If you live in the Los Angeles area and are looking for fun, outdoorsy thing to do on a weekend (that doesn’t cost a penny), I suggest a very drive down the coast. Other than having to take our car there, it was a beautifully “natural” day we spent on Saturday down near Palos Verdes. We had never really spent any time down there and decided that we should check out the whale watching spot and a few other things, so we took off in the morning for the day. What a different world! First we stopped at a lookout that stared out at Santa Monica Bay and we looked back north to our house after hiking into the wildflowers a little bit (on a path, of course!):

Then we drove a little further south and stopped at the Palos Verdes Point Vicente Interpretive Center which is supposed to be a premier place to look for whales as they migrate north between December and May. We did not see any, but judging by the amount of people staking out a spot overlooking the water and Catalina Island I guess someone sees them! According to their “whale watch” board, they had seen 6 whales that day! Unfortunately they all decided to show themselves when we were not there, but we enjoyed the beautiful weather and the sunshine anyway. I guess in the “old” days there used to be a “Sea World” type place on these grounds - they had all sorts of memorabilia inside the little museum on the premises.

Just thought I would share in case any readers lived in the LA area - it’s a fantastic place to check out if you have never been down there. Here is the route that we took, outlined in green:

Oh, and sorry the pictures are not so great - the genius that I am I forgot our good camera and had to use my phone!

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If you happen to live in the Los Angeles area and you have not checked out Descanso Gardens up near Pasadena in La Canada Flintridge, you are really missing out. We went this past weekend for the first time - I cannot believe I have lived in L.A. for almost 13 years and had never been there. Granted, a lot of the flowers are not in bloom yet, but there is a bunch of other stuff to see, like a Japanese Garden, mini-waterfalls, and several Koi-fish ponds. Descanso is 160 acres of nature trails and flower/plant exhibits, and it makes for quite a relaxing day away from city noise and traffic. Here are some pictures we took while we were there:

We had a very nice day wandering around the trails, listening to the birds and checking out all the fish. When we were done we headed into the town of Montrose right down the street and had a great lunch at a local diner. If you live in L.A., you gotta spend some time up there in La Canada Flintridge - it makes for a great escape!

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It will if President Bush has his way. He wants to cut 40% from Amtrak’s budget…and they are barely making due as it is now. When we took our Amtrak trip in December, I spoke to both of our car attendants and they each mentioned the fact that Amtrak has no money and they have been slowly cutting a lot of service. If Bush’s budget goes through as is (which won’t happen, and although unlikely, Amtrak’s budget could stay in), we can expect to see Amtrak either seriously cut back and/or stop service altogether on some lines. While every other major country on earth is investing heavily in high-speed rail travel due to emissions from flying and the cost of fuel, the United States acts as though it wants to cut train travel out entirely and only subsidize air travel.

From ENN:

Around the world, high speed rail is the happening thing. In Europe 6,000 kilometers (3700 miles) of high-speed lines are due to be built by 2020, tripling the length of the existing high-speed network. China is expected to build 3,000 kilometers (almost 1900 miles) of high-speed railways within 15 years. Argentina has recently announced plans to build a 710 kilometer-long (440 mile) line from Buenos Aires to Cordoba — the first high-speed line in Latin America. Morocco is considering high speed rail also powered in part by renewable energy - solar. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Portugal, Russia and Sweden are all considering high speed rail. At least fourteen other countries already have it.

And according to Bush’s new 2009 federal budget:

Airlines, which are public companies, are going to get over $1 billion in subsidies through the FAA.
Amtrak, which is a government private “company”, is going to only get an $800 million budget.

How about we switch those around and spend money where it is needed most, George? Pretty soon the U.S. is going to look like we have the trains of the Wild West compared to the rest of the world!

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