The Web Of Life

        We visited another, much larger nature preserve today. And they, too, have an incredible interpretive center. This one is built into the cliffs overlooking the estuary. When we were on the top of the cliff we were actually standing on the roof of the nature center. The front of the center is all glass which gives it a great view of the estuary and beyond.

            Much of the building was made from recycled materials. For example, all the tiles are  different. They were collected from remodeled buildings, left overs from new building and old samples. The tile layers at the center pull them all together in a wonderfully attractive way. The guy showing us around took both of us into the men’s room so we could see the artistic job they did. It’s very impressive.

            Part of the building is Teak wood and it, too, was recovered from other buildings that were remodeled or torn down. Even the rebar in the construction was made from recycled guns, knives and other weapons confiscated by the sheriff’s department and melted down.

                                               

            In the photo of the building, the semicircle on the patio in the lower left quadrant is a compass. People get confused here because the ocean isn’t to the west, it’s to the south.

            The vast marshy area in the other picture was going to be drained and filled with roads, condos and strip malls. You can see the cliffs above the marsh are built to the max. Thankfully it was saved, as it’s a critical stop-over habitat for a number of migrating bird species, some of them endangered. The center successfully reintroduced the cactus wren who’s numbers are declining due to destruction if it’s coastal sage scrub habitat.

                                                    

            Most species of migrating birds have left by this time, but the area is still filled with life. They have bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, a number of rodents, resident birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. The food chain is fully intact here. This might be the last thing one would expect to find in Newport Beach and we applaud the citizens of Orange County for protecting this island of nature.

Art & Roxanne 

Welcome to our adventures! First up, Exploring Newport Beach.

A few years back, well several years.. well ok.. a decade or so ago, we decided that we would forsake the beaten path, retire and just discover America.  And what discoveries we found!

We have taken numerous journeys, but almost never on the beaten path.  It seems our dream in life is to find the undiscovered and unusual things about our beautiful land.

This is our first post, but I am going to venture back in time to one of our old adventures at Newport Beach.  And here we go!!!!

Exploring Newport Beach

            Newport Beach is home to the worlds largest Mercedes Benz dealership. We drove by there today and it’s huge. The building is three times as large as any dealership we’ve ever seen. Not far away are dealerships for Porcshe, Audi and Ferrari. The Ferrari dealership is next to the McDonalds. You could buy a Ferrari, then drive through and get a Big Mac. More than a quarter of the households in the area have an income of $200,000, and the median home is valued at more than a million dollars.

          But nature can be found here amid the cosmopolitan hustle and bustle. We visited the Environmental Nature Center, or ENC as it’s known around here. They’re a small island of nature on the edge of a larger preserve called Back Bay. The ENC has an impressive building which is the first LEED platinum building in Orange County. LEED is the acronym for  Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It’s the standard by which “green” buildings are judged. The first level is LEED certified, then it goes to LEED silver, gold and platinum. To get the platinum rating, the building pretty much has to be built green from the ground up. For example, the ENC used recycled denim blue jeans for insulation. There’s even a little window where you can see the shredded denim inside the walls. And they re-used material from other buildings in the construction of this new one. With clever placement of the orientation of the building and windows, they eliminated the need for air conditioning.

                                                                           

            If one isn’t from Southern California, lack of air conditioning seems inconceivable. But, being on a coast, a coast with an arctic current at it’s door, Newport rarely gets warm. The hottest month here is August. And when we say “hottest” we use the term loosely. The average high in August is 75 and the average low is 66. Unlike some places we’ve visited where the average is meaningless, here, the temperature usually doesn’t fluctuate that violently. There are always exceptions, of course.

                                                                    

            We chatted with some of the people in the center, then took one of the trails. As this is a small area, unlike the preserve we’ll be visiting later, one is never far from man-made sounds. One hears traffic sounds, baseball games, construction trucks beeping and home air conditioners running. Only when we stopped by one of the little waterfalls did we drown out the sounds of the city. But the walk was great anyway. We saw lots of lizards, up close, and the cacti are in bloom! The blooms are red, orange and pink on the prickly pear and Cholla. We stopped to smell the wild roses which, unlike their domestic cousins, haven’t had the aroma bred out of them. And some of the California Poppy plants were still in bloom, greeting us as the state flower.

                                                                             

Hope you enjoyed our adventure!  More to come!

Art and Roxanne