The O C Orchid Show...

Last weekend when we went to see the playhouses at South Coast Plaza, we saw a sign for an Orchid Show taking place very nearby there this weekend.  These are just a few of the incredible orchids and bromeliads we saw on display there today.

Gorgeous tiles...

...and no place for us to use them!

This morning's Harvest Moon...

 ...as seen setting over our patio wall.

Project Playhouse...

 

We went to South Coast Plaza yesterday to see Project Playhouse, four locally designed and built playhouses currently on display.  These are part of a fund-raising event that benefits HomeAid OC, a group assisting area homeless.  The structures have been on display each weekend through September.  Early in October a gala dinner and auction of the playhouses takes place.  We saw lots of kids who would have loved to have their parents take one of these amazingly detailed buildings home with them!

Just funny...

Looking for a place to escape the heat, we went to lunch at Turk's in Dana Point last Sunday.  Turk's is a neighborhood restaurant/bar on the marina, with good, reasonably priced food and a great view of the fishing boats coming in.  It's walls are covered in photos and memorabilia, and in the ceiling is this fish tank!

The return of the Tall Ships...

Last year the night of the Parade of the Tall Ships was really overcast.  It was our first visit to the event, and we certainly enjoyed the show, but were disappointed that we watched much of it through the mist.  With a prediction for a clear night and a spectacular sunset, we decided we'd return to watch the ships come back into Dana Point again last night.   The parade is the kick-off to a Festival of the Ships that runs through this whole weekend.

We returned to the little man-made Dana Island to watch, this time securing a great vantage point very near where the ships drop sails and turn into the channel.  We grabbed the corner of a pic-nic table, ate the sandwiches we'd packed and enjoyed chatting with two other couples while we waited for the ships to pass.    It was a great place to watch people AND wildlife.  The trees above us were filled with cormarands, and a pod of dolphins swam up the channel, then turned and came back out.  Dana Point is a very dog-friendly community, so there were plenty of cute pups to watch, too.

It's a shame that you can only see the ships under full sail on the other side of the rock breakwater.  But, even with their sails lowered, the were beautiful to see, especially as the sun dipped towards the horizon.  And, after endless weeks of heat and humidity, what a joy it was sit in the cool breeze off the ocean for a couple of hours.  Another local "adventure" we were glad we repeated! 

One of the reasons we don't go...

...to the beach in the summer is because it can be nearly impossible to park!  Or, as you can see from this picture, to even get through the parking lots.  We just b-a-r-e-l-y squeezed through between the rear ends of these two trucks.  (And there was a line of cars behind us - no way to back up!)  This was our first attempt at going to Newport Pier for breakfast over the long weekend.  We gave up this day and tried again on Monday!

These pictures were taken at about 9:30 on Labor Day morning.  You can only imagine how crowded the beach was a bit later in the day, and of course, all through the weekend!

The high surf warnings...

...from earlier in the weekend had lifted.  The waves were big enough to give the surfers a short ride, but not too big for the little kids.

A "dry" rainbow...

...appeared over us last week. We never got any rain from this - all that went farther inland - though we have had more humidity than normal.