I went back to see my family (parents,sister,kids) for 6 days. It was nice to catch up with them on family matters. The nicest part of the trip was a visit to the Botanical Gardens where there were exhibits of Chihuly glass sculptures embedded within plant life. I found it quite pretty. Here are some of the photos I took with my small camera.
Walking Man Statue at Mission
Path From Mission Train Station
Union Station Private Car Collection
Chinatown Shops
Buster’s Coffee Sign in Pasadena
I took one of my weekly day trips to one of the outlying areas of LA. I picked Pasadena as there is a nice new train called the Gold Line (I joke and call it the Golden Shower Line). The view of the area from the train is great. And as some of you know, I really like trains. I had lunch and stopped by a coffee shop in the area at the Mission stop. I liked the walking man metal statue. Looking forward to tonight with Chi Chi and Matthew Rush.
Fountain at SBC Tower
Union Station Private Car Collection
Los Angeles River
Chinatown Station of Gold Line
I did not go to tuesday club and was able to have Tony take over for me for a few months. He did not say how it went. I plan on calling him today to see if all went well. Yesterday I went with my friend Ed to Pasadena. We walked around Colorado Blvd and the old town area. We took the yellow line train. Its a scenic trip. Tonight I go to see Chi Chi and a few of her boys.
Mountains at Palm Springs
Another view
One more view
I left Friday for a quiet weekend in Palm Springs. Nothing planned at all. Just walked around, relaxed, and lounged in the hotel room. Sometimes its necessary to get away from LA for a few days and just decompress. So I did just that and had a nice time. I only took the travel camera and took a few shots of snow capped mountains. I rented a car and sure was stunned by a few aspects of that. To start with, I use public transit in LA and do not own a car, for those who do not know me. I carry a california license but use it only when traveling. Ok back to two big shocks. One, how did gasoline get so expensive? Two, the terribly planned and designed LA roads are boggling to the mind. No, the reason traffic is so congested and poor in LA is not just because of too many vehicles. Its because the stop lights are not timed/synchronized and the highway system is the worst design in this entire country. I have driven a car in almost all 50 states, highways, local streets, and so forth. Example, I was coming back on I-10 and just before I hit the downtown LA area, instead of logically going below the city and continuing I-10 through, the left most 5 lanes become the 101 freeway while I-10 gets piped through 1 lane for almost 3 miles. You blink, and you get to take the 101 freeway instead of logically continuing on I-10. I call that extremely retarded. If the engineers responsible for this lack of design are still living, I hope they are cursed to travel those routes hourly. If I had to commute through this on a daily basis, I would have to move away. Astonishing how the goverment of LA has not taken this problem and fixed it due to embarrasment. But another perfect example is the construction along Santa Monica Blvd which for about 10-15 miles is a major east/west artery. This project in any other well run city would have taken maximum of 1 year. But here it has taken over 3 and still is not completed. In Chicago, an entire freeway was paved in 6 months for 15 miles. But then that is a real city unlike LA.
I went to pasadena for a day trip to check out the gold line train and the colorado street shops again. It was nice. Got me out of the house. Tomorrow I am doing Latino Pride and then Men At Work party at Avalon.