Easter Sunday - EARTHQUAKE!!!

Hey Colin,

On Easter Sunday, Ivett, Brian, Otto, Zoey, Von Karman, Bella and I were hanging out when the house started moving back and forth!  Wine glasses were rattling back and forth.  Ivett was taking a nap on the couch, and Brian woke her up to tell her that there was an earthquake.  Even though the earthquake was centered in Mexico, we felt it all the way up in California.  It measured 7.2 on the Richter scale.  Ivett woke up, looked at Brian with a "what's the big deal" kind of expression and went back to sleep.  That's California for you.

 ~ Flat Stanley

Vacuum Tube Art

Hey Colin,

Check out this glass cylinder filled with vacuum tubes that Brian's Grandfather collected over years of fixing old television sets.  Believe it or not, but when Brian's Grandfather was your age, televisions didn't even exist.  When early televisions were developed, they were basically large wooden boxes filled with vacuum tubes, a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) and an electroacoustic transducer (i.e., a speaker).   The image was displayed on the front of the CRT.  Anyway, Brian's Grandfather (your Great-Grandfather), had a hobby of fixing those old televisions, and he collected a lot of vacuum tubes.  The vacuum tubes were the electronic hardware that allowed those old televisions to convert signals received by rooftop antennas into black and white pictures on the front of the CRT.

Vacuum tubes.  Awesome!!!

~ Flat Stanley

Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, CA - Thursday April 1, 2010

We went to spend a night at the historic Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.  Many luminaries have stayed at this hotel.  Ronald Reagan was a frequent guest.  When he was the Governor of California, Ronald Reagan met with Gerald Ford at the Century Plaza hotel.  This picture of that meeting was taken by Pulitzer Prize winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.  

I don't think we were in the same room that Reagan was in, but we were close!  What a great view!

Ivett and I both enjoyed the view!

The hotel has a great bar in the lobby where we enjoyed some beverages.

One last moment on the balcony before checking out!

 

I truly enjoyed my stay at the Century Plaza Hotel in LA!  This hotel is listed as one of America's 11 most endangered historic places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Developers has a plan to raze the building and build new high rise condominiums.  Fortunately, the new plan keeps this landmark intact. 

Cheers!

  ~ Stanley

Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl - Tuesday March 30, 2010

Hey Colin! On Tuesday we went to see Paul McCartney at the Hollywood Bowl. The "Bowl", as it's called, is an amphitheater nestled in the hills of Hollywood, California.

Paul McCartney was born June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England. He's been performing great music for over half a century! He plays everything from rock and roll to classical music.

After playing all around the world, Paul McCartney and I are about to cross paths in the Hollywood Bowl!

After a long wait in traffic, we finally made it!  Here I am in my own box seat!

Paul is right there at center stage!!!  The screen behind the stage was amazing!

All of the songs were great!

The concert also has a great light show.

A video of Band on the Run!!!  A great song!!!

The concert ended with a flourish!!!!!!!

Brush Fire

Hey Colin, check out this video that Brian and Ivett made of a brush fire in California last July.  Everything is so dry in the high desert that these brush fires are extremely dangerous.  Fortunately, we have great firefighters in California!



~ Flat Stanely

Day Trip to Santa Monica - Sunday March 28, 2010

Well after checking out the high desert, and learning about all of those venomous creatures to watch out for when you're walking around the yard, we went on a day trip to Santa Monica.  No rattlesnakes or black widow spiders there, but like Uncle Brian says, "Safety first, keep a safe distance from rattlesnakes and an even safer distance from strangers because at least a rattlesnake has enough honor to warn you before striking". As you can see on the map, Santa Monica is a beach town, one of the shining jewels of the Left Coast.  Our trip started in the Mojave Desert (at the point marked "A") and ended in Santa Monica (you guessed it, the point marked "B").  Can you guess what that big white spot on the map is?  Remember, it's in the desert, so it's not a glacier!  If you're still wondering, here is an assignment: Google "rogers dry lake" and see what you can learn.  Here's a hint: this is where Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound in a Bell X-1 rocket plane.  So many historical things happened on and around that patch of desert that it has been designated a National Historic Landmark!

The first thing we did after arriving in Santa Monica was to walk to the bluffs, which are tall cliffs overlooking the ocean.  The view is fantastic!  The hills on the other side of the water are a town call Malibu.  You can also see all the people skating, running, walking and riding their bikes along the boardwalk on the beach.  (The boardwalk is actually made of cement.)    The weather in Santa Monica is amazing.  Air conditioners or heaters are rarely needed, and the beach is a great place to go all year round.  (Although the locals have a tough time with those brutal 60 deg F winter days.)

Santa Monica also has a famous pier.  Guess what it's called.  Santa Monica Pier.  There is a small amusement park on the pier.  Brian told me that he and Ivett rode the roller coaster a few years ago, but I didn't want to ride it.  It looked a bit rickety for my taste. 

Sunday was Palm Sunday, so we got some palms at St. Augustine by the Sea.   The church is on 4th Street in Santa Monica.  So what does that mean?  It means that the church is 4 blocks from the beach.  Great weather and beautiful ocean vistas go a long way to inspire one's sense of piety!

The flora in Santa Monica is also inspiring.  There are a lot of magnificent palm trees. Check out these amazing plants.

One of my favorite plants is called the Bird of Paradise.  Isn't it gorgeous!

In Santa Monica, the flora is spendiferous, but the fauna is mostly vagrants and pigeons and quite odoriferous.  So, we drove to Westfield Century City Mall for lunch.  Guess where that is.  It's in Century City.  Californians take great pride in their imagination.  The mall has a great Mexican restaurant called Pink Taco.  Check out that giant wooden door!

In Mexico there is a celebration called El Día de los Muertos, which means the Day of the Dead. During this holiday, people gather in remembrance of family and friends who have died.  Part of the celebration includes decorating homes and restaurants with skeleton dolls called Catrinas.  Here is a large one at the Pink Taco.   

The Pink Taco also has nice frescos.  This fresco of a man and his rooster is quite compelling.  

Ivett loves the view of Santa Monica Boulevard from the terrace at the Pink Taco.  With such a mix of money and sunny weather, there are a lot of fancy cars on the road in California, and sometimes watching the traffic on Santa Monica Blvd is like a free car show (Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley, Maserati and maybe even a Tesla Roadster).   

Ivett must like this store.  When we went there she had a smile as big as mine.

Here we are on the way back home, driving north on the infamous 405 (depending on the time of day, it's either a highway or a parking lot).  (On the East Coast, people would say "I-405" because the road is an interstate highway, but in California, people just say "the 405".) The last exit listed on the sign is "Getty Ctr Dr". The Getty Center is the large building on the top of the hill, just to the left of the 405.  It's a magnificent art museum with pieces dating back to the middle ages.   The building's facade is made of travertine imported from Italy.  The museum also has a great view of the Pacific Ocean, and you can sit on the grass and enjoy the fresh air.  (Yes, the air is fresh here.  The smog is mostly in the valleys.)  Anyone can go and enjoy the museum for free thanks to the generosity of J. Paul Getty, who made a fortune in oil and donated his art collection and over $661 million dollars to the museum.  Thank goodness for wealthy oil magnates! Getty had a simple formula for his success: 

1. Rise early

2. Work hard

3. Strike oil 

On Tuesday, we went to see one of Ivett's favorite musicians, Paul McCartney, play at the Hollywood Bowl.  I'll tell you all about it in my next post.

~ Flat Stanley

The Mojave Desert - Saturday, March 27, 2010

Well, I made it to California on Friday, March 26 and right away I met Ivett, Brian, Otto, Zoey, Von Karman and Bella.  I can't believe that it's been just over two weeks since my envelope arrived in their mailbox.  It was great meeting everyone, and it was especially fortuitous that President Reagan was on the television at the moment I was getting out of my envelope.  Did you know that the Berlin Wall came down on November 9, 1989?  Only two years after President Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate, the oppressive, communist regime was swept away by a wave of freedom!  That might seem like ancient history to you, but Ivett and Brian remember that day very well.  I'm so glad that walls like that have been torn down and people are free (for the most part anyway) to travel wherever they want and see so many interesting places.  Ivett and Brian live in the Mojave Desert.  Geographically, the area they live in is called the "high desert".  Now in California, that term can mean something else, but in this case it simply means that the desert is at a large elevation above sea level.  What does that mean you ask?  Well, it means that if you were at the beach, you would need to climb straight up to a height of 2425 feet to be at the same elevation as Ivett and Brian's house.  The climate in the high desert is extreme.  In the summer, the temperature gets up to over 100 degrees in the daytime.  Fortunately, there is hardly any humidity, which means that your sweat evaporates very quickly and, as it evaporates, it carries away some of that brutal heat!  Also, it cools down a lot at night.  Thank goodness that the current spring weather is a balmy 70 degrees.  The town that Ivett and Brian live in is located in a valley, and we can still see lots of snow on the mountains to both the north and south of the valley.  There a a lot of interesting creatures that live in the high desert.  Have you ever heard of black widow spiders?  Here is a picture of one outside of Ivett and Brian's house.

These spiders are venomous, so we keep our distance when we see one.  Another critter around here is the Wind Scorpion or Solifugae.  Despite the scary looks of the Wind Scorpion, it is actually a very good critter to have around because it eats spiders and scorpions and other insects.

Wind Scorpions can run very fast, and one night Brian saw one run away when he turned the light on in a room.  Some debris was on the floor where the Wind Scorpion was, and when Brian went to investigate, he found the dismembered remains of a cricket.  Sure it sounds gory, but the Wind Scorpion was just having dinner!  Another scary critter in the high desert is a rattlesnake called the Mojave Green.  Brian took this picture of a Mojave Green in his front yard.  Notice the large rattle!

These rattlesnakes have long fangs for injecting a potent venom.  The snake in this picture was killed by Otto and Zoey.  Thank goodness the snake didn't bite them.  Other snakes that share the Mojave Desert with Brian and Ivett are the Gopher snake and this red and black striped snake that Zoey enjoyed watching.

Another critter that lives up here is the giant toad!  One night Ivett and Brian noticed that Zoey was drooling excessively.  They were very worried that she was sick, but then they noticed a giant toad that Zoey was playing with.  They called a veterinarian, and she said that the toad secretes a chemical on its skin that not only tastes horrible but also causes extreme drooling.  It turns out that one of the toad's natural defenses is that it tastes horrible!  In the picture the toad is in an orange bucket to separate it from the dogs.  Afterward, the toad was safely released back into the wild.

Not all the animals that you see in the Mojave Desert are creepy, crawly things.  Some are beautiful birds that are just passing through on their migration between Mexico and the United States and Canada.  One of these is the Yellow-Headed  Blackbird.  You can see their distinctive bright yellow head and black body in the picture, which shows three of the birds enjoying the bird bath in Ivett and Brian's yard.  These birds only show up during their migration, and, when they do show up, they are present in large numbers.  They are also very vocal, and they have a bizarre call that sounds like a rusty hinge.  It's an amazing sight to behold when dozens of these beautiful birds are all calling to each other while perched in the trees in the backyard.  You can listen to their call at www.allaboutbirds.org. 

Look at this map to see how far the birds migrate.  That's a long flight!  I'm really lucky!  Not only did I have a manila envelope to travel in, but my route intersects the migration path of the yellow-headed blackbird!

Well, that's plenty for now.  I'm enjoying the high desert.  Next, I'm literally going "down the hill" to visit Santa Monica.  Within the borders of that beach-side municipality you can see in vivid detail the full spectrum of the human condition.  I can't wait!

 ~ Flat Stanley

California or Bust!

Well, after 5 days of patiently hanging out inside that manila envelope, I finally arrived in California!  After stretching my legs a bit (after all, I had to fold myself up to fit in that envelope), I met Aunt Ivett and Uncle Brian. Brian was very excited because a great moment in history was being shown on television just as I was getting out of my envelope.  There was a video of President Reagan beseeching the leader of the Soviet Union to tear down a wall that was built to divide the city of Berlin, Germany into two parts, one free and the other ruled by an oppressive communist regime.  Ronald Reagan was President of the United States from 1980 to 1988, and Uncle Brian fondly recalled the day he visited his home town to make a speech.  Well, I couldn't resist, so I jumped in front of the television and had my picture taken with the president who eliminated an entire class of nuclear weapons for the first time in history.  The Reagan Library is not too far from here, and they promised me we can go there for a visit.  The library has the actual Boeing 707 jet that served as Air Force One from 1973 to 2001.  Presidents Nixon, Carter, Ford, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush all used that airplane, and soon Flat Stanley will be added to that list of distinguished names.  Don't worry, I'll be sure to update my blog and tell you all about it!

Having my picture taken with President Reagan.

After meeting President Reagan, I met Uncle Brian's and Aunt Ivett's wonderful dog pack!  They're a great bunch of canines!  Very friendly and smart.  All of them were rescued from shelters when they were puppies.

Hanging out with the dog pack.

I also met their cat.  She's also very friendly, but the dogs and the cats don't hang out together, so I wasn't able to get a picture of all of us together. 

When the dogs are absent, the cat is present.

After meeting everyone, I sat down at the table while Brian made a fresh pot of coffee.  We sat down and compared various modes of travel, such as planes, trains, ships, automobiles and manila envelopes!

Waiting patiently for that cup of coffee!

It's getting late and Brian needs to use the computer.  I'll update my blog soon!


 ~ Flat Stanley