A Question, and Queen Mary Redux

I have apparently been taking photos and posting in this blog for 12 years. I've finished my backlog of all the photos that had been burning a hole in my hard drive, and I also no longer live in Southern California. So, the question is whether or not I continue posting here when the photos will not be in Southern California anymore?

Should I start a new blog? Rename this one? I expect I have .5 followers, so I would love if ANYONE would like to comment on this regarding what they think the best route would be. I do enjoy having my photos out and available online, so rebranding seems wisest. The original intent was a tourism bent to get people to visit the fantastically beautiful state of California, but as this is not the hottest blog online, I expect very few people would notice if it quietly morphed into Yet Another Look At My Photos Blog. Granted, that has less of a draw.

Aside from that, this is a post for my beloved, gorgeous Queen Mary, who holds a surprisingly large chunk of my heart for tons of inanimate steel and wood.

If you do happen to be near Long Beach, the Queen Mary is actually totally and completely free to check out. Because she is a hotel, and has multiple restaurants, you can just saunter right in as free as you please. I will admit the parking is a definite thing, but I HIGHLY SUGGEST taking one of the water taxis. They're between 1 and 5 dollars and you get to ride around Long Beach Harbor on the water and take pictures of all the loveliness. Very few boat rides nowadays are so affordable.

But this is probably the most writing I've ever done in this blog, and I haven't even gotten to all the photos I'm posting. Here we go.

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An establishing shot of her bow.



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Her "wings", the bridge and the Observation Bar.



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Meanwhile, at the stern is the Verandah Grill.



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The view across the harbor is lovely.



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She's known as The Ship of the Woods, and from the interior, you can tell why.



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My favorite place onboard is the sunny lounge midships on deck A.



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A detail shot from the same room.



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While I was visiting (June 2023) the first class pool was still closed, but I was able to get a shot inside through the glass door.



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A detail shot from the interior promenade deck.



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The interior of the Observation Bar, a very relaxing place to spend time.



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And this was a lovely way to end a day on the Queen Mary.

Santa Barbara

While a lot of people consider Santa Barbara a relatively pricey town, there's still a lot you can do on a budget for fun. This goes for pretty much any town with a mission, to be honest. They're always filled with history and beauty and reasonably priced.

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Here's a nice shot of the fountain outside of the mission.



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A green and sunny courtyard on a beautiful day.



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I love shots with benches in them. I'm still lightly hoping to put out a vanity book of benches I've taken photos of, just so I can page through and imagine sitting in all the serene places.



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There's always interesting old history items in the museums all of the missions have.



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When we visited we also headed over to the Santa Barbara courthouse. You might think that's not interesting, but the place is absolutely beautiful. Here's a car parked outside that I thought was particularly photo-worthy.



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The courthouse has a mural room, a clocktower, views to the ocean and a sunken garden. My eye caught some red tiles ready for the roof repair, though.



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Ending here with a parting photo of the fountain at the entrance.

The Bradbury Building

This subject is a landmark Italian Renaissance Revival building and was erected in 1897. You have seen it before, I'm willing to bet, a lot of things have been filmed there. The most famous is probably Blade Runner. Once again, this is something totally free that you can go and see and photograph. This is right smack in the heart of Los Angeles.

I only had my phone with me to take pictures with, but I had been wanting to take photos there for AGES, so I wasn't missing the opportunity. I think for phone pictures these are fine. And yes, there are filters on all of these to make them look older. I liked them better that way, and hey, my blog.

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An overall shot of the main courtyard.



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Some elevator detail.



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The second floor hallway around the courtyard.



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Light filtering down near a stairway. My favorite shot by a long margin.

Belmont Shore (Long Beach)

I do believe this is from the last real beach day I had in Southern California before the quarantine days materialized. We actually got to the beach during the quarantine to see the dinoflagellate plankton in the surf glow, but that was at night and beyond my photography skills. This is from a beach where you simply put a couple dollars in the meters to enjoy the day, Rosie's Dog Beach.

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A handsome fellow with the foam behind.



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Here's a gull, who is most likely hoping for snacks.



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Some of the gorgeous waves from that day. Some you could see completely through.



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Between the birds being used to people and a good lens, I could get some very detailed shots. Here's a sweet lady, now.



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"Time for yelling!"



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A sunset stroll along the sand.

A book!

Yes, I've gone and done it! There's a book of my photography available!

You can buy the hardcopy version through Blurb.com or through Amazon.com in a few days, but honestly, this is a vanity project, pure and simple. If you're really interested, there's a PDF version you can download through the Blurb site for only 6 bucks. If you get the PDF, I get a whopping one dollar profit, as opposed to the .85¢ I get if you purchase the book from Amazon. So I'd rather push the PDF version, although I'll admit the book looks very nice on a coffee table.

If you click through, you can preview it for free!

Pacific

By Misty Crowe

San Luis Obispo through Gaviota

This is a bit of a mixed bag. We were on the last day of our vacation and there was so much to see in this area! There are a couple pictures from the San Luis Obispo Mission (recommended donation only), Buellton's Ostrichland USA (5 dollars) and a beach in Gaviota. The beach was actually the most expensive, because it was at a campground, but it was still only 40-60 dollars for a night on the beach.

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Actual mission grapes from one of the ancient vines originally planted by the original founders of the mission! We did not eat any of these, because it would be rude, but I will admit we found some that had fallen out of the way and tried those.



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This is one of my traditional shots. I love shots of seating, especially in those long, lovely corridors in the missions.



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Here's an ostrich at Ostrichland USA. (They also have emus!) You can pay a little extra and feed the ostriches. These seem like cool, funny birds until you get right up close to them, and then you wonder how anyone had the courage to farm them in the first place!



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A close up of some ostrich feet. You do not want to be on the receiving end of this sort of thing. You can easily see how they may have been dinosaurs at some point.



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Here's the pier at the Gaviota beach. It was golden hour and everything at the beach photographed well.



And a shot of the beach proper.

Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery

I very much suggest this particular location if you can visit. It's totally free and it's positively packed with elephant seals, as well as hungry squirrels and crows. If you like wildlife, this is not to be missed. You can find more information through this link, but of course I'm also going to show you how adorable some of the animals are right below.

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Here are a couple of these lovelies in the water.



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There were a lot of them sleeping. Don't they look soft??



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Their faces have so much personality!



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You can practically hear the funny little sound when this soft baby pushes their nose into the sand.



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Plan to bring something healthy to feed the squirrels when you visit! They will absolutely beg!



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I love how you can see their tiny mouth in this photo.