Movie Night at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park

One of the special evenings with the Spreckles Organ Society summer concerts is the Silent Movie Night.  On Aug. 20, 2012  the film was Hot Water with Harold Lloyd featuring organ accompaniment by Dennis James.  Dennis played an entertaining pre-film concert before the comedy film.  Some members of P.E.O.  brought a picnic supper or ate at the nearby Tea Pavilion before heading  to the organ pavilion for the movie.

Dennis at the organ

Burch and Elke in front of Brook, her friend and Mike

Friends Pat and Klaas  

Ed and Marie

BUENA CREEK GARDENS IN SAN MARCOS

The Buena Creek Gardens site was homesteaded in 1896 by Rudolf Aumann, who perhaps planted the California Pepper tree that welcomes visitors to the gardens.  In 1970, the property was cleared for an iris farm and later hybrid daylilies were added.  Most of the largest trees in the gardens were planted in the 1980s. In 1988 it was developed into a retail rare plant nursery and named Buena Creek Gardens. In 1996 the business was sold and since then field plantings have been replaced by new display gardens and nursery areas. 

More than a garden, and more than a nursery, Buena Creek Gardens is above all a beautiful, happy and peaceful place to visit. Here, the natural world takes center stage.

                                                                             

Several members of P.E.O. Chapter LV enjoyed a picnic lunch before exploring the winding pathways of the gardens with many rare and drought resistant plants under several large shade trees. In addition to the plants are unusual pots and interesting garden decorations

Part of our group exploring one of the may pathways

These birds are part of the garden too!

SAN DIEGO ZOO SAFARI PARK

Safari Park visit during Spring of 2012

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, formerly known as the San Diego Wild Animal Park is near Escondido.  One of the first features is a replica of a Congo Fishing village.  

Some of the largest exhibits are open air enclosures covering over 300 acres.   Visitors can view various plains habitats from Asia to Africa.

We took the Africa tram tour to observe animals in the naturalistic enclosures

The African Plains represent many regions and habitats.  East Africa displays Cape buffalo, Southern white rhinoceros and Ugandan giraffe

                                                                                            

One can  ride a safari truck into the field exhibits for a fee and have a chance to even feed the giraffes.

There are good opportunities to see the giraffes at close range.

The park has extensive botanical gardens many of which are their own attractions separate from the animal exhibits.





                                                                                                            

We heard stories about the elephant herd from a viewing patio

Some of the African elephant herd were rescued from Swaziland in 2003 due to overpopulation and since then there have been several births.

This young elephant was enjoying long sips of water from the pool close to the viewing area.

We found that some parts of the park were closed for construction of future exhibits in progress.

Later we went on to nearby Orfila Winery.  It was a perfect day to enjoy the outdoors at one of their picnic tables for wine tasting accompanied with a variety of snacks.

Claremont and Pomona Day Trip

 

This excursion by bus was sponsored by the Mingei museum. The first stop was at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona.   The museum was opened in 2004 in a former bank building and is one of few museums devoted exclusively to ceramics and is the only one of its kind on the West Coast.  An impressive mural by Millard Sheets titled Panorama of Pomona Valley dominates an entire wall of the main gallery.

                                            

Our group enjoyed  a docent-led tour of Common Ground: Ceramics in Southern California 1945 -1975, featuring more than forty artists who had a common ground with Millard Sheets, an artist and educator and designer in Southern California during that time. There is also a studio for artists and students to create their own pieces with pottery wheels, kilns and work tables.

                                                                                           

Lunch was on our own in the pleasant Claremont Village. Ed and I enjoyed an  excellent Thai lunch at Bua Thai Cuisine.

The group then went on to Claremont Colleges, which is a complex of 5 colleges that include Pomona College for liberal arts, Claremont McKenna for liberal arts that specializes in economics and political science, Harvey Mudd for sciences and math,  Pitzer College for liberal arts and Scripps College for liberal arts for women.

The group focus was the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery in Scripps College to view “Clay’s Tectonic Shift” with pieces by John Mason, Ken Price and Peter Voulkos from 1956-1968 .The exhibit was dominated by massive, abstract ceramic sculptures.  

 

We also got to explore a basement storage area to see an extensive ceramic collection in many drawers and open crates.  This was unique in that we could handle the pieces if we wished.

Our next stop was at the Garrison Theater portico to see a large mosaic mural on red granite panels by Millard Sheets which depicts characters from three Shakespeare plays: Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear.

     

Inside of the lobby are three large tapestries by Jean and Arthur Arnes titled The Dance of Destiny”.

                                                 

We continued on to Pomona college to see the James Turrell Skyspace known as Dividing the Light. It is in an open courtyard with granite seating around a shallow pool under a thin metal canopy with a section framing the sky. Light is reflected off the underside of the canopy and changes in hue and intensity to represent different times of the day. In the evening the colors slowly change during an hour from lavender to sunset colors. It was rather cool to stay the whole time for this outdoor experience.

Wine and a box dinner was served on the bus on our way back to San Diego.

San Pasqual Winery

On Feb. 18^th,  I volunteered to help at San Pasqual winery in Pacific Beach which is basically a warehouse where the wine is stored in barrels and vats for fermenting.  They have a tasting room in  La Mesa.  I helped with wine bottling. 

After a lot of cleaning of equipment with disinfectant, the wine was pumped from 4 barrels through a filter system and then into a huge plastic vat almost ceiling high.  The wine was then pumped to the dispenser apparatus that had a large tank over 6 spigots.  Argon gas was squirted into the empty bottles before being filled.  After being filled the bottles were moved to a person operating the corking machine.   The bottles were then packed into cases to be labeled later.  We took a lunch break with wine tasting.   All the helpers were given some bottles of wine. I will be using 2 for the Altrusa Fashion show raffle coming up in  April and saving the other 2 for special occasions.
Below the photo shows the cork machine
 and the filling machine on the right

The photo on the right shows three  of
San Pasqual's award winning wines with their summer vine passion fruit wine,
Nebbiolo and the Cabbiolo which was the one we bottled on the 18th. It won a silver medal at the San Diego International Wine
Competition in 2012.

Some new barrels at the warehouse

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GUADALUPE VALLEY WINE TASTING

We took this excursion to a region in Baja California northeast of Ensenada known as Guadalupe Valley with DayTripper.

 A stop was made along the coastal highway after passing by Tijuana at the Rosarito Beach Hotel that was established in 1925 which became a popular resort for royalty and Hollywood stars.  By 1950 land sales soared in Rosarito Beach and the town began to take shape with the addition of shops and restaurants.  Since the 1990s there has been appreciable construction of hotels, condominiums and shopping centers. 

Hotel murals

 The fishing village of Puerto Nuevo is 15 miles south of Rosarito and is famous for its fresh lobster that is fried and served with rice and beans at the local restaurants. Before approaching Ensenada is Puerto Escondido Bay where there are large circular pens that are used for farming Blue Fin Tuna.

  The bus trip continued inland just north of Ensenada through a rather dry area before reaching the lush vineyards of Guadalupe Valley.  The region has a perfect wine growing climate with warm weather, cool nights, a consistant marine layer and sandy soil. The first grapes were planted at a Franciscan mission established in  l834.  In 1904 a group of Russian immigrants came to Guadalupe Valley to avoid the Czarist army draft and  they acquired land to plant grape vines.

Our first stop in Guadalupe Valley was at L.A. Cetto which was founded by an Italian, Angelo Cetto, in 1980 and is the largest wine producer in  Mexico.  Since it was a rainy day we were served lunch in a private dining room rather than outdoors on the terrace. We enjoyed a 3 course meal with a green salad, an entrée with carne asada, pigeon, rice, beans and tortillas followed by watermelon and papaya.  Red and white wines  were at the tables to accompany the meal.    

    After tasting some of their wines we had time to check out the main tasting and sales room.  

 

We also stopped at La Casa de Dona Lupe which is a boutique winery that specializes in organic wines, olive oil and jams.  A shelter was set up outside for our group for wine tasting. They also had samples of their special pizzas and gourmet breads that we dipped in flavored olive oil.  We also sampled some of their specialty products and more wines inside the sales room .  On a nice day one can enjoy sitting at tables in the patio.

 On the return trip back along the coast the rain finally let up to end the day with a  double rainbow and a beautiful sunset.

 

A final stop was made in Tijuana at a liquor shop with some sampling of Tequila and other spritis.

After ending the tour in  San Diego we topped off  the day with a Mexican dinner at Su Casa in La Jolla