Home » Posts tagged 'burton-w-chace-park'

Tag Archives: burton-w-chace-park

Autumn Heat

Posted on by

Martine at Chace Park in the Marina

Predictably, we are in the middle of an autumn heat wave. No, I did not go to Chace Park today. This time of year, the wind blows hot air from the desert; so there is little to be gained waiting for sea breezes that are not likely to cool my brow.

Martine went downtown by herself to partake of the high-toned atmosphere around Union Station and the Civic Center. (Am I being ironic? To be sure I am being ironic.)

Tomorrow I may go downtown, though I may bail if the temp gets too high, like 95° degrees Fahrenheit (35° Celsius) or above. That walk from the Metro Rail 7th Street Station to the Central Library would be prohibitively hot. I will check the temp tomorrow morning before making my decision.

I have become very dependent on the weekly Mindful Meditation sessions at the Central Library. Then, too, there are those seven floors of books that draw me in.

Fun With Sharks

Posted on by

Great White Shark

It all started last year when the National Geographic Channel put on their annual SharkFest. There s something so beautiful, yet so menacing about these predators of the sea that I am enthralled.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I used to love going to the beach and going in the water. Some ten years ago, I stopped going—mostly because the ocean was getting more polluted, and my blepharitis began bothering me increasingly during the summers.

Although I never encountered a shark in the water, I was always conscious of the life in the ocean. There were all the large strands of kelp and, from time to time, dead fish.

I live only two miles from the beach, but I have yet to visit the sands of Santa Monica Bay this year. When it gets hot, I do go to Chace Park in the Marina to enjoy the sea breeze while picnicking and reading. There I get the smell of the sea and also get to watch the sea lions and gulls the alight on the shore.

As for the sharks, I would rather see them on television. No in-person shark encounters for me!

Death of a Crow

Posted on by

Martine at Chace Park

It was another warm day, so I decided to drive to Chace Park in the Marina . stopping at Trader Joe on the way to pick up a salad and beverage for a picnic on the way. I had only a few pages more to read of Virgil’s Georgics and hoped to finish the book while enjoying the sea breezes.

It was not to be. A crow was flopping around on the ground, unable to fly. Several passersby had stopped and were loudly discussing what to do about the poor crow. There were as many opinions as there were people. Eventually, a homeless person picked up the bird and placed it a few feet away in the shade.

What did I do? Nothing. Crows are wild creatures. Any intervention on my part would have terrified the bird at a point when it was dealing with its own problems. I was not about to make a pet of it so that I could brag to my friends that I had “rescued” it.

I was outraged that the people in the park had in some way profaned the final moments of one of God’s creatures.

Perhaps many people would feel that I was being hard hearted because I chose not to interfere. Perhaps I was being kinder to that bird by leaving it alone. After all, I actually like crows.

Summer Is Icumen In

Posted on by

The Malibu Pier at Sunset

It’s not quite here yet, but it’s coming. Lhude sing cuccu … or whatever. Summer has its moments in Southern California. Mostly, it’s just hot.

This time of year, I like to read works by William Faulkner (this summer, I’ll tackle his Collected Short Stories) and travel books about Arabia and India (I’ve already begun Charles M. Daughty’s Travels in Arabia Deserta, Volume I). Then, too, I will read the Travis McGee novels of John D. MacDonald and some Icelandic detective stories.

I will drink ungodly amounts of iced tea. I know it’s a powerful diuretic, but it does moisten the palate. This summer, it will mostly be the Ceylon loose tea from Ahmad of London. After the autumn equinox, I’ll switch to Darjeeling (when I need a lift) or Baruti or Ghalami Assam.

When it gets too hot, we’ll have a picnic lunch at Chace Park in the Marina and revel in the cool sea breezes, which typically die within a few hundred feet of the shore.

I will sleep without covers at night, usually with the window open. I will have to listen to all the dysfunctional car alarms, the patron’s of the bar across the street, and the cursing and moaning of all the street people.

In the end, it’s doable. One thing I will not do is travel—unless I could afford a flight to Alaska or Patagonia. The desert will be blisteringly hot, and we are surrounded by hundreds of miles of desert.

Scrawny Squirrels

Posted on by

Martine Trying to Feed a Squirrel

Sunday was a typical hot-and-cold day with a heavy marine layer and forecasts of rain in the eastern mountains and deserts. In other words, it was Mexican Monsoon season. Rather than break into a sweat in our apartment, I proposed we spend some hours at Chace Park in the Marina, maybe picking up a picnic lunch at the supermarket on the way.

I grabbed a book (George Mackay Brown’s Rockpools and Daffodils) and headed out with Martine to the Marina. She picked up a ready-made chicken sandwich at Ralph’s and saved bits of the crust to feed to the local squirrels and crows.

The park has a large number of scrawny squirrels who, I think, feed mostly on the leavings of picnickers. It was funny to see her approach the squirrels and try to convince them that they should take advantage of the crust she was offering them. Occasionally they did; but then, they decided to give it a pass. Martine turned away disgusted. But it was not in vain: The crows landed and grabbed the crumbs refused by the squirrels.

There was a pleasant breeze at Chace Park, and I enjoyed taking a walk that took in the statue of the helmsman at the tip of the peninsula in which the park is situated.

Statue of the Helmsman at Chace Park

The sun didn’t come out, but in sunny California that is no tragedy. We got fed, the crows and squirrels got fed, and I read a goodly chunk of George Mackay Brown, which is always a good thing.

Chacing [Sic] Comfort

Posted on by

Squirrel-in-Residence at Chace Park

As the heat continues, I occasionally seek the cool ocean breezes of Burton W. Chace Park in Marina Del Rey. I say occasionally because, on weekends, the park is being loved to death and the parking lots are all parked up. Yesterday, I sat down in the shade at the edge of the Marina while reading Paul Theroux’s The Last Train to Zona Verde (2013).

The squirrel pictured above approached me nonchalantly as I waited for my 90-minte free parking window to expire. The peninsula seems to have scores of squirrels all busily hunting nuts, seeds, insects, and food scraps.

Shade Trees at Chace Park

En route to the park, I had stopped at Ralph’s Supermarket at Mindanao Way and Admiralty, where I picked up a tasty salmon and tuna poke bowl and a can of Japanese iced green tea. I consumed it at one of the three roofed picnic pavilions seen in the distance of the above photo. Then I sat in one of the stone benches with a good view of boat traffic and relaxed while the breeze ruffled my hair.

Sailboat in the Marina

I returned home, where the temperature was about 8 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer and cooked stuffed peppers for dinner. Afterwards, I relaxed for an evening of Roger Corman Poe films starring Vincent Price on the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel.

Sea Lions

Posted on by

Sea Lion (Notice the Ear Flaps)

Whenever the mercury climbs to the high eighties or low nineties (30-35° Celsius), I head to Chace Park in Marina del Rey, find a shady spot, eat my lunch, and begin to read. In the background there is a lot of barking by the sea lions (Zalophus californianus); and dozens of little brown squirrels are climbing trees, descending from trees, and sometimes standing still staring at the tourists. It’s a friendly place, but one that definitely smells of the sea. More to the point, it is usually the coolest, breeziest place I know of to escape the heat.

Today, the sea lions were mostly youngsters. If one of them lolled on one of the wharves, he or she would bark loudly if joined by another sea lion. Maybe it was just their way of greeting one another. Maybe they just didn’t want to share their place in the sun.

The California sea lion can be found from the Alaska panhandle to the Pacific coast of Central Mexico. They are a good example of a non-endangered form of sea life. That makes me happy, because I love to hear them barking at one another.

Sea Breeze

Posted on by

Whenever it gets too beastly hot, I frequently head to Burton W. Chace Park in Marina del Rey. On most days—the sole exception being times when there is a Santa Ana wind, bringing hot desert air from the Mohave Desert—it is always more comfortable there. Not only is the temperature at least five degrees cooler, but if one finds a spot to sit within a couple hundred feet of the shore, there is always a cooling sea breeze.

Today, I tested this as I walked inland to my parked car. By the time I was 300-500 feet from the shore, the breeze started breaking up. By the time I reached my car, it was nonexistent. Yet while I sat reading in the shade in Picnic Shelter A (the one closest to the shore), the cooling breeze was steady.

I don’t understand why this is so. The beaches to the north and south of the Marina aren’t all that comfortable, perhaps because of the heat radiated by the sun beating on the sand.

The park was full of small squirrels who were constantly chasing one another. I guess there was too much competition for the scarce food resources. At any given time, I could see as many as ten squirrels.

My Lizard Life

Posted on by
Gecko and Opuntia Cactus

As the heat dome over the Western US continues, I continue to make like a lizard. Unlike a lizard, however, I seek shady cool places rather than sunny rocks or cacti for my perch. Today, I even went to see a movie: Bullet Train with Brad Pitt was no winner—but at least I sat for three hours in air-conditioned comfort while the people outside the theater looked decidedly wilted.

My dinners lately were very appropriate to a desert dweller. Several days ago, I went to the Persian market across the street and purchased Persian lavash flatbread, French feta cheese, and Turkish pickled vegetables (2 varieties). For breakfast today, I made two quesadillas with flour tortillas, Monterey Jack cheese, and pickled rajas de jalapeño. Despite the hot morning, I had my usual cup of hot Indian black tea with honey and a squeeze of lime.

Tomorrow, while Martine braves the dead hot air of downtown LA, I will probably make my way once again to Burton W. Chace Park in Marina Del Rey to catch stray breezes while reading O. A. Bushnell’s 1963 novel Molokai, about the Hawaiian leper colony. During that time I will constantly hydrate myself with mineral water to keep from getting dehydrated.

This weather is no fun.

Make Like a Lizard

Posted on by
Peruvian Wood Lizard

I have discovered that the best way to survive a hot spell in Southern California is to make like a lizard. We have neither insulation nor air conditioning in the 75-year-old apartment in which we live. All day long, the hot sun heats up the building, and the building holds the heat until just before dawn. We have fans, but use them primarily in the evening, when the inside temperature spikes.

So how does one make like a lizard? For starters, don’t be in much of a hurry—about anything. While Martine went downtown, where it is even hotter, I drove to Trader Joe’s in the Marina, put together a simple picnic lunch, and parked at the end of Mindanao Way at Chace Park. At the peninsula on which the park sits, there is always a cool breeze, a breeze that suddenly disappears a few hundred feet inland.

I sat in a shaded pavilion at a picnic table, ate my lunch, and re-read Ernest Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa. I managed to be comfortable while, in the next pavilion, a group of loud ex-con types were laughing and shouting. They made a snarky comment about my straw hat, which did not faze me because a good straw hat from Latin America is also part of making like a lizard.

Am I beginning to resemble a lizard? I don’t think so, not yet anyhow. What’s more, I have no interest in sitting atop a rock in the hot sun as lizards are wont to do. The species to which I belong seeks the shade.