Day 1
The Flight
The Southwest 737-300 took off from runway 1L and had an incredible view of 28L/R, with the sun shining on us, and another plane landing in the distance. As we made our assent, I got a clear view of Oakland Airport. It was eerily quiet there. No planes were moving. Although having flown out of that airport on a Saturday morning in the past, that did not surprise me. We made a 180-degree turn over San Francisco. My cpictures and due to the beautiful camera could not focus, probably because it was just as amazed at the great view as I was. It was a clear chilly morning, comlpetely devoid of fog, and as far as views go (no pun intended), this was probably one of the best views of the city I ever saw, while looking at it from the air. As we climbed, I saw Daly City and Serramonte, Devils Slide in Pacifica, where the new bypass tunnel seems to be taking shape. After Moonterey Bay we flew inland. I shifted my focus on setting up my new Eee PC from which I am typing this trip report now. As we started our descent, another Southwest plane flew below us, probably up to NorCal. I've seen planes this close before, but never managed to get a good picture of it. It was probably one or two flight levels below us as it took off from LAX. We passed LAX, and made a very sharp turn, short of downtown, which was a bit unusual. ATC probably told the pilot: "It's now, or waaaay later," although the conversation probably went something like, "Southwest xxx, turn to 1-8-0." Why do I love Southwest? Efficiency. We landed 20 minutes early, those 20 minutes that were built in for delays that SFO is known for. I had just over an hour to kill, so I headed to the hotel to leave some things there.
Railfanning
After meeting my friend, and figuring out the difference between Aviation Blvd and Airport Blvd, we boarded the Green Line and headed east. Having ridden this in the past it was not a surprise ot me that distances between stations are quite long and the surrounding neighborhoods may be considered by some as "extremely unsafe." We reached the eastern terminus and rode back to Wilmington/Imperial Hwy station, formerly known as Rosa Parks. Why did they remove "Rosa Parks" from all the maps is beyond me.
Trains on the blue line were sharing a single track through the station. Construction equipment was visible on the rails further north, up the line. This reminded me of when I was here a few years back. Minutes before I made the transfer, someone was shot and he fell onto the rails, hitting his head. He survived and was wheeled off to a hospital. There is a sheriffs' station nearby, so it still baffles me, why anyone would shoot someone here. Back to 2009, after not finding a good location for photos, we ended up the Long Beach-bound train by a hair. A missed train is another photo opportunity, although the view from the South was blocked as well by a sign with the station name. We finally caught the correct southbound train and started our 20-30-minute journey south. I positioned myself under a speaker to record the automated announcements. This is the only line on the system where I do not have voice recordings. The annunciator was put in quite recently, even though it's the oldest lihne on the system. The voice is pretty good, but worse than on the Green and Gold lines. It's actually a mishmash of voices. Some of the announcements are done professionally, while others were probably done by someone working for Metro who does not quite have the charm and skills an announcer should have. I always wonder why recording is always outsourced, when you can probably find one or two drivers to do it, and put a positive PR spin on it at the same time.
On the south end of the line, Long Beach is one of the only areas where you can get semi-decent shots without having cars obscured by fences. We had a quick bite to eat and continued walking toward the water. Long Beach certainly changed for the better in the past few years. Back in 2003-2004, only a few blocks were re-done. As the city improved, more and more blocks started converting into shops and restaurants. The best way to measure quantifiable progress is to count how manu blocks-deep (away from the water) the improvement is. Now it's about 10-12, where before it was less than five. Many chain and non-chain restaurants moved into the area, and walking around also became much nicer. Not to mention all the waterfront dining opportunitiess that now exist that weren't there when I was here back in 2003-2004.
After snapping a few pics of Queen Mary and a few more pictures of the Blue Line on a section of track where it has left-hand running, we headed baack north. The last photos for the day was taken at Aviation Blvd. after which, we drove to Hollywood. My friend had a few books he needed to pick up at a bookstore there. I haven't seen such bookstores in quite a while. It was not one of those DVD/Video/Music-selling places, but a real bookstore. You could smell it as soon as you walked in. The owner looked and talked like Professor Pleischner from "Seventeen Moments of Spring". He had dark-framed oval glasses on him, was probably in his 50s, with a bald head, and a pleasant tone of voice that had a range of notes in it. He was also originally from Kiev. The two-room bookshop had many paintings, posters and postcards on the wall, some relating communism, others related to the fall of it, and others that were simply paintings of beautiful things. Two caught my eye -- they were paintings of city street life at the turn of the 20th century, completely unrelated to one-another. If I ever have some free spending money, I will try to buy one or two such paintings, preferably with transport on them, in impressionist style, which I really like.
Later in the Evening
While my friend looked through books, a cocker spaniel tried very hard to befriend me. The look in the dog's eyes told me that he lived a very long life. The dog wouldn't talking to us until we left. I couldn't find too much common while talking ground with the owner, except that we both were from Kiev, so we left it at that. My friend selected a few books and we left. A nearby grocery store was selling Kvas that they made themselves. It was a bit too sweet for my taste, but comparable to what the Kvas from Toronto tasted like, which I tried when I visited my friend in New York.
We then went to my sister's apartment near UCLA. This is the first time I visited the place. It was an open-corridor-style apartment building, typical for Southern California. It seemed a bit tight for all of them sharing it, but I guess since they spend most of their study time on campus, it didn't matter. After presenting us with a few choices, we all agreed on a French restaurant, south of Wilshire.
The place was called [Le Soleil] ("The Sun"). It had a night-time sky painted on the ceiling that lit up in glow-in-the-dark colors with a blue background. The atmosphere was very cozy and the service was exceptional. We later found out that some of the waiters were from Quebec, while others -- from France. Food was also exceptional. We started off with Soup a la Ogningon (French Onion Soup), salads and some crab cakes. My sis and I had file de Salmon, while my friend had a New York Steak. The soup had some interesting non-traditional cheese on top and the Salmon simply melted in your mouth.
After dinner, we had some desert across the street at a persian ice cream cafe. I haven't seen this many flavors of ice cream with rose water before. Ice cream with rose water and pistachios was simply delicious.
Off to bed we went after a long day.
Day 2
After a later-than-expected start, we headed to Griffith Park. I've never been inside the observatory, so I really wanted to see the inside. The day was clear, the temp was around 20C and the weather was simply beautiful. A slight cool breeze blew from the ocean. The view was incredible. You could see Santa Monica, Wilshire, and downtown, all with their own different charm. Long Beach was obscured by haze in the distance. Last time I was here, everything was smogged-in (my adulteration of a San Francisco term). I love this time of year. The grass and trees are still green and the weather is pretty. Once again, I was reminded how homogenous LA is -- rows and rows of suburban low-rise houses.
The observatory was open. It is an art-deco building, It was built some time in the 1920s or 1930s. There are various educational exhibits inside, including a [маятник фуко] and a periodic table of the elements made with plastic cells that show how each of the elements looks in one form or another. I did not see Uranium, nor did I see hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen... perhaps we have too much of it around us?
Leaving the observatory, we drove down Vermont to meet with P. We then drove above the red metro line towards downtown, following it to Civic Center. We then drove along the unfinished section of the Gold Line, which is due to open in mid-2009. A little while later, one of us came up with a term for what we were doing: drive-by shooting. Drive-by PHOTO shooting that is.
From the outside, the line seems to be almost ready. The tunnel portion was closed and we decided not to press our luck. On the way to East LA, we crossed over the LA River. The Red Line depot was on the right bank of the river, on the downtown side. I knew the approximate location of the yard, but never made it out there.
Following the Gold Line to Union Station, we ended up in Chinatown, where we parked and toured the other, open, end of the Gold Line. It runs along an old railroad right-of-way and the surrounding topography and the distance between stations makes it difficult to get decent train photos. On the way back, we walked between two stations, taking photos for part of the way, in the only street-running section of the line.
The sun was reaching the point of no return... the photo day would soon be over. We had one more line we wanted to do. The Blue Line runs from Downtown LA to Long Beach. It runs through some really "interesting" neighborhoods... the ones where Watts Riots back in 1960s and the Rodney King riots of 1994 took place. This is where most of LA County's projects are located. Also, many areas in this part of the county are unincorporated. What this means is that they are a part of the county, but not a part of the numerous little cities that surround the narrow strip of the City of Angels proper, which runs down to the Port of Los Angeles, parallel to the I-110 freeway. The Blue Line opened in the early 1990s. It became an immediate hit with passengers, and crushloads are consistently carried on the 3-car articulated trains. It also became a sort of symbol for the public transport industry in the US. It was one of the first lines that brought about the revival of urban rail in the US. Currently, the line carries approximately 125,000 people on an average weekday, which is a lot for a single line. It should be noted that the line partly runs on the same right-of-way that was used by one of Pacific Electric's interurban lines back in the 1920s and 1930s, until that system was shut and LA became a car-only city. At one time, LA had the largest street railway network of any city in the world.
Anyway... we picked up the line where it turns from Washington Boulevard onto Long Beach Ave (not to be confused with Long Beach Boulevard) and headed south. As we drove south along the line, it became obvious, that, first, there were no shots to be had due to a lack of a decent backdrop, and, second, there was a typical rainfan photo problem: there were electric catenary poles between tracks, and there were fences on both sides of the track. What this means is that you cannot photograph either of the trains. The poles get in the way because a three-car train, which totals about 400 feet, does not fit between two adjacent poles. The fences on either side block a train's side, which makes the picture "impure." We found a railway bridge. The view from it was perfect: downtown in the distance, the sun was pointing in the correct direction. The backdrop was quite interesting -- low-rise houses on one side, and housing projects on the other. An ice cream truck was selling its contents to kids down below... it was a first for me -- an ice cream truck playing Bethoven. I told S to position the car in case we had to make a quick getaway if the situation warranted it. Thankfully that did not happen. We waited for a train in each direction and got some nice shots of both.
Further down the line, Long Beach Avenue cane to a T-intersection, and the rail line went up onto a viaduct. After coming down on the other side, it was joined by a mainline rail line. The touchdown (part of the viaduct that comes down to the ground) provided another shot opportunity in both directions.
The third and final photostop was further down the line, one stop before the Imperial/Wilmington Highway Station where the Green Line intersects the Blue Line. This was done from another pedestrian bridge. The sun was ready to set and P had to get home. We hopped on the 105 to the 110 and sped towards downtown. The warm sun was reflecting from the skyscrapers in downtown and a typical afternoon for Los Angeles in January was coming to an end.
After dropping off P at 7th/Metro station, we had one last thing we wanted to see: the new Expo Line (also known as Aqua Line), which was supposedly under construction, to be finishd in 2010. If it is finished in 2010, I will be very impressed. While a lot of prep work has been done (even grade separation at a few places), the bulk of construction still has not started. With that, I took the last shot of the day, and we headed toward Santa Monica, swinging by Westwood to pick up O. After having a nice dinner, and a smooth ride to the airport, we headed each our own way.
The flight back on WN was quite uneventful. All around it was a great weekend.
The Flight
The Southwest 737-300 took off from runway 1L and had an incredible view of 28L/R, with the sun shining on us, and another plane landing in the distance. As we made our assent, I got a clear view of Oakland Airport. It was eerily quiet there. No planes were moving. Although having flown out of that airport on a Saturday morning in the past, that did not surprise me. We made a 180-degree turn over San Francisco. My cpictures and due to the beautiful camera could not focus, probably because it was just as amazed at the great view as I was. It was a clear chilly morning, comlpetely devoid of fog, and as far as views go (no pun intended), this was probably one of the best views of the city I ever saw, while looking at it from the air. As we climbed, I saw Daly City and Serramonte, Devils Slide in Pacifica, where the new bypass tunnel seems to be taking shape. After Moonterey Bay we flew inland. I shifted my focus on setting up my new Eee PC from which I am typing this trip report now. As we started our descent, another Southwest plane flew below us, probably up to NorCal. I've seen planes this close before, but never managed to get a good picture of it. It was probably one or two flight levels below us as it took off from LAX. We passed LAX, and made a very sharp turn, short of downtown, which was a bit unusual. ATC probably told the pilot: "It's now, or waaaay later," although the conversation probably went something like, "Southwest xxx, turn to 1-8-0." Why do I love Southwest? Efficiency. We landed 20 minutes early, those 20 minutes that were built in for delays that SFO is known for. I had just over an hour to kill, so I headed to the hotel to leave some things there.
Railfanning
After meeting my friend, and figuring out the difference between Aviation Blvd and Airport Blvd, we boarded the Green Line and headed east. Having ridden this in the past it was not a surprise ot me that distances between stations are quite long and the surrounding neighborhoods may be considered by some as "extremely unsafe." We reached the eastern terminus and rode back to Wilmington/Imperial Hwy station, formerly known as Rosa Parks. Why did they remove "Rosa Parks" from all the maps is beyond me.
Trains on the blue line were sharing a single track through the station. Construction equipment was visible on the rails further north, up the line. This reminded me of when I was here a few years back. Minutes before I made the transfer, someone was shot and he fell onto the rails, hitting his head. He survived and was wheeled off to a hospital. There is a sheriffs' station nearby, so it still baffles me, why anyone would shoot someone here. Back to 2009, after not finding a good location for photos, we ended up the Long Beach-bound train by a hair. A missed train is another photo opportunity, although the view from the South was blocked as well by a sign with the station name. We finally caught the correct southbound train and started our 20-30-minute journey south. I positioned myself under a speaker to record the automated announcements. This is the only line on the system where I do not have voice recordings. The annunciator was put in quite recently, even though it's the oldest lihne on the system. The voice is pretty good, but worse than on the Green and Gold lines. It's actually a mishmash of voices. Some of the announcements are done professionally, while others were probably done by someone working for Metro who does not quite have the charm and skills an announcer should have. I always wonder why recording is always outsourced, when you can probably find one or two drivers to do it, and put a positive PR spin on it at the same time.
On the south end of the line, Long Beach is one of the only areas where you can get semi-decent shots without having cars obscured by fences. We had a quick bite to eat and continued walking toward the water. Long Beach certainly changed for the better in the past few years. Back in 2003-2004, only a few blocks were re-done. As the city improved, more and more blocks started converting into shops and restaurants. The best way to measure quantifiable progress is to count how manu blocks-deep (away from the water) the improvement is. Now it's about 10-12, where before it was less than five. Many chain and non-chain restaurants moved into the area, and walking around also became much nicer. Not to mention all the waterfront dining opportunitiess that now exist that weren't there when I was here back in 2003-2004.
After snapping a few pics of Queen Mary and a few more pictures of the Blue Line on a section of track where it has left-hand running, we headed baack north. The last photos for the day was taken at Aviation Blvd. after which, we drove to Hollywood. My friend had a few books he needed to pick up at a bookstore there. I haven't seen such bookstores in quite a while. It was not one of those DVD/Video/Music-selling places, but a real bookstore. You could smell it as soon as you walked in. The owner looked and talked like Professor Pleischner from "Seventeen Moments of Spring". He had dark-framed oval glasses on him, was probably in his 50s, with a bald head, and a pleasant tone of voice that had a range of notes in it. He was also originally from Kiev. The two-room bookshop had many paintings, posters and postcards on the wall, some relating communism, others related to the fall of it, and others that were simply paintings of beautiful things. Two caught my eye -- they were paintings of city street life at the turn of the 20th century, completely unrelated to one-another. If I ever have some free spending money, I will try to buy one or two such paintings, preferably with transport on them, in impressionist style, which I really like.
Later in the Evening
While my friend looked through books, a cocker spaniel tried very hard to befriend me. The look in the dog's eyes told me that he lived a very long life. The dog wouldn't talking to us until we left. I couldn't find too much common while talking ground with the owner, except that we both were from Kiev, so we left it at that. My friend selected a few books and we left. A nearby grocery store was selling Kvas that they made themselves. It was a bit too sweet for my taste, but comparable to what the Kvas from Toronto tasted like, which I tried when I visited my friend in New York.
We then went to my sister's apartment near UCLA. This is the first time I visited the place. It was an open-corridor-style apartment building, typical for Southern California. It seemed a bit tight for all of them sharing it, but I guess since they spend most of their study time on campus, it didn't matter. After presenting us with a few choices, we all agreed on a French restaurant, south of Wilshire.
The place was called [Le Soleil] ("The Sun"). It had a night-time sky painted on the ceiling that lit up in glow-in-the-dark colors with a blue background. The atmosphere was very cozy and the service was exceptional. We later found out that some of the waiters were from Quebec, while others -- from France. Food was also exceptional. We started off with Soup a la Ogningon (French Onion Soup), salads and some crab cakes. My sis and I had file de Salmon, while my friend had a New York Steak. The soup had some interesting non-traditional cheese on top and the Salmon simply melted in your mouth.
After dinner, we had some desert across the street at a persian ice cream cafe. I haven't seen this many flavors of ice cream with rose water before. Ice cream with rose water and pistachios was simply delicious.
Off to bed we went after a long day.
Day 2
After a later-than-expected start, we headed to Griffith Park. I've never been inside the observatory, so I really wanted to see the inside. The day was clear, the temp was around 20C and the weather was simply beautiful. A slight cool breeze blew from the ocean. The view was incredible. You could see Santa Monica, Wilshire, and downtown, all with their own different charm. Long Beach was obscured by haze in the distance. Last time I was here, everything was smogged-in (my adulteration of a San Francisco term). I love this time of year. The grass and trees are still green and the weather is pretty. Once again, I was reminded how homogenous LA is -- rows and rows of suburban low-rise houses.
The observatory was open. It is an art-deco building, It was built some time in the 1920s or 1930s. There are various educational exhibits inside, including a [маятник фуко] and a periodic table of the elements made with plastic cells that show how each of the elements looks in one form or another. I did not see Uranium, nor did I see hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen... perhaps we have too much of it around us?
Leaving the observatory, we drove down Vermont to meet with P. We then drove above the red metro line towards downtown, following it to Civic Center. We then drove along the unfinished section of the Gold Line, which is due to open in mid-2009. A little while later, one of us came up with a term for what we were doing: drive-by shooting. Drive-by PHOTO shooting that is.
From the outside, the line seems to be almost ready. The tunnel portion was closed and we decided not to press our luck. On the way to East LA, we crossed over the LA River. The Red Line depot was on the right bank of the river, on the downtown side. I knew the approximate location of the yard, but never made it out there.
Following the Gold Line to Union Station, we ended up in Chinatown, where we parked and toured the other, open, end of the Gold Line. It runs along an old railroad right-of-way and the surrounding topography and the distance between stations makes it difficult to get decent train photos. On the way back, we walked between two stations, taking photos for part of the way, in the only street-running section of the line.
The sun was reaching the point of no return... the photo day would soon be over. We had one more line we wanted to do. The Blue Line runs from Downtown LA to Long Beach. It runs through some really "interesting" neighborhoods... the ones where Watts Riots back in 1960s and the Rodney King riots of 1994 took place. This is where most of LA County's projects are located. Also, many areas in this part of the county are unincorporated. What this means is that they are a part of the county, but not a part of the numerous little cities that surround the narrow strip of the City of Angels proper, which runs down to the Port of Los Angeles, parallel to the I-110 freeway. The Blue Line opened in the early 1990s. It became an immediate hit with passengers, and crushloads are consistently carried on the 3-car articulated trains. It also became a sort of symbol for the public transport industry in the US. It was one of the first lines that brought about the revival of urban rail in the US. Currently, the line carries approximately 125,000 people on an average weekday, which is a lot for a single line. It should be noted that the line partly runs on the same right-of-way that was used by one of Pacific Electric's interurban lines back in the 1920s and 1930s, until that system was shut and LA became a car-only city. At one time, LA had the largest street railway network of any city in the world.
Anyway... we picked up the line where it turns from Washington Boulevard onto Long Beach Ave (not to be confused with Long Beach Boulevard) and headed south. As we drove south along the line, it became obvious, that, first, there were no shots to be had due to a lack of a decent backdrop, and, second, there was a typical rainfan photo problem: there were electric catenary poles between tracks, and there were fences on both sides of the track. What this means is that you cannot photograph either of the trains. The poles get in the way because a three-car train, which totals about 400 feet, does not fit between two adjacent poles. The fences on either side block a train's side, which makes the picture "impure." We found a railway bridge. The view from it was perfect: downtown in the distance, the sun was pointing in the correct direction. The backdrop was quite interesting -- low-rise houses on one side, and housing projects on the other. An ice cream truck was selling its contents to kids down below... it was a first for me -- an ice cream truck playing Bethoven. I told S to position the car in case we had to make a quick getaway if the situation warranted it. Thankfully that did not happen. We waited for a train in each direction and got some nice shots of both.
Further down the line, Long Beach Avenue cane to a T-intersection, and the rail line went up onto a viaduct. After coming down on the other side, it was joined by a mainline rail line. The touchdown (part of the viaduct that comes down to the ground) provided another shot opportunity in both directions.
The third and final photostop was further down the line, one stop before the Imperial/Wilmington Highway Station where the Green Line intersects the Blue Line. This was done from another pedestrian bridge. The sun was ready to set and P had to get home. We hopped on the 105 to the 110 and sped towards downtown. The warm sun was reflecting from the skyscrapers in downtown and a typical afternoon for Los Angeles in January was coming to an end.
After dropping off P at 7th/Metro station, we had one last thing we wanted to see: the new Expo Line (also known as Aqua Line), which was supposedly under construction, to be finishd in 2010. If it is finished in 2010, I will be very impressed. While a lot of prep work has been done (even grade separation at a few places), the bulk of construction still has not started. With that, I took the last shot of the day, and we headed toward Santa Monica, swinging by Westwood to pick up O. After having a nice dinner, and a smooth ride to the airport, we headed each our own way.
The flight back on WN was quite uneventful. All around it was a great weekend.
