At beautiful Otay Lakes in Chula Vista, San Diego County, California. I was just taking a little break, sitting in my car by the side of the road and enjoying the scenery, when I noticed a coyote walking towards me. I rushed to set up my camera and started filming out of the open car window. He only noticed me when he across from my car and ran up the hill. I felt so happy and fortunate to see this beautiful wild animal up close.

Driving on "The Top of the World Highway" from CA-330 to Big Bear Mountain and Lake, which is about an hour's drive east of Los Angeles, Nov. 2023. With street music by Josué Gascot.

Thanks for sharing this nice video, Lars! I love the Garibaldi, they look like big gold fish. But the two kissing fish––or maybe they were talking to each other––are so precious! Great shots! (video curtesy of Lars Dennert) Laguna Beach, La Jolla and Catalina Island are great places for diving and snorkeling and enjoying the ocean.

We were looking for wildflowers in the desert and unexpectedly found a huge dragon sculpture. We met up in Borrego Springs, about two hours east of San Diego. The air was clear and fresh, and it was so still, compared with the noise of the city. There weren’t many flowers this year. But we still had a wonderful time together, exploring, sharing meals and stories, and making memories. At Sheep Canyon a “jumping cactus” jumped on my foot. Everyone rushed over with sticks and stones to get it off my shoe. The 350-foot-long dragon is a prominent metal sculpture located at Galleta Meadows Estate in Borrego Springs, California, just north of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Created by artist Ricardo Breceda and commissioned by landowner Dennis Avery, this massive piece features a dragon's head with its body undulating above and below the desert sand.  The sculpture is part of an unfenced, public-access art installation spanning three square miles of private desert land. The dragon was crafted over four months, taking an additional three months to erect. It also appeared in the 2017 film The Endless. There are other metal sculptures throughout the area. Visitors can find maps of all 130+ sculptures at the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce or the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center. The site is open to the public year-round.  The great music is by the bluegrass band Five Mile Mountain Road. I have posted videos of them performing in North Park a month ago.

We had an unexpected adventure. My husband and I were on a trip through Cental and South America. We had booked a 3-day cruise on the Amazon Queen. But the ship, and old mine sweeper, sank on the second day. We were rescued by the Peruvian air force who sent a small plane that landed on the river. The travel agency compensated us with a day-trip to a remote village in the jungle. It was wonderful!

This is the San Diego Embarcadero where the Maritime Museum hosted a bay cruise onboard the San Salvador, a replica of the first European ship that explored the region in 1542. Sailing on this historic ship is an exciting adventure. (5/5/2024) I've made two other videos about the San Salvador previously.

There's a special ship in the San Diego Harbor––a replica of the San Salvador that belonged to the Spanish conquistador Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. On Sept. 28, 1542, three sailing ships under Cabrillo's command arrived in the port we now call San Diego, one of them the San Salvador. A statue of Cabrillo overlooks the ocean at the Cabrillo National Monument. A replica of the San Salvador is on display at the Diego Maritime Museum. Cabrillo was born in Spain in 1499 or 1500. He came to Panama in 1514 and travelled to Cuba and Mexico where he assisted Cortés in the attack of the Aztec capital. Later, he took part in the conquest of Guatemala. In 1539, Cabrillo supervised the construction of thirteen ships, including the San Salvador, in Guatemala. The 200 ton San Salvador was of the highest quality. Her construction was an enormous undertaking. She became one of the most powerful ships in the entire Pacific, capable of sailing anywhere and facing any adversity. This type of galleon would have been quite revolutionary at the time. The expedition to explore the North Pacific set sail in June 1542 with over 170 crew members. They sailed from the port of Iztapa, roughly 2,000 miles. Sailing along an unmapped coastline, they met with Native American communities near the present-day ports of Ensenada and San Diego, Catalina Island, and farther North. In November 1542, they turned southward to spend the winter on Catalina Island. While going ashore, Cabrillo had an accident and broke an arm or a leg. As a result of the injury, he died on Jan. 3, 1543 and was buried on the shore. In 2011, the San Diego Maritime Museum started building a full-sized, fully functional, historically accurate replica replica of the San Salvador. Visit the Museum: www.sdmaritime.org The music is a street performance by John Clarke on 12/22/22. JohnClarkeMusic.com Watch him here: https://www.ganjing.com/video/1fggb68hts523OADiQy2x6u4t1bb1c Video produced by Gisela Sommer

Our hike on Mother's Day morning started out misty, but by mid-day we had blue skies. The hills in Topanga State Park, north of Santa Monica, were covered with wildflowers. It was so quiet and beautiful––a perfect Mother's Day.

In 1994 a group of friends went on a 2-week camping vacation to Tazlina Lake. We flew from San Diego to Anchorage, packing small tents and sleeping bags, etc. Tazlina Lake is a glacial lake about 21 miles long, 3.5 miles wide and over 200 feet deep and is the largest lake in the Upper Copper River drainage. It is tucked into the Chugach Mountain range about five miles south of the Glenn Highway. The lake is off the beaten path. There is no road access and it’s a three to four day trip to float the Little Nelchina River to the Nelchina River to Tazlina Lake to Tazlina River, which is how most floaters access Tazlina Lake. There are no campgrounds anywhere on the route. From Anchorage we traveled North by car on Glenn Hwy 1, passing through Palmer, where we bought food and provisions. Then on to Glennallen where we chartered a floatplane. Flying over the area was very exciting. Our destination was a small log cabin in the woods near the lakeshore that our friend Joe had built in the 1950s. These are the photos that survived the past 30 years. I still have the basket that I made from willow branches and bark, and it's still filled with the little spruce cones I collected around the cabin. I also did the drawing of the cabin. The sound track is street music performed by Josué Gascot in Balboa Park on March 19, 2023. You can find Josué on Instagram @gascotviolins

In the summer of 1980 I took a Biology class at Mira Costa Community College about the Natural History of Plants and Animals in Southern California. It was a wonderful experience. The Professor was Dr. Benjamin (Ben) Banta. When he entered the classroom with his dog, a mix of German shepherd and Coyote, we knew this wouldn’t be a dull class. Another day he came to class with a Tarantula sitting on his shoulder. He was a genuine naturalist, and we loved his teaching style. This was largely an experiential class. There were two overnight field trips on the syllabus––one to the Santa Rosa Mountains, and the other to the desert east of San Diego. In addition we participated in a special project east of Del Mar on Saturday mornings, called the Arroyo Sorrento Project. Dr. Banta had started the project in 1977 when the area was still relatively untouched, with the original vegetation––the chaparral––still intact. The purpose of the project was to study the animals in this area before man’s advancement would destroy their habitat. Extra credit could be earned by bringing in road kills. Dr. Banta had once been a curator at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. That’s where the road kills were taken for preservation. But the really big extra credit––1,000 points––was for finding a Magic Gecko. And that became a big topic on the field trips. Magic Geckos are extremely rare, according to Dr. Banta, and we were going to places where there had been sightings. He had a picture of a Magic Gecko on his jeep, so we knew what to look for––a very special kind of lizard! Well, we never found a Magic Gecko. But Dr. Banta did succeed in igniting in us a passion for the native plants and animals, and we did find a number of special lizards and many interesting and beautiful things. The colors of the photos I took have faded into pastel tones during the past 43 years, but they still have a magic glow to them. Music by John Clarke Video by Gisela Sommer

When I was in third grade, back in Germany where I grew up, our teacher one day showed us a picture of an orange flower. He said its name was Kalifornischer Mohn (meaning California Poppy) and that it was the state flower of California. He asked us to repeat the name after him, and we did. Then he pointed to me and asked, “What’s the name of the flower?” I had a little bit trouble saying it, so during the remainder of the class, the teacher would ask me to say the name until I could say it correctly and very fast. He asked none of the other students, just me. Well, 14 years later I came to California and have lived here ever since. Whenever I see a California poppy I think of this story, and I wonder whether an angel had whispered in my teacher's ear to make sure I would remember the name of this flower––and come to realize that life is more mysterious than we think. There is a term for such mysterious coincidences––synchronicity, and it was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. I have experienced a number of them over the years. I will share some more in the future. Where to See California Poppies in Full Bloom https://theatlasheart.com/where-to-see-california-poppies/