Date shakes, Landing Hill, lions and wall calendars

How's this for complicated: The image above is a scan of a photo of a painting of Mission San Juan Capistrano as it appeared 100 years ago. (As always, click the image to enlarge.) The photo comes from the Library of Congress' collection.

Orange Coast Magazine reporter Cynthia Furey, is "working on a story about the Crystal Cove Shake Shack (or Crystal Cove Date Shack, in previous years)," and could use our help. If you know anything about the history of this place or have any "nostalgic stories about the shack," please send her an email, or post it as a comment to this blog.

Jamie Cleland and Andrew York will present a program entitled, "Settlement and Ceremony at Landing Hill" at the Jan. 10th meeting of the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society (PCAS). Landing Hill, located between Alamitos Bay and Anaheim Bay in Seal Beach, is known for its many archaeological sites. For more information, visit the PCAS website.

Outside The Berm recently posted photos from the opening week of Lion Country Safari in Irvine. Personally, I think Irvine could be livened up a great deal by bringing back the lions -- But this time without any fences.

Daveland posted its 500th entry on Christmas, and it's good stuff. It begins a multi-day series of photos from Disneyland's opening year, 1955.

The 2008 O.C. Mexican American Historical Society wall calendar -- featuring a historic photo for each month -- is now available for $10. Visit the OCMAHS website for details.