The Worl'ds Most Awsome Carousel: The Marine Worlds Carousel

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am more than mildly fond of carousels. Well, take a look at this beautiful, extravagant, wonder of a machine: Presentation - The Marine Worlds Carousel - Les Machines de l’île - Les Machines de l’île And if you're anywhere where you can ride it, do! Then tell everone all about it in the comments, so we can live vicariously through you.

Edit: I just watched it again. It really is a marvel. I love they way they chose the weird and wonderful creatures of the deep sea for so many of their creatures.

The world is a brighter place because someone built this.

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.

I don't know what the horse is planning...

But it has the elephant very worried.

Better to ride elsewhere, I think.

More Electric Bread, a book review

Given last week's re-review, I thought I'd take the time to feature my other favorite bread-machine cookbook, More Electric Bread.  It is less eclectic in its selection of ingredients than The Bread Machine Gourmet, but still has a good range of recipes that cook the whole time in the pan, and all the recipes I have tried work.  There are the standbys--white and "whole wheat"(1), but there is also a surprising array of other yummy recipes. I have not worked my way through all of them, but favorites include "Cinnamon Sunrise," "Espresso" (a delicious coffee-flavored bread), "Maple Walnut" (mmm), and "Rice Pudding" (useful if you have leftover rice or have cooked the rice with too much water so it's mushy).

(1) See earlier comments on the portion of actual whole wheat flour that goes into these.

Would You Let Your Child Ride This Frog?

This frog will be happy to carry your child.

A little too happy.

Wait... what does it eat?

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).

A Pictorial History of the Carousel by Frederick Fried

This seems to be the book on carousels, one all the later books quote from and admire.

It is by far the most in-depth and informative of the carousel books I've read so far (and really, there are far fewer non-fiction books available than I would expect).

It does suffer from its age, however. It was published in 1964, so most of the photographs are in black and white, which is a great pity, given the colorful nature of the carousel.

Also, it's not particularly lively; it's worth reading if you already like carousels, but unlikely to inspire a cover-to-cover read if you don't.

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.

Random Carousel Fact #2

In 1890, Gustav A. Dentzel built a 2-story carousel. People liked it, but loading and unloading went slowly, so Dentzel dismantled it and used its parts for other carousels.

From A Pictorial History of the Carousel by Frederick Fried

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.

Random Carousel Fact #1

The earliest known image of a Carousel is a bas-relief from Byzantium in 500 AD.

From A Pictorial History of the Carousel by Frederick Fried


I am looking for a reproduction of this image. Apparently it involved baskets rather than horses.

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?

King Triton's Carousel Again

Ok, so it didn't take me too long to fall for it.

Even if it is alllll the waaaay on the other side of That Other Park.

King Triton's Carousel

I am a carousel lover, so almost the first thing I did after getting my annual pass was go looking for King Triton's Carousel.

To my dismay, it was closed!

I asked when it would be opened, made a note of the date and waited, pretty much not going into California Adventure in the meantime (it is one LOUD park).

This Friday was the first day, and my sister, who was meeting me at Disneyland for the fireworks (I love that show!) very kindly went with me on the enormous detour to the very back of California Adventure so that I could ride it.

The carousel itself is a jewel--brightly lit, beautiful, and full of colorful animals and enough glitter and gleam to delight me. I really could fall head over heels in love.

Except--it is at the very back of the California Adventure, which, as I believe I have mentioned before, is an extremely noisy park. More, the carousel itself is tucked in under the giant roller coaster, which means more noise, enough so that it's hard to hear the carousel music--which, oddly enough, does not appear to include any songs from The Little Mermaid.

Will I go back? Oh yes. Of course. If nothing else, I have got to get a good picture of the bejeweled purple whale I rode that night.

But will I go every time I visit Disneyland? Probably not.