Wishing You a Good Year

Hope that a great 2012 has landed your way.

"Spirit of America" over the Plush Pony... (SkyWatch Friday)

A combo of old and new, grounded and aloft, alive and animated. 

"Spirit of America" is the name of the Good Year blimp which is based in Carson, CA.

The sign is for the Palos Verdes Inn which used to be The Plush Pony in the 50's and 60's. It is not located in Palos Verdes but just adjacent to it in Redondo Beach.

The old style antennas are becoming obsolete, but the ubiquitous pigeons are going strong in the area.

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GOOD YEAR over Palos Verdes (SkyWatch Friday)

Earlier in the spring at sunset over the main library.

I never get tired of seeing the Good Year airship flying over the South Bay and usually scramble for my camera whenever I see it. Then I realized that on Saturday afternoons it cruises over the top of the peninsula. In the early '80s, my friend Tricia's father who was an aviation enthusiast in Ohio, arranged for us to have a ride in the blimp. It definitely was a memorable experience.

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Good Year coming your way! (SkyWatch Friday)

I wish all of you and your loved ones a most happy and healthy New 2010!

(Photo taken last May - it's grey skies & drizzling here today).

Ticket to Fly ... Long Beach Airport

The airship was coming in for a landing in the early morning about a week ago at Long Beach Airport.

It was a very strange sight especially from a distance and especially since it was, unlike other blimps, all white.

September Theme Day: BIG

I join LA basin bloggers in posting the cloud building over the Station Fire, that reached 20,000 feet. I usually post the Good Year blimp under more happy circumstances, but this time, for many, it has been anything but a good year.

Today is City Daily Photo Theme Day
Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Good Year in the Alps? (SkyWatch Friday)

I may be overdoing the blimp thing but the airship operations (i.e. its home base) is right on my way home on the North-East side of the San Diego (405) and Harbor (110) freeways, so as long as I'm not on the freeway, I have plenty of chances to take pictures of it. The cupola belongs to a small chapel in Alpine Village (Torrance, CA) which is just a few miles from the blimp's parking spot.
Alpine Village has been there for as long as I remember (I went there with my aunt and my parents in 1970 when I was 12 and a new immigrant from Yugoslavia, to what my parents thought would be a respectable dinner/dance spot which turned out to be a smokey bar with a dance floor). Later visits there were during October fest (right after college) and a couple of times to Croatian picnics (excellent food and fun music). These days, I stop there when I feel nostalgic for Croatian or Serbian products such as Karlovacko pivo (beer), Radenska (mineral water), Kiki (taffy candy), Illustrovana Politika (weekly magazine)... You get the idea. At one of the stores, I found a forgotten treasure - German produced Western movie (in German) - Winnetou which I adored as a kid and which had an added attraction of being filmed in Yugoslavia. However, I did not remember any of the movie and my German is not good enough to understand any but the basic exchanges between the characters. So in the end, remembering a forgotten part of my childhood was the best part of that discovery.

A Good Year Passed By - 1st Anniversary of PVDP

I want to thank all my old friends and new friends, from nearby and far away, for the wonderful support throughout the year.

Wishing you a GOOD YEAR in 2009!

The blimp over Palos Verdes Peninsula, heading South toward San Pedro.

Thank you all for your visits and words of encouragement throughout the year.

Happy New Year!