Drive home from LA- too pretty to leave out...

Only so many pictures get to go on the blog but these couldn't be missed. To the East of the road I drove on were the snow capped mountains. To the West was a beautiful sunset with a sortof fog that really added a feeling of enchantment.

Vaulting in LA!!!!

Sorry if I disapeared for a bit- I was out having a week of vaulting and "familiarity" at the Hawthorns in Los Angeles. I was taken in for a bit of vaulting fun in a beautiful local to not only work on my vaulting skills but assist many children with special needs who also practice this sport. We were able to practice at a nearby equestrian park- as most of the Valley Veiw Vaulters normal practice locations were muddy from the rain. The view of the mountains and the horses was almost to beautiful- if there is such a thing! Check out these pics of my experience there- Rick is the coach of the team- he's the one hooping! My vaulting partner from New York just so happened to be there also- Pete is the one in the red shirt and then the yellow one. Virginia, Ricks wife and the other half of the coach staff at Valley View is in the picture of us at dinner. ENJOY!

Balboa Park

So I though I was coming to California for the sunshine but for the past two weeks all it has done is rain !!!! Ok so it rains on and off but still! How am I suppose to go to the beach or soak in the rays with all these clouds in the way! This blog features pics I took on a rainy day trip to Balboa Park- which makes up a huge area of land in San Diego and features the San Diego Zoo (I have not visited yet but I am waiting for the sun) Anyway there are tons of museums and gardens here in addition to theaters and restaurants.
I visited the Museum of Man- an anthropology museum the first picture is taken of the court yard in front of the museum. And the second is of the front of the building.


This is the main floor of the Museum of Man featuring huge stelae. Though these are just casts made from the originals in 1914, Stelae were stone slabs carved and erected as monuments. These are from the Mayan civilization in the City of Quirigua, Guatemala and were pretty cool to check out.


This is me- in the rain:)

This is a skull from the "Skull Stories" exhibit. This skull features a hole that was actually made through surgical intervention called trephenation. These skulls were from many different civilizations from many different time periods. The practice of opening the skull seems to have been in practice much longer than modern medicine.

On each skull you could guess whether or not the person had lived through the surgery by looking at the amount of new bone. You could also guess why the person had the surgery- many had skull fractures likely from head injury. You could also tell if the skull had been exposed to infection. I found this exhibit very interesting and was surprised to see how many people had actually survived ancient surgery without modern medicine or modern pain medications!

This skull features multiple trephinations- 3 performed by cutting squares of bone out. The skull shows some signs of healing but mostly of infection. The person did not survive this surgery.

More Animal Fun at Sea World!

Again- I love taking pictures at parks with animals! Here are some of my favorite pictures from today. The sea lions were crazy- we got to feed them fish! After I saw the whale show, I started thinking maybe that should be my next vaulting experience!

African Safari at Wild Animal Kingdom!

I love taking pictures at places like this- and with a digital camera it's so easy to get good ones! They probably would not have liked me bringing my hoop here though it would have been fun to hoop in the jungle :) The lions reminded me of Brody! Haha- ok so there is a small size difference... Enjoy the pictures

La Jolla and the seals!!!

It actually rained this week-they only get 8 inches a year here! Everyone was really thrown off- especially on the highway! Haha On Saturday afternoon there was a clear spot in the afternoon when I made my was to La Jolla (pronounced in espanol:) The first picture is of La Jolla cove- a special area for snorkelers and divers to explore safely.

The second photo is of the observation area around the colony of natural harbor seals that home at La Jolla Bay. This is "pupping" season so there were a couple smaller seals- none that I could figure were just born but I am not a seal expert! They were quite cute at times but I am not sure why they would come out of the water if it was that difficult to move across the sand! They kinda just flop around... then rest.... then flop again. Enjoy the coexistance of humans and wildlife!