Photojournaling Our Way Thru LA

On Friday, we had a half day of school, so Ashley and I decided to get on the metro and see where we would end up.  It wasn't entirely random . . . we had vague plans . . . and a timetable . . . and I knew we had to end up in North Hollywood for a dance lesson around 4.30-ish . . . but we had a grand adventure anyway!

We took the red line downtown to the Civic Center stop, and walked around the courthouse and City Hall and the Los Angeles mall.  We were staring at the criminal courts building, wondering if we could/should go in, when a lawyer who was passing by told us that we could definitely go in, everything was open to the public .... aaaaaaaaaand he also told us where the best cases were argued.  So, we have perfect plans for next time we go downtown!

We took a whole bunch of photos downtown, I loved the opportunity to play with all the aperture/exposure/etc. settings on my camera, which I generally don't have time to do when I'm taking pictures for yearbook.  Downtown is such a great place to take pictures, mostly because of the buildings.  Architecturally, it's one of my favorite cities.  Ashley had a film camera (a beautifullll Leica, which has quite possibly the nicest focus I've ever seen on a film camera), which was great fun once we figured out how to rewind the film/switch rolls.  Unfortunately, she only had a roll and a half of film (apparently her mother thought that since they had 40 exposures each, that would be enough.  Um, no.  I have 192 pictures from our trip ... way more than 60!).  It was great fun while it lasted, though, and it is now my goal to get myself a film camera one of these days.  Sure, they're more work, but they're also way more fun!

After that, we walked around the Ahmanson/Mark Taper/Dorothy Chandler/Music Center area.  Apparently, Mary Poppins is/will soon be playing at the Ahmanson!  That would be soooo much fun to go see! Plus, the fountain in front of the Taper is ridiculusly amazing.  Ashley and I had a ton of fun being silly and taking pictures of each other in ridiculous poses around the fountain, while laughing at the huge tourist groups that were doing the exact same thing!  :)

We then took the Red line all the way down to the North Hollywood station, for my dance lesson.  We listened to our iPods on the way, and maybe . . . but probably didn't . . . annoy the other passengers by singing along (but quietly, and in the back of the car) (In case you're wondering, the artists that came up were Death Cab For Cutie, Taylor Swift, Lady GaGa, Modest Mouse, and The Corrs.  Eclectic? Yes.  Amazing?  Completely.)  I was way tired after walking all around downtown (plus it was my school's 10K walk in the morning, so I was way tired) but I had a good lesson overall.

Then, we had to meet my mom in Pasadena, so we rode down to Union Station, took a ton of awesome pictures, and then, after a bit of confusion about what train we needed/when it was coming (I realized too late I only had the schedules for the redline, oops) we ended up in Pasadena.  We were originally going to meet one of our other friends to go to pilates, but she bailed on us (well, she had tickets for the taping of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me so I don't blame her . . . ).  So my mom drove us to the Americana, where we had dinner and hung out at Barnes & Noble.  The wait at the Cheescake Factory for a table for 2 was 45 minutes (yikes!) so we just got burgers at the diner instead.  At the bookstore, we read magazines, and finished up the day by improving the “New Moon” display by layering it over with MacLife, Stargate Atlantis magazine, SciFi magazine, and Star Trek magazine.  Overall, a beautiful day!

The full set of photos from this trip can be found at my Picasa web album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/col.starchild/PhotojournalingOurWayThruLA110609