Surfers in Santa Monica, 1964

LA Times Photo Archive at UCLA. Surfers at Santa Monica, July 1964.

I'll be back in LA soon enough for meetings, and as always I'm looking forward to a return visit to Santa Monica. Given some recent surf experiences in Portugal & Morocco, I'm hoping to find time for one in LA too.

For some previous postings, see:
- Santa Monica, 1884
- Santa Monica in 1877
- Friday Photo - Santa Monica in 1908 (with links to eight earlier Santa Monica-related posts)
- Travel Tuesday - Historic Santa Monica

Esther's Homestead

Source: BLM GLO Records. Homestead for Maria Esther Suastegui.

In my initial post on Maria Esther Suastegui in July 2017, I included a public notice of her Homestead claim filed with the District Court at Yuma, Arizona on 14 October 1890. Above is a copy of the certificate for that homestead claim, for 160 acres not far from the Gila-Salt River. Her first husband's father, Asa H. Post, and his daughter, Mary Elizabeth Post, had nearby homesteads, as did her second husband, Peter Munson, and third husband, James H. Graham. 

Photos from Yuma County

Source: Yuma County Library Archives.

Back in 2017, I wrote about the family of Maria Esther Suastegui, a daughter of my 5th-great-grandfather Francisco Suastegui, half-sister of my 4th-great-grandfather Pedro Suastegui. I made a query to the Arizona Historical Society for photos, and they directed me to the Yuma County Library Archives. Yuma County came back last week with some photos, showing the family of Maria Esther. The one above, which looks like it was taken from inside a house looking out onto a patio, shows from left to right, Jose Venegas (husband of Virginia Suastegui), Asa Frank Post, Maria Giron Post, Maria Esther (listed as Mrs. Graham in the photo), Anita Post and Pete Munson.

Source: Yuma County Library Archives. Family of Maria Esther Suastegui.

Another photo shows Asa Post, Maria Giron Post, Maria Esther, and Asa & Maria's son Albert Post.

Source: Yuma County Library Archives.

The last photo in the set shows Maria Giron Post and her daughter Maria standing next to a car. The passengers in the car are not labeled, but I think Maria Esther is in the back seat and Asa Post is at the wheel. The photos are not dated. As Maria Esther died in 1929, and given young Maria's apparent age in the photo (she was born in 1915), I think these were taken in the mid-1920s.

Source: Yuma County Library Archives.

Tile art in Madrid

Photo by Patrick Jones. Madrid, 29 Aug 2019.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Madrid, 29 Aug 2019.

Madrid in August

Photo by Patrick Jones. Mural by FinDac in Madrid. 28 Aug 2019.

Our end-of-summer trip in Spain continued from Sevilla to Madrid, a city Allison and I visited in May 2017. Madrid is becoming one of my favorite cities in the world. On this trip we had an awesome Airbnb very close to the Reina Sofia Museum, with a rooftop view of the city.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Sunset from the Airbnb rooftop.

Most of our time was spent around the Retiro park, the Lavapiés neighborhood of our Airbnb, or at the awesome Mercado de San Miguel (which we also visited in May 2017). The kids enjoyed the market. We're going to have to go back to Madrid again sometime.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Interesting tiles on this shop.

Photo by Patrick Jones. From a sunrise run.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Rose Garden in Retiro. 29 Aug 2019.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Chasing cats & peacocks in Retiro.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Lovely day in Retiro.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Yummy empanadas in the Mercado.