Laguna Beach

On Saturday I traveled to Laguna Beach with Mom, Dad, and Craig. The occasion was Mom's birthday. Even though her birthday was back in July, one of her presents was tickets to "Pageant of the Masters." How lucky is it that I get tickets to a neat event courtesy of someone else's birthday?

We stayed at the Art Hotel. Here is some of the Art.

Craig demonstrates how to use a bed at the Art Hotel. It is a very artistic pose.

Mom and Dad have been going to the PotM for several years. This is the first time I went. For those who don't know, the general idea is people and props are made to look like famous works of art, displayed on stage for 90 seconds while a narrator speaks, the curtain closes for maybe 60 seconds and then a new work of art is displayed. It might sound like a simple idea in concept, but in person it is truly amazing. I think the most impressive were the statues. The people completely covered in body paint, not moving a muscle- they truly looked like a work of art. Some of the paintings were better than others. The traditional last work of art displayed is the Last Supper. For some reason, I didn't find this one too impressive. I thought maybe the wigs on the actors looked like wigs, and not like actual hair.

We got to Laguna Beach early and the PotM didn't start until eight, so first we walked to a vista point.

Here are some things we saw at the vista point.

A very crowded beach.

A sea lion statue.

A paddle surfer looking at

Seal rock. It also had birds, so maybe it should be called Seal/ Sea Lion and Bird Rock.

Some rocks forming tide pools.

Then we walked to the town center. Then we took the free bus back to our hotel, where we then walked to dinner at a yummy pizza and Italian restaurant. After that we walked back to the PotM, and looked at all of the art displayed outside the theater. Shortly after that, we went into the theater (which is actually an amphitheater) and saw the main attraction. The evening was wrapped up by taking the non-singing trolley back to the hotel. I say it is the non-singing trolley because I had read in a flyer that the festive atmosphere encourages people to break into song spontaneously on the trolleys. And sure enough as the trolley ahead of us pulled out of the station, the driver conducted the passengers in a song, which I do not remember at this time. Our trolley did not sing. Nor did the passengers or driver.

An artistic seating location in Laguna Beach.

While we were walking around the town, I was besieged by phone calls. Most of you probably know I usually get on average three calls all week. But I am in the middle of maybe moving to a new house and also trying to arrange for a Malinois puppy to get out of the shelter. So Kate kept calling me regarding the house and the Malinois rescue lady kept calling me about the puppy. I felt like one of those important people who always have to answer the phone. The timing was really bad, but in this case I did actually have to answer the phone. More on the house and puppy later.

On Sunday, we got up late (some later than others) and drove home, with a short side trip.

That is a recap of my weekend in Laguna Beach.