I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Of travel I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere
Hank Snow 1962
We left the car at home and had a day out on the LA Metro system on Monday.
We caught the bus from outside the hotel in
The journey takes about 80 minutes and runs through a complete gamut of social strata from the beautiful villas in Beverely Hills to the rundown streets of
It was a fascinating glimpse at life in a microcosm
Unlike our transport system at home, the buses are clean, fairly comfortable and reliable.
We got to Union Station which is quite grand and well restored.
One complete area had been taken over by a film crew for their location caterers to provide meals. Judging by the size of the area, it's gonna have a lot of actors/extras involved.
The title of the film is Eagle Eye and one of the stars is Billy Bob Thornton.
Once we had found the Restrooms we got on a Gold Line train and went to
Again it was an interesting trip through folks back yards and we saw different aspects of the city that we would have missed in the car. (especially me, the driver, as the passengers tend to get upset if I take my eyes from the road for more than a few seconds!).
When we got to the terminus, a bitter wind had got up and it was decided that exploring was out of the question so we got back in the same train and went back to Union Station.
As I might have mentioned before, our lunches usually consist of a picnic in Starbucks. We buy their coffee and eat whatever we have managed to plunder from the breakfast bar, normally muffins, pastries and fruit.
Today was no different except for location.
We picnicked in the cafe in Union Station.
Sat at the next table were a couple who had a wide variety of breads, pastries and cakes from the counter but they seemed more concerned with talking than eating.
I was quite happy to help them out with their left-overs and made that offer when the male disappeared.
It transpired from our conversation that she was a food adviser who was being contracted by the cafe to help them out with their menu.
The gentleman we had been picnicking beside was the owner! Ooops.
During our conversation we mentioned that in general, we found American food contained too much sugar and the girl agreed that she was trying to persuade him to cut down on it.
As our breakfast scavenging had produced slim pickings that morning Val & Sheila went up and bought a Cranberry scone to share and a bagel for me (
The onion bagel with cream cheese was lovely but Val spat out her first mouthful of scone in disgust and took it back to the counter to complain.
Her complaint?
They'd left out the sugar from the sweet scone recipe!!
How ironic!
They happily replaced the scone with a piece of cake which was fine but both the adviser and the owner came up to our table to talk about it.
Most of the refurbished stations have replaced the furnishings with uncomfortable modern seating but not LA. 
As you can see, the seats are still made of leather and are really comfortable.
We did finally manage to drag ourselves away to catch the same 704 bus back home.
And the cost for all this travelling?
$7:20 for day passes for all 4 of us.
That's just 90p each!!!!!!!
Ninety pence!
Now that's what I call a bargain.
3 comments:
Another good entry (with a satisfying ending, by the way). I wish we had a picture of Harvey eating the over-ripe bananas. Does the man know no shame? That's the point at which one should consider making banana bread. I just learned that if one peels a banana from the bottom up, one needn't contend with strings. I have yet to try it, but the idea is intriguing.
I saw a man in a hotel in Lodi, release a banana from it's skin sideways.
I thought it was one of the most bizarre things I've seen but perhaps he had a secret, stringless, method too.
BTW Did you ever slice a banana into six pieces while it was still in it's skin to surprise the kids when they peeled it?
No, nor did I!
Just joking!!!
Great photos!
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