Mae's Real Stories

Memories for Miriam, Alice, Theo, Delia, Tessa and anyone else who would like to be here

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Flying a Kite

At the beach this afternoon we saw this unusual kite flying in the breeze coming from the ocean. It was spinning, so that the two ends looked like colorful pinwheels.

posted by Mae Travels # 6:20 PM 0 Comments

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Building Sand Castles

This one is different: a boat made of sand.

posted by Mae Travels # 11:43 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Washing the Elephant's Foot

At the new Elephant Odyssey, the keepers like to show how they take care of the elephants. Here, two keepers were washing the elephant's feet. When they finished scrubbing one foot with a big brush (like most people use for a carwash), and then rinsing off with the hose, they said "change feet." The elephant turned around and stuck another foot into the washing space.

The keeper also ran over to the front of the elephant and gave it a reward for cooperation -- it looked like cucumber.

posted by Mae Travels # 7:01 PM 0 Comments

Birds and Elephants at the Zoo

At the zoo today we visited the new Elephant Odyssey exhibit, where there are lots of elephants, especially very old elephants that have retired to the zoo from other jobs. The Elephant Odyssey also tells about the Woolly Mammoths that used to live around California 12,000 years ago, and about the other birds and animals from that time. So here's Lenny with some extinct bird in that new exhibit, as well as some other birds and animals -- the meerkats are near the end of the elephant area. You can see kids sitting on statues of the woolly mammoths.

posted by Mae Travels # 6:49 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, June 07, 2009

At the Beach

Quite a few surfers were successful at standing up on their boards when we were at the beach this morning. The waves didn't look very big, but they were rolling in and I guess that was good for the many, many surfers. Some were able to ride almost all the way to the water's edge.

One family was building a big sand castle, too. You can see the surfers behind them...

posted by Mae Travels # 2:14 PM 0 Comments

Friday, June 05, 2009

Sand Castles for Experts

I've been taking photos of sand castles built by kids and people just visiting the beach. Everybody likes to play with sand. Here in San Diego, there's also a contest to see who can build the best sand castle in the world. I found the photo of a contest entry from a past year.

I wish I could go to the sand castle contest and festival this year, but it won't happen until after we leave here. To read about it look here. From the website:

On Sunday, July 19, the official U.S. Open Sandcastle Competition will be held. This is the championship of sandcastle building where the professional sand carvers vie for the title of Master's Champion. Professional and amateur sand carving teams throughout the U.S. will compete in the sandcastle building competition with more than $21,000 in cash prizes.

posted by Mae Travels # 2:26 PM 0 Comments