Dia de los Muertos, VFD & Whale Watching

Alli let our community night last week and for the 2nd week in a row we went out into the community to experience some of what L.A. has to offer. She took us to the East LA convention center for the Dia de los Muertos celebration. There were excellent food vendors, a stage for performers, booths to purchase a wide variety of items and a stretch where people set up alters for their loved ones who had passed. The music was great, the food-amazing, the alters were spectacular and everyone seemed to be having a great time. It was yet another great community night.

November 6th was Vincentian Family Day at the De Paul Center in Montebello. Our house arrived early to help set up for the event. It is an annual get together for all of the Vincentian branches. The Daughters of Charity, The Ladies of Charity, St. Vincent De Paul Society, VSC and others gathered together. The keynote speaker at the event was Father Greg Boyle, who is known for his work in gang intervention through HomeBoy industries. If you've never heard of it you can check it out here. He is a phenomenal speaker with amazing stories. Following his energizing presentation, we ate some really, really good food. Later that evening, Taboo and box wine was had amoung the MM family and Sally, who came down for VFD.

On Sunday, everyone in our house except Jess (who will be going with the Boyle Heights house at a later date) went on a whale watching excursion. We boarded the nautilus at 9am with about 45 other people and set out to Catalina island. We saw a group of common dolphins, rizzo dolphins, bottlenose dolphins and a fin back whale. The crew said it was one of the best days they've had in months. It was incredibly cold, which we expected. We all had layers on, but being on the ocean on a cloudy day made it even colder. Catalina island is a gorgeous place and I'd like to get back sometime. Because we saw so much on our way to the island we didn't have a great deal of time to explore. We went on a very short hike before heading back to the boat to a chilly journey back to the mainland.

Here are some pictures courtesy of Adrienne!



On our way to Catalina island. It was a rocky ride at times and required a broad stance, which Holly was apparently found amusing.












Some of our dolphins. Pictures were incredibly difficult to get. I believe these were some of the common dolphins. The bottlenose were the coolest. They got right up to the boat and played around for a while. There was even a baby dolphin!









A view of Catalina island from where we hiked to.












In an effort to stay warm on the boat the ladies wrapped their scarves around their heads. Adorned with their fashionable sunglasses, Adrienne deemed themselves 'fabulous peasants'