You can't get to Yosemite by train.

Yosemite Valley is the most beautiful place on earth that I have ever visited.

A rain storm passed through Yosemite Valley this weekend in April 2018. Park was closed till Sunday due to flooding. I decided to drive up alone Monday for a few days of photography. And there is the rub, drive up alone. None of the human contact available on a train.

With no people to observe I was limited to places and scenery.

The first noteworthy observation was the water level in Pyramid Lake is practically back to the fullest I have ever seen. I smiled. So good to see that.
Pyramid Lake, CA

Crossing The Grapevine on Hwy 5:

Further up the Grapevine I noticed a bright orange flower coloring the nooks and crannies of the mountain side gullies. CA Poppies In 2017 their appearance was lauded as a rare event. "What's rare is wonderful", and it's back again this year. A beautiful sight to add to many other beautiful CA sights. Images of the bloom

I left Hwy 5 for the 99. The 99 is a little important for me since the first place I lived in CA was Modesto. Modesto is apparently and affectionately known as the armpit of the San Joaquin Valley.

Agriculture:

 San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley is described on the EPA website as ".....one of the world's most productive agricultural regions". 

I knew this because as a youngster in elementary school in Ireland Ballymackney National School we had learned that the Central Valley of CA was so agriculturally productive it could produce enough food each year to feed the world multiple times over.  

There is another great valley someplace else in the world almost equally productive do you know where ? (email me for answer) As much as two-thirds of this country's surface land consists of the so-called black earth (chornozem), a resource that has made XXXXXXX one of the most fertile regions in the world and well known as a "breadbasket".

We learned all this in Elementary School geography. Probably so we would know that Ireland's agricultural economy was facing some very stiff competition.

I awoke one morning in Modesto years ago to find the town smothered in Tule Fog and the ground appeared white. Almost like being covered in snow. But it was Almond Leaves blown off the Almond trees that surrounded the town. A beautiful experience. A memory that has lingered with me over the years.

The towns along Hwy 99 are a variety of size shapes and economic exuberance. Their common feature is an abundance of agriculture based industries. Yes that's right AGRICULTURE. It's a huge unspoken part of our diverse economy here in CA. I have friends in places like Nebraska who were not aware of Ca's huge agri-economy. My friends know that when I shop for groceries I always try to buy CA Grown fruits and veg. Occasionally I am forced to buy berries from  Mexico. But that's because her ladyship enjoys berries and I'm well aware of the old maxim "A happy wife makes a happy life". It's taken me 43 years to appreciate the wisdom of that maxim !!!

Hwy 99 starts with Bakersfield home of some great country music, Basque restaurants and at one time the largest oilfield in the US. A history of oil in bakersfield. This history was of course the story in the great Daniel Day Lewis movie There will be blood. Lewis won one of his Oscars for this show.

Just north of Bakersfield is McFarland. McFraland Website

Kevin Costner made a movie about the young people in this small town. The movie in my opinion celebrates the great Central Valley Hispanic tradition of hard back breaking work and the aspiration of all hard working people to give their children the opportunity to have a good life with less hard physical work. 

Some thoughts on physical labor:

Hard physical labor is bloody hard work. And the older you get the more difficult it becomes. There is not a lot that is romantic about the labor itself. There is however romance to be found within the people who are forced to survive via that hard labor.

A common elementary school  money making thing to do while I was growing growing up was to help with the potato harvest. (We were allowed take days of school to assist with this significant event). I spent a few days on my knees in wet clay mud with hemp sacks tied around my lower legs to try to stop them from totally freezing, being a tall gangling 6 ft kid my back would scream in agony each night during potato picking time. Looking back now I honestly believe that it may have  been this experience, of hard back breaking work,  that convinced me to knuckle down to my studies at high school and college. My favorite Irish Poet Patrick Kavanagh had a bit to say about picking potatoes.

Next time I drive to Yosemite I am going to actually stop in McFarland. After that McFarland inspired Kavanagh memory.

Continuing North on 99 you come to Delano. I think there should be something more to say about Delano. But all I know about it is that it is home to 2 big prisons and it produces a lot of grapes. 

After Delano you will see road signs for Visalia. I cannot hear that name without thinking Onion, even though the onion is a Vidalia. Around Visalia I consider should I turn off Hwy 99 and go to Sequoia National Park instead of Yosemite. I never do but will drive to Sequoia on the way home. Sequoia National Park.

After Visalia it's a straight shot to Fresno and then Hwy 41 to Yosemite. Hwy 41 is a lovely drive through the mountain low lands. The towns of O'Neals, Coarsegold, and Oakhurst. 

I generally stay in Oakhurst if I am not camping. Just try to arrive well fed to Oakhurst. Despite a year round flow of tourist traffic through this little town it offers food that belies my earlier comments about the great agricultural tradition of California. There are adequate breakfast restaurants in this small town but that's because you don't usually eat veg for breakfast. I had a pizza here this trip and unfortunately the poor kid screwed up even a pizza.See my YELP Review here!

As I said don't arrive in Oakhurst hungry. But it's a convenient place to stay to tour Yosemite.

I like to get into the valley as early as possible like 6 or 7 am. Love that morning light. And I am  gone usually by 3 or 4 pm.

I cannot write about Yosemite Valley. It is the most beautiful place on earth that I have ever visited.

In the spirit of a picture being worth a thousand words ....

On the way home this trip I decided to visit Sequoia National Park. Another gem within our great National Park system.

Returning from Sequoia I took a different Hwy. I used Hwy 65 through Lindsay and Porterville and back to Bakersfield. Saw some new beautiful scenery. I never actually knew there was MORE agricultural life and magnificent beauty East of Hwy 99.

A great trip met lots of great people, But I'd still prefer train travel.

Drama on the Burbank Express (return leg at least)

Another solo flight I'm sorry to say. That's my fault as today was very spontaneous.

I am searching for ideas to decorate the under stairs empty space in our living room and also decorating ideas for our bedroom. ( I was going to say ideas to liven up our bedroom but decorum won out). Hence a spur of the moment decision to take the train to Downtown Burbank and visit the new enlarged Ikea there. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/store/burbank

And who am I you wonder. Am I Loco or Motive.? I shall not say. I will say however "I am an ordinary man, nothing special nothing grand" while he is a mechanically able mighty minded musician. I also enjoy a little alliteration every now and again.

$5.50 for a return trip. With gas at $3.25 a gallon its great value. It's 40 miles to Burbank and return. In my truck at 11 MPG that's 4 gallons. You do the math.

I was parking by the Community Center when I watched the 2:10 train depart. No worries I am retired remember. And have recently bought a road map http://maps.randmcnally.com/ because Google  https://www.google.com/ gets me there too fast.

While awaiting the 3:00pm train a 55 year old homeless guy came and sat beside me. I didnt intuit his age .... he told me.

He was smoking his filtered cigarette and sipping from a wee airplane sized bottle of Jim  Beam. The no smoking signs surrounding us are obviously losing their deterrent effect. I wasn't bothered by either, the signs his smoking nor his drinking, and we chatted intermittently during our wait.

Another great mystery of the world - how come homeless guys can keep loose cigarettes in their pockets and manage not to crush or break them ? Is this a superpower ?.

He was originally from Virginia, Richmond to be precise.

He was wearing shower flip flops over white socks.

And was supposedly heading to Palm Springs. I had no idea you could get a train to Palm Springs and told him so. He was unsure too so I looked it up for him. Two trains and two buses would get him there in about 7 hours. I explained this to him as briefly as possible.

My insight is my super power and I had determined his retention ability was being imapired by his imbibing. He asked repeatedly if I knew how he would find the train he needed at Union Station. Unfortunately I really didn't know and told him so. He was not unhappy with that answer.

He then tried to claim that whatever river it is that runs through Richmond, Va was the longest in the USA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_River Perhaps my immigrant accent led him to believe that I was unaware of the great Mississippi. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River I promptly corrected him telling him  I knew my Tom Sayer / Huck Finn stories.

He smiled, I thought acceptingly at me, but in retrospect it could have been the Jim Beam hitting home that brought the smile to his face.

Unfortunately for him he had failed to acquire a train ticket and therefore was left abandoned on the platform while the other 3 passengers and my self scurried aboard for Burbank.

I was once again struck by the lack of WiFi on the train. I was reminded of a recent trip to Dublin, not a wealthy city at all, but there even the buses have free WiFi. Not only that there is an electronic bill board that clearly displays both the upcoming station as well as the expected ETA there. There are similar facilities on-board trains on the Eastern seaboard of the US. Why not here in sunny SoCal .@Metro https://www.metro.net/ .

Had a minor disappointment at Burbank Downtown. It's less than a mile to Ikea but I was unsure if the streets had sidewalks or not. So I called a Lyft. https://www.lyft.com/ One was supposedly coming 5 minutes away, 4 minutes away, 2 minutes away. Then I get a notification that another car was coming and it was only 10 minutes away. I decided to let Google Maps walk me to Ikea.

Does Google Maps only give walking directions on  streets with pedestrian sidewalks ? I think it may as the 18 minute walk was all on sidewalks.

Ikea, once I figured out where the pedestrian entrance was, was its usual inspiring self for my decorating projects and provided a very satisfying Chicken Cordon Bleu, mixed veg and mashed potatoes smothered in gravy, with salad and unlimited delicious coffee. All for less that $10.

When I was ready to leave I tried Lyft again as by now I was at 7,000 steps on my Apple step counter and was a little tired. I hate that step counter as I always feel lazy if my step count at the end of the day is less than 10,000 steps. It's at 8,069 as I write this.

I had to call the Lyft driver twice to help him find me at the entrance. He had driven down  to the underground parking and was waiting for me there at that entrance.

A $5 Lyft ride and a $5 tip and I was at Burbank Downtown Metro station awaiting the train back home. https://www.metro.net/ It was after 6 and so lots of commuters.

When the train arrived I had to first check if it was the correct one. The schedule on the internet  https://www.metro.net/ said the train number was 221. Of course that was NOT the number displayed on the train engine that stopped. But it was in fact the train I needed. So all aboard.

I had entered via the handicapped door. No worries there were able bodied seats available. Although at least 2 of the handicapped seats were occupied by able bodied people. I sat behind one of the handicapped seats and only noticed after I sat down that the other seat by me was filled with someone's stuff.

The owner of the stuff was a good looking 30+ year old who had moved up a row to try to chat up another attractive 30+ year old. He got slightly agitated when I offered to safeguard his stuff. He wasn't having any of that thank you . So he pulled his expensive Lowepro backpack and hefty garbage bag and his windbreaker jacket up alongside him and her in the wheelchair accessible seat. Thankfully he was 100% engaged in chatting up his attractive seat neighbor and left me alone. I couldn't figure out where he was coming from. But I guessed hospital as he had left a crumpled up face mask in a clear plastic bag on the floor of my seat. I hoped he was well on his way to recovery.

I became a little agitated my self when another wheelchair came on at the next station and Lothario made no effort to give up his seat. Neither did the young lady who was enjoying his ministrations. No worries the driver of the wheelchair was very skillful and he maneuvered into another seat vacated by the train's ticket taker. (What is his title ? Conductor ? )

Next thing you know there was a loud female screeching from a young lady behind me. All other noise on the train stopped. We all listened in to the one sided conversation she was having across her phone punctuated by her screeching that "they were going to take away my baby" and it was "your fault. You are starting trouble for me. I told you not to answer the phone. They going to take away my baby ... "

Scary life changing consequences indeed.

Within  a few moments silence had broken out and I dared take a look at the screecher. She was young and extremely beautiful with a gorgeous little energetic tyke struggling on her lap. I was instantly sad and a bit depressed. What roads had she traveled that led her to the belief that "They" were going to take away her son. And who the hell was creating trouble for her at home.

After we exited the San Fernando tunnel https://scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw2137a.htm I stood up to get ready to exit. There were a number of other folk exiting too. The train ticket guy opened the door and looked up the line while the train was moving. He was greeted by a strong stench of something awful and promptly looked at a young black guy standing by the door and asked him if he had farted. Seriously has asked the young fit muscly guy had he farted. The guy answered No! in a surprised voice. I cracked up and laughed aloud which prompted several others to laugh as well. I admonished the young ticket collector that he should not now look at me "The Old Guy" as the source of the odor. This elicited another snicker from those of us who had heard the original encounter. Several of  us were still laughing at  the ticket collector's audacity as we walked down the platform My depression was lifted that quickly.

I was aware I hadn't spent too much time agonizing about the plight of the beautiful young screecher. But I was committed to finding beauty and cheerfulness now.

As I drove down Newhall Ave past Hart High my search for beauty was rewarded more than once.

First it was the sight of a 40 something Hispanic couple strolling arm in arm on the sidewalk, their beautiful chocolate colored skin shinning with happiness. ( I envied their skin tones. Bet they never had to deal with skin cancers on their faces unlike my Celtic visage ).

I rolled down my windows as I passed Hart High and was rewarded with the wonderful smell of fresh cut grass coming from Hart's new soccer fields. The smell of fresh cut grass is very evocative for me. But that is a story for another trip.

I was once again embraced by the warmth and comfort of the SCV suburbs.

Vol 2 Santa Monica (It's much faster by car)

Exploring LA by train from Santa Clarita

Vol 2 Santa Monica

By Loco & Motive (being two friends embracing retirement with open arms -- and bad knees)

October 9, 2017

Back at Newhall Station, must be honest, though, I was flying solo on this second trip as my partner in crime was unavailable and I had a good reason to get to Santa Monica. My bride of 42 years and I had gone to a movie in Santa Monica the previous evening at the Laemmle theatre and she had left her glasses behind in error. So being the dutiful husband that I am I volunteered to ride the train down to pick them up.

The movie we went to  was called School Life,  an Irish documentary about a pre high school boarding school. I didn’t know such a thing existed. They are a funny bunch these 1%’ers. Locking their kids away in  boarding school at age 8 or 9.  My parents didn’t lock me away in  boarding school until I was 11. But then we were not 1%’ers.

I attended St Macartan’s College in my native Ireland. It’s all co-ed and cozy these days with no boarder’s. But when  I took my kids to see it in the ‘90’s they both commented on how like a prison you’d see in a movie it looked.  Shure it’s grande, didn’t it make a man out of me.

I digress, apologies.

To get to Santa Monica using METRO Trains from Union Station you need two METRO lines, The Red Line to 7th Street then change to the Expo LIne to Santa Monica.

Metrolink / Metro TAP link

Mystery solved. Notice the letters “tap” in the top right hand side of the ticket. Well this signifies that the rider (me) can  transfer one time from Metrolink to Metro using this ticket. Ta daaaa.

Now to get to Santa Monica one needs two Metro trains. So you should invest in a TAP card in any case. I still have mine loaded with $20 from our maiden voyage.

Still puzzled by which track to use at Newhall, I found a security guard who advised that all Southbound trains through Newhall always use Track 1. I don’t believe him but today he was right.

The first freight train to pass through almost deafened me and the next one caused our departure to be delayed. Delays on METROLINK do appear to be a common occurrence. And seating at Newhall is not comfortable, I  may bring along my camping chair next trip.

Surfboard Storage

The following sign over the train door lets you know you are in Southern California, doesn’t it?

Oak Groves outside Newhall

Before you enter the San Fernando Tunnel look around you outside. There are some old growth original oak groves just on the edge of town. Really beautiful California Oak trees.

Now the ride from Newhall to Union Station is not high speed rail. But since we are retired and not in a rush that is OK.

I recently visited Barnes and Noble and bought a Rand McNally Road Atlas, when  checking out the attendant asked why I’d bought it, my response was “Because Google gets me there too fast!”.

Union Station

It’s worth taking a few moments to wander around this small, knee radius friendly  but beautiful station. It’s LA so you know it’s going to be cool and funky.

And entertaining

This guy was really talented on the piano. I couldn’t figure out if he was a well nourished hobo or an underpaid musician. But he was very very good.

To get to Santa Monica from Union  Station  using METRO Trains you need two METRO lines, The Red Line to 7th Street then change to the Expo LIne to Santa Monica.

Finding your way around Union Station is easy.

I was looking for the RED line - see spot above.

Once I walked downstairs this is  the view.

A little dark and intimidating at first but it’s ok.

A lot of signs on the train and on walls tell you to go to METRO website for information. But down here there is no signal. A bit Pennywise-ish if you ask me.

On my first train (Union to 7th Street) there were good on train announcements. So getting off at correct station was not an issue.

However once in 7th. Street station  it was unclear how to get to the Expo Line. Signs were all over the place but I had to ask one of the many attendants that were hanging around.

It was up and over a stairs to get to the Expo Line platform.

Metro Train Photos

The Expo Line

The line is named "Expo" after Exposition Boulevard, which it runs alongside for most of it’s route. Exposition  Blvd. gets its name from Exposition Park which was re-opened in 1913.

I got onboard the train that said it was destined for Santa Monica, just got settled in and was told over the announcement system to please exit this train as it was going out of service and another would be along promptly.

We did, it left and along came another within 15 minutes.

I am  beginning to suspect that METRO may just be playing at trains at this time. Perhaps in a few months or years they will understand that public transport only works if you don’t have to think about it. It’s just always there and reliable.

There are 19 stops along this line. A lot of them run through USC campus area.  I will pay more attention to these stops on another trip as I am sure some of them offer things of interest in their locale.

The Expo Line is not a subway, so  it shares intersections with cars. This makes the journey a little slow.

The station at Santa Monica is located very nicely on Colorado by 4th. Street.

The pedestrian Mall in Santa Monica is on 3rd.

And in case you doubted that you are now in what we affectionately call The People’s Republic of Santa Monica the following photo will remind you.

As my brother likes to say “The “Land of the Free” as long as you have a permit.”

We love Santa Monica anyway.

I  had lunch at Uovo. Food was fantastic. The no tipping was awkward. The ambience was a wee bit arrogant. But I would go back because of the food and it’s so close to the Laemmle movie theatre.

A further comment on these no tipping restaurants - there was a 15% service charge auto added to my bill at Uovo. I enquired if this was a gratuity type thing and shared amongst the staff. The cashier I spoke to had no idea. 60 Minutes did a thing on this emerging trend at restaurants, on last night’s show actually. We will see I guess.

The journey down to Santa Monica took 2 hours. Google told me I could drive it in 45 minutes. But hey who trusts Google.

Return took 2 hours also and was uneventful.

Perhaps I could have speeded up the return by timing my trip to the return train from Union to Newhall. But see previous note about public transport.

A Beautiful Flower in Newhall

Spotted outside library on way back from Santa Monica.

Next Outing : The LA County Fair

Exploring LA by train from Santa Clarita

By Loco & Motive (being two friends embracing retirement with open arms -- and bad knees)

Aug 23 2017

Maiden Voyage - Chinatown

Stuff they just don’t teach you at school

In anticipation of our first train ride on Metrolink we had explored parking, as close to Newhall station as possible. And surprise surprise our first new piece of learning occurred. Right behind Newhall Station is a huge brand spanking new Community Center, with oodles of free commuter parking.

The new Community Center has been added to the list of things to learn more about, it’s apparently been here for 3-plus years but hey no one told us about it.

We also spent a useful 25 minutes learning how the train ticket dispenser works and if it would take credit cards. It did dispense and it does take plastic.

When planning a trip it’s important to know the official name of your destination train station. I have always referred to the main LA station as Grand Central, the result of too many movies and TV shows. The correct name is of course Union Station. You need that to buy your ticket because you define your destination using the first letter of the destination station  name.

We couldn’t exactly figure out how get from Metrolink Union Station to  the METRO Gold Line at Union station which promised to whisk you to Chinatown,  but decided to live dangerously and just wing it.

The Day off:

Armed with all of our pre planning knowledge we set off about 45 minutes ahead of the noonish train. We were going to go for the pre noon train but one of us was lazy.

Parking at the Community Center was a doddle, and buying the tickets was easy too. $7 round trip  Newhall to Union Station, $14 for the both of us.

Once we get on the platform we immediately encounter our first knowledge deficiency. There are two platforms or tracks at Newhall, identified as 1 and 2. If you end up on the wrong platform, you’re going to have to try a 50-yard run around the end of the station (bad knees, remember) and hope the train stays put for long enough for you to get to it.

We had seen a Northbound train depart from Track 2 but could we assume therefore that Southbound would depart from Track 1? Being the dashing explorers that we are we asked the prettiest waiting passengers we could find if they knew which track to use. Sadly, as is often the case in life, while they were pretty they were no more knowledgeable than we were.

Newhall is an unmanned station; no one to ask. An Internet search indicated that Southbound trains left from Track 2. We and all the other waiting passengers were on Track 1. So obviously we decided that the Metrolink online information was incorrect, and we continued our search for the truth.

First we tried the handy platform help telephone, which proved beyond our technical skills to operate. It was just too much. Both of us being college graduates with a lifetime of computer use behind us, it was totally beyond our technical ability to use this phone.

Further searching for help was required.

Lo and behold, a hand written note was stuck with scotch tape to the notice board glass announcing that the official printed schedule contained a misprint, and that today ALL trains would depart from Track 1. ( Why use the automated announcing system to tell people this or put it on the website when  there is still pen, paper and scotch tape available in the world?)

With our lack of faith in Metrolink’s website now in full bloom we proceeded to wait confidently on Track 1 for our southbound train when along comes another Northbound freight train which proceeds to sail right through on Track 2. This appeared incongruous with the hand written taped note we discovered earlier. But we rationalised the incongruity by saying “freight trains don’t count !”.

All Aboard:

Our train arrived -- yes, we’re standing on the correct side! -- and on we get.

There are three levels on each carriage, better views methinks.

We took seats on level 2 and began preparation for the next leg of our voyage, our eventual arrival at Union Station and the switch to the Metro Gold line.

A few minutes out of the station, suddenly all went black. Problem? No, just the San Fernando Tunnel, which is how the Metrolink makes its way through the Newhall Pass. The tunnel, more than a mile long, is still doing yeoman duty more than 140 years after its completion in 1876 by more than 1,500 workers, mostly Chinese immigrant laborers.

Getting back to planning, Google appeared to tell us that we had a 4 minute walk outside Union Station. However, who trusts Google ? So we asked a very nice young man, Hector, if he knew. Unfortunately nice did not translate to train station awareness so Hector was unable to help us. We did have a lovely chat with him, I kept interrupting his reading but he was polite. He is a second year physics student at Cal State Pomona. One of those smart young men who will no doubt re-invent the world. He had been visiting family in the Antelope Valley and was on his way back home to Claremont.

We arrived at Union Station armed only with the knowledge that we needed to find the METRO Gold line. Having explored the public transit systems of several other cities we were confident, if our knees could hold out, we would be ok. (This issue will be referred to from here on out as available knee radius).

UNION STATION:

Unlike its teeming counterparts in NY, London or Paris Union Station is calm, unhurried and almost tranquil.

The signs pointing to platforms and METRO lines are easy to interpret. Just keep a sharp eye and you will have no problems.

We walked along the tunnel for a tiny distance and were directed toward a Right turn toward an elevator and staircase. However to open  the elevator you needed a TAP card.

TAP card dispensing machines were right there. Figuring out what to do was another 25 minutes of trial and error.

Supposedly it was a 35c expense to ride the GOLD line one stop to Chinatown. It cost $1 to get a TAP card. So two tap cards later we were on the platform awaiting our train to Chinatown.

Further investigation has indicated that our METROLINK tickets may have given us access to METRO GOLD line for free. Although we have come across competing information in this regard. What the heck, live large its 35c. Or is it 70c with the return trip, I am unclear. ( We have since learned if your METROLINK ticket is appropriately marked with a TAP symbol, the first METRO connection is free).

Back on the platform, a by now familiar question emerges, which Track do we want to be on ? Luckily one of us is a Los Angelean by birth and has LA geography built into his DNA. He knew Chinatown was East of Union Station.

There were signs on each Track, one said East LA and the other said Azusa. Since we needed to go East one could almost assume we needed to be on the East LA track. But you know what they say about assuming….. The East Bound train is actually heading for Azusa.

Chinatown, It’s literally one stop away East of UnionStation.

The METRO Gold LIne:

The GOLD line from Union Station is a sightseer's delight.

Right outside Union Station is Olivera Street and Phillipe’s famous sandwich shop.

One train stop East is Chinatown.

One train stop West is Japantown.

Note to self: Find out more about LA’s METRO bikes. An attractive German couple were riding them around Chinatown. We will update you in an upcoming blog, newsletter, article or whatever this is.

Chinatown:

This is where Knee Radius becomes important.

As my Welsh friend reminds me when asked how are you doing the age appropriate response is “Everything is deteriorating on schedule”.

Both of us have dodgy and repaired knees.

We had selected a restaurant for lunch called Chinese Friends. It’s been here since the 1970’s. The distance Google indicated was within our tolerable Knee Radius, however without a terrain specific search we were once again winging it.

The GOLD line Chinatown stop drops you off right at College, one block away from Broadway. Broadway is as you know where all the Chinatown shops and restaurants are located.

Chinese Friends  was well within knee radius of the train stop. Lunch was delicious, the restaurant was as plain and simple as you expect a good chinese restaurant to be. Food was tasty and not a chop stick in sight.

Chopsticks are perhaps perceived to be a bit pretentious ? I suspect once Wolfgang Puck began giving them out at Pei Wei, authentic chinese restaurants stopped.

Our return trip was easy. Caught the early commuter train back to Newhall, arriving in at around 4:15. Since the pub (The Rose and Crown) opens at 4:00pm it was perfect time for an end of trip pint.

Next stop Santa Monica.

Noticeable landmarks spotted from the train:

Blossom Plaza - a retail residential new development located right at Chinatown GOLD line station. I’d live here for sure.

A Michael Connelly landmark. The homeless dwellings with campers. One in particular I will look out for again and get more specific location details. We had both recently read Connelly’s latest novel titled The Late Show. In it his new character Renee Ballard, who I intend to ask to marry me if older fat guys are her thing, has to do some detecting at a community of homeless people that has old campers in it. We both recognised it from the book. Mr. Connelly if you are reading this (which undoubtedly he is)  was it this community (visible from Metrolink around Sun Valley on  the Antelope Valley line) that inspired the one in  your book ?

A note to all visitors to LA, it’s worth reading all Michael Connelly’s books to get a sense of LA, as well as as a cracking good read. Connolly is to LA what Sandford is to Minnesota  and Rankin is to Edinburgh.

Whiteman Airport: I never knew it was even  there. MY LA in his DNA partner knew its name and that it’s an unmanned airport. Or as they are apparently known “A See and be Seen Airport”.