Urban nature and The Queen

I left Torrance, CA this morning and headed east to spend a quiet Easter morning getting back to nature. The El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach is a wonderful place to get away from the urban jungle into a more natural one. I spent the morning walking the trails and taking photos of any animals I could find. I must have walked about three miles, but I didn't really notice...I was having a good time. I started things out by snapping a pic of a skipper butterfly feeding on a pink rock rose.

I got more photos of flowers, and two kinds of squirrels...California Ground Squirrel and Fox Squirrel. There were many lizards running around, although I think most of them were the Western Fence Lizard.

There were also birds, including your common mallards, a snowy egret and the American Coot that you see here. I thought it was cool to see a Canada Goose sharing a floating platform with a bunch of turtles. The park had a LOT of turtles...Red Eared Sliders to be exact.

That scene of serenity was soon dashed when a Double-crested Cormorant swam over and demanded the goose vacate the platform. The goose demurred and the cormorant triumphantly took over the prime piece of real estate. It then exhibited its typical behavior of spreading its wings to dry in the sun. Cormorants don't have waterproof feathers so they have to spend the time to preen and sun-dry their feathers.

In the afternoon, I drove to the historic Queen Mary Hotel. Now, I've stayed on this ocean liner turned hotel once in the past. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to stay there again.

I opted for an interior stateroom this time, and I found it to be more upgraded than the outer, porthole room I had last time.

I walked around the ship for awhile to immerse myself again in Queen Mary experience. I was walking toward the aft (back) part of the ship when suddenly...Hello Groot! You've grown!

In the evening, I decided to take the Paranormal Ship Walk again.  Last time, the only thing I saw was some colored orbs. I had hoped to see or hear something different this time around. The tour guide was excellent, and he even provided us with photo and audio evidence of ghosts/spirits on the ship. In the end, all I got was another orb photo. Not real convincing, but it is what it is.

Tomorrow, I'll finally be leaving sunny California and head east to sunny Arizona. I'm not looking forward to what will inevitably be hotter temperatures. At least the following day I only have indoor activities planned.