time. Ever get that feeling yourself?

Meanwhile, I'm having big thoughts as I commute of redesigning the blog. I need a new banner on the top. The red lips have been great, but I think we need a visual "makeover." Let me know your thoughts and if you would like to be in my beta test group. I'm going to send out ideas to a select few readers and beg for your input. So leave me your email either in the comments  or drop me an email at renee@lapdwife.com and let me know.  (read more below the photo)

Meanwhile, here's a pretty picture from my vacation on the Central Coast of California. The coastline pic is near Ragged Point in Big Sur, just north of where Hearst Castle is. Google Hearst Castle if you haven't heard of it - it's amazing. The flowers were ones at a local garden. If any of you want to send me flowers, I looooove daisies. One of my top 5 faves as far as flowers go.  Now... breathe... anyone know yoga?!

Exploring Malibu's Tide Pools

A new favorite family day trip we like to take is exploring the tide pools in Malibu (top photo). The weather has been fabulous lately and over the last couple months, we've made 3 trips on  lazy weekend days to a beach near Zuma. Jake goes online to find out when low tide is - the best time to view all the amazing sea creatures to be found - and we plan our day around that time. Picnic food is packed, sunblock applied and we're off.

I've been to tide pools a lot over the years,  but these really amaze me. If you do your research and know what to look for, you'll be amazed at the wealth of life to be found in these small pools of water. Starfish are by far the most common - gold and purple in color. We also see tons of anemones and mussles, crabs of several different shapes and sizes, spiny sea urchins and the occasional lobster - who is usually already picked clean by the seagulls who are always around.

There are rarer treats to be found, though, if you know what to look for. We've found that Sea Hares (or sea slugs) can be found often, but are easy to overlook as they just look like black blobs of slime. The kids have fun daring each other to touch them - I was brave and gave it a try, it was basically like touching wet goo - like the old slime-in-a-can we used to be able to buy as kids.  By the way, we observe the rules of the tidepools when we visit. We touch some things - like starfish and sea hares - but very gently. We never take anything home and very rarely move anything. The exception being that sometimes I will feel sorry for a starfish that's washed way up and will move it back to the water and away from the beady-eyed seagulls.

One fantastic day we saw a very rare type of sea slug called a Spanish Shawl (amazingly beautiful for what is essentially a colorful sea slug), a Bat Starfish and what I think is a Sheep Crab (very freaky and scary-looking for a crab). This is such a fun activity for us to do as a family and a great trip to be had at a very low price as everyone is watching their budgets these days. 

Photos: Top pic is of the tide pools at low tide in Malibu just north of Paradise Cove, south of Zuma. Second pic is of a purple starfish. Third is a rare sighting of a red bat starfish. Next is of a California Sea Hare, then a fantastic close-up I got of a Spanish Shawl (it's only about an inch or two in length). Last is the Sheep Crab.  Click on any of these photos to see larger images.

Descanso Gardens

When Officer Jake has a weekend day off, we like to take family day trips around Southern California. Some days we go to the beach, others we picnic and hike. There is so much to do here around the area that the possibilities are endless. We do have our favorites, though, and one of them is to visit Descanso Gardens, beautiful botanical gardens located in La Canada (near Pasadena). It's a small drive of about 30-45 mins, and we like to make a day of it. We spend several hours touring the gardens, go to nearby Montrose for lunch and do some window shopping walking up and down Honolulu Avenue in Montrose, which has a Main Street USA feel to it.

The scenery at Descanso is amazing. These pictures were taken about 3 weeks ago and show a very small portion of the 150 acres of history and horticultur seamlessly blended into a visually stunning and surprisingly peaceful escape from the stresses of the world for a day. The photo above is in the Japanese tea garden, where they serve traditional tea several times a week. Trails meander all over the park and even when it's crowded, it never feels that way. My favorite times of year to visit are near Easter and again between Halloween and Christmas. They have concerts, programs for children, weddings, etc, but honestly I can just walk and walk and never get tired of it.

 

I grew up in the Midwest and one of the flowers that I miss seeing are lilacs. Descanso has been developing special lilacs that can grow in Southern California and even have a special lilac garden where at least 50 different large lilac buses are thriving. I stand in the middle, close my eyes, take a whiff and am transported back to days of playing clubhouse under the lilac bushes with my sister growing up on the farm.

Descanso also has amazing rose gardens, popular for weddings, a huge camellia forest, the restored home of the original owners whose dream became a reality with creating these gardens, koi ponds, special seasonal displays and avenues filled with everything from azaleas, ferns, hills of clivias and magnificent, majestic oak trees that must be over a century old. If you live in or around Los Angeles, or are visiting our lovely state sometime in the future, this is truly a wonderful place to see and works for all types of groups. Jake and I used to take romantic walks here when we were dating but enjoy it just as well now with the kids as they can run and play and have lots of neat places to explore. I highly recommend it.

Park Rangers - Fear Their Wrath

We ran afoul of the Malibu local park ranger types this weekend. Trying to escape from the heat, we decided to go to Malibu on Sunday to play on the beaches and visit the tidepools near Zuma. (See the starfish in the photo below we found in a tidepool. They were beautiful shades of purple and orange.) After a fun morning, we headed to one of our favorite lunch spots, Malibu Seafood. Awesome spot - local seafood shack. Fresh fish and fun crowd-watching, all right across from the beach along PCH.

We've been there alot, but for the first time decided to park in a little lot that was just off the main lot. We didn't really pay attention to the signs, we were hungry and the lines were looking long, so we booked it to get in our order and find a sweet table. Ate our fish-n-chips and shrimp cocktail, then headed back to the car. I went into the side fish shop to pick up some salmon for dinner that night while Jake headed out to the car with the kids. After I finished I headed out and there was Jake, heading toward me with steam coming out his ears.

Turns out we'd parked in a state park parking lot that required paying money into a little box for parking permits. It was accessed through the restaurant's parking lot, so was a bit confusing. But there we were, facing the wrath of Ranger Bob, as he gave us the choice of either paying the $3 parking fee or getting a $75 ticket right then and there. Jake was upset because he felt that the ranger was hassling us as much as he was hassling the cholos down the line in the lot, even though he'd shown the Ranger his ID. Still and all, $3 is a much better deal than $75, so we paid it and went on our way.

This Party is a Zoo!

I've been inundated with baseball games, birthday parties and school activities over the last week and neglected the blog. We've also taken a few fabulous daytrips that I'm excited to write about here in the blog. I used to write a lot of daytrip articles, with photos, and loved doing it so hope to include it here again, especially as we're finally hitting nicer weather and everyone is looking for ideas to get out and get away from it all - if only for a day.

One of our trips actually was found by going to a birthday party. One of my daughter's friends had her 5th birthday party at a zoo I'd never heard of: America's Teaching Zoo at Moorpark College in Moorpark. Not only was this a revelation, but it was totally fascinating. This is a zoo where students learn how to be exotic animal trainers or caretakers. It's small, but surprisingly well-stocked, inexpensive, and they put on animal shows every weekend. (Private ones for birthday parties, too). This was a fun, and very different idea, for a birthday party. So much better than yet another trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

We were able to roam the grounds at first, then attended a show, followed by cake and food. After that we were free to roam the entire zoo for as long as we wanted, even stay to watch another show if we like. They are all different and feature different animals. I was amazed as I got to be within 5 feet of a California Golden Eagle (they are HUGE when seen up that close) as its caretakers took it for a walk. It had an interesting story behind it, too. (See the picture).

We were treated to many different animals at the show and the kids thought it was pretty funny that I was seated in the "spray zone" when they brought out the skunk at one point. If you plan to check this place out, I recommend it as a fun and educational trip for the whole family. But do it before it gets too hot this summer, as there wasn't much shade and Moorpark gets pretty hot, from what I hear.

As for the photos, I can't remember what this cute little animal was called in the top photo, but it was crawling all over the girl handler and the kids loved it. The second photo is the sign about the Golden Eagle. I couldn't get a good shot of the eagle (she was in the shade), but interesting trivia in the sign. (click on the photo to make it blow up larger so you can read it. - and censor the last bit from the kids if they are overly sensitive about life - and death - in the wild.) The third photo is an emu. Biggest highlight of the show was when the emu squirted out bright green poo right in front of the kids. Talk about splash zones - yuk! Last photo is of a sea lion with her trainer. The show handlers are all college students learning to be exotic animal trainers or caretakers.

 

Disneyland Salutes Wildfire Heroes

Jake brought home a flyer from work last week about this awesome deal. If anyone likes to visit Disneyland around the holidays, now is the time. In a special salute to the fire, law enforcement and other first responders who helped out during the recent wildfires in Southern Calfornia, Disneyland is offering a special deal.

Go to disneyland.com/hero to check out the details. Basically, if you live in SoCal, with your id that you work for any emergency personnel department (fire, police, emt, border patrol, etc) you can get one FREE, 3-day park-hopper ticket ... AND you can get up to 5 additional 3-day tickets for $56 each. Disneyland is kind of expensive, so if you really want to go, this is the time.

There are also great deals going on now at Knott's Berry Farms and at San Diego Sea World. The Sea World One is great, I think it's four FREE tickets, but only for those who live in San Diego County, I believe. Just in case I have any readers from that area, though, thought I'd mention it. Check out their web sites, too.