Birds, Arrows and V16s

A quick jaunt to Pasadena to visit my uncle netted me some great little birds at the local park called Lower Arroyo Seco. The park is part of the Rose Bowl complex and runs along the Arroyo Seco which is a "river".  River is in quotes because all rivers in the Los Angeles area are basically trickles of water that run through an ugly concrete conduit with chain link fence on either side to keep people from drowning when it actually has water in it during flash floods.  You expect a car chase from a cheesy 70's cop show or movie at any moment.

This particular section of the Arroyo Seco is set up for archery.  There are targets set up on big bails of hay with distance markers etc all along one side of the "river".  It is pretty cool.  People show up with their bows and quivers full of arrows.  Blunt point only.  Signs posted everywhere state "NO BROADHEADS".  There are also people with dogs and kids running all over too.  Nobody gets shot.  Oh yes, and birds are all over too.  Typical California birds such as this Bushtit which swarm around in flocks of 10 - 40 at a time flitting from tree to tree all the way down the river, then back again.  It is pretty neat. 

More on that later.  More about arrows and V16s.  I only had the day to spend with my uncle.  We hung around the house, then went to brunch.  All the time, he is calling his friend Aaron asking about "the collection".  When would he be at the warehouse?  Although this went on all day, I really didn't even ask about it but at 4:30, Aaron called to say that he was at the warehouse and to come over.  So off we went.  I thought we were in for some artsy craftsy type stuff.  This is what we found:

This is only part of his private collection in his suped up garage warehouse called The Flying A Garage.  He is a collector of rare/classic/amazing cars.  He shows them and also uses them for charity events.  I thought this bird photography was an expensive hobby.  HA.  I'm ashamed that I ever thought that.  It was truly an awesome experience to meet this man and see this collection of cars.  More to come.  I'm in Oakland now.  Sam just showed up and we are off to explore the bay for birds before our conference begins.