HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, BURBANK!

This year is the city of Burbank’s 100th birthday. Last Friday was the “birthday party,” a celebration in downtown Burbank. Appelina, J, and I walked down there to check it out. It was CROWDED. If it wasn’t within walking distance I wouldn’t have gone. Here are the two highlights that I enjoyed most.

There’s a classic car club in Burbank and they were at the street party showing off their cars. In this old police cruiser was a dog getting a lot of attention. I’m pretty sure he was sleeping through all of it though.

There was also a cool swing band which performed a USO show. They were the Wartime Radio Revue. They were nice to listen to, and a ton of couples were dancing.

 

THE ST. CLAIRE HOTEL

I’m currently at a small conference up in San Jose, CA, and staying at the lovely St. Claire hotel. Below are some pictures of the lobby. It’s all very fancy. The best thing is that they have free internet access for guests!

Here are some pictures from my hotel room. I love the bird mural on the ceiling of the bathroom. I don’t understand why there is a scale in the bathroom though. Who wants to weigh themselves when they’re on vacation? Unless people use it to weigh their luggage. And the view from the window is great.

 

CACTUS FLOWERS

Here are some pretty cactus flowers.

Funky yellow and red flowers.

A mini-tree with pink flowers.

These pretty hanging flowers were in the cactarium.

These flowers looked like a kid walked by and stuck some candy on this cactus.

These were on some sort of desert tree.

Prickly pears. These will turn red when they are ripe.

 

 

 

 

CRITTERS AT MOORTEN BOTANICAL GARDENS

Here are some of the other critters we encountered at the Moorten Botanical Gardens.

A desert spiny lizard, I think.

A super closeup of the desert spiny lizard.

A birds nest, but it was empty.

The Gardens had a dove cote, and here is one of the ring necked doves.

They had three tortoises. Here's one trying to escape.

This one was munching away, and then he started following us as we walked around his pen.

Another one that was trying to escape.

 

 

 

PRICKLY CACTI AT MOORTEN BOTANICAL GARDENS

Here are some nice pointy cactuses.

White prickles.

Teeny prickles.

Big red prickles.

Big prickles.

The leaves on this are like little saw blades.

Red and prickly.