Petersen Automotive Museum

1889 Benz car

Yesterday we went to see the Petersen Auto Museum. Ros said "Not more cars!", but when we got there it was actually quite interesting. Lots of cars from movies and TV shows, as well as some esoteric vehicles indeed. To the right is where it all started for the internal combustion car, Carl Benz's 1889 tricycle car with a single cylinder engine. Top speed - 10 mph! Still this was twice as fast as a horse. Not much shelter from the elements.

1901 Car

12 years later we had graduated to four wheels and added an extra cylinder. Top speed 15 mph, still no protection from inclement weather. Also note lack of safety equipment, no seat belts, no airbags, not even doors! At least it had a dashboard and headlights.

Early electric car

Electric cars are not new! Here is a fine example from the 20's steered with a tiller from the back seat! Gives a whole new meaning to the term "back seat driver".

Ford Model T

Here's yours truly seated in the car that changed the world for the masses, the Ford Model T. Was the world's first mass produced car, thus lowering the cost so that the man in the street could afford to buy one. Easy to drive, one pedal for forward, one pedal for reverse and poor brakes. Stamping on the reverse pedal was more effective. Also very uncomfortable to sit in.

Green Hornet

Lots of cars from movies and TV series. This one from the Green Hornet. Kato, his assistant, was played by Bruce Lee. Checkout the size of the beast, and the guns mounted on the front.

K.I.T.T

Here's K.I.T.T from the Knightrider series. We almost have autonomous cars now, perhaps this series was more visionary than we thought?

Robocop

This is the car that Robocop drove in the eponymous movie about a future where policing had been outsourced to private firms.

Flying police car

And who can forget Back to the Future II, complete with flying cars. We were promised flying cars in the 50's! Where's my flying car?!

Jurassic Park

Dinosaurs anyone?

Minority Report

I can remember Tom Cruise getting trapped in an assembly line making this car to the left in the film Minority Report.

Honda 50

Finally, there were some blasts from the past. Anyone remember the ubiquitous Honda 50
motorcycle? They were everywhere when I was growing up. In Asian countries it was not unusual to see whole families riding these, Dad driving, Mum behind him often holding a baby while an older child sat behind Mum hanging on for grim death.

Mirror bike

Just one more, anyone fancy riding this motorbike, covered in mirrors. Can just imagine the chaos that would cause on public roads.
Ros and I had lunch at the restaurant there before wending ourselves back home for a well-earned rest.

Ostrich Farm

Ostriches

Monday, Joshua took us to see the local ostrich farm, which has a large collection of them, including emus as well. Male ostriches have black plumage and red legs and toes, which is more prominent during mating season. Females are a drab grey. Although they have large wings (unlike emus which have vestigial wings) they are flightless, but their long legs enable them to run up to 45 mph. Ostriches can live up to 40 years and the oldest on record lived to 81.

Feeding time

For one dollar you are allowed to feed the ostriches. Instructions include hanging onto the feeding dish handle tightly with both hands as the enterprising birds will attempt to take the whole bowl from you. Once they realise you have a good grip, they then feed on the pellets which disappear rapidly!

Squirrels dart in and out of the enclosures, feeding on the pellets that the ostriches drop.

Largest eye in nature

The ostrich eye is the largest in nature, giving it good eyesight to detect and evade predators, although it would be a brave predator that took on a fully grown angry ostrich as they stand nearly nine feet tall and have a vicious large central claw on their feet. Predators usually target eggs and young chicks than take on fully grown birds. One kick of an ostrich can disembowel a fully grown big cat.

Male ostrich

Here's a male ostrich strutting his stuff.

Female ostrich

And here's a female ostrich spreading her wings.

Emus

And of course, can't forget the emus.

Only two toes

Ostriches are unique in the bird world in only having two toes on their feet. All other birds have three toes, including emus. Here you can see the main central toe and the smaller second toe. You can also see the red on the legs and feet of the male ostrich.

Rows of flowers

Later, Josh drove us to a chicken farm as he is planning to get some chickens for his farmlet. We spoke to the very knowledgeable owner discussing chicken coops, keeping them safe and how to raise them successfully. Nearby were these flower farms which I thought were worthy of a photo. What I couldn't get a photo of was a deer in the opposite garden contentedly dining on lettuces. It gamboled off before I could focus on it.

After that it was tea at a local burger joint, Eddie's Burgers (which was delicious, by the way) before driving back for a quiet evening playing table tennis and watching TV, before returning to LA on Tuesday. Tuesday night we all went to my favourite restaurant again, the Wood Ranch BBQ and had a great night there.

More Solvang

Yesterday when we got back to LA, I fully intended to update the blog, but unfortunately Luke and Khristina's internet service was down. I restarted the router (more difficult than it seems as it was buried in a cupboard, behind a panel which was obstructed by a set of shelves loaded down with stuff), but this did not solve the problem. Only when Khristina contacted AT&T and they got her to restart the "white cable box" did the problem resolve.

Anyway, what have we been up to? Last Friday, Khristina generously took time off work to take Ros to get their nails done and basically get pampered. I was offered the same but wisely declined, not sure what happens with secret women's business.

We drove over to Luke's work in the late afternoon and Joshua drove us back to Solvang for the weekend. Saturday we basically took it easy and did nothing. Sunday Luke and Khristina joined us for lunch as they had driven up earlier on Friday and were staying in another house they had rented.  This was the first time they had seen Josh & Sam's new house. They stayed until mid afternoon then left to drive back to LA as they both had to work in the morning.

Typical US home

All of us went for a walk in the afternoon around the neighbourhood. Here's a typical US home, complete with flagpole adorned with the Stars and Stripes (Americans are fiercely patriotic) and several trucks in the driveway.

Mailbox flag

The US Mail works differently than here in Australia. Mail gets delivered normally but you may have noticed in American movies that US mailboxes have a red flag on them. Instead of traipsing off to find a public mailbox to post letters, they are just put into their mailbox and the flag is raised to indicate to the postman that there are letters to collect. To the left you can see a mailbox with the flag raised. The postman collects the letters and lowers the flag. Brilliant I reckon, would never happen in Oz.

Rose garden

Nearly everybody keeps their gardens looking lovely, this one with beautiful roses caught my eye.

RV

Just about everyone has an RV (Recreational Vehicle) in their yard, the one at left is typical of most models. Caravans are rare and one house even had a huge two story RV garage!

Josh & Sam's letterbox

Josh & Sam's letterbox is of a more modern and secure design, the flag is the little red square poking out of the bottom right of the letter box. Letters to be collected are reached by opening the top section and they are in a little pocket at the front, whereas delivered letters are pushed past that so they drop into the bottom of the secured section. Quite ingenious.