SoCal Trip - 1

Thanks to Scott Ravenhorst, or Mr. Foam, I was able to take a quick plane trip to Southern California, aka SoCal. First night we checked out some lights in the neighborhood.

This must have taken some time to put together.

 Close up.

 Another nativity also done very well.

 This trumpet-blowing angel is heralding the good news alongside the above nativity scene.

Never had seen a lighted horse and ducks before!

Christmas Lights

We made our annual trek over to a nearby street, Natal Circle, where they always do it up big.

It is always a big draw, but not nearly so busy just yet.

There's usually a Santa peaking in the window at this house.

Houses, trees and inflatables make for a full yard.

Some get very creative with accessories.

Some fill every space with lights.

Sometimes simple is very nice as well.

Very, very creative

And religious, of course!



Zoolights

Finally took time to visit the Zoolights as a family on New Year's Eve. Jake headed straight for the 'Dancing Trees' - so named because the lights 'dance' to a Christmas medley with a strong Manheim Steamroller base.

The lights vary from red to blue to green or all of them together with white as well. It is always a big draw for the Zoo.

But there were so many other nice lights:

This Red White & Blue trio

This 'candy-coated' tree

These canopied trees

This 'firecracker' tree

And this mesuite tree with the blue moon rising above it.

I like the trees being lit up so much more than the animal shaped outlines lit up.  There were some new ones of those, too, but for the first time in a number of years they seemed to have gone back to lighting up more trees.

Zoolights Time Again

The Zoo does their lights each year and make little changes here and there. I've been through numerous times and try to catch the new or the old in a new way...I'm sure I'll have more before Christmas.

Here's the old (below) in a new way (above)

The entry to the Zoo.

The entry is past a bridge and instead of floating light displays in the water they are putting up large red floodlights that give a cool glowing effect on the palms along the edge of the pond.

The old spider & web display. Always seems to be in a new place.

More trees with trunks & branches lit up! That's what I like to see!

Zoolights

A few cities have zoos that do Zoolights. The Phoenix Zoo is one of them (a private zoo - not run by the city of Phoenix). Up until now, the weekday evenings have been quiet with the kiddos in school. It will likely pick up in attendance until the New Year. I hate having to deal with the crowds and the idiots who believe they can park anywhere they want (one year we issued over 60 parking tickets in one day!). Seems they could do better by issuing tickets for specific nights and selling only so many to avoid the sometimes 45 minute lines getting in. That said, it is still kind of fun. The music system seems to have improved over the years, though I believe the lighting itself (the main draw, really) has lessened. Well, some improvements in lighting but fewer trees all lit up.

The entry bridge is an improvement, though I liked the floating displays no longer used.

This is fairly new - fake palms all lit up
Hey Mom! Look at me! Gotcha!

Christmas Lights

Many houses have some spectacular displays. These are a few nearby houses.

A nearby business always does it up for Christmas. I guess this guy owns a good number of business corners in Mesa & Chandler.

They'll have Santa there starting this Friday thru Tuesday. I'm not sure if Jake is excited to see Santa or just to get a candy cane, but he really wants to see him there this year.