The Aquarium of the Pacific is in Long Beach.  We were so impressed with the Aquarium, we bought an annual membership. There are seals, otters and sea turtles, electric eels, beautiful live coral and fish from every climatic zone. There is a huge 180 foot high tank, in which divers will swim, and give you a short demonstration of life under the sea. The divers have a microphone inside their breathing masks, so they can talk and answer questions while you watch. 

	The Aquarium has sea horses. (see picture to the right.) These sea horses rank among one of the most interesting animals I have ever seen.  The sea horse doesn't look like a fish/horse at all. It looks like an orange piece of seaweed. The male carries and hatches the sea horse babies. (What a concept!) He carries the eggs in his skin folds while they are incubating. The aquarium successfully breeded sea horses in the summer 2001, and the babies hatched in June.  picture source: aquarium pamphlets
There is a jellyfish exhibit which shows the jellies backlit with cool lights.(See picture above.) Jellyfish are strange lifeforms that have both plant and animal characteristics at the same time. Jellyfish are similar to sea anenome and coral in this way.

The aquarium has a new Lorikeet exhibit, with young birds just getting used to the environment. The birds land right on your shoulders and hands, when you feed them fruit pulp from little cups.

Dodger Stadium You can't miss the peanuts and popcorn (or the crowds) at this place.

African American Art and History Tour

In June we went on a tour guided by Cecil Fergerson. Cecil is a 65 years old man who grew up in south LA and has been influencing the arts for over fifty years.  Throughout the tour he showed us historical landmarks and art murals representative of African American history. Cecil gave a very interesting perspective of what it was like to be a black family growing up in Los Angeles in the 1940's. We toured through his old neighborhood, and he explained what life was like back then for African Americans. We visited the Dunbar hotel on Central Avenue, which provided luxurious accomodations for Jazz greats such as Duke Ellington, Billy Holliday, Cab Calloway. (Note that these artists were not allowed in white hotels at the time.)  Cecil Fergerson, standing in front of Noni Olabisi's mural.

Noni Olabisi, center photo, discussing her mural with our group.

We visited this mural, painted on the side of a barber shop on 54th and Western.  It is entitled Freedom Won't Wait, by Noni Olabisi.  It was created in 1992, a week or so after the Watts riots (which happened after the Rodney King verdict was released).  We had the extraordinary experience of meeting the creator of the art.  It was enlightening to hear her talk about the emotions that went into the art, and some of its symbolism. We had never has the chance to hear an artist talk about her work before, and it was a tremendous experience for us!

 

The tour continued with a visit to "FAME", the first African Methodist Epsicopal church of los angeles.  We also saw a historical mural at Golden State Mutual Life, which was one of the first banks to offer loans and insurance to african americans. At the end of the tour we visited the Watts community center which is guarded by this beautiful statue.  We ended the day, tired and refreshed at the same time. The tour had been a personal and a historical cultural experience. It was not at all what we had expected, and we were glad of that.

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All pictures copyrighted by Lynda Lo-Hill 2001, unless otherwise credited.
Reproduction of pictures by permission only at lyndalo@pacbell.net