Life is a Journey

This caught my eye immediately...Where are the payphones? No longer needed, I guess now that everybody and their grandmother has a cell phone! Outside behind Union Station there are several walkways with beautiful flowers and fountains and lots of unique tile work. The bats caught my eye. What can I say - I like bats! Below you see one of the fountains I mentioned earlier. There was a homeless lady washing her socks in the fountain and she saw that I wanted to take a picture so she asked me to wait while she washed the tiles and made them shine. I thought it was pretty neat of her. I'm not sure what this is...a bench I guess. But it's sure pretty! As part of our tour we went into the MTA building to look around. I liked this traffic update board and watched it for quite a while! More pics tomorrow!

Any baseball fans out there? This cute Mickey was next to the station entrance. Why they would have the Pirates and not the Los Angeles Dodgers is beyond me but he's still cute. I asked if this information kiosk was original and they said yes. The only thing that has changed of course, is the addition of the electronic information. Back in the day, it was all done by hand. I'm glad to see that they kept the original structure. It still looks darn good. Part of the tour included going below to see some of the Metrolink trains. It felt weird being underground in Los Angeles, LOL. Back upstairs at the Information Booth...for you movie buffs, a scene was filmed here in 1949 for the movie Criss Cross starring Burt Lancaster. I was told it's pretty good so I'm hoping it's on Netflix. Well that wraps it up for today. Hope you enjoyed the photos.

Man oh man, if you are a history buff or just like checking out cool old places, take the Union Station tour! I learned that there was once a Harvey House restaurant at Union Station. It closed in the 60's but it can be rented for special occasions. The day of our tour, they were setting up for a reception. If you want more information on Harvey Houses, visit this site: http://www.harveyhouses.net/ Above you see a the beauty of this place. Look at that tile! In future posts, you'll get to see the inside of the Harvey House that was. Union Station has two courtyards on either side where train passengers could wait and enjoy the Southern California weather. This beautiful Art Deco water fountain blew me away. To think that it has survived all these years! Inside the station, there are many of these giant chandeliers. They weigh over 300 pounds! These chairs fill the main lobby and they are originals. The only thing that has changed over the years is the upholstery. Originally, ...

All in one day! Wow, this is going to be a quick post because I'm too tired to go into detail and post pictures. I promise I will do both soon. However , if you ever have the chance, take any of the tours offered by the Los Angeles Conservancy. They are fascinating ! Union Station is truly beautiful and I have the pictures to prove it. We stopped in at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising for a FREE Alice in Wonderland exhibit. Costumes from the movie were on display as well as clothing inspired by those costumes. And...the gift shop has the most amazing AIW merchandise. Amazing! Reasonably priced, too!! Our next stop was the Grammy museum. I could have spent hours there, it's that good. I want to go back and I think I will take my son (who is a musician) and it will be a great, great, great way to spend the day together. Finally, we ended our day sharing appetizers and drinking iced tea at Trader Vic's. Wow, what a fabulous place! I have to go back for there ...