Friday Sight Seeing - Part I

As expected Friday we would not be leaving early but eventually we left. My sister had to go return a sweater to one of her friends and as I started driving I remember one of her friends I had met last year owned a Mexican crafts store in that area so I asked her if we could go check it out. I am glad I did, we spent nearly an hour just looking around and admiring the Mexican craftsmanship in all the product she sells.

Lots of nice stuff in this store.
This is Linda, owner of Artesanias Mexicanas in Glendora, California.
Next we would go eat as by now we were all hungry. My sister recommended this restaurant in the heart of South Central called La Carreta. On our way there I asked her to park the car so I could take some pictures of an old Baptist Church that was just sitting there looking abandoned. As I stepped out and left the door open my niece freaked out cause she said you don't do that in that neighborhood. Yeah,it's a little rowdy but we grew up around there and survived it.

It would be great if this church would be restored.
A couple of blocks up the road was Jefferson High School, the high school that Chely attended. I was supposed to go there too but I opted for Huntington Park High. Needless to say we stopped for more photo ops there. Basically we would be going down memory lane for the next hour or so.

Jefferson High School.
Finally we got to La Carreta where they ate some carne asada sincronisadas and I ate... yep you guessed it, tacos. There was a guy there with a guitar and harmonica playing music and he was surprisingly good. He sang typical Mexican music but he also belted some good ol Rock en Espanol. Of course Chely had to go and request some songs and then pose for a picture with the guy.

My lil sister and I.

Street performer and Chely.

After we finished our food we headed for our old neighborhood. What a surprise to see the park I used to go to every day completely surrounded by a fence. Granted the fence was kindda nice but it was fenced. Just goes to show you the kind of neighborhood it turned out to be. Truth is it was always a rough place to grow up in but luckily many of us survived all the gang and drug activity in the area.

The parks perimeter was surrounded by this fence. Ummm I wonder why?

The father of two of my friends owned a bakery on Maple Ave and I decided to go see it it still existed. Not only it did but I got to see one of the two friends. We were disco dancing buddies from back in the 80's. To say it was a nice surprise would be an understatement, we spent a good amount of time going down memory lane and then we said goodbye.

La Tapatia Bakery.
A quick stop at our first home which by the way was just up for sale not too long ago I was told.

First house my parents ever owned.
And last we also stopped by the little neighborhood chappel were we attended mass on Sundays.

El Santo Nino Chappel.

Nest stop will be the Nokia Center but that will have to be a totally new post as we also took a zillion pictures there. So stay tuned and please come back later.

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California Bound for Labor Day Weekend

So here we are just a few more days and then long weekend. Oh yes I am really looking forward to it. As it stands right now it looks like I'll spend it in California visiting my sister and in-laws there. I'll be leaving Thursday afternoon right after work so that I can have all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there and will head back to Phoenix on Monday. The idea is to make it a vacation and to really go places and probably take lots of pictures.

Now I have been without a working camera for a month now as my trusty Panasonic camera finally gave up after almost four years of going everywhere with me and capturing like a zillion images. So I will have to figure something. I do have my new digital camcorder but it does not compete with a regular camera. To me taking pictures is a big part of my going out anywhere so we'll see.

So, the car has a six CD changer and the i-pod shuffle has been refreshed by my daughter Nikki, so with over 300 songs I think the music department is covered, even though I am going solo it should not be a boring drive. What? Plenty of music and a trip in the new Mustang is a recipe for excitement.

Pomona's Antique Row.
As the itinerary builds we are planning on visiting The Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights, and Pomona's Antique Row, as well as karaoke on Friday night at Casa Cabral and maybe some sightseeing downtown L.A. The possibilities are many the time is short so we will have to squeeze as many outings and activities as we can.

My sister has been wanting to take me here so we may just go this time.
For sure lots of eating will be involved, as my sister puts it, "zincronisadas" and "bionicos" will probably find their way into our tummies. But to me going to L.A. and not eating tacos would be a travesty. lol So yes, please add tacos to the menu please.

So don't be afraid to throw me some ideas, three full days in L.A. what can I do? Where else can I go? What to eat? Who to see? As I said before so much to do so little time, I will have to use it wisely.

Going to L.A. and not eating some of these would be uncivilized.
This "sincronisadas" were pretty synchronized with the tomato and guacamole.
And for desert, the "bionicos" are the way to go. Ummm que rico!"

Oh man, I don't believe me. Posting all these foods made me hungry, way to torture myself. As you can see, no shortage of planning here, I am leaving it to my sister and nieces to come up with a well rounded itinerary with plenty of things to do and food to eat.

I am sooooooo looking forward to it.

All images in this post borrowed from the Internet.

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Labor Day Weekend
Saturday



The bags were packed and ready to go the night before, we really wanted to make sure we left Phoenix at a good time so that with a little luck we could make it to West Covina unload the bags and the kids and then go meet my sister at Casa Cabral for some good ol' karaoke. All things considered, four adults, three kids and five hours of driving the trip was mostly uneventful. Except! The one little incident due to a certain hitchhiker (someone we knew) that kindda put a dent into our otherwise good trip. Thanks to this "dent" we did not make Casa Cabral or Rambo's Tacos on time. Urggggg!

Anyway Saturday we all got up, mi chica had decided on going to "The Alleys". No we were not going to rummage through random alleys, The Garment District is a heaven for women as they find all kinds of stores and the prices are ridiculously low and most people just knows them as "the alleys". So we load up the van with the kids while my son in law, my daughter and two nieces drive in a second car.


Notice the amount of people walking around, these are not the actual streets but the alleys and you find all kind of characters walking around. See Diego posing with a newborn puppy, and a trio of manequins showing the new clothes. I'm telling you, never a dull moment here.

My first job in Los Angeles was delivering "pellon" to every garment manufacturing company in L.A. This was back in the very late 70's and early 80's so I knew every alley in the City of Los Angeles. Back then it was concentrated on a small section, what I didn't realized is that the vendors have expanded almost all the way from First Street all the way to the Santa Monica freeway. That my friends is a huge area.


Can't get any more alley than this. Right by the white trash can where the van is parked was the underground parking lot. Here junior looks as if saying, "OK, so here we are in the alleys and I see not accion, and no vendors."

We found a parking garage that only charged $5.00 to park, so that was not too bad. We started walking through what seemed like a sea of people. I had no idea how many people goes there to shop, I am talking thousands of people. Vendors try hard to compete and attract your business. It is totally, totally crazy and absolutely fun.

Who goes to the alleys, you may ask? Well, anybody and everybody. If you are into people gazing, you will see the most varied array of people there, all together and in good harmony.













Shop, shop, and shop some more was the them of the day. From watches, to perfumes, to shoes, to clothes, to toys, to food. You find it all there.

The weather was a little hot and a little humid but overall not too bad. We easily spent two or three hours there and then we decided we have had enough. Unfortunately we had three little kids that lose interest in what's going on very quick. We got on our cars and mi chica suggested that since we were so close to my old stumping grounds we should drive by where I used to live. My old house was only about five minutes away so that sounded like a great idea, but I will tell you more about that in another post.


Not a sit down restaurant, but a shack. They do have about fifteen stools to sit and eat there, but don't count on finding them empty.

At this point we were hungry and we decided to go buy some shrimp cocktails. There is a place right on the corner of Washington and San Pedro St., that has been there for the past 35 years, it's a very successful sea food place and it's only a shack. They are always busy and people go there from far away to eat the cocktails they prepare. Needless to say they were most excellent.


ATTACK!

After that little detour we headed back towards West Covina but since we were on a "let's tour the old neighbourhoods mode" we headed towards Hacienda Height so that my daugher could see the housed we owned there before we moved to Phoenix (again more on this later).

We called my sister in La Puente and we stopped to visit her. Then mi chica and the kids kept going to West Covina while I stayed at my sister's. We sang some karaoke and later when mi chica was back we got into the jacuzzi for a very relaxing afternoon, then pizza, and then more karaoke. At around 11:00 p.m. we called it a night and went back to West Covina to rest.

The next day we would be going to Venice Beach so we needed to be rested.