California is a fantastic place for birding as the state boasts 662 species in the latest CA Bird List, while San Diego County alone has 517 species on its checklist. The little guy in this pic is a burrowing owl which we encountered on a dirt road just south of the Salton Sea. Burrowing owls generally live underground in the abandoned burrows of mammals.
I love the Spanish Colonial-Revival architecture in Balboa Park in San Diego. This pic shows the San Diego Museum of Man, one of 17 museums in this beautiful 1200-acre park.
Links: Balboa Park Museum of Man
The 13-story Eastern Columbia Building in downtown Los Angeles is considered one of the best surviving examples of Art Deco architecture in LA. Designed by Claud Beelman and costing $1.25 million, it opened on September 12, 1930. Its award winning renovation in 2006 turned the building into 147 live/work lofts.
Pershing Square is in the heart of downtown Los Angeles and was originally named La Plaza Abaja when dedicated in 1866, but was renamed in 1918 in honor of the World War I general. This pic captures one of two large architectural balls and the waterfall fountain.
Links: LAParks
The Botanic Gardens at The Huntington in Pasadena offer 12 different gardens, one being the Japanese Garden, which includes a drum bridge, Japanese house, walled Zen garden, a bonsai court, and a ceremonial teahouse and tea garden.
Links: The Huntington
Built on a hilltop near Simi Valley, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library offers dramatic views of the surrounding countryside. It was opened on November 4, 1991 with five US Presidents and six First Ladies in attendance. Following his death in 2004, approximately 105,000 people viewed his casket as it lay in repose in the library lobby. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who died on March 6th, will be laid to rest next to her husband.
Links: Reagan Foundation
The Santa Barbara Mission was the tenth of twenty-one California Missions founded by the Spanish Franciscans, and was established on the Feast of Saint Barbara, December 4, 1786. The present building was dedicated in 1820 and still functions as a church today.
Links: Old Mission Santa Barbara
The Getty Museum, designed by architect Richard Meier, is on a hilltop just west of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and offers good views of Bel-Air and the surrounding Southern California landscape. Be sure and check out the renowned impressionist and post-impressionist paintings by van Gogh (Irises), Renoir, and Monet.
Links: The Getty
This beautiful statue and coastal view is in Cabrillo National Monument near where Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed in 1542 as the first European to set foot on the west coast of the United States.
A fun place to visit in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is Seventeen Palms Oasis, which boasts a series of beautiful palm trees (Washingtonia filifera) set against the stark desert. It’s a nice shaded place for a picnic lunch while you check out the “prospector’s post office” which contains a visitor’s log book, notes, etc.
Explore California 