Long Beach Water Taxi 9/3/2015  

Did You Know? - An adventure is an exciting or unusual experience. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.

Adventures may be activities with some potential for physical danger such as exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, river rafting or participating in extreme sports.

The term also broadly refers to any enterprise that is potentially fraught with physical, financial or psychological risk, such as a business venture, or other major life undertakings.

NOTE: At our age, the water taxi IS an adventure

Did You Know? - Fernand Petiot claimed to have invented the Bloody Mary in 1921, well before any of the later claims. He was working at the New York Bar in Paris at the time, which later became Harry's New York Bar, a frequent Paris hangout for Ernest Hemingway and other American expatriates. Harry's Bar also claims to have created numerous other classic cocktails, including the White Lad and the Side Car.

Did You Know? - The term water taxi is usually confined to a boat operating on demand, and water bus to a boat operating on a schedule. In North American usage, the terms are roughly synonymous.

Did You Know? - Photobombing is the act of accidentally or purposely putting oneself into the view of a photograph, often in order to play a practical joke on the photographer or the subjects.

Photobombing has received significant coverage since 2009.

In discussing a "stingray photobomb" picture that went viral, Andrea DenHoed suggests that the photobomb label "implies a narrative of surreptitious sabotage,"although in the sense of unintended and/or initially unnoticed people in the background of spoiled photographs, photobombs have existed for much of the history of photography.

Did You Know? - The most ancient examples of primitive life jackets can be traced back to inflated bladders of animal skins or hollow, sealed gourds, for support when crossing deep streams and rivers. Purpose-designed buoyant safety devices consisting of simple blocks of wood or cork were used by Norwegian seamen.

The Mae West was a common nickname for the first inflatable life preserver, which was invented in 1928 by Peter Markus (1885–1974) (US Patent 1694714), with his subsequent improvements in 1930 and 1931.

The nickname originated because someone wearing the inflated life preserver often appeared to be as physically endowed as the actress Mae West.

It was popular during the Second World War with U.S. Army Air Forces and Royal Air Force servicemen, who were issued inflatable Mae Wests as part of their flight gear.

Did You Know? - Alamitos Bay is an inlet on the Pacific Ocean coast of southern California, United States, between the cities of Long Beach and Seal Beach, at the outlet of the San Gabriel River. The bay is named for the Spanish word for 'little poplars'.  The primary inflow is from the Los Cerritos Channel.

Did You Know? - In 1940 freshwater pumping wells along the coast of Los Angeles County began to be abandoned due to seawater intrusion. A cooperative study between the United States Geologic Survey's Water Resources Division and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District to investigate this critical situation determined in 1943 that immediate action was necessary to restrain the situation.

Of the different alternatives, only artificial groundwater recharge was found to be economically feasible. Although storm water spreading basins could be used to recharge local unconfined aquifers, which lie directly beneath the ground surface, something different and innovative was necessary to reach those deeper confined aquifers containing by far the most fresh water.

The Alamitos Barrier project, which is comprised of 43 injection wells to provide a freshwater pressure ridge and 4 extraction wells to form a trough which breaks the landward gradient of intruding seawater, is located near the Los Angeles-Orange County line about two miles inland from the mouth of the San Gabriel River. To monitor the project performance, there are 226 observation wells along the barrier alignment, between injection wells, and spread out both landward and seaward in the vicinity of the barrier. The observation wells are used to monitor water surface elevations and depth specific chloride levels.

Did You Know? - The THUMS Islands or Astronaut Islands are a set of four artificial islands in San Pedro Bay off the coast of Long Beach, California. They were built in 1965 to tap into the East Wilmington Oil Field. The landscaping and sound walls were designed to camouflage the operation and reduce noise, and they are the only decorated oil islands in the United States.

After a 1964 court case that gave the state of California mineral rights to the area, the islands were built at an estimated cost of $22 million in 1965, the islands were operated by THUMS, a consortium named after the parent companies who bid for the island contract: Texaco, Humble Oil (now Exxon), Union Oil, Mobil Oil, and Shell Oil.

The rim of the islands are made of 640,000 tons of boulders from Catalina Island, and the islands were then filled with 3.2 million cubic yards of dredged material from the bay.

The islands contain significant landscaping, a waterfall, and tall structures concealing the drilling rigs, including one known as The Condo and mistaken for "a ritzy hotel" by those on land.

The structures are lit in colored lights at night. The aesthetic mitigation cost $10 million at time of construction, and was overseen by theme park architect Joseph Linesch. They were described by a Los Angeles Times writer as "part Disney, part Jetsons, part Swiss Family Robinson"