A Tree Glows in Colorado (Lagoon, that is)

The bad news is that Long Beach is charging more to maintain our beloved floating Christmas trees. The good news is that Alamitos Heights Neighborhood Association still has enough in its coffers to pay for at least on tree (sigh). The lighting will take place the Friday after Thanksgiving at 7 pm. Carolers and Santa will be on hand to help heighten the holiday cheer.

Let's go sail a boat!

The annual model boat regatta will take place at Colorado Lagoon on Friday, August 13 from 11 am to 4 pm. Participants build their own boats and race them in the calm waters of the lagoon. You can register at Leeway Sailing Center

Update meeting about Lagoon Restoration

City of Long Beach will hold a meeting to update the community on the progress of the Colorado Lagoon Restoration at 5 pm Thursday, February 11 at Lowell Elementary School. The project wil improve the habitat and water quality and should begin in March and be completed in October. Some street closures will occur during the project.

I'm dreaming of a light Christmas

Those darn Christmas trees are back. I thought I had a picture of them from last year, but Ican't find it in mr files. So I guess I have a great excuse to head down to Colorado lagoon for the Christmas tree lighting tonight sponsored by the Alamitos Heights Improvement Association. From 6 to 7:30 there'll be carolers and cookies and Santa will arrive on a firetruck. But for me the most magical is the sudden appearance of light out of the darkness magnified by the reflections on the water. Very Christmas-y and oh so Long Beach!

Los Cerritos Wetlands in the Spotlight

Eric Zahn, a leader of Friends of Colorado Lagoon and professor at CSULB, will speak at the Aquarium of the Pacific on November 30. His topic is "Restoring Los Cerritos Wetlands: Waiting for the Tides to Return." and the lecture starts at 7 pm. Tickets cost $8 and usually the lectures are taped and you can watch them on the website.

Friends Get Arty Down at The Lagoon

The Grunion Gazette reported last week ("FOCL Art Walks Add to Lagoon") that the Friends of Colorado Lagoon have a new Creative Arts initiative. Poking around the FOCL website, I couldn’t find any hard dates or any information about getting involved, but the article interviews Timothy Dunham as saying, “We plan to dig posts into the sand and hang or install pieces. It would be a venue for local artists.” Art and nature, can’t get better than that. He goes on to say that an Earth Day celebration at the Lagoon is also in the works.

The FOCL blog doesn’t have any information about these events either, but there are some lovely photos of early morning wildlife at the Lagoon. Dunham gets up at dawn so you don’t have to and posts several photos almost every day. Now if only he can uncover the mystery of why they haven’t taken down the floating Christmas trees yet.

Good Day for ducks!

Despite the rain, I headed down to Bay Shore Library for the talk about the history of East Long Beach. It turned out to be more of a reminiscence of Belmont Shore and particularly Second Street. Dr. Gatley had lots of hand outs and slides, which made it worth the trip. He recommended the exhibit on architects at the Historical Society of Long Beach. I got a photo of the spectacular view from Bayshore Library of which I spoke.

On my way home, I actually saw ducks crossing at the duck crossing at Colorado Lagoon. I tried to take a picture from the car but the flash went off and reflected back from the windshield. I did get a photo of the Christmas trees that are still floating in the lagoon. Maybe we should just keep them up year-round and put other seasonal decorations on them. The birds seem to like to perch on them.