Sunday, June 6, 2010

Catching up....Mexico

Shhhh.....I am so tired after my day at the beach, but I'm secretly writing this without Eddie knowing. She's a super friend but sometimes she can be one of those supercalifragilistic-extra-extra-bossy dolls, and for sure she'd tell me to turn off my flashlight and get to bed. But I can't -- I have to get caught up with my blog!

See, I've been so busy that I didn't even have a chance to blog about my last few days in Mexico. We went back to downtown Querétaro and got to see that incredibly awesome aqueduct I wrote about in a previous blog entry. Here is its history, which Prisclla copied for me from a tourist brochure:

Queretaro is a beautiful colonial city that can be appreciated for many of its enchanting sites and buildings but the one building of Querétaro that inspires more than a sigh or two is the Aqueduct.

In the 1720s, the city of Querétaro was suffering from the lack of clean drinking water. With the river contaminated and the people dying, it was a very bleak place that seemed to have little hope in survival. The bleakness, however, did not touch the heart of one man by the name of Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana, Knight of the Order of Alcantara and a hydraulic engineer, also known as the Marquis de la Villa del Villar del Aguila).

Legend has it that Urrutia y Arana fell in love with a nun by the name of Sor Marcela, who was said to be beautiful and from a well-to-do family. Because of the vows she took on becoming a Capuchina nun, she could not have any sort of amorous relation with the love struck engineer, who, incidentally, was also married. Instead, she asked him for a show of his love by bringing clean drinking water to the city. In this manner, the construction of the Aqueduct began.

From 1726 to 1735, the Aqueduct construction went underway. It has 74 arches, made of rock, reaching a maximum height of over 75 feet and a length of nearly 4200 feet. The first part of the Aqueduct was constructed underground. The subsequent parts rise through the valley and the city for about 3 miles, ending in a cistern near the Convent of the Santa Cruz in a place called La Caja de Agua. It is said that the final arch of this Aqueduct brought water to the very convent where Sor Marcela lived and engraving a very romantic story into the history of Querétaro.
A married engineer building an aqueduct to impress the nun he was in love with? Well, whatever works right? He did a great job, and the aqueduct is still an amazing, impressive sight. You can see the aqueduct behind me and Knut, stretching across the background of the city.



Next we went to Panteon de los Queretanos Ilustres, where there were graves and monuments for famous natives of Querétaro.



We even saw the final resting place of Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, La Corregidora, and got to pay our respects!



There are some more pictures of my last day in Querétaro IN THIS ALBUM. I had a lovely Mexican dinner that night and had to pack up to journey north to California. I was feeling kind of sorry for myself, but I had a nice surprise from Kelly, one of the dolls here.



You can see the whole story in my
FAREWELL ALBUM.

You know, I just realized something. Kelly and Eddie kind of look alike, don't they? Interesting!

Anyway, I'm really so excited to be here in California and am having an INCREDIBLE time. But I have to admit that I'm feeling a guilty about being here. You see, my best friend Kailey was pretty upset when she learned that I'd be visiting her native California. See what I mean IN THIS ALBUM? And now I've gone and, gulp, VISITED THE TIDE POOLS! I don't know what will happen when I get back.

Kailey, if you're reading this and are still speaking to me, I promise you I will take a hiatus from the Polar Bears Are Cool club and fighting global warming and will get on board with you about saving the tide pools!

What can I say...these are the challenges a traveling doll faces. Not everyone is cut out for this life. Ooooh, wait, I think I hear Eddie coming. These high maintenance brown-eyed, blonde dolls will be the death of me, I swear! Gotta run!!

Laguna Beach, California

Yesterday, Eddie and I woke up bright and early to hit the beach. It was a long drive--Eddie said that instead of going to the beaches up near where they live, Malibu and Santa Monica, we were going down south a little further to a town in Orange County called Laguna Beach.

Sadie and Eddie go to Laguna Beach


Laguna, I learned, is the Spanish word for "Lagoon." Easy, right?! There are several lagoons in this town, which is the second oldest town in Orange County. It started out as a farming community, but then the farmers realized that the farming wasn't so great, but their beaches were. They started renting out beach houses to other farmers who lived further inland and wanted to escape the summer heat. Thus Laguna Beach, one of the first tourist towns in California, was born. Apparently, Laguna Beach has some of the prettiest beaches in California. Now Laguna Beach is a popular tourist spot, and also a popular artist community. The beach we are going to is called Corona del Mar.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, it was still overcast! It was warm but overcast, and Eddie says this is pretty typical at this time of year. Many areas experience "June Gloom," with warm fog in the morning, and overcast skies until afternoon. When the sun has been out a while the clouds burn off, but there is no telling how long it will take each day, so Eddie says there's no point in letting a little gray skies ruin our trip.

First we went to Look Out Point, where we took, well a look, out at the ocean.



It was beautiful! We could see the faint curvature of the earth! To the north we could see Balboa Island and a breakwater, and many people were taking their sailing ships and yachts out. To the south stretched the beach, which even early in the morning was pretty busy. There were tons of people playing beach volley ball, surfing, and just enjoying the water. Eddie said that we would go to the beach, but not the obvious one. We went down a long flight of stairs and then climbed up a huge set of rocks. On the other side, we found a beautiful cove that looked out over the harbor. The waves here weren't as big as on the other side, because the breakwater protected the beach.

We had lots of fun exploring. First, we looked at some tidal pools. I found some neat sea creatures, including some sea anemones. I took a picture and when I got home I looked it up. It turns out that they are called green starburst sea anemones. They use their tentacles to catch food. I found this website about them, and I think they are really neat!



In this picture there are at least four starburst anemones. Can you find them all? Here's a hint: Some of them are eating, eek! Genevieve told Eddie and I that when she was little, the tide pools had a lot more animals. She said they had more fish, grabs, and star fish. Unfortunately, since the beaches are so popular, a lot of tourists and hobbyists will "hunt" the tide pools, taking interesting creatures home for their fish tanks. This leaves the real tide pools barren. This isn't good, since it means that the ecosystem of the tide pools is unbalanced and also because a lot of the sea creatures die once they are removed from their native habitat.

After that, we went looking for seashells. I found a few really pretty ones, and also a crab. Remembering what Genevieve told me, I decided to leave him alone and instead just took a picture.



Playing in the ocean is so much fun! Eddie taught me how to body surf. That's when you go out about waist deep in the water. You wait for a wave to come along and when it does you JUMP at just the right moment and let it take you in to shore and you go sailing in, really fast, to glide in to the beach. But if you don't time it just right, watch out! The wave can knock you down and send you tumbling, over and over so that you have sand and saltwater going up your nose. It's so cool! I can see why Kailey loves to surf so much!

Body surfing is hard work and a lot of exercise. Finally we decided to take a break. We refreshed our sunscreen and had a snack and mellowed out by the water. Just sitting on the beach, listening to the ocean waves is so relaxing.



I love the beach. Time stands still while you are there. The sun and the waves and the sand just sort of seep in to you, leaving you happy and tired. After we went home last night, as I lay in bed I could still feel the movement of the ocean as I drifted off to sleep.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Studio City, California

Today I arrived in California, where I met the Cali-Girls. One of them, Eddie (she's a girl but she has a boy's name! How Californian!) was pretty bossy seeming at first but once you get to know her she's only a little bossy.

This is where I am staying:


Jackie says it is a pretty typical house for the area--most of the houses around here were built in the forties and fifties, when people began to move out to the suburbs.

Eddie told me that we are in Studio City. It's called Studio City because it's close to movie studios where many movies are made. She says that right now we are about ten minutes from NBC/Universal, CBS and Warner Brothers' Studios, and fifteen minutes from Paramount Studios - wow! Maybe I can sneak in to a movie production while I'm here!

*THIS IS EDDIE* YOU CANNOT SNEAK IN TO A MOVIE PRODUCTION BELIEVE ME I HAVE TRIED AND THEY HAVE BIG GUYS THAT KICK YOU OUT AND--

Hey! This is my blog, Eddie, give it back!

Anyways, Studio City is just north of the Hollywood Hills, in the San Fernando Valley. San Fernando Valley is where the original Valley Girls came from in the 1980s. Jackie and Libby, two other Cali-Girls here, wanted me to know that they are not "Valley Girls" as they are not shallow and interested in shopping. Eddie wanted to know what's so wrong with shopping--she just saw Britney Spears shopping on Ventura Boulevard last week. "Exactly!" said Jackie.

Ventura Boulevard is a major road in Studio City and the valley. It started out as a trail between Spanish missions called El Camino Real. Now it has a lot of great shops and restaurants on it, and has been written about in songs by Tom Petty and the Everly Brothers. The Tom Petty song is all about growing up in the San Fernando Valley, actually.



I found this music-video. It's pretty eighties, but according to the Cali-Girls a lot of this area still looks the same! Eddie says we can drive to that Cadillac dealership and the mall if we want to.

I was really hoping to see a palm tree but, unfortunately, this house does not have one. Eddie promises me I will get to see one tomorrow when we go to the beach. Because I didn't bring a swimsuit, the Cali-Girls let me borrow one of theirs, so that's neat. For now, I'm tired, so I'm going to log-off. Good night!