Christmas in my Neighborhood

No snow but hanging ornaments and Christmas lights makes it feel a little bit more like THE season

Life-size statues at the church across from my house. The camel makes me laugh because he's smiling.

Odd...I don't know why but this is the only house with greenery.

They also had animatronic deer. I thought I was hallucinating when they started moving.

I think this house has Jewish lights...or blue snowflakes.

Notice the square snowman...there are a lot of these around. Californians don't know snowman are really round.

You can't really see but there's a giant palm tree to the right.

To quote the 90s poet ODB "Big Baby Jesus and I can't wait."

A few doors down. These 2 houses also had great Halloween decorations

Beach in December?!?!

This is Abalone cove beach.

It's rocky in some areas and sandy in others.

Lots 'o' muscles

I wanted to go into this cave but the tides were in , so I couldn't get  in unless I didn't want to come back out...ever

This water is so clean and clear.

I did try to grab the starfish but their really strong and I couldn't pick them up.

That little blue-green dot is a porta-potty...From there I walked on rocks and waded through tide pools to get  this picture.

Starfish and Sea anemones

Hsi Lai Temple

I had a free day one weekend and came to Hsi Lai Temple

I came here sometime in Early November...maybe I don't quite remember when, but I do remember why. 

 Beautiful views...

Interesting buildings make you feel like you have been transported to somewhere in Asia and yet it was only a 20min drive from Torrance.

I came here because I wanted to try there under $10 buffet! I didn't take any pictures inside the dining room but it was packed to gills with people, mostly Chinese/Taiwanese people. Anyway, the buffet was great! It was all vegetarian, of course, but you wouldn't know the difference.