Various Outings, Various Dates
Arranged for your Amusement in Chronological Order

View along California Highway 1, South of Big Sur, December 2010,
High-resolution JPEG of this image available: click here (2.1 MB)
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

Two views of an abandoned (?) farmhouse along California Highway 152, SouthEast of Gilroy, December 2010.
High-resolution JPEGs of these images available:
click View 1 (top) (1.85 MB) or View 2 (bottom) (1.73 MB)
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

The building seen in the two pictures above (September 2013) houses an exhibition or library related to the wine business, a very important (if improbable, this far South) industry in Baja California Norte. The interesting canopy and fixture apparently consist of dried grape vines.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

I've seen a lot of cheesy knockoffs in my time, but this takes the cake, for sheer size alone. This is Cristo del Sagrado Corazón, which watches over Carretera Federal 1 (México) in El Morro, Baja California, about 10 km South of Playas de Rosarito (roughly 30 km South of the border city of Tijuana). The picture was taken in September 2013.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]


Remember, if you will, the monumental Cristo Redentor statue on Rio de Janeiro's Corcovado. Compare that with this flashy (in my opinion) prefabrication, which, according to its Wiki page (link provided above) is part steel and part fiberglass. (If it's still there in 30 years, I'll eat my hat. If I'm still here.) If the artist and backers who put this thing up weren't trying to copy Rio's Cristo Redentor, then I'm no art lover.

It pays to advertise. I wonder just how many hedrosexuals frequent this bar, located in Playas de Rosarito, Baja California.


To their credit, someone must have noticed the misspelling on the overhead sign (first picture above), as the painter of the building itself seems to have corrected it.

I must say, this is quite democratic of Rosarito's gay community, considering what they must have endured during the previous decades of the XXth century. They deserve credit for inclusiveness, if not spelling.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

I hasten to add that not only gay establishments mis-spell their signs. I wonder how many drunks stumbled into this Ensenada, México, night spot, expecting a baking demonstration? The photo was taken in September 2013; the poster has seen better days, which may also be true of the night spot itself.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

Even Christians (yes, even them!) get so wrapped up in their slogans that they forget to use spell-check. This delicious double meaning was seen in September 2013 on the back window of an SUV in Ensenada, México, though the vehicle had California plates.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]

Always take back roads to get where you want to go. That's my motto. State Route 79 is one of those roads in extreme Southern California, from Interstate 8 North to Julian (a trip worth making, by the way, no matter how you get there).
[camera: Nikon Coolpix L830]

These three pictures were taken a few hundred yards from each other, just a couple of days before Christmas (and after Chanukah) in 2017.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix L830]

Southern California (and Northern México) have this striking plant called manzanita, which I understand is a protected species with a penalty for cutting or otherwise removing it. The wood (branches) of this beauty is super-hard and a shiny, deep-reddish finish that almost looks varnished.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix L830]

Old U.S. Highway 80 in Southern California - replaced in the late 1960s by Interstate 8 and decommissioned - is pretty much devoid of everything (including pavement in many sections), except for a few small towns and some ruined buildings (far fewer than I expected). This one suddenly appeared in a pleasant meadow South of Laguna Junction near Old Buckman Springs Road.
[camera: Nikon Coolpix 4300]