Fun Friday: Me from A to Z

Having Fun @ Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, CA

This is supposed to be yesterday's post for our Blogging For Fun Friday. However, quite obviously, I am late. Our theme yesterday was the A to Z quiz, and here goes mine.

A - Available - Married and make ourselves available for simple joys in life.

Partners in Enjoying The Great Outdoors

Partners in Outdoor Photography

B - Best Friend - my hubby

C - Crush - Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ), and my husband goes with me to watch his every movie :)

D - Dad’s Name - Marcelino

E - Easiest Person To Talk To - my late mother, there was no one like her.

F - Favorite Band - U2 ( The Joshua Tree)

The Joshua Tree

G - Gummy Bears Or Worms - Neither! I can have them, but I don't necessarily enjoy them.


H - Hometown - Bacolod City, Philippines

I - Instrument - Graphing Calculator, :)

J - Job - previously, a College Chemistry Instructor; now, striving to become a High School Math teacher :) . The reason I hardly can blog here these days since I have to balance my full time job and my studies as a Single Subject Math teacher intern.

K - Kids - my students.

L - Longest Car Ride - from Chicago to Los Angeles, but with stops at Nebraska, Colorado, Utah and Las Vegas.

M - Milk Flavor - Soy Milk?

N - Number Of Siblings - Four.

O - One Wish - I have many wishes, mostly not for myself, for myself, I guess to stay healthy to enjoy the simple things in life such as TEACHING, BOOGIE BOARDING, TAKING PICTURES AND HIKING!

P - Phobias - speeding cars.

Q - Favorite Quote - "Everything works for the good for those who love God."


R - Reason To Smile - Everything.

S - Song You Last Heard - Who Are You?

T - Time You Woke Up - 5:55 am on weekdays, 7:00 am on weekends

U - Unknown Fact About Me - I smile and laugh alone when I reminisce happy moments


V - Vegetable - Kangkong ( or ong choy ), Bamboo Shoots cooked in coconut milk with "saluyot" , Taro ( la-ing ) , malunggay, ampalaya ( bittermelon) , eggplant, actually, I eat almost all kinds of vegetables, but my favorite vegetables have to be Filipino and Asian vegetables.

W - Worst Habits - Procrastination

X - X-Rays You’ve Had - Chest, head, sinus, abdomen, actually, lots, maybe only my hands and feet have not been X-rayed.

Y - Your Favorite Food - Many, such as "ukoy", "palabok", "arroz valenciana", okay, I am more into Filipino foods and Asian foods.

Z - Zodiac Sign - Capricorn

Is It the Lion Inside the Cage or the Man?

In my last post, fellow blogger Vanilla Seven had this question: Is it the lion inside the Cage or the Man?

Izu @ Lion Camp, San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park

And Mei had this to ask: That lion in the first photo is placed in a glass enclosure? 

Let me answer these questions first with pictures,

Lion Camp

In the picture above of Lion's Camp, we can see the open space that the lion can roam around, and play around. Men are not contained in a closed space either, both man and lion are in their own safe open spaces.

Izu and his yard

Mina or Oshana on top of a truck 

Resting Lions on top of Truck

Oshana and Her Little Lion

The lions are in an open space exhibit, and they do take advantage of their roomy camp exhibit by running around and playing.

Lion Camp Field

Izu Moving Around

Baby and Mom Play

How about the man? Is he inside the cage?

Lion  Camp Viewing Area

The structure you see has thick glass panels that separates the lions and men, to keep them all safe. They all are outside. 

Man and Lion

Rochelle further asked, if the glass walls are strong enough, yes, they are! Kids, among many others love to get closer to the glass so they get a chance to see the lions up close, since it is through the glass walls where viewing is as close as it can be. However, not all the time the lions are near the glass, they usually go there when a trainor is there to give us a talk, and calls them. Otherwise, I believe their favorite place is at the top of the truck, or simply lazying on grass somewhere.

Mom and 2 babies

This picture was not shot through the glass, but in other viewing points where there is no glass that separates men and lion, but then, the lion can not cross towards men because of the design of the exhibit, the lions are smart, they do not want to jump on a man-made cliff that separates them from the men. 

Dad, Mom and Baby

There are a lot more exhibits at Wild Animal Park, but you can probably only really get close to them by joining a caravan or other activities in the park.

Photo Caravan Safari

As for me, I am content enough with the "Journey into Africa" tram ride, since it comes with my membership fee,

Journey Into Africa Cart

this is the only tour I do since I do not have to pay extra :) 

the rest, I have to pay extra, and since I live in San Diego, I always tell myself, "next time, there will be many more tomorrows to do it". But there is one thing for sure, despite the many safari tours at Wild Animal Park, no one can get really up close with a lion, without a glass wall.

In my next posts, I will share the other exhibits I have photographed at Wild Animal Park.

Cactus Monday: Baja and Old World Succulent Gardens @ Wild Animal Park

Perhaps, for a lot of people visiting San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, the first thing that comes to mind is either the Lion's Camp

or the Journey into Africa tour aboard tour vehicles that were inspired by the legendary trains of Africa to get a glimpse of the diversity in Africa.

However,Wild Animal Park is more than just a more naturalistic animal exhibits and wildlife refuge, within the park are also several botanical gardens. One of these gardens is the Baja and Old World Succulent Gardens. 

Elephant, Barrel and Saguaro Cactus

The Baja and Old World Succulent Gardens present a wide variety of succulents, more than 200 species of succulents are represented in these two connecting gardens. The Baja Garden focuses on the desert plants found in the desert of Baja California, Mexico. The Baja Garden has more than 200 bojums,

Boojum Bending From Its Weight

which is the largest collection of boojums outside of their natural habitat in Baja, Mexico. Boojums can reach a height of up to 60 ft and can live up to about 250 years old. 

Birds Perched on Spiny Branches of Boojum

Boojum is a tree like succulent with a water-storing trunk with tiny leaves. They can reach heights of 50 to 60 ft and live up to 250 years old. Another towering cactus in this Succulent Garden is the Saguaro Cactus.

Saguaro Cactus

This amazing cactus is the state flower of Arizona. It has a creamy white 3-inch wide flowers with yellow centers that boom May and June. This cactus is a familiar sight in cartoons, movies, and paintings. 

Then, there are some other succulents that I do not know the name :(

( ? ) 

( ? )

Other succulents here are the agaves, aloe and yucca.

Aloe Vera

Aloe has long been used for medicinal purposes, such as purgatives, skin care, sunburn and burns. For skin remedy however, be sure always it is aloe vera and not one of the aloes that is toxic. 

Agave( on the left with tall flower spikes) Amidst Cacti and Yuccas

One of the best known uses of agave is the production of tequila, which is made from the fermented and distilled juices produced by agave just before it flowers. The agave blooms only once in its lifetime, between 7 and 20 years. After it flowers, the main plant then dies, but it produce shoots that will take over to maturity. Perhaps, knowing that it takes 7 to 20 years for agave to bloom and dies thereafter, we can understand why tequila can be expensive.

More Succulents

For more of Cactus Monday, please visit Teri's Painted Daisies. 

Cactus Monday: Ocotillo and Beavertail Cactus

Ocotillo, Anza Borrego Desert State Park, San Diego County, CA

Ocotillo ( pronounced as oh-ko-tee-oh) is a unique desert plant of the Southwest and Northern Mexico. It is also known as coachwhip andvine cactus, but though it may often be referred in print as a cactus because of its other common name, it is actually really not a member of cactus family.

Dwarfed By Ocotillo

Ocotillo is a woody shrub which is usually 5 cm at the base and may grow to a height of 10 meters. 

A Woody Shrub

Notice that ocotillo branches heavily at the base, but above that, ocotillo seldom branches out further. The branches are pole like and the bright red flowers appear during spring and summer. 

Ocotillo Bright Red Flower

 The flowers of ocotillo are pollinated by hummingbirds and/or carpenter bees. Ocotillo loses its leaves in dry periods, and actually at other times of the year may simply look brown. However, just within 48 hours after a rain, the leaves re-appear! 

Towering Ocotillos

Ocotillo, Survivors of Heat and Drought

Ocotillos survive extreme heat and drought in the desert by losing its leaves so that it conserves moisture. Its stems are covered with a thick water resistant cuticle.

Ocotillo in Badlands

Ocotillo Surviving the Badlands

( you can click on the image to enlarge and see the ocotillo, which I encircled )

The presence of ocotillo in badlands suggest how much they can survive an area with extreme drought that other plants, even cactus, are not even seen in the badlands. 

Barrel Cactus, Brittlebush and Ocotillo

However, since this post is my entry for Cactus Monday, and ocotillo is not really a cactus despite being commonly referred to as a cactus, perhaps being seen only in the desert, I am adding here pictures of beavertail cactus blooms.

Beavertail Cactus in Bloom

Beavertail cactus has blooms of varying colors, the two most common I saw are yellow and magenta. 

The blooms usually are observed from March to June. Beveartail cactus is a smaller prickly pear cactus, you can find out more about prickly cactus and the busy bees in my June 17 post here. 

I will be leaving you with an interesting rock formation at Joshua Tree National Park, 

Skull Rock, Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Just as interesting as the plants in the desert, so are the rocks which are weathered into various shapes in the forms.

For more of cactus Monday, please visit Teri's Painted Daisies.

Hiking No More?

Torrey Pines State Reserve from the shore

I was walking on the beach with my husband's niece towards flat rock, her favorite spot to spend time in San Diego to watch for tiny sea creatures at the tidepool. Usually, after flat rock, we would hike up the bluffs. While she was enjoying the tidepool, I casually asked her, "would you want to hike up the bluffs?" She looked up, then, looked far at the blue ocean, and said, "NO! I feel like I have done enough hiking, I hiked Grand Canyon, hiked Angels Landing, hiked Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic, I feel like, why hike Torrey Pines when there is more to it that Grand Canyon, Angels Landing and Bumpass Hell do not have?"
What did she mean by what does Torrey Pines have that the other parks she hiked do not have? These:

Waves

and then, more waves

and more waves

Riding waves seem to be more fun, so, she got the time of her life riding the waves, forgetting about what is above Torrey Pines which according to her can not compare with Grand Canyon, Angels Landing, and Bumpass Hell. My husband agrees, I neither agreed nor disagreed, just told them each place is unique and they have their own unique beauty. Torrey Pines may be nothing compared to the grandness of Grand Canyon, compared to the thrill and excitement in Angels Landing and Bumpass Hell, but to me, it still has its own allure that calls me always to go up the top of the bluffs. What is at the top? Just seeing and hearing the splashing waves from the top of the cliff, it is different from gazing below.

Torrey Pines from the top of the Bluffs

Desert Formation Right Next to the Ocean

Badlands By the Sea

Which one is more fun? Hiking to the top of the bluffs or riding the waves? Are you one of those who on seeing the wave forgets about hiking and just simply say "hiking no more....waves, here I come!"?

I love both, I can't say "hiking no more", even if it is at Torrey Pines!