Change of pace

My sister & brother-in-law were here for a quick visit.  We went to the San Diego Botanic Gardens and wandered around for a few hours.  There's always something new to see here and always an enjoyable visit.  Here are two of my favorite photos.

I think the leaf above is a Rex begonia.  I forgot to write down the name, so if anyone knows for sure, please drop me an email.

The bottom one was a favorite, the plant looks like these fronds were dipped in rust-colored ink.

Pair of palms

I really like palm trees and photograph them whenever I can.  I used several together in a photo montage, then added rainbow colors with an iPhone app.

Last two in the Festival of Tall Ships Parade

The parade ended with the American Pride and the Spirit of Dana Point.  Two fine tall ships, cruising into San Diego Bay.

Here's the Tall Ship American Pride -- I love the richness of the red sails.

The last tall ship was the Spirit of Dana Point.





The San Diego Maritime Museum hosts the Festival of Sails every Labor Day weekend.  So if you missed it this year, it'll be happening again next year.   Hope you've enjoyed the photographs of these tall ships.

More Tall Ships ... can you take it?

Tall Ship Bill of Rights is a 136-foot gaff rig topsail schooner.  It's available for charter out of Oxnard.

The Irving Johnson sailed into the harbor next.   Sister ship (brother ship?) to the Exy Johnson.
Getting to the end of the list, two more to come.   There were other tall ships, but not in the parade that I  remember.  I wasn't writing these down, but relying on a printed list I was given later, and looked up the web sites & identified the ones I didn't know.

More of the Tall Ships Parade

Here are the third & fourth boats in the parade (8/30/2012).

Jada   is a local boat & available for charter.  









And the Curlew was the fourth (82' schooner from Dana Point).    If you use this link it takes you to a short video of the boat getting underway.

Festival of Sail (Labor Day)

There were approximately 8 tall ships sailing in to San Diego Bay, it was an amazing sight to see them coming in from the foggy ocean, and in a short time, sailing into the blue skies over San Diego.  Here's a photograph of Tall Ship Exy Johnson.  She was second in the parade line up.

The photo was taken near the end of the parade while the crew were taking down the sails.  The second photo gives you a closer look at the crew up in the mast furling the top sails.   The height of the mast is 115 feet.  They do wear harnesses and are hooked in, but still they have to climb up there first before hooking in.  And they have to know which of those many lines are the correct ones for the task they are doing.

For more information on this Tall Ship, check out Exy Johnson on the Los Angeles Maritime Institute web site.

It's been a long 3 weeks!  I'm finally back in my house and getting unpacked.  One of the first things I did was download photos I took Labor Day weekend at the Maritime Museum's annual Festival of Sail.   I was lucky enough to be invited out on the water (thanks John!)  to greet the tall ships on Thursday as they sailed into San Diego Bay.   They sailed into the bay and down to the Coronado Bridge, then cruised back along the city front.  Quite a sight to see these beautiful vessels under sail!   I volunteered at the Festival Friday -  Sunday and enjoyed every minute of it.   If you're in the area next year, I highly recommend attending.

Today  I'm posting a panorama photo (3 images stitched together in Photoshop)  that I took of the Tall Ship Californian  cruising by downtown San Diego.   More to come (after I unpack a few more boxes).