Saturday, January 3, 2009

Photo Safari--Wilmington

Dale and I were out driving aimlessly this afternoon (love those low, low gas prices!) and we ended up in Wilmington. Now, I'm sure there are some fine folks that live in Wilmington, but it's not really the kind of place for aimless driving-around, if you know what I mean. However, it is the location of not only a National Historical Monument, but a California State Landmark as well.
Banning Park is the site of the Banning Residence--home of Phineas Banning, a state senator and early transportation mogul. Unfortunately, closed today. The stately home is surrounded with this cool corn-inspired wrought-iron fence.
Next we drove down the street to The Drum Barracks--a real part of The Civil War. It is now a National Historical Monument. It is kind of weird to see such an historical thing set in the shadow of the port and alongside vacant lots and run-down apartment buildings. It was closed too.
As we turned the corner, we saw this building and couldn't figure out what it was.

My guess was that it was an ice house, judging from the thick walls. I Googled its location when I got home and discovered that it was The Powder Magazine for the Drum Barracks. So here was another thing from the Civil War era just sitting across from a factory of some kind, right next to a regular house. I think the graffiti is new though.

We'll have to come back when these sites are open.

7 comments:

goldenrail said...

I talked to my friend in the Yay yesterday, and gas is actually cheaper there than in Wisconsin! Ridiculous.

MaryRuth said...

I think it is because the gas in both areas is refined in different places. We have ours refined on the West Coast and WI gets their gas from the Gulf Coast. So in hurricane season the Midwest gets a seasonal spike. Which isn't the case at the moment--so who knows what the difference is about.
One thing that always puzzles me is ....Torrance has a Exxon/Mobil refinery and there is a Mobil station on the corner of the facility. It has the highest prices of the area. Go figure!

goldenrail said...

Guess I'll just chalk it up to oil-evilness. Prices are nice here in Tennessee though, about $1.50. :)

Miss Healthypants said...

I love finding random places on meandering road trips. :) Iwanski and I love to see stuff like that.

MaryRuth said...

MHP--um...this wasn't a nice meandering road trip. It is actually only about 5 miles from my house and it is basically gang-land. We were driving near there getting photos of old signs (best place for them is in run-down neighborhoods) and we saw the sign for the Drum Barracks. We knew this historic stuff was down there, just didn't know exactly where. Plus like I said, it is not exactly a place for random exploring. We will be going back sometime though--Dale is somewhat of a history buff.
But you are right, road trips are cool and we love doing them. Here's a link to our Route66 trip--10 days of nothing but exploration.
http://homepage.mac.com/meestercranky/iMovieTheater112.html

Unknown said...

Gas is about $1.79 in Wisconsin today.

Love the fenec pix, MR!

MaryRuth said...

Mimi--I had to pay $2.03 today, so I'll cut back on the driving a little. The fence motif was really out of place--I could imagine it in the Midwest but I don;t know its significance here. Maybe we will find out when we go to the museum.