Cerro Vista Circle to Olvera Street

It's been a while since I added a blog entry. But, in my own defense, I was coming off of awards season. And if that weren't enough, I also broke my right big toe this week, so I've been hobbling around, covering for two of my coworkers, one of which was on vacation and the other of which had a ruptured eardrum.

As for awards season, it can do unsightly things to a person. Luckily, I had planned well, and had taken off the week after the Oscars.

I went up to the Moms' on Tuesday on the train. I got into Union Station over an hour early and zipped through the ticket line (which was actually no line at all), so I decided to have lunch at elegant Traxx Restaurant, since the offerings on the Surfliner are unpleasant microwaved items of dubious quality. The Traxx Reuben sandwich was messy and exotic on marbled rye, with gruyere cheese instead of regular swiss and some mystery greens with a bitter undertaste, all with a glass of Chardonnay. How classy.

If you've never taken the train up the coast from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo, it is a great ride. You get to see some beautiful coastline cut off from the traveling public, and if you keep your eye peeled, you'll even see a few gantries on Vandenberg Air Force Base where they fire off spy satellites and cool stuff like that.

I got into the Grover Beach train station around 8 p.m. Sister Kittie picked me up and we went by the Motel 6 so I could register and drop my stuff off. (Evan had tipped me off to the place and it wasn't bad for $50 a night). Then we went over to the Moms' and visited for a bit, then I borrowed mom's car and went back to the motel.

Wednesday was kind of kicked back, and I ended up going back to the motel to nap until Rick and Candy showed up in the late afternoon. Hugs and kisses all around, lots of visiting, a fun time.

It turned out to be a conjoining of sorts, since Candy's sister Linda and her husband Andy from Seattle were coming through town on Thursday, so we would get together with them. Then my brother Jim, also down from Seattle, was in town for business meetings, so we would get to see him, as well.

It kind of turns into a blur after that, but it was all great fun. I know we went to Farmer's Market Thursday night in downtown San Luis Obispo. The highlight of the evening, shown here with Candy and Linda, was visiting Gum Alley and adding a piece for posterity, although some might think it was the great Moroccan food at one of downtown's many restaurants that was the real highlight.

I was slated to return on Friday afternoon, but it seems the train hit either a truck or farm equipment either north of Atascadero or south of San Luis Obispo. The upshot of it was the train showed up almost five hours late, which would have put me into L.A. in time to miss the last Gold Line train out of Union Station to Pasadena. So I decided to stay another evening and join Rick and Candy and Mom and Aunt Kit and David for dinner at Gina's in the village in Arroyo Grande. I got onto the morning train (7 a.m.) on Saturday and was home by 1 o'clock. I had taken a week off for vacation, so I still had Sunday and Monday off before I had to return to The Reporter. A very nice time.

The work week was not bad, considering I only worked three days. Yesterday (Saturday the 8th), Steve suggested we head out to Olvera Street (the birthplace of the City of Los Angeles), since it was just across the street from Union Station (easy to get to on the Gold Line) and he had never been there. The hook for the trip was the goal of finding stone cones to replace the ones that were ripped off at border security in Mexico (see 9-20-07 entry titled Ense-Nada).

There were enough tchotchkes for everyone, but after looking through all the shops, not a marble cone was found. We did pick up a couple tin Christmas ornaments (that are already losing their coloring) and a soft-serve cone each. Afterwards, we went out onto the plaza and watched some folks in feathers dancing to the beating drums. Then back to Union Station, the Gold Line and home.

A block from the house I tripped on the abnormally high curbs possessed by Pasadena streets and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk. I was pretty much okay, except for a busted right big toe. So I've been hobbling around … oh yeah, I started with that part.

That's all for now. I wrote most of this early in the week, but didn't get around to editing it and adding the pictures until Thursday (and you know how I feel about blogs with no pictures).