Waking the Dead: Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery

See Breeze Pet Cemetery - Huntington Beach, CA

Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery & Crematory is Huntington Beach, CA's premier destination for pet burials and cremations.  Without diminishing its stellar credentials, a rather perfunctory scan of the Yellow Pages reveals that Sea Breeze is the only pet crematorium in Huntington Beach.  Nevertheless, Sea Breeze has been faithfully serving bereaved pet owners since 1961.  Calling our lighthearted cemetery jaunts "Waking the Dead," visiting a pet cemetery is generally a novelty for us; understanding the solemnity of the grounds, however, we do our best to be respectful and follow the rules.

The rules.
Is it wrong to love the sign-painter fonts as much as I do?

In flagrant violation of bullet-point number five, we saw plenty of "standing decorations."
It is always a surprise to see pet cemeteries so lovingly tended and so flush with flowers
in stark comparison to overgrown people plots that so often look completely abandoned.  

Please don't think that the absurdity of the neighboring businesses has escaped me - that's a fast food joint next door.
"Where pets go to die and people go to eat!"  Is that a tag line or a deterrent?
And why do all of Sea Breeze's promotional materials proudly state, "We're Carl's Jr. adjacent!" (okay, not really)

As we wandered the manicured rows of lovingly-maintained markers, I decided to see if there might be some celebrity pet graves at Sea Breeze (we'd seen more than our fair share at Los Angeles Pet Mortuary).  Disappointed after finding no leads, I quickly perked up when I heard a distant voice mention, "two famous stars."  My mind raced wondering which celebrities would have their pets memorialized forever in Huntington Beach - Studs Terkel?  Una Merkel?  It took a moment before I realized that what I was hearing was the Carl's Jr. (Hardee's for those of you east of the Rockies) drive-thru where the "Famous Star" hamburger is a rather cruel joke for celebrity-hungry grave hunters.

We did happen upon one dog who achieved fame in his life;  Old Sarge was a highly-decorated US
Marine Corps dog who received the Purple Heart after saving the lives of nine marines during WWII.
Now that's a celebrity pet worth celebrating!!!

We didn't see the pets of any Hollywood stars but we did see the pets that left stars in the eyes of their owners.  The pet names which humans spend so much time and thought determining are always good for a chuckle.

Sometimes they are ridiculously precious.

And sometimes they are a little "on the nose."

The names can be funny but the breeds can be even funnier.

Call me old-fashioned, but I always thought guinea pigs
and rats were relegated to backyard shoeboxes.

Based on the engraved portrait, I think we're left to assume
that "Coors-Z" was a well-behaved, if bedraggled, Skunk??? 

My favorite grave markers are always those that strike me as odd.

Whether it's a slightly deluded view of the situation ("just asleep"), an alliterative epitaph, a questionable pet-human relationship, or a portrait of a demon cat that looks like it's ready to come back from the grave to eat my face, I never fail to get a kick out of the fascinating choices owners make when it comes to memorializing their pets.

Thousands and thousands of dearly-departed pets have been laid to rest on the grounds of See Breeze Pet Cemetery, but just like Disneyland's Haunted Mansion...

"There's always room for one more."
What?!?!!  Precious Poopy needs an otherworldly playmate.

Sea Breeze Pet Cemetery & Crematory
19542 Beach Blvd
Huntington Beach, CA
(714)962-7111

seabreezepetcemetery.com


Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Waking the Dead: Hollywood is Forever

I must admit that I am a sucker for a good celebrity sighting.  The older I get, the less I am struck by the stardom and the more I am struck by the value that our society (myself included) places on celebrity.  As much as certain magazines want to make us believe that they are "just like us," the truth is that celebrities are so very different.  Ask yourself, "When was the last time I worked for a couple months and got paid more money than most people will see over the course of their entire life?"  Ask yourself, "If I got busted for drugs, multiple hit-and-run accidents, and theft, would I still be free to drive my new Porsche?"  Ask yourself, "Will Promises have my regular room available?"  Then ask yourself, "Why do I still love celebrities so much?"  It is a cultural phenomenon which I refuse to battle.

Yes, celebrities are very different from the average Joe in most ways but one; eventually we ALL kick the proverbial bucket.  On one of our patented, absolutely directionless adventure days we headed to Los Angeles and encountered both celebrity and death! 

Do you recognize this house?

Sometimes it seems that the well of excitement around town has run dry; it is at that moment that I break out my trusty list of things that I still haven't seen (or covered here on wacky tacky) and we begin the hunt.  This time we tracked down one of the most infamous addresses in LA - The Los Feliz Murder House.  One Christmas Eve more than 50 years ago, a wealthy doctor, seemingly unprovoked, violently bludgeoned his wife to death before attacking one of his children and eventually killing himself.  As the story goes, the house has remained untouched for lo these many years and the creepy crime scene is still decorated for Christmas!  Every online reference to this property tells a version of the same story, but nobody backs it up with pictorial proof.  Sadly, we will be no exception to the rule; as soon as we got out of the car, a neighbor came out of her house and threatened to call the cops if we trespassed.  Given the house's history, it seems like there are far worse outcomes to exploring its grounds than getting into a hassle with Edison Security guards or the LAPD, but I was really not interested in pushing the limits of the wacky wagon as a getaway car, so we snapped a few photos of the house and hit the road.

With mortality on our mind, we made a short jaunt over to one of Hollywood's most famous resting places, Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

A Rolls Hearse - CLAAAAASSY!!!

Hollywood Forever Cemetery is tucked away off of Santa Monica Blvd. - a quiet respite from the city noise in the shadow of Paramount Studios.  There are many celebrities there, but we ran out of time and steam to track down every last one of them; here are just a few of our favorites.

A modest marker for King Kong's muse.

Fay Wray
(Source)

Finally sedated

Johnny Ramone
(Source)

A really lovely monument, surrounded by roses

Hattie McDaniel
(Source)

Security made it clear that Tyrone Power's tomb is not a park bench.

Tyrone Power
(Source)

Jayne's is just a cenotaph; her remains are elsewhere but a true Hollywood
legend needs a Hollywood address.

Jayne Mansfield
(Source)

C.B. was finally ready for his close up.

Cecil B. DeMille
(Source)

A flock of peacocks roams the grounds

Believe it or not, Vampira's grave wasn't on the map!
Fortunately, Mary found it as she wandered.

Maila "Vampira" Nurmi
(Source)

The most ostentatious temple to to man's ego is found at the grave of Douglas Fairbanks and his son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

A classical-style temple complete with bronze relief and reflecting pool

Dougy, is that you?

I guess if I had the funds, I would do the same thing.

Junior

(Source)

Senior
(Source)

Movie stars of every kind are buried here, even non-human celebs like Toto!

Toto gets a snuggle
(Source)

Some of the the most celebrated stars are resting inside the Cathedral Mausoleum.

Behind a pane of glass sits a bronze library with a volume dedicated to
tap legend, Eleanor Powell.  If you put your ear up to the glass, you can still
hear some fancy tapping.

Eleanor Powell
(Source)

"I Dood It" - Eleanor Powell

This is one of the finest feats of terpsichore that I have ever seen!!! 

I think this one was my favorite.  Peter Lorre is awesome!

Peter Lorre
(Source)

Hollywood Forever's most famous resident is perhaps the original "Latin Lover," Rudolph Valentino.

There are fresh kisses on the marble!

Rudolph Valentino
(Source)

Other notables include: Clifton Webb, Janet Gaynor, Nelson Eddy, Charlie Chaplin, Jr., Darla and Alfalfa (of Little Rascals fame), Mel Blanc, Norma Talmadge, and even though he doesn't appear on the star maps, David White (Darren's boss, Larry Tate, on Bewitched), is there too!

Hollywood Forever Cemetery is sort of a "must see" for lovers of Hollywood and "Hollyweird."  As morbid as it sounds, this is really my kind of celebrity sighting - no awkward silence (plenty of silence, none of it awkward).  As neat as Hollywood Forever is, I must say that I almost prefer the cemeteries of "regular" people; there I can invent my own backstory about their lives, loves, and losses.  Although they have long since passed on to their great reward, I can't help but get a bit of a thrill seeing the final resting places of so much Hollywood royalty.

Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd
Hollywood, CA
(323)469-1181

www.hollywoodforever.com


Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

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