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As you can see from the pictures on this post, the building is spectacular and after doing some research, learned quite a lot more about it.

About the organization behind the building

The building is called “Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health” and it is an outpatient treatment and research facility for brain-related diseases. In fact, the Center is planned to become a national resource for the most current research and scientific information for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington ‘s Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) as well as focusing on prevention, early detection and education.

To give you some context, my mother had Alzheimer’s, so learning about the function of this center really hit home and we were delighted (and impressed) to find this kind of research center right here in Las Vegas. However, the heart-warming story behind its creation is what really struck as it filled us with a sense of warmth and gratitude towards people who do great things, because they CARE.

You see, the organization behind the center is called “Keep Memory Alive (also known as KMA)” and was founded by Larry Ruvo, his wife Camille, Bobby Baldwin and his wife Donna. Both Larry’s and Bobby’s father were a victim of Alzheimer’s Disease and they set-up the organization and built the building in memory of Larry’s father, Lou Ruvo.

Today, the Keep Memory Alive (which is a nonprofit organization) owns and supports the Brain Health Clinic and aims to increase awareness and raise funds for the research. In a mere two years after they treated their first patient, their fund raising efforts surpassed the $100 million mark in raised funds. An outstanding achievement and what a beautiful cause to help find some cure for these horrible diseases.

[See image gallery at hitthefrogandtoad.albertdebruijn.com]

About the building

The Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health was designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry who wanted to create a place that would be memorable. He is quoted for saying “The mantra is Keep Memory Alive, I’m trying to make a building that people will want to visit, remember, talk about, and enjoy, and ultimately will want to partner with us at the center to help cure brain diseases.”

Frank Gehry is generally considered the “most important architect of our time” and his work is famous around the world for their beauty and unusual design. The Lou Ruvo, just one of may of his designs, has some impressive statistics – the building has 199 windows, none of which are alike and the roof is constructed with 18,000 stainless steel shingles, each cut to unique measurements. A massive 65,000 hours of engineering went into the construction which took 3 years, 3 months and 13 days to complete.

Outside, there is a courtyard with seating and a “reflections garden”, a serene and peaceful place to sit, relax and reflect.

[See image gallery at hitthefrogandtoad.albertdebruijn.com]

About our photoshoot

After parking the car and walking up to the building, we were simply in awe by the design and architectural detail. We simply could not stop shooting, using both a wide angle and standard zoom lens.

The best part was meeting this nice guy, who, after watching us take picture after picture, asked “would you like to see inside”? Of course said “YES”, after which he unlocked the door to the main atrium and promptly let us in. WHAT A TREAT! and What a sight! This building is equally fascinating on the inside as it is on the outside! Amazing. The building is “hollow” on the inside with several large “tree-like” structures supporting the roof. Not a single straight line, just elegant curves and intricate angles. Just beautiful.

[See image gallery at hitthefrogandtoad.albertdebruijn.com] Check out the pictures on this page and let us know what you think.

If you want to learn more about the Lou Ruvo Center, click here

If you want to learn more about Frank Gehry, click here

To see more of the buildings that Frank Gehry designed, click here

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Boy was I wrong…

Linda and I heard about a place called “Slab City”, located out in the middle of nowhere, in an inhospitable part of the Southern California desert, where summer temperatures easily reach 120F (48C). Once the location of a WW2 camp, all that remains now are some concrete slabs, from which the place gets its name.

With our interest having been sparked (I know we have weird interests), we set out  to find it… and did!

What a place! It is really hard to define, but “post-apocalyptic” certainly comes to mind. Like a scene straight of a “Mad Max” movie, this place is occupied with as diverse a community of people as I have ever seen. Sure, there was the odd fancy motorhome or RV (the place is destination for “Snowbirders”), but by far the most common sight to see are ramshackle dwellings, old rusted out trailers, tents with lean-tos built with pallets, corrugated roofing sheets or old shipping crates. Among all this are a plethora of tire-less car wrecks, garbage, broken bottles and all kinds of stuff you can really only refer to as “crap”.

Then, among all this, are a few “artistically” laid out plots or trailers decorated in unusually artistic ways or “buildings” crafted in eye-catching designs, using anything that can be found (usually for free) in the vicinity.

While this makes for a visually interesting visit to people like us, to the folk that make Slab City their home, it is all quite normal and an inexpensive way to extend their home while expressing their inner creativity. Obviously, there are lots of folk who really like the abscence of any building regulations and rules. While the area is owned by the state of California, it is generally “left alone” with no real governing body to oversee things. Perhaps put in the State’s “Too Hard” basket, the place has been allowed to grow into a haven for people “who don’t quite fit in mainstream society”. A place for people “down on their luck”, outcasts, or just people who simply don’t like having to comply with rules and regulations imposed by “mundane” things like “mortgages”, “rent” “being politically correct” and other  things that you and I would consider normal.

These people have decided to forego all of those things and have chosen to live in Slab City, with no rent or title deeds or even a fixed address. As there is also no water, sewer or even electric, they need to be creative to survive living there year round – hence the odd constructions seen around the place, all providing some manner of shade, cool in the summer and protection during the cool nights of the desert.

There is a “code of conduct” in Slab City, “leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone”.

Sounds reasonable . . .

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I am not sure how best to describe a Joshua Tree to someone who has never seen one, but the term “Alien” definitely comes to mind.

By any definition, it sure is a strange looking tree.It is actually a member of the Yucca family, but grows like a tree, i.e. tall with branches. However all resemblances with a tree stop there. The Joshua Tree is simply a unique plant and only grows in the Southwestern United States, in, and, surrounding the Mojave Desert to be more precise. For non US-friends reading this blog, Mojave is pronounced “Mo-HAH-Vee”.

Anyway, Linda and I are on a mission to visit every National Park in the US so we decided to visit Joshua Tree National Park, in Southern California. I had been there once before with my son, but that was a long time ago and a visit, together with Linda, was well overdue.

 

Overwintering in Southern California

We were staying in an RV Resort in Palm Desert (just south of Palm Springs) in our motorhome. This resort was simply awesome and we were there in October, just in-between “seasons” as the summer crowds were gone and the “snowbirds” (a term used for RV-ers who overwinter in the South, just like migratory birds) had not yet arrived. As a result, the resort was pretty empty, we had ample room and even had the magnificent swimming pool (and hot tub) all to ourselves . . .  every time we went.

Getting to Joshua Tree National park was about a 45 minute drive, this was to the North Entrance of the park. As it was going to be a hot day (98F) we decided to leave early and get some early shots before it got too hot. We also knew, from visits to other National Parks, that if you arrive  too late, every man and his brother is there too, often making the experience somewhat less then great. So, off we went, leaving around 6 am and getting to the park well before 7. It was cool, the sun was just coming up and the place was empty, just ourselves and Nature . . . perfect.

There is beauty everywhere, even in the desert

Despite its alien nature, the park is quite attractive and we saw some beautifulI locations with wild flowers and interesting formations of granite boulders. In fact, it is not just the unusual vegetation that makes this park so interesting, the Eastern part of the park is littered with these piles of of huge boulders, like some giant piled them up in a random fashion, a long time ago. Today, these “clumps” of boulders have become popular with rock climbers, who use them for practice, training and just for fun. We stumbled upon a an area called “banana crack rock”, a challenging rock formation that is popular with rock climbers who like a challenge. The main reason for its popularity is the steep cracks on its west face. Banana Cracks Rock is short, only about thirty five feet, but it sits on top of a jumble of large boulders about another thirty five feet high themselves. The approach to the base is somewhat precarious to say the least. Some climbers rope up for the approach to the base. The safest approach, however, seems to be scrambling on large boulders on the left side of the west face. Pretty cool.

On a side note, the original “Banana crack” term comes from those stringy “things” you peel off a banana. Apparently, when you dry them, you can smoke them and get high (look it up!). No wonder there us a strain of cannabis now that is also called “Banana Crack”.

Anyways, I digress . . . Parts of the park reminded us of Death Valley, not surprising perhaps as Death Valley lies only a short distance to the North of Joshua Tree and is also dry and located in the desert.

Joshua Tree National Park actually contains TWO different kinds of deserts, the Mojave type, found in the higher portions of the park and the Colorado type, found in the lower elevations.The two are distinctly different and you can clearly see the vegetation and “look” change as you pass through the park. Nested in a secluded area between these two desert types is the Cholla Cactus Garden. If you thought Joshua Trees looked weird, wait until you see the cacti that grow here! Amazing.

Check out the pictures of this very interesting park and if you are ever in the area, make sure you take some time off and check it out. It is well worth a visit!

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You may never have heard of him, but he was one of California’s “Authentic Characters” . . . with an obsession. I am referring to Leonard Knight, the creator of “Salvation Mountain”.

You’ll find Salvation Mountain about 4 miles inland, Southeast, of the Salton Sea, right in the middle of the desert. Don’t worry, you can’t miss it as the “mountain” is painted bright blue and pink and dominates the country side. If fact, you’ll be able to spot it a mile away.

The “mountain” is (as Aaron Huey from National Geographic so aptly described) a literal man-made mountain, 28 years in the making, covered in half a million gallons of latex paint. What started as a small monument made of dirt and painted cement became, over time, a sprawling adobe clay and hay-bale mountain complex, with peripheral structures made of telephone poles, tires, and car windows, as well as art in the form of cars and sculptures, all painted in a patchwork of stripes and colored blocks of whatever color paint was donated that week.

Leonard Knight

The “man” in this description is Leonard Knight, a man who found God at age 36 and wanted to tell the world about Him. After a failed attempt to do so with a balloon, he settled in the Southern California dessert (living in an old truck without water, electricity or services) and built Salvation Mountain as a lasting monument for all to see. From its Sea of Galilee at the bottom, to the big red heart in the middle, to the cross at the very top, the recurring theme of “God” and “Love is everywhere” at Salvation Mountain.

We first heard about the Mountain while staying at an RV park called the “Emerald Desert RV Resort”, just south of Palm Springs and and were intrigued… The initial description we heard of the place was kinda vague and open to multiple interpretations. We heard words like “art”, “painted mountain”, “spending 28 years in the desert”, “dedication to god” . .  and much more. Enough phrases to spark our interest so we decided to go see for ourselves.

We arrived there in the afternoon and while this was October, temperatures that day still reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit. Hot! The good news here is that there were not many people about so we had ample opportunities to look around and get great pictures without battling crowds of people.

Salvation Mountain’s Museum

The “mountain” has two distinct areas, the main (and original) mountain and a newer addition, built after a donation of 200 bales of hay, called “the museum”.

A yellow path, called the Yellow Brick Road” lets you climb up to the very top of the mountain, which really lets you appreciate the effort it took to create this place. It also offers some amazing views of the desert, adding to the wonder and admiration of Leonard’s dedication.

In May, 2002, Salvation Mountain was entered into the Concressional Record of the United States, proclaiming Salvation Mountain as “A National Treasure”, something that Leonard was extremely proud of and thrilled by.

Salvation Mountain was also featured in Huell Howser’s well known “California’s Gold” series – twice! You can see both episodes here, just scroll through to the 27:00 mark of the video.

Make sure you check out the video, if for nothing else to enjoy Leonard’s enthusiasm for his creation, his wonderful sense of humor and his obvious delight and pleasure he gets from the people that come and visit the mountain.

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The Butchart Gardens lie half-way between Victoria and Sidney on the south eastern portion of Vancouver Island and was only a half hour drive from our B&B in Victoria. Linda had purchased tickets online a few days prior as we did not know how busy it was going to be. We arrived promptly at 9:30am, when the gates open, and were surprised to see several dozen cars already parked. As a side note, the license plates revealed there were visitors from far away places such as Virginia, South Carolina and Florida (about as far away from Vancouver Island as you can get!). Obviously, the place has a wide ranging reputation!

We were not disappointed! The gardens were beautiful! While we had missed the tulips and other bulbs (a few were still there, but clearly passed their peak), but the Rhododendrons, Azaleas and many others were in full bloom.

The Gardens are divided into multiple sections, a sunken garden, a Japanese Garden, an Italian Garden, etc. Each has a distinct “feel”to it, adding great interest to the whole experience.

We were particularly delighted by the Japanese Garden, there is something superbly elegant about it. We found out that the Japanese Garden was designed by 65-year-old garden designer Isaburo Kishida of Yokohama in 1902. He had come to Victoria, at the request of his son, to build a tea garden that became wildly popular and a place to be seen. Several prominent citizens, Jennie Butchart among them, commissioned Japanese gardens from Kishida for their estates.

Robert Butchart had made his fortune manufacturing Portland cement in the 1880s and 1890s and he and his wife Jennie Butchart established their home on Vancouver Island in 1904.

Ownership of The Gardens remains within the Butchart family, even today. The current owner and managing director is the Butcharts’ great-granddaughter Robin-Lee Clarke. The gardens have been designated a National Historic Site of Canada and receive close to a million visitors each year.

This year, we were two of them.

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We were not disappointed! Even the heavy overcast skies and low temperatures could not dim our enthusiasm. In fact, those weather conditions actually added an extra quality to our shots which we really appreciated.

We stopped practically every few miles to see what we could shoot. I think we visited every scenic lookout or car parking along the stretch of Hwy 101 between Newport and Tillamook.

An interesting spot we found quite by accident (those are always the best discoveries!) is the Devil’s Punchbowl.

Looking down upon the Devil’s Punchbowl

If you look carefully, you can see two openings down there, allowing the sea water to rush in during storms. In severe weather, water from the ocean slams with a thundering roar into the bowl churning and foaming. You can see how the water was carved out a huge bowl-shaped hole.

Every time we stopped somewhere, we could not help but observe plants and flowers we had never seen before. Here are a few examples of these, quite beautiful, flowering plants, seen everywhere.

In addition to these beautiful flowers, we could not believe the amount of Flowering Broom. It was everywhere, in beautiful vibrant yellow.

Burning Driftwood

When we checked into the RV Park, the map of the park they gave us had a little note not to use driftwood in campfires anywhere in the RV Park. We found this a bit strange as we saw mountains of driftwood on virtually every beach we passed. Checking into this a bit further we found out why. Burning driftwood gives off toxic fumes!

Driftwood is saturated with salt from the ocean and when it burns, it gives off a pretty blue/purple colored flame, but the smoke contains a chemical called Dioxin which is carcinogenic. Dioxin is referred to as a persistent, bioaccumulating toxin, meaning it doesn’t decompose, and it builds up in the tissues of the organisms that ingest it. Specifically it can concentrate in mother’s milk. It has been associated with various cancers.

This was a major surprise to us as we had no idea. We do now and will stay well away from bon-fires on the beach that are fueled by driftwood.

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No surprise then that this area is beautiful and a popular destination for salmon fishing. In fact, a fellow camper proudly informed us that he had caught a 22 pound Chinnook salmon, just a few hundred feet from the campsite.

So, with cameras in tow, we set off to see what we could find, traveling along the south bank of the river. We drove onto this “beach” to get close to the river and get a feel of the surrounding scenery, which you can see here is beautiful. We later passed over that bridge you can see.

A nearby plaque explained how hundreds of thousands of salmon pass under that bridge every year, all of them doing it twice in their lifetime, once as juveniles, heading out to sea and once as adults, heading upstream to spawn. Needless to say, all this fish has attracted all sorts of fishing activities over the year and the Port of Gold Beach, the town where the river flows into the Pacific ocean has a rich history of commercial fishing. There is a partially sunken boat in the harbor (called the Mary D. Hume) left there as a monument to the glory days of commercial fishing in the area.

However, I digress, as the point that I want to make is that man is not the only species attracted to the fish in this river. We learned that Osprey nest in the area as they are fish-eating birds. We also leanred that the occasional Bald Eagle can be spotted in the area. When we drove onto that bridge mentioned earlier, we spotted about a dozen Ospreys soaring over the water and saw a bunch more perched on a rocky outcrop. Excited, we mounted our long lenses on the cameras and went for a walk hoping to catch a few shots of these birds of prey.

Rogue River Bald Eagle

To our amazement and delight, we spotted a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree with a freshly caught fish. This was our first ever sighting of a Bald Eagle in wild! While Linda believes she briefly saw one just a few days before, she was not sure so we were both extremely thrilled with this sighting.

These Rogue River Bald Eagles are so majestic and powerful looking. The Bald Eagle is unique to North America and not only has become our National Bird, the Bald Eagle is also featured on the “Great Seal of the United States”. By the way, the birds are not actually bald. It turns out the term “bald” used to mean “white headed” at some time in the past and the name stuck, even though the term “bald” has taken on a different meaning.

What a treat to see such a majestic bird in the wild! We are told that half of all of the Bald Eagles are found in Alaska, so we are fully expecting to get more pictures of this magnificent bird in the near future, but so thrilled to have spotted this one so early on in our trip!

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Snow laden trees, prestine and thick soft snow on the ground, just beautiful and magical. Truly like a winter wonderland. I have been to Yosemite many times and know my way around quite well. This time, the snow made everything look SO different, you can’t help yourself wondering if it is the same park! Such a new perspective on such familiar surroundings, truly an experience to remember!

This is what the roads looked like within the park. There were snow chains or 4 wheel drive restrictions in place. In other words, you were not allowed to drive without chains unless you had a 4 wheel drive vehicle with snow tires. Thankfully, we have the Subaru Forester (an always on, ALL Wheel Drive vehicle) complete with S+M tires. The S+M designation stand for “Snow and Mud”, tires with special tread that enhance the grip when driving in snow and mud. So we were good! No chains. We tried a couple of times to see if we could get the car to slip or slide (when no other cars were around of course) and our car performed perfectly! No problems at all in these conditions, solidifying our faith in the AWD and pretty much confirming the reason why we picked the Forester in the first place.

Driving around the park in these conditions was truly a novel experience, delighting us again and again. Here you can see the sun hitting the top of El Capitan.

Perhaps the most beautiful view of the day, was sunset from the Tunnel View viewing area. A well visited spot that never disappoints. The location has been immortalized by Ansel Adams, who first started photographing Yosemite in the 1920s, travelling on foot with a mule to carry his equipment. Today, the lookout is a stop for every tourbus that visits Yosemite and you will find hords of people staring at the magnificent view of the Yosemite Valley.

This day, the view was even more spectacular than normal. Just the perfect light hitting Half Dome in the distance and El Capitan on the left. Fog roling in due to the dropping temperatures, Bridalveil falls on the right and fresh show on the trees.

It just does not get any better than this!

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After we got off the main road into Thomson Springs we headed to the Canyon, only to miss it completely! At least that was the conclusion we reached after driving a dirt road for about 45 minutes with no petroglyphs anywhere to be seen.

We did run into a ghost town, the old town of Sego. Never a large town, there were only a few buildings left, the largest was no more than a skeleton, the others could be located only by their sandstone foundations.

Also along the dirt were ruins of old bridges, quite a number of them. Based on the dry creek beds they crossed, we concluded that these creeks are subject to some flash flooding as the erosion and depth of the creek beds were quite impressive. The folk who used to live there obviously built these old bridges to make sure they could get into (or out of) the town.

The old town of Sego was a coal mining town which never had a population more than about 500. It went through some trying times, the mine got sold twice before it ended up being bought out by the miners themselves. Eventually, they lost it all when coal-powered locomotives got replaced by diesel engined versions, diminishing the need for coal.

Back to the pictograms

Petroglyphs is the word used for art that is chipped or scratched into the rock, while pictograms are painted on the rock. After shooting the ghost town, we decided to head back to see where we went wrong in the original search for the petroglyphs.

When we finally found them, it was like “duh, how could we have missed them?” They were right there in front of us, clearly visible from the road. There was even a parking lot which we HAD seen, but because the sign said “no camping, day use only”, we never stopped, thinking this was just a picnic area.

The pictographs (paintings) were amazing! Spread across multiple panels of sandstone rock (on both sides of the road), we spotted about 8 different clusters of multiple drawings. We had heard they were impressive, but, did not expect what we saw. One of the panels was life-size! No kidding, the panel depicted a group of “people” with each of the individual figures being about 6 feet tall. Quite amazing.

What was really disturbing however, was to see the vandalism. There was graffiti and writings and someone had even used the figures for target practice, based on the bullet holes that are visible. What is wrong with people? Some of these picograms are 3000 years old and have withstood the erosion of wind and rain, then some idiots destroy things in seconds.

Anyhow, these old drawings are more than intriguing. Apart from marveling at the age and wondering about the people that lived in these barren lands, the designs are quite amazing if not puzzling. Many of the “people” are depicted with antenna-like things coming out of their heads, others have huge round, bulging eyes and none of them appear to have arms. Looking at them, it is quite clear why people have wondered about ancient visitations from aliens.

Kinda strange don’t you think? It leaves you with a somewhat “creepy” feeling when you stand there looking at these face-less beings that seem to state down upon you. 

Turns out the paintings are from, at least, four different cultures who lived in this region:

• The Ute tribe dating from A.D. 1300.
• The Fremont culture which thrived from A.D. 600 to 1250
• The Barrier Canyon period from around 2000 B.C., and
• There is also rock art from the Archaic period dating from 7000 B.C.

This makes some of these painting a massive 9000 years old!

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