San Diego's World-Famous ZOO 'n Hotel del Coronado

The kids took to Coronado Island's beaches, but the adults were weary of the wet sand messes...and there in the background the magnificent Victorian Hotel del Coronado beckoned from "somewhere in time".   It was like prying barnacles off of the Midway to get the kids to give up their circular trenching in the sand...but we adults had already wandered off...drawn on my curiosity.  A closer look disclosed Dr. Seuss statuary surrounding an ice rink...ice, sand and palm trees...??  We tried to separate the wet sand from the children's flesh as it got colder after the sun set.  Losing battle....but they were all good sports about it.

We discovered exotic gardens and a mystifying Dragon Tree for Zoe.

...This all-wood National Historic Landmark was built in 1888 to be "the talk of the Western world."  It is not only a living legend...but it's said that a ghost is a permanent resident.  What Victorian resort would be complete without a resident ghost? Kate Morgan checked into the resort on November 24, 1892, and never checked out. Reports of ghostly happenings, all thought to be connected to the death of this beautiful young woman, have been circulating at The Del ever since.  We had to check it out.  One step inside and it was as elegant a Victorian Moment as imagination allows...yet too dreamy to be real.   In this altered state you could definitely imagine both ghosts and Saint Nicholas were very, very real.

Somewhere in Time - Merry Christmas!

San Diego Zoo Polar Bear Exhibit

So...what of the zoo?  Oh, my camera's battery died after filming the pygmy hippos.  But the rap about Paka getting lost from us in the parking lot lives on!

"I'm a Problem", original rap by Newel and Paka after Bob's traumatic wanderings in the Zoo's vast parking lot - Click Here to listen:  http://iamtpain.smule.com/trackid/1788064?did=23205269

Fall Exploration of Antelope Island and the Bison Herd

Beatrix, Zoe & Ruth-E on Sep 23rd

Beatrix has decided what she wants to do for her birthday:  Go on a buffalo hunt!  Sounds great, but where does one find a herd of American Bison near a big city like Salt Lake?  Well...Beatrix' Daddy seemed to know where to head...and the 5 sisters strapped themselves in the adventure-mobile and headed toward the mysterious Great Salt Lake and it's largest island.  As unlikely as it seems...the very first thing to be seen on Antelope Island was a large bison bull.  Everyone in the van was bouncing up and down exclaiming:  "Beatrix found her buffalo!" ...and he was right by the van!

How convenient...especially since Beatrix' newest sister was a tiny baby and not really hiking yet.  The van did the hiking...following the big bison about with a game warden nearby watching Beatrix' family to make sure they don't start something with the big one.

What else did Beatrix want to do?  Well, first a picnic and then some climbing on 2.5+ billion year old Precambrian basement rocks called Gneiss.  This is how granite looks if you bury it deep enough and torture it with enough heat and pressure.

These rocks are older than those found at the bottom of the Grand Canyon!  Climbing higher gave some great views of the lake and its nearby mountain ranges.

The trails are intriging and testify of how harsh life is on the island.

The highest UV radiation index reading in the west delivered these results:  A totally bleached out Bison!

The family hastens to the Visitor Center for liquid refreshment and protection from the sun's bleach-rays.
Then the Bison (Buffalo) Hunt continues.....


Could that be the herd?   This requires closer inspection.

Yes!...how and as icing on the birthday cake, there were 5 Antelope on the nearby slope.  A buck bounded across the road right in front of the van and somehow had the incredible energy to run right up the mountainside to join the females.  Oh, to run like a wild Antelope.  But that's a wish for another birthday.  Happy #8, Beatrix!

Crazy FUN in The FLORIDA KEYS...now that the storm is over!

Treasure hunting!... not exactly panning for gold.  But the sun came out!    Now it's time to clean up our beaches from all that the storm left behind.  Plastic of all sorts is the main trash item amongst the tonnage of sea grasses and coral that were uprooted by the churning waters.  But thanks to Bob's metal detector, there were coins for the collecting, too.  (You can order your own detector at good-deal prices from the Amazon.com link to the top-right!)  Beach-goers wanted to have some detector fun, too.  We offered to let them try it out, but they said they had to have their own.  Especially fascinating was how many dimes were in the sand offshore.  We're not sure why. 

      We survived the deluge and our campers are on the beach and doing what they came here to do. 

Hurray!  In the photo on the left, the birds have even joined in.          Ahhhh....the Florida Keys at their best.

Bob had been trying his best to get me to take up the fine art of snorkeling.  He'd say, "You have to see the coral beds..."  Well, sadly, today quite a bit of coral washed up from the storm and is bleaching in the sun.  I picked some pieces out of the smelly sea weed piles and made my own coral viewing area...and I didn't even have to deal with a mask filling up with water to view it.   >> sputter<<     >>sputter<<    Below are my films of an "undersea adventure" on Loggerhead Beach, Bahia Honda.