Our new field trip chairperson, Fred Griggs, decided to lead this trip, and he did a great job! Fred scoped out the area ahead of time, and new exactly where to go, where to park, where to eat, and where/when to find those great photos.
Once a year, John Wells goes all out and puts together a field trip. With a lot of thought, planning and coordination, he decided to do something a bit different this year and take us on a weekend trip to one of the prettiest areas of South-Central California. The trip included three historic missions (Santa Ines, La Purisma, and Santa Barbara), the unique little Danish town of Solvang, with its many shops, bakeries and Danish architecture, the fields of flowers at Lompoc, and Stearn’s Wharf in Santa Barbara.
Ten of us showed up for this trip, led by Dave Anderson. We began the day with a hearty breakfast at Bakers Square. From there, it didn’t take long to reach our destination, which was just over the hill in Sylmar.
After almost being blown away at the Poppy Festival over the weekend, Mother Nature decided to provide us with one and a half beautiful days to photograph the wildflowers. The flowers and the weather are quite unpredictable, so this had to be a “short notice” field trip.
Fifteen LPA members gathered at Crazy Otto’s in Acton for a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning.
We left there at about 9:45 a.m. There was a little low fog, but by the time we reached our destination, the sun was out and the weather was warming up. We all met for a group picture before going our separate ways inside the gardens. Some of us headed toward the rose garden and the Japanese gardens. Others went to the desert garden and the conservatory. I think between us we probably covered most of the area gardens, and got some good photos during the course of the day.
We had a large turnout of 18 people for this trip. We began the day with our usual breakfast gathering, this time at Denny’s in Mojave, where we had plenty of time to socialize, pass out maps, and talk about the day’s plans over a good meal before heading out.
February 7, 2006
We didn’t have as many people as we had hoped for go on this trip. This was most likely caused by the trip date. Tuesday is just a bad day to expect a large attendance, but as expected and planed, there were no crowds anywhere to be found, hotels were cheap and lines were short. Driving up was a breeze.
Our members who managed to make this trip came back with some fantastic shots.
Thirteen members showed up for this trip on a cool, but sunny Saturday morning.
Most of the group met at Bakers Square for breakfast before heading out for the ranch, which was only about a thirty minute drive down the freeway.
Once there, we wandered up the hill to the home of that once famous movie actor. We had time to check out the grounds and the beautiful view from the hilltop before the first guided tour of the home began.
