I must’ve been through more than a dozen cities today. Bellflower, Artesia, Lakewood, Hawaiian Gardens, Paramount…are the ones that come to mind. Finally, made it to Long Beach which took about half the day. A great off-leash doggie beach in Belmont Shore was a great way to end the day for all of us. Grem disappeared down the beach for quite awhile and I was just about to panic when I saw a black dot on the horizon flying towards us. The Pacific was warm enough today for Nik to get a lot of swimming in. He’d been tortured all day by the salty smell and views of the beach. I think he’s starting to understand “later, buddy, not now”. Grippie has mastered the art of sleeping in a sitting position:

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I think these bushes might be what I’ve been smelling the past couple days. I want to say azaleas but I don’t think that’s it. They’re more like cherry trees but in bush form. Can anyone identify them?

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I saw more summer flowers today including these white roses. I understand it’s freezing back home in NYC.

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Some other “plant life” caught my eye today: palm tree-shaped cell phone towers. They sure beat the plain old white ones we have back home — but they always give me a chuckle:

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This one was more natural underneath the metal sheathing but they had to run a bunch of wires up the trunk for some reason:

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This Art Deco building must have been so serene before all the pizza shop signage. Sheesh, couldn’t they come up with something just a little more respectful? I love the way the little ballie sits on the point.

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Somehow this pharmacy sign got adapted to “P” something from the Rx. But the building is now empty so who knows what will happen to it next:

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I’d love to know the history of this Long Beach sign:

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This sign hangs above the Tidy Dog Self-Serve Dog Wash in Long Beach. I don’t know if the place used to be a laundromat or if this sign was recently installed in a humorous retro sort of way.

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Lastly, this giant baby was standing in front of the Long Beach Museum of Art. He really creeped me out. I had to Google him tonight. I’m still not clear about his significance but here are some additional photos of the “Child”:
http://www.lbma.org/child.html