Losing the Balboa Fun Zone Carousel

Balboa carousel told to mosey on
This makes me very sad.

The carousel is one of the bright spots by the bay, a joyful combination of music, sun, and laughter.

And now it's only there until September 25.

Ride it while you can.

The Great Carousel Hunt: Part the VII: The Irvine Spectrum Carousel

The Irvine Spectrum Carousel is a nice, pseudo-antique carousel with lovely little images from Orange County history on the top.

It has an impressive variety of horses and a good collection of other animals to ride. As always, choosing one was difficult, but I settled on a white tiger, and my co-quester of the day chose the well-mannered, beautifully decorated brown horse next to him.

The carousel was one of the slower ones, and a little juddery in spots, but, as always, made me smile.

I didn't get as many pictures as I'd have liked because, when I came back in the evening to try to catch the end of twilight--you know the time, that moment when it's not quite dark but the lights have come on and everything is just a little more real than usual--a very polite security guard came up and informed me that, unless I was taking pictures of family members, I couldn't keep on, since the entire mall was copyrighted.

That did put a damper on things, as did the prospect of another pictureless quest entry. Fortunately, I looked at the website, and I don't think he was quite right: The mall is copyrighted, so I can't sell pictures, but images for personal use are fine (I think questing counts, don't you?).

Great Carousel Hunt, Part the VI: The Balboa Park Carousel

This is, I'm afraid, a belated entry, dating from last week's visit to the San Diego Zoo.

It also, of course, included a visit to the Balboa Park Carousel, my friends being kind enough to suggest stopping there first "So we don't forget." Not that I'm likely to forget a carousel, but I had confused the carousel locations, thinking I'd be riding the San Diego Park Conservation Carousel, not the lovely, antique Balboa Park Carousel. If I had remembered correctly, I would have brushed up on my facts first.

And I would have tried to figure out where the brass ring was, what it looked like, and how to grab (or try to grab) it. As it was, I had to settle for knowing this was one of the old carousels, admiring the bright orange ostriches, and t

horoughly enjoying the ride round on the zebras.

It was a long ride too, much longer than any I've been on yet--the five minute number I see on various websites may very well still be true. It's one of the faster carousels, but it doesn't whisk round the way the Long Beach Pike Carousel does.

The Great Carousel Hunt: Part the Fifth

No pictures of this one, unfortunately, because my camera batteries conked out, and it turned out that those were my spares.

Anyway, I went to the Long Beach Aquarium Monday (beautiful place, by the way), and afterward, when it had gotten cooler, I walked around the area for a little while. i decided to by the Pike, figuring that a place which had a Ferris Wheel outside just might also have a carousel. Sure enough, it did--tucked away and with not sign outside.

It had all sorts of nature scenes painted on it, and a group of brown and yellow horses. Lots of mirrors circling the area, giving a sort of infinite carousel effect.

I had time to admire because it took a while for someone to come. She was very pleasant when she did come, and, though she seemed surprised that I wanted to ride, did let me have a nice long gallop on the horses.

I thought the OC fair one was fast--this faster, more like a gallop. There was no music (there apparently is, sometimes as there was an organ), but the sound of the horses going up and down turned out to be remarkably like the sound of galloping, so that was quite all right.

This, by the way, is the only carousel I've ridden so far where the sign advised "extreme care" in getting on and off of the platform and warned that the management was not responsible for any grease or oil that got on the rider (Hmmm..maybe there is a reason the operator was surprised that I actually wanted to ride).

The Great Carousel Hunt: Part the Fourth

"I'm going to the fair this evening. Want to come?"

Of course I did.

In fact, I had to--It has a carousel, and I can't pass a up a carousel, not this summer.

It's a lovely carousel too (You've probably guessed by now that this is redundant: As far as I'm concerned, all carousels are lovely. Nonetheless, I am likely going to continue reminding you at every possible opportunity. Consider it a public service announcement).


There was the usual dilemma: Which animal to ride? The snarling tiger? The funny little pig? The elegant, rearing wonder? The sturdy, galloping beauty with the golden mane? The zebra?

After spending some time watching, I finally selected the gorgeous, golden-maned beast. Good thing, too. This ride was no serene sail but a fierce gallop. The horses shook slightly as they surged forward, each trying to overtake the other.

As a side note: All my reading is paying off: I recognized some of these horses; they're not just any carousel horses, they are famous horses--or, rather, copies thereof. I can't tell you which horse had which creator, or who made that snarling tiger (a stander; I don't rind standers, not at the moment), but I can tell you they have a history.

The Great Carousel Hunt, Part the Third

This was both disappointing and fun: Disappointing because out of date information had led me to believe that they still had the old Looff Carousel, and after reading about the great carvers in the last few days, I was pretty excited about seeing it.
It's not there any more, hasn't been for a while--the owner sent it back to San Francisco.

On the other hand, they still do have a carousel, and it is bright, shiny, and full of fun. There's plenty of gilding, bright paint, and exotic animals to ride.


Mostly, they are white horses, somewhat to the disappointment of my companion on this trip, a friend who favors black carousel horses, but there was also a gorgeous zebra (very tempting)and a spectacular blue and purple dragon/seahorse creature that I fell instantly in love with (I'll ride the zebra some other time, perhaps).


My friend found a white horse she thought pretty enough, and I took the seahorse/dragon and we were off!

Thus endeth Part the Third.

The Great Carousel Hunt: Part the Second

My sister went with me yesterday to the Fashion Island Carousel.

I've seen it before--even taken a couple of pictures--but I've never really looked at it or ridden it.

It's a lovely little carousel, and I was amazed and amused by the number of animals: Not only were there horses, several in full armor, there was a hare, a zebra, a merhorse, an ostrich, a tiger, a pig. And, most likely, one or two others I forgot to mention.

This, of course, gave rise to a great dilemma: I knew I was going to ride, but which animal? They were all lovely; even the pig had quixotic sort of charm. Finally, my sister spoke up in favor of riding the armored horse, and I decided on the hare next to it (It's so much more fun to ride a carousel with someone), and we were off!

The music was rather softer and the motor rather louder than was ideal, but the weather was splendid, the company good, and I'd say the ride was a success.

Afterward, we paid a quick visit to the bookstore where my sister pounced on a Jan Karon book (A Continual Feast: Words of Comfort and Celebration, Collected by Father Tim, I think) which she proceeded to read while we shared gelato down in the food court.

She did surface long enough to help me navigate the roads on the way back--I went straight where I should have turned and turned where I should have gone straight, and ended up hopelessly turned around. Fortunately, she wasn't, so, although we took the long road home, we made it.

All in all, I'd call it a successful chapter of the quest.

The Great Carousel Hunt: Part the First

Let the record show that the Great Carousel Hunt has begun!

Place: The Balboa Fun Zone, a small amusement-park on the Balboa Peninsula, in place since 1936.

Time: Last Wednesday.

Note: Yes, I still have an appointment to ride it with my sister, but that is all right: The Quest Charter not only permits riding any given carousel more than once, it encourages it.

Carousel Hunting

Ok, so going to Disneyland has reminded me of how much I love carousels.

And how few of them I've ridden, even of the ones in the area--it's always "later." So, my mission this summer is to ride as many as I can.

That, of course, means I have to find them, so I'm asking folks to "donate" carousel locations, though I'm sticking to S California & primarily to Orange County.

Carousels I'm aware of and plan on visiting are:

The Disneyland & CA Adventure Carousels (of course).

I'm told there is one at the Santa Ana Zoo

There is the one in the Balboa Fun Zone

Also, there are some at:
San Diego Zoo
Fashion Island
South Coast Plaza

I know there are others, but my googling skills are failing me here. Help?