Santa Anita Park, Arcadia, California

     I used to work with a guy whose goal it was to visit every minor league baseball stadium in the United States.  I think Mike wants to visit every race track.  Our last stop was at Santa Anita Park.

The exterior is pretty and the grounds are immaculate.

The mountains make a beautiful backdrop.

 

Mike wondered if these horses were being trained in the race routine since they did not appear to be racing that day.

Growing up, some girls were in love with horses.  Not me.  However, I did think this animal was beautiful.

Joe Talamo, Hanging Out Before a Race

Mike, Handicapping a Few Races

I never saw this before - booths set up to teach people how to place bets.

And They're Off

The races are exciting, but I just can't shake the idea that the animals might not want to do this.

 

I managed to get my picture taken with reporter Britney Eurton.  Her father is trainer Peter Eurton.  Ms. Eurton charmed me.  She is a lovely young woman.  She completely ignored the container of Coors Light tucked under my arm.

Mike and I were gazing at this statue of George Woolf when a track employee explained the history behind the piece.  Mr. Woolf was a jockey during the 1930's and 1940's who used Santa Anita as his home base.  He was a diabetic, but because insulin had recently been discovered, he was able to manage his condition and be a jockey.  Unfortunately, Woolf fell from his mount and died while racing Santa Anita in 1946.  It is suspected that his diabetes might have caused him to have a dizzy spell and fall.     

These sculptures depicting racing contain a tribute to George Woolf.

Can you see the jockey who has fallen?

Shields Date Garden, Indio, California

     Kids growing up in the 1960's saw all sorts of dried fruit delicacies at Christmastime.  Some far away friend used to send figs and dates to my mother.  Mom got to eat the whole gift herself because we kids thought the dates had a weird, soft texture, and we wanted our figs wrapped up in a cakey shell.  Fast forward fifty plus years.  I decided I like dates.  I can thank Shields Date Garden for that.

Dates grow on date palm trees, and date palm trees grow in oases.  If you are lost in the desert and you see a palm tree, there will be water by those trees.  Date palms need lots of water at the roots and very hot, very dry air above in order to produce fruit.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture started a project to grow dates in the Cochella Valley in the 1890's.  The desert air and underground springs made for perfect conditions.  Floyd and Bess Shields started farming dates in 1924.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shields_Date_Gardens
You can see ladders attached to the trees.  Dates are picked by hand.  When the tree grows, more lengths of ladder are added,

Not Yet Ripe.
When the tree flowers, people (not nature) pollinate the blossoms.  Natural pollination is haphazard and will produce a thin crop.  With a little help from humans, thick bunches of dates will grow, so thick that the bunches will be thinned out.  After thinning, the remaining fruit will be very high quality.  Dates might be the earliest crop cultivated by man.  Evidence that humans manipulated date palms goes back to 6000 or 7000 BCE. 

Ripe Dates

These spines make harvesting a bit dangerous.

This building contains the store, the soda fountain where you can order date ice cream or a date shake, and a theater where you can watch a movie about dates called "Romance and Sex Life of the Date."

This 50's era sign still stands.  Today the Shields Date Garden belongs to the Jewel Date Company.  They run the operation just the same as Mr. Shields did.     

The Soda Fountain
There is a full service restaurant behind the store and fountain.

The Dates
There are many varieties for sale.  The "Blonde" and "Brunette" varieties were developed by Mr. Shields and are grown only at this location.

Mike, Surveying the Free Samples

Floyd Shields knew that sex sells.  Bill a dry horticulture lecture about dates as soft core porn, and people will flock to it.

     
     Shopping at the store is free.  Entering the garden and roaming among the date palms costs a few bucks.  Mike and I can't remember if the admission price was $3.00 or $5.00 per person.  If you eat at the restaurant (which we did), admission is free.
     We were surprised to see the garden contained 23 statues depicting the life of Christ in 14 scenes.  Because of the statues (and the figures of the cross that were worked into lamp posts and sidewalks), I developed a little bit of a negative attitude about charging admission.  The statues were more the story than the date palms.  It wouldn't surprise me if a Jew, a Muslim, or an atheist requested a refund. In my opinion, there shouldn't have been an entry fee.  Shouldn't celebrating the good news be something Christians  do for free?  The Shields website explains that the life of Christ statues are the garden's centerpiece, but we did not consult the site before our visit.  The website does not mention the entry fee.
https://www.shieldsdategarden.com/shields_dates_the_garden.aspx
     Later I researched the sculptures, trying to learn about the artist.  The artist remains a mystery, but I found out that the statues came to Shields Date Garden by way of a 1991 Canadian scandal.  William Vander Zalm, a disgraced politician from British Columbia, donated the statues to Shields in 2011.  The figures originally stood in British Columbia in a place called Fantasy Gardens which Vander Zalm owned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Gardens

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Vander_Zalm

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=b38bd8fe-0c54-4b5d-8cfb-f0a35c36cec6

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vander-zalm-describes-career-killing-envelope-of-cash-amid-lawsuit/article543238/

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Former+premier+Bill+Vander+Zalm+arrives+court+with+wife+Lillian+Wednesday+Vander+Zalm+trial+libel+against+judge+former+conflict+interest+commissioner+Hughes+over+statements+autobiography/6089483/story.html         

Jesus' Baptism by John, the Baptist

The Last Scene, a Risen Christ

Who was the artist?  I googled myself silly and couldn't find any clues.

Palm Springs Walk of Stars

     We had to gawk out the window of our Al Brooks tour bus to see the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  We were in for a treat in Palm Springs.  They have their own celebrity walk, and we had all the time in the world to examine the stars.
     Though the general idea is the same, there are differences between the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.  Hollywood's walk is reserved for notable people in the entertainment industry - radio, TV, motion pictures, recording, and acting.  You qualify for star status in Palm Springs if you have been at least a part time resident of the town and if you have contributed to the reputation of the Palm Springs area.  Palm Springs stars honor Medal of Honor recipients, U.S Presidents, pioneers and civic leaders, literary figures, and people in show business.  There are over 2,500 stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Palm Springs installed its 388th star in October 2015.  There is a big difference between the price of a star in Hollywood and the price in Palm Springs.  Whoever nominates someone for a Hollywood star (usually the person's publicist) must pay $30,000 to fund the future upkeep of the walk, so the burden doesn't fall on tax payers.  The fee in Palm Springs is $10,000.

Robert Stack's Palm Springs Star
He also has a star in Hollywood at 7001 Hollywood Boulevard.

      My favorite stars belong to Mike Allen, the "official" Palm Springs Santa, and to Cheeta. Over the years, there have been seven attempts to get a star for Cheeta on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  Every petition was unsuccessful.  Don't feel bad Cheeta.  They won't let Kim Kardashian have a star either.        

Palm Springs Air Museum

     On one of our two rainy days, we went to the Palm Springs Air Museum.  This isn't a place that exhibits aircraft in general.  The museum's mission is to display World War II combat aircraft and to celebrate the roles of the pilots, crews, and other citizens who helped win that war.  Plans are under way to extend the museum's collection to include the Korean war and the war in Viet Nam.  This museum is for grown ups.  There's not a lot to hold the attention of young children. The one thing that would captivate a child is the B-25 Mitchell Bomber, but there is an additional $5.00 per person charge, over and above the museum's admission price, to get inside it.  I thought that was too much.
   

The Euopean Hanger

This area holds WW2 planes flown in the European Theater of Operations.  This plane was flown by Lt. Col. Robert J. Friend, a Tuskeegee Airman.  This hanger contains exhibits about the Tuskeegee flyers, female pilots and defense workers,  and the Flying Tigers. 

This is Squirt VIII because the first seven Squirts were shot down.  Lt. R. H. Parker flew this plane, and the lovely lady painted on the side is his wife.  She was naked during the war.  Displaying the plane in a museum required painting on a bathing suit.

The Pacific Hanger

This excellent diorama illustrates the attack on Peal Harbor.  Tom Brokaw did the audio. 

Wings of these Pacific Theater planes folded up so more planes could be stored on the decks of aircraft carriers.

This Japanese WW2 plane was on loan.  It might have become a permanent display since no one from Japan has requested its return.  

Whaite Clark donated his collection of 113 World War II model airplanes.

Mike, posing with docent Bob Chapman, a 90 year old World War II veteran.  Mr. Chapman served on A PT boat in the Solomon Islands.  Most of the docents are veterans.

Docent Larry Harris helps a museum visitor use a flight simulation program.

All the museum's docents have their then-and-now pictures on this wall.

Mr. Chapman has donated his time to the museum for the past twelve years.

Mr. Harris, from the flight simulator area.

The Museum Library

A Wall of DVD's
Mr. Harris told us that the library might have every movie about flying ever produced.

The Beginnings of the Viet Nam Collection
There were about 1350 prisoners of war and about 1200 soldiers killed in action/body not recovered.  This wall contains the pictures of many of these heros.  

It was a trend in the 1970's to wear a bracelet engraved with the name of a soldier and the date he went missing.  The museum is collecting these bracelets along with the soldier's story AND the story of the person who wore the bracelet.  

  

Joshua Tree National Park - The Cacti

     The desert has a lot of rules - take plenty of water, shield yourself from the sun, don't stray from trails.  One warning is that everything in the desert is trying to kill you, but that applies more to the elements and the vegetation than it does to the wildlife.  Bobcats and coyotes will run if you throw a rock at them.  Just walk away from snakes, lizards, and tarantulas.  The most dangerous form of life in the desert might be the cactus.  Look, but don't touch.

Silver Cholla

Pencil Cholla

Beavertail Pricklypear

Teddy Bear Cholla or Jumping Cholla

This is an enormous field of Cholla (pronounced choy-yah) cactus.

All cactus spines are hard to remove.  The cholla is especially hazardous because it is a glochid - a type of  prickle that comes off in large numbers, embeds deeply, and has a barbed end that makes it hard to extract.  The most effective way to extract cholla spines that have penetrated the skin is first to tweeze every visible spine.  Then apply duct tape, and rip it off quickly.  Another option is to apply gauze soaked in Elmer's Glue.  When this wrap dries (in about 30 minutes), rip it off.  About 5% of the spines will still be left behind.  These embedded spines will form pustules.  The final step to cure the problem is to break the pustules and have the remaining spines extracted using a dissecting microscope. 

A Cholla in Flower

Zooming In.

Cholla can grow from seed, but the more successful way to propagate the plant is from the joints that fall off.

The most important rule of the desert:
Don't put your hands in any holes.