Mosaic project

We were driving recently to San Pedro this past weekend and spotted some people along a wall.  They were working on some mosaic.  We have noticed some activity along here a couple of weekends ago as well and so on the way home last Saturday, we decided to stop and ask what was going on. Well, it's a beautification project along 25th street, east of Patton.  We were suppose to go to a strawberry farm to pick strawberries on Sunday but due to the heat, the tours were canceled! :-(

So we decided to go work on the mosaic project instead:

The lady in charge gives us a template for a ship and a bag of tiles:

Just like a puzzle she says!

All done so we get the lady-in-charge.  There are already some other random ships on the wall as well:

Time to get it on the wall and the lady-in-charge shows us how:

She also later explained to us that this ship is called the "Absaroka".  Never heard of it before, so it was a great history lesson too!

Thumbs-up from Charlie!

Graham sorts of wanders off....

Momma is plowing through.  Crazy enough, I was sore the next 2 days after doing this just from squatting and bending over for those 2+ hours!

Magically, it is done!!!  I hope we fixed up those tiles properly with that mortar and nothing falls off!

Here is the close-up of the USS Absaroka ship:

I think we were pretty close.  Nice job Pridgen family! :-)

The USS Absaroka was originally a steamer in the service of the US Navy - named after the Absaroka Range of mountains in Montana and Wyoming (which I am just learning is named after the Absaroka Indians).  The ship was built in 1917 and between Oct 1918 - Feb 1919, the Absaroka made two transatlantic voyages carrying Army cargo to ports in France, England, and the Netherlands. During this 2nd trip, the ship rescued the captain and crew of the disabled British steamer "War Marvel" and landed them safely back in England.  Woohoo..!!!

On Feb 12, 1919, the Absaroka arrived in New York City and was drydocked for overhaul. It was later decommissioned that March and returned the United States Shipping Board. At the beginning of WWII, the ship was owned by the McCormick Steamship Company as a lumber carrier.  The Absaroka was torpedoed and damaged by the I-19 Japanese torpedo off Point Fermin, and beached off Fort MacArthur.  Point Fermin is only about 8 miles away from our apartment!  We will need to go check it out one day.