In my exploring around Los Angeles, I've come to find that in every neighborhood, from the tired to the tony, I'll always see two things - beautiful flowers (especially now!) and a brand new car parked in someone's driveway (after all, LA is all about cars). Today, as I set off walking south from Pasadena, I realized I can add one more constant among all neighborhoods, Christmas decorations up all year! I found this is in the very exclusive San Marino.




My route continued into Alhambra where I ran across a community garden. I've been surprised at how many community gardens I've walked by since starting this venture. I expect them to be in a downtown urban environment (like downtown Boston, where I used to live) and not in a neighborhood of houses. Of course, there are plenty of apartment buildings in Alhambra.




I've tried unsuccessfully to understand why someone felt the need to make an abreviation of Alhambra for their concrete stamp! It's not like there isn't plenty of room for the full word!




These folks obviously have a policy of no shoes in the house and live in an honest neighborhood (or replace a lot of shoes).




I crossed over the 10 Freeway on my way into Monterey Park. Counting both directions, there are 8 driving lanes, 2 carpool lanes, 2 breakdown lanes AND a train track. It's a superhighway by any definition...and a parking lot during rush hour.




After travelling through Montebello, I was in the City of Commerce. When I was looking at the map before coming out today, I saw a bunch of railroad tracks. I assumed it was a switching yard. I was wrong. It is actually an area of warehouses and distribution centers with railways running along the back of the buildings. I sensed a lot of commerce goes on there.




I also sensed that someone doesn't like the L.A. Machinist Benefit Trust and Baker's Local 37. This was their front window!




Because of all that commerce, there are a lot of trucks in the area. I even walked by a dealership. Now, if we have out-of-town guests who want to have their Kenworth serviced, I'll know right where to send them!




Soon I was back in Montebello and stumbed across this memorial to the Battle of the Rio San Gabriel back in 1847. In fact, the memorial dates from 1944. The battle, apparently, was a key battle in the Mexican-American War. I wasn't expecting to run across a 150 year old canon!



The memorial is on the bank of the Rio Hondo Coastal Basin Spreading Grounds. I saw all the blue in my Thomas Guide but I had no idea what it was. Now I know that these spreading grounds are used to help recharge the aquifer to the tune of 150,000 acre-feet every year. If you're interested, you can find out more about it here. I know most of the rainwater still ends up going out to the ocean, but this certainly helps keep some of it around.




A little further up, there were horse stables down in the valley as well as chickens. I took this picture to the constant background din of hundreds of chickens and roosters. In fact, I think the boy on the left might be carrying one. (It sure is a rural looking scene taken in the middle of the city!)




I turned around and headed back north. I stopped by the San Gabriel Mission (dating from 1771). I've learned that the Mission was originally located near the Spreading Grounds in Montebello. They moved it to this spot in 1776 after it was damaged in a flood.




I had actually been to the Mission before to attend a friend's wedding. Midway through the ceremony, everything came to a grinding halt while a train passed. A train track runs right by the Mission and there are two street crossings nearby. As you know, every crossing requires a lot of train horn activity. I got the same treatment today!




A little further up, I came across a birthday party that San Gabriel was throwing for itself. There was even a carnival.



Soon I was back at my car. It had been a 27 mile loop and I was tired!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Labels: East Los Angeles, Pasadena, Training Walk

Today I walked over to Hollywood. And I had company for the first 5 hours. Melody, a friend since she and Carol took the pups to dog agility class together, walked with me. It was great to catch up as we hadn't seen each other in a while.

The route took us from Burbank, over the Hollywood Hills into Hollywood proper. After Carol came to retrieve Melody in the middle of Hollywood (13 miles into the walk), I continued back through Silver Lake and Griffith Park to where I had started.

Being a Hollywood walk, it seemed appropriate to walk by a few studios. We walked by three movie studios (Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount) and one TV studio (NBC). Of course, only Paramount is actually in Hollywood.



Near the Hollywood Reservoir, we saw these great gates to the Toyon Tanks. It took a trip to the Internet after getting back home to find out that these two huge underground tanks are the largest of their type in the world. Each tank holds 30 million gallons of water. The previous role of the Hollywood Reservoir is now being handled by these tanks. They still, however, keep the Reservoir filled in case of emergency. You can read more about it here.




At the top of Beachwood Canyon, we managed to get quite close to the Hollywood Sign. The sign was erected back in 1924 as an advertisment for the neighborhood we were walking in. Originally, the sign read Hollywoodland.




We came across this garage door owned by, I'm assuming, a book lover!!




I remember this Garden of Oz from when Carol and I were exploring the neighborhood. This is just a SMALL sample of what is there. I have never seen so much tile before in my life. It is really amazing!




The Hollywoodland neighborhood has 6 historic stone staircases. We took this fancy dual divided model. The planters in the median used to be pools of water. Pretty cool!




I found out about Whitley Heights in Walking LA. Back in the day, this neighborhood was home to Rudolph Valentino, Judy Garland and Charlie Chaplin. It is a wonderfully quiet neighborhood surprisingly close to downtown Hollywood and the Hollywood Freeway. This is a staircase in that neighborhood, the Whitley Terrace Steps.




Here, a tree is supporting the wall of a garage. I wonder what earthquake caused this... Scary!!




Across Highland Boulevard, nestled behind the Hollywood Bowl, and again thanks to Walking LA, we found the amazing High Tower neighborhood. Here, there are many homes that are only accessible by foot. This is a picture of the top of High Tower, what the neighborhood is named for. It is an elevator for the residents.




And this is one of the pedestrian "streets".




Soon we were in Tourist Central, Grauman's Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.




I felt compelled to take a picture like all the other tourists.




After taking a picture of Douglas Fairbanks' hand and footprints, we headed over to his final resting place. Along the way, we saw this rather colorful camper van.




Soon we were at Hollywood Forever Cemetary. This is Douglas Fairbanks' tomb and monument. At the time it was built, it cost $40,000 and was the most expensive monument in Southern California.

It was soon after this that Melody said goodbye.




Along Beverly Boulevard, I passed these marchers. I think they were from an area church. They even had a guy shouting through a distorted megaphone. I couldn't figure out what he was saying - mainly because I don't speak Spanish.




If you read about my third training walk, you may remember that I was unsuccessful in finding the original home of Disney Studios. Well, thanks to my friend Cliff, I found it this time. Tada!! There is a Gelson's Market on the spot now. It is located on Hyperion Avenue. Hence the name for Disney's Hyperion Books.



And finally, I walked by the home where Mabel Monohan was famously murdered. The story was made into a movie in 1958 called I want to Live!. Susan Hayward won the Oscar for her role in that film as Barbara Graham.



Soon my sore feet and I finished walking for the day!!

Have a great week!!

Labels: Hollywood, Training Walk

Outdoor education was a significant part of my time in Junior High and High School. All those experiences greatly contributed to who I am today. (Thanks Mr. Maas!!) It was only later that I learned about Outward Bound and subsequently went on a course.

I've been supporting their work because I believe education is supremely important. It is our future. I also believe that education is more than words and numbers. I think Outward Bound does a great job of making better, more compassionate human beings - people who are confident in themselves and also respect their environment, both social and natural. The world needs more of that.

Outward Bound has a great mission statement. It reads:

Our Mission is to inspire character development and self-discovery in people of all ages and walks of life through challenge and adventure, and to impel them to achieve more than they ever thought possible, to show compassion for others and to actively engage in creating a better world.

I hope you'll agree that it is a worthy cause.

Check out their website if you want to learn more about their history, philosophy or programs.

Happy Easter!

My original idea for today's walk was to walk along the beach. However, the more I thought about it, I realized that just staying at the beach wouldn't be as interesting. When I was training for the (now defunct) Long Beach Inline Marathon, I skated, at various times, the entire length of the bike path from Will Roger's State Beach to Redondo Beach. I decided that today I wanted to see some new territory, so I set a route that started at the beach but took me inland. I visited Santa Monica, Venice, Mar Vista and Culver City. And Carol joined me for the last half of the walk. Yea!

I was tired today. I think it is because I've been working a lot of hours. Fortunately, work is lightening up so I should be able to get more rest. I walked 20 miles today. Frankly, judging from how I felt at the end, it is hard to imagine walking twice that far!! Yikes!!

The Venice Boardwalk at 6:30AM was quiet! My only company were the folks who live in those parts and the shopkeepers sweeping their sidewalks.




Graffiti on the whatever-it-is by Muscle Beach.




So what does an American sound like? I wonder if you can specify a New York accent, or perhaps a Midwest twang or a Southern drawl.




Venice has quite a colorful history. One of my favorite neighborhoods is the canals. I didn't even realize they were there until just a few years ago. I highly recommend a visit.




Along the canal. The first of my duck pictures today.




On my way inland, I stopped in a small neighborhood that I found in Walking LA. The tract was designed by the modernist architect Gregory Ain right after WWII. He designed them for low to moderate income homeowners. I'm sure he would flip out at what they are worth today. According to Zillow, the houses in the neighborhood are worth from $650,000 to just over $1,000,000!! This picture isn't too revealing about the architecture but I did like that yellow door.




The farthest east I got was Sony Studios in Culver City, the old MGM lot. I shot this peering through a big iron side gate.




Back in Santa Monica, tucked next to the 10 Freeway and some seriously expensive homes (all of Santa Monica is seriously expensive), is this trailer park. This isn't a fancy one either, all loaded with the latest in manufactured housing. This one is old school! I love the juxtaposition!!



Which brings us to my other duck picture. We cut through the Water Garden office complex. It must be a great place to work - or at least a great place to take your lunch and coffee breaks. The whole interior of property is a lake with a network of paths and bridges connecting the buildings. There were plenty of flowers and fountains to complete the effect. And, of course, ducks.




By the time we got back to the beach, it felt more like a normal day at the beach. It was packed with walkers, runners, bikers, skaters and tourists.



Have a great week!

Labels: Culver City, Santa Monica, Training Walk

I managed to get a little press coverage today, front page no less! The Burbank Leader did a real nice piece on my walk. I think the last time I was in the paper was when I was a kid and I won a piano competition.

You can find the Leader article here.

Enjoy!!

Today I had company at the beginning and the end of my walk. Carol walked the first hour with me and Todd joined me for the last hour and a half. My route was mainly in North Hollywood, although I hit parts of Burbank, Sun Valley, Studio City and Toluca Lake. Today I saw extremes, from rundown areas of North Hollywood to luxury homes in Toluca Lake, from green residential neighborhoods to some intense concrete wastelands.

I've always been amazed that high tension power lines run through the middle of such a densely populated area as the San Fernando Valley. I always think of wires like these taking power across the countryside, not running through the middle of a city.




We've all seen these ornamental dogs before. I've never seen, however, one that needed to be chained up!!




In the less affluent areas of No Ho, it seems like everyone has a front yard fence. Although I can see the reason that folks have fences (security, privacy), I don't think they do much to add to the neighborhood feel. I took the bottom two pictures at essentially the same place. To me, the bottom home feels more welcoming. (I'm sure the flowers help.) Anyway, just my opinion.




This was as far north as I got.




When I was scoping out my route on Google Earth, I came across this image. I thought I knew what it was but I wasn't sure. What are the eight dark spots along the bottom? And what are the seven small circles?




It turns out, I guessed right! It is a driving range. The eight dark circles are lights for night play. (I never would have figured that out.) And the other circles are 'sand traps', or reasonable facsimiles thereof.




This could be an ad for Kryptonite Locks. Apparently the bad guys were unable to break the lock. They stripped the entire bike but the lock is still secure!




I saw the Metro Orange Line for the first time. This is a high speed bus line that crosses the valley on its own special roadway.




When I saw this sign for Metropolitan Pit Stop, I had to take a picture. It is a great sign for the business and more importantly, my mom's first car was a Metropolitan so I always think of her when I see the cars. It never occurred to me that the business is actually The Leading Authority on Metropolitan Parts and Restoration!! That's the great thing about living in such a big city, you can find just about anything!!




And finally I'll leave you with this image. I would love to know the story behind it. On a bus bench in (you guessed it) Burbank, I saw a Blues Brothers hat, tie and sunglasses. What's up with that?




Thanks for tuning in and have a great week!

Labels: North Hollywood, Training Walk

If you are less interested in gadgets then you will be less interested in this post.

Generally, I'm pretty good about keeping up on the latest gadgets. I'm sort of, you know, a geek. I've read Popular Science since I was a kid and often check in with Engadget. Well, Carol was ahead of me on this one. She offered to get me this wrist mounted GPS to help me in my training. I hadn't even heard of it. And it was perfect for me! So now I am the proud owner of a Garmin Forerunner 205.

It is basically the size of a large watch and is surprisingly comfortable. For those of you laughing at its size, you have to check out the one it replaces, the Forerunner 201. That one is, well, giant!!

I used my new Forerunner for the first time last week on my training walk and it was spiffy! I was most impressed with its satellite reception. I have another handheld GPS, the Garmin eTrex Summit, that I've used for walking and hiking. The eTrex works fine but if you get too close to tall buildings or hillsides or under tree cover, it loses satellite reception. The Forerunner is significantly better. The only time I lost reception was when I was on a semi enclosed patio at Disney Hall. Very impressive.

I use the Forerunner to track my distance, time, speed and average speed. It is capable of a whole lot more. You can even download your stats into a PC and then track them on a website. (Unfortunately, since I'm a Mac user, I'll have to wait until the end of the year for the Mac version of the software - long after I've recovered from my walk.) You can even export your routes into Google Earth. Pretty cool!

So now my job is to refrain from showering you nice blog readers with useless statistics!

To clear up any confusion, I am doing my big walk on May 28th. That is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. It is also the day, according to my calendar, that we are supposed to flip our mattress. But I digress... My actual birthday, however, isn't until the end of November.

I never have been much for celebrating on the day. When I was a kid, my folks let me celebrate my birthday whenever I wanted - but only once a year. To tell you the truth, I don't remember celebrating it on other days but that notion has stuck with me.

In this particular case, I didn't particularly feel like waiting until November. Also, the weather is better in May. And I wanted to walk on a long weekend. You know, walk on Sunday, recover on Monday, work on Tuesday. So, tada, Memorial Day Weekend!

Anyway, just wanted to clarify.

I had a GREAT walk today. I was originally going to be accompanied by Cony, our AFS niece. Unfortunately, she forgot and made other plans. Then another friend said he could go, only to back out last night due to a horrendous day yesterday. So I headed out on my own.

If I may say so, I came up with a great route this time. I explored neighborhoods that I found out about in Walking LA, a great book by Erin Mahoney. Back when this 40 at 40 idea was just floating around in my head, Carol found out about a book signing for Walking LA over in Los Feliz. We went and checked it out. I bought the book, had Erin sign it, and told her about my idea. (I actually think she may have been one of the first.) She was very encouraging. So if any of you are inspired to explore LA on foot, check out her book!

My route started in Franklin Hills. Originally I decided to start there because I thought Cony would be walking with me and she lives in those parts. I stayed with my plan even after she cancelled. I started by walked down Hyperion Avenue. I thought it might be fun to see where Mr. Walt Disney had his first studio. I didn't do enough research ahead of time because I didn't see anything even though I think I was in the right area. I did, however, find Flawless Junk. I always wanted to know what flawless junk looked like. Now I know.




I saw quite a few murals today including this one. I also saw a bunch of artistic graffiti. I'll have to take pictures of that on a future walk.




As I look on a map, I've been trying to come up with routes that aren't too complicated. I want to be able to navigate without too much use of a map, mainly because I don't want to look like a tourist. Not that I have anything against tourists. So when I was planning my route, I saw a street called Marathon that looked nice and straight. It would be easy to navigate and headed towards Echo Park where I wanted to go. Once I was actually there, I had to laugh. I forgot that regular maps don't show you about hills. It wasn't at all like I expected!!




Soon I found myself at Echo Park. Carol and I had visited here before when the lotus blossoms were in full bloom. Very pretty. You can see downtown in the background.




It was just a short walk to Angelino Heights, a beautiful neighborhood of Victorian homes dating from the late 1800s. This was one of the neighborhoods I found out about in Walking LA. One street in particular, Carroll Avenue, had immaculate homes. In fact, part of that block is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was hard to believe that this is Los Angeles. The photo below shows one home with the Library Tower to the right. It gives you an idea of its proximity to downtown.




This was my favorite.




And this is looking back up Carroll to the North.




Soon I was in downtown Los Angeles. I took advantage of the light traffic to take this picture of Disney Hall from the middle of the street. I was in the crosswalk...don't worry.




A little further up Grand Avenue, I looked over the side of a bridge and was quite surprised to see a traffic jam. I was surprised considering I hadn't seen much traffic at all up to that point! Then I got smart and looked closely. Turns out, they were shooting a movie. I didn't see any drivers so either the drivers were going to show up later or they just needed it to look like a traffic jam.





A few blocks up, I came across something very cool. I don't know if it was for the same movie or another one, but they were getting a shot with a radio controlled helicopter with a camera in it. It was a Flying Cam. I had read about this before but never seen one in action. As luck would have it, I only had to wait for 5 minutes before the helicopter took off! The first picture is of one of the guys using a cordless drill as a starter motor to fire the thing up.




The guy at the center is the pilot and the guy on the left is, I'm guessing, holding an antenna for the video assist coming off the helicopter. He was pointing the antenna at the helicopter during flight. Out of my picture to the left was the camera operator watching the video feed. I'm assuming he could control the pan and tilt of the camera via remote control.




This is right after lift off.




And this picture was taken during the flight. Basically, he flew halfway up one block, back down the block, around the corner and halfway up the other block. It sounded like they were timing the whole thing so that as the camera rounded the corner, some important action came into view. At least that is what I think based on what I was overhearing. The pilot was amazing. Expecially when you consider it was like he was flying through a canyon between tall buildings.





Soon, I turned on Wilshire Boulevard and headed out of downtown. I saw thse guys playing soccer in Macarther Park. It is a very common activity during the weekends in Los Angeles. Well, not just in LA, in many parts of the world!!




I love the patina on the tower of the old Bullocks Wilshire. Classic Art Deco!




I'll leave you (you nice people who are still reading!) with a couple of pictures of sidewalks. You have to remember, I've been seeing a lot of sidewalks recently so I find them at least a little bit interesting. I found this one along Vermont Avenue. They had embedded locks, keys, and silverware in it!! Pretty cool! (This picture also gives you the opportunity to check out my New Balance sneakers. Quite comfortable!)





And finally, a suggestion to bring back the practice of concrete contractors putting their imprint in their work. I have to say, I really like this and you don't see it done much anymore. To me it shows pride of workmanship. By the way, I thought Robert Metcalf did an excellent job.




Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!

Labels: Downtown Los Angeles, Los Feliz, Training Walk