Saturday, March 28, 2009

The Glass Church

Between 1949 and 1951, Lloyd Wright (Frank's son) built the glass Wayfarer's Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Internet research reveals that many celebrities including Jayne Mansfield, Dennis Hopper, and Brian Wilson have gotten married in the chapel.

Fans of "The O.C." television soap opera will recognize the Wayfarer's Chapel as the location of Julie and Caleb's wedding, Caleb's funeral, and Julie and Bullet's called-off wedding.


The view over the ocean to the Catalina Islands:

Across the street from the Wayfarer's Chapel is Abalone Cove, an excellent place to explore tidepools:

Purple anemones in the tidepools (each of these were about 2"-4" across):

Here is a brown starfish with a large green anemone on top of it and three little purple anemones underneath:

A little orange starfish with my hand for scale:

I've never seen a sea slug like this before - it was brown, about 10" long, and was waiving its tentacle things around:


Here is a map of Rancho Palos Verdes with Abalone Cove and the Wayfarer's Chapel across the street. At the top of the hill, there is a nice viewpoint over the ocean at Del Cerro Park. There are trailheads for hikes on Burrell Lane right next to the park.

View Larger Map

5 comments:

  1. I haven't been to Catalina forEVER, but we used to do camping trips there with my elementary school. We used to go to tidepools more often. They were a great example of micro ecosystems, so much assorted life teeming in a small puddle. You can't have a blog about LA and talk about the OC TV show. That seems backwards somehow.

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  2. i disagree. i think every blog should mention the OC TV show. Who is bullet, though?

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  3. Bullet was that rich guy from Texas who Marissa's younger sister liked.

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  4. I like your pictures. I have never seen a nudibranch in real life.

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  5. In the photo, the "nudibranch" just looks like a big, brown yam, but in real life it was very interesting - it was much larger and blobbier than it appears in the picture and it moved its head and tentacles around quite rapidly.

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