Catching up on posts

As we traveled cross country, we didn't always have internet access (though we had it more often than previous years, even in small towns). I didn't get some posts made that I really wanted to make, so I'm going to do catch up this week. I'll leave these "catchup" posts at the head of the blog for a few days and then move them to their proper date. Be sure to page down to catch the San Diego posts that I made this week!

Montgomery, Alabama

We left Birmingham and drove down to Montgomery, getting there just in time to go into the Southern Poverty Law Center to see Montgomery's Civil Rights Memorial. Below, the state capitol.

Montgonery's Civil Rights Memorial was designed by Maya Lin, who designed Washington, DC's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. It is as beautiful and poignant as the Vietnam Memorial. There is a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. on the wall; the cone-shaped fountain has a flat surface with the names of those martyred during the fight for civil rights. See http://ww.splcenter.org/crm/memorial.jsp for more information.

Birmingham, Alabama

Sixteenth Street Baptist. This is the church that was bombed on Sept. 15, 1963, killing four little girls and injuring 22 people, including a four-year old girl. It was undergoing major restoration while we were there.

The sanctuary of the church. The windows on the right were damaged in the 1963 bombing.


One of the stained glass windows. This window essentially survived the explosion except for the face of Jesus, which was blown out, and a very small bit of his red robe. Pictures after the explosion show the oval hole where the face used to be. Eerie.

As in more recent events, the world reacted to the horrific act. An artist in Wales designed this window, with a black Jesus being crucified, for the church after a dream. It replaced a window destroyed in the bombing. School children from Wales sent money to help in the restoration of the church.

Birmingham: Kelly Ingram Park

More pictures from the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham.

These children are turning their backs to the water cannon.

There's a memorial to the people who had the dogs set on them.

Several homeless men hang out in the park and give tours for a donation. They were very good.

Pelagic Trip to Los Coronados, Mexico

Fred and I took a Pelagic Birding Trip as part of the San Diego Birding Festival. To Fred's dismay and regret, the bus left at 6AM. According to Webster's pelagic means "of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea." With birds, it means birds which spend the greater part of their time at sea. The albatross is an example of a pelagic bird.

Here we are waiting for the boat at Harbor Island. Fred is by the tree, with the blue cap.

A black crowned night heron watches us dubiously. There were five or six of these, that we saw, as we walked onto the dock.

Downtown San Diego, from the boat, through the fog. The sun is trying to burn the fog off, and eventually succeeded. We had a beautiful day despite the earlier dismal forecasts.

Sea lion. Our guides told us that the sea lions do this to cool off. Looks like fun.

Pelagic Trip to Los Coronados Islands, Mexico

The view of the old Pt Loma Lighthouse from the boat. The fog is burning off.

The new Point Loma Lighthouse. It was still pretty foggy at water level.

Three of a whole flight of pelicans.

Dolphins swam with the boat. These were common dolphins.

Pelagic Trip to Mexico's Los Coronados Islands

An America's Cup yacht goes by as we leave the harbor. The harbor near Shelter Island is "America's Cup Harbor."

The highlight of the trip was this Blue-Footed Booby. A very rare bird indeed for Los Coronados Islands.

Pat Coe of California spotted the Blue-Footed Booby. She was the star of the trip.

Los Coronados as we pull away from them.

Pelagic Trip to Mexico's Los Coronados

Brown Booby flying right at us. We saw many of these on the islands.

Elephant seals on the beach. These seals are enormous. They can hold their breath up to 45 minutes underwater.

Los Coronados Islands. There are cormorants on top of the the white rock, for scale. (This rock is probably not naturally white.)

Los Coronados Islands.

Sunset Cliffs and Point Loma

Fred and I drove out along Sunset Cliffs. This peace symbol, on Cormorant Rock, is new since last year. Apparently the cormorants wanted to make a statement.

We got to our favorite lunch spot at Point Loma, just below the visitor center and enjoyed the warm sun. See my bird blog at www.birdlist.blogspot.com for pictures of some of the birds we saw there.

This is the view from the Visitor Center. There were four submarines at the docks.

San Diego Bay, with the fog coming in.

Point Loma, San Diego

It was foggy today at Mission Bay, so we drove up to Point Loma to see how things were there.

When we got there, it was quite sunny and hot.

Miata at Point Loma. San Diego in the back ground.

The original Point Loma lighthouse. The current lighthouse is below this. Fred and I stayed there once when we knew the Coast Guard person living at the light house. We heard the fog horn up close and personal all night long.

The Cabrillo National Monument visitor center, with downtown San Diego in the distance behind it, and the Cabrillo statue on the right.

Fog and No Fog

Just thought I'd show the difference in our view on a clear day (top, yesterday) and a day when the "marine layer" rolls in (bottom, today). It's not ALL sunshine here! And it's only going to be in the 60s today instead of yesterday's record 83!

Miscellaneous Pics from Saturday

Fred coming back from his run. Always a good thing.

I guess these people don't have a motor, so they row out of the channel. Never saw this before on such a large boat.

The beach volleyball games were in full swing.

The couple that surfs together stays together. I wonder how long they've been surfing together? No spring chickens, these!