Greetings from Newport Beach, California, USA!
Photos taken on Sunday, December 21, 2008.
If December is not the busiest month, we must have a thirteenth one that has eluded me. Nevertheless as busy as it was, I noticed a discernible drop in the number of festivities. Because of the economic recession, people have cut back on parties or at least their guest lists. In fact earlier this month, instead of an off-site holiday party, my company hosted an office brunch. However bleak the times, various annual events endure and ensure the resilence of humanity. Two examples are the Balboa Island Christmas House Decorating Contest and the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. I saw both this weekend.
First for the uninformed, the city of Newport Beach includes a handful of islands such as Lido Isle and Collins Island. While most of them are purely residential, Balboa Island is visitor-friendly with a microcosm of shops appealing to locals and tourists alike. It also has a good mix of permanent and seasonal inhabitants. I once lived in house there with four college classmates. We leased it for the nine months of the off-season. During the summer months, the owner rents to vacationers on a weekly basis.
If you can afford the waterfront acreage, then you can afford building a mansion on it. Then during December you can afford th electricity bill for the thousands of lights in decorations. The island’s tight-knit community even does a contest for it. Not to be overlooked, the coastal city’s ships and boats string up lights, then cruise around Newport Harbor for several nights as well. This year marked the 100th edition of that boat parade.
A friend of a friend owns a home on Balboa Island and I was invited to a party there on Sunday. Before the parade a group of us walked around the island to view the decorated homes. My favorite is shown in one of my two accompanying photos. The palm trees set it apart from the rest. Many people wrap lights around tree trunks but only the best will also adorn the branches - or palm fronds in this case - and that gets my vote.
I missed most of the parade. After the tour I returned to party, lost track of time and went back out to the shore to see just the tail end of it. This means no boat parade pictures but I do have fireworks. The pyrotechnic display was originally scheduled for Wednesday, the parade’s first night, but postponed to the last night because of rain earlier in the week. My second photo is of Balboa Peninsula with fireworks bursting overhead. To the left is the Balboa Pavilion building (which is lit up like that every night, not just the holidays) and to the right is the Ferris wheel in the Balboa Fun Zone. Need I say that this night was a blast?
Angelo
Photos taken on Sunday, December 21, 2008.
If December is not the busiest month, we must have a thirteenth one that has eluded me. Nevertheless as busy as it was, I noticed a discernible drop in the number of festivities. Because of the economic recession, people have cut back on parties or at least their guest lists. In fact earlier this month, instead of an off-site holiday party, my company hosted an office brunch. However bleak the times, various annual events endure and ensure the resilence of humanity. Two examples are the Balboa Island Christmas House Decorating Contest and the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade. I saw both this weekend.
First for the uninformed, the city of Newport Beach includes a handful of islands such as Lido Isle and Collins Island. While most of them are purely residential, Balboa Island is visitor-friendly with a microcosm of shops appealing to locals and tourists alike. It also has a good mix of permanent and seasonal inhabitants. I once lived in house there with four college classmates. We leased it for the nine months of the off-season. During the summer months, the owner rents to vacationers on a weekly basis.
If you can afford the waterfront acreage, then you can afford building a mansion on it. Then during December you can afford th electricity bill for the thousands of lights in decorations. The island’s tight-knit community even does a contest for it. Not to be overlooked, the coastal city’s ships and boats string up lights, then cruise around Newport Harbor for several nights as well. This year marked the 100th edition of that boat parade.
A friend of a friend owns a home on Balboa Island and I was invited to a party there on Sunday. Before the parade a group of us walked around the island to view the decorated homes. My favorite is shown in one of my two accompanying photos. The palm trees set it apart from the rest. Many people wrap lights around tree trunks but only the best will also adorn the branches - or palm fronds in this case - and that gets my vote.
I missed most of the parade. After the tour I returned to party, lost track of time and went back out to the shore to see just the tail end of it. This means no boat parade pictures but I do have fireworks. The pyrotechnic display was originally scheduled for Wednesday, the parade’s first night, but postponed to the last night because of rain earlier in the week. My second photo is of Balboa Peninsula with fireworks bursting overhead. To the left is the Balboa Pavilion building (which is lit up like that every night, not just the holidays) and to the right is the Ferris wheel in the Balboa Fun Zone. Need I say that this night was a blast?
Angelo
