Pasadena in the Fall

This weeks post is a short one. I think I only took my film camera on this trip, so I don't have much to work with. But the lack of photos doesn't mean I wasn't able to find interesting places to take pictures of.

Several months ago, I visited the town of Pasadena. Its right on the skirts of the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel Valley. The downtown area, where I was this trip, has a great old town vibe. With a city hall that looks rivals most state capitals, a huge park(that has a summertime theater), and a couple of great gastropubs and bars, including Congregation Ale House, Haven and a Stone company store, there is something to do for everybody.

If you are coming from Downtown LA, you can easily hop onto the Metro Gold Line. Then you can sit and relax instead of sitting in the traffic. By freeway, it's directly off of the 210 and the 134 freeways. Pretty convenient.

A Short Stay in the Windy City

Now when I say my visit was short, I mean it! The train pulled into the Union Station around 3:30 PM. and I left at 9:30 on a different train.

Late last year, I saw this incredible time travel movie called Source Code. The main characters were on a Chicago bound train that had a bomb on it. Well, at the very end, it showed the main characters visiting a giant metal structure that had an incredible view reflecting off of it. So I started up the Google search and finally found the structure which looks like a giant metal bean sitting in the middle of a post modern designed city park called Millennium Park.

I did a hell of a lot of research on where to go on my 6 hour stay (probably more research than I did for New York), but I still managed to not have enough time to see everything I wanted. Another killer place to check out is Buckingham Fountain, which was seen on the into to Married With Children. the water shoots up in the air damn near into space! Well, maybe not that high, but its still amazing. And watch out if you walk near the Hilton on Michigan Ave. There was some pointless protest going on that blocked off every street in the area, and apparently, they happen ALL the time over there.

Jay Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park

View down Monroe St

A reflection off of the "Cloud Gate" sculpture, AKA The bean

Three monuments in front of Buckingham Fountain. The one in the middle really looks like the Headless Horseman until you get up close to it.

The skyline just north of Millennium Park

I always look for an opportunity for a self portrait.

If you go check out Cloud Gate, You'll get a view similar to this. I think you can see yourself about 543 times (not that many) from the odd concave shape underneath.

The Greatest City in the World Part 2

Here's Part 2 from my five day trip to New York. These are all mixed up from different days and don't really follow a specific order.

Times Square, Broadway and 6th Ave

Central Park, Near 5th Ave and 59th St

Central Park

Washington Sq Park, 5th Avenue and Washington Sq North

Enjoying a nice Sarachi Ace at the Brooklyn Brewery. The circles are tokens to get more beer.

Rockefeller Center

Skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge. That Freedom Tower looks more bad ass when you're standing next to it.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park

Brooklyn Bridge

The Greatest City in the World Part 1

I came back about a week ago from probably the best vacation I've ever taken. I went out to what still seems to be the hub of America, New York City. Over the next few posts, I'll bring to you some of my best vistas from my eight day trip, including my train ride to this magnificent city and my short visit in Chicago.

One of my biggest goals for this trip was to hit some of the views and locations that were less tourist trap and  played better to my imagination and my extreme eagerness. I do have several shots of well known landmarks, but they are more of an accidental nature. So, Sit back, relax and have a nice trip to the Big Apple.

Tom

The Chrystler Building, seen from near United Nations.

Third Story look inside The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

The 911 Memorial (South Tower)

the Statue of Liberty, seen from the Staten Island Ferry

A tour helicopter just after takeoff, Near the Staten Island Ferry Terminal in Battery Park

A guy fishing from just below the Brooklyn Bridge

A small police substation in Times Square

New York State Pavilion Observation Towers 

Central Park Near 5th Ave and 59th St

Red Bull Soccer Stadium, Harrison, NJ

North of the Bay

I was just about to edit some pictures from my recent hikes, at the Gaviota Wind Caves and at the Old Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park, when I rediscovered some pictures from my first trip up north from December. These shots were taken on Day 3 as I was circling around Oakland on my way to Sonoma and then back down to San Francisco through San Rafael.

This half of the trip was what really did it for me. Just to see all of the rolling hills filled with vineyards and to walk into the local Whole Foods (grocery store chain) and seeing an entire refrigerator wall full of craft brew beer. (see photo below) That was the biggest variety I have ever seen outside of Total Wine, Bevmo and La Bodega!

I started my day off in Fremont, CA. I had one mission to stop at before I started making my way to Vallejo.

View of the hills right next to Mission San Jose.

For those of you that might know the area, I hopped on the 680 and cut up, through the hills to the bridge  to Vallejo when I was stopped at a rape station...... err I mean toll booth. Apparently all of the bridges in the area have toll booths because our streets and freeways fund is always raided by the state government. But I digress.

I was bored while waiting for my turn to come. So I snapped this in the meantime.

I took a slight little detour through a bad ass nature reserve. I always love how the nature reserves are conveniently placed near a plant of some sort. This one was next to a ridiculously huge oil refinery and a Six Flags, which I became disappointed and sad when I saw that it was closed. Here are a couple of images while I was illegally and quite dangerously shot while going like 70mph

This bridge was the one that crossed over onto the nature reserve/marshlands.. Isn't that an awesome reflection of my defroster vent from my car?

From on top of the bridge seen in the previous shot. I believe the hills in the distance were from the San Rafael side of the upper bay.

Another view of the hills on the San Rafael side of the bay. I think I had to look through the viewfinder to attempt this shot. I didn't have any close calls and I am normally a safe driver. well... except for that speeding tickit and all of those accidents I was in previously. Anybody want to ride with me?

I was originally going to see the mission in the center of San Francisco first, but it didn't really make much sense and it would have cost me more gas in the long run. So, I hit the last mission on the list, San Francisco Solano, in Sonoma. Unfortunately, I'm still am working on my project so I don't have those pictures for your viewing pleasure at this time, but here are some of the cool sites around the town square where the mission also resides.

Since I had parked in a 2 hour parking spot and my lack of time, I hopped into my car and hi tailed it out of there. I had actually stopped at the nearest whole foods which was about a block away and snapped that shot at the top.  I'll have to do an in depth analyses at some point on one of the man made wonders that the area is incredibly well known for Russian River Brewery;s Pliney The Elder. Which are incredibly plentiful up there. I grabbed 3! Not as many as other people I know that got like 4 of those cheap Styrofoam coolers full of them.

I hopped on the road and made my way back to the 101 Freeway and stopped at the next destination, San Rafael. Unfortunately, I didn't really give a crap about that town. (can you blame me for being honest?) I got these next two shots that might have shown up on a previous post.

An uncanny ability to showcase a town, right?! I wasn't too enthused. My mind was stuck on what the next place looked like. 

These next two were also taken dangerously and probably illegally. The first one, I'm actually going to be hanging in my office at work sometime soon.

Well, That was most of a days events. For the pictures from later in the day, you can view them here.

I would like to leave you all with my picture of the trip. I took a similar one with Instagram, but this one was shot with film. It's perfect except for the photographer near the bridge in the middle and the person standing on the left, but hey, nobody is counting.

Chinatown In LA

It's hard for me to believe sometimes that there are areas of Downtown Los Angeles that I haven't visited yet. But I set out to for one that I've been wanting to see for many years. I decided on checking it out after seeing an article in the AAA magazine for Orange County, Westways, and they had an article showing different spots to check out in Downtown LA. They were Little Tokyo Restaurants, Art galleries in old Chinatown Store fronts, and an old fascination of mine, Old Theaters in Downtown LA.

The window of the Metro Blue Line train I took into town.

Chinatown is the area just north of the 101 Freeway and right below Chavez Ravine (aka Dodger Stadium, the inferior LA Baseball team). Its a very unique location for sure. The area started off as Little Italy. In fact there is still a standing building smack in the middle that was one of the more popular Italian restaurants of from that era.

There is a neat little shopping center in the center that has several shops with a WIDE variety of items, cool little hole in the wall restaurants, and other decorations to make the place look authentic.

That area was probably the most interesting of the whole Chinatown section. There were some other interesting places like the store you buy poultry at. much of the popular sights such as the cool entrance on Hill has now been impeded by tall buildings.

But thats what happens in the 2nd largest city. If you see sky, there must be something wrong.

Chinatown in Downtown LA is well worth the 5 second Metro Gold Line ride from Union Station. You won't find many other places like it. The only other chinatowns that could compare or be even better are the ones in New York and San Francisco, but that's just my opinion. Check it out.

To see some of my older works as well as what I'm currently working on, check out my gallery site timeside.smugmug.com or my portfolio othersideoftime.weebly.com

Thanks for stopping by, and see y'all on my next adventures.