Buckimion
Purple Heart Park Commando
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2003
Sunday, June 12th - We got up still not quite sure what we were going to do. I was game to try to find my way into LA by any means necessary and we decided to try taking the Amtrak Surfliner.
It looked simple on paper a quick bus ride about 2 miles down to the ballpark where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim* play and finding the station should have been easy.
Since Amtrak shares the station with the Orange County version of the MTA trains, which also runs the busses, we expected an announcement of the station. Nope. We shot past the ballpark by about half a mile before I realized there wasn't going to be an announcement for the station. (And I hadn't seen the signage or any indication of the station.) We bailed out and started back, my wife giving me the what-for every inch of the way. It didn't help when I actually saw the station peeking out from behind some bushes in a corporate business park and thought for sure there had to be a way to get to it though there nope. We finally got back out and around just to find the station is a LONG way back from Katella, behind a small, subdued brown sign. (Instead of the traditional Red/Blue signage.) As we trudged our way across the ballpark's parking lot the train we wanted came and left and we found out the next one wasn't due for more than 2 hours. I was ready to give up at this point but the wife was determined that we were getting into LA no matter what since she felt we had already paid a significant price in shoe leather. (Or in my case, rubber, as I was riding my scooter.)
Our train arrived as scheduled and we were finally on our way. The train ride was pretty nice and even Tammy began to relax. Union Station was fantastic and I had a great time taking pictures of the details. We headed out and found Tammy's favorite part of the trip Olvera Street.
Olvera Street is a little slice of Tijuana dropped into old LA or maybe it was the part Tijuana didn't want. Wall-to-wall flea market vendors hawking the finest Mexican souvenirs fresh from Taiwan. Tammy was in heaven, I was fighting for space to wheel my scooter through the throngs. Between rounds of shopping, we stopped for lunch at one of the many food stands and had a strange but tasty dish of (previously frozen) taquitos (shredded beef rolled into a corn tortilla) over a bed of canned refried beans, cheese and covered in a lime-chili sauce. In the more-spacious village square, Tammy picked up her 2nd churro of the day and watched guys in 'native' costumes dance. We were near Chinatown and Little Tokyo but didn't go looking for them I had hot dogs on my mind.
We caught the red line subway from Union Station to Hollywood and Vine and started walking down Hollywood Blvd. One of the first building we came to was the Pantages Theater, there they were putting up on the marquee an old horror film and had a lot of movie posters for several other old horror movies. We thought they were having a revival and Tammy wanted to check them out on our way back.
We proceeded up Hollywood Blvd., checking out a few shops and the stars on the Walk of Fame, all the way to the Chinese Theater. Even Tammy's patience reached an end when she got suckered by some guys in costumes to pay to take a picture with them and got besieged by dozens of others. She didn't realize these hucksters were all over the place. The costumes ranged from pretty good to suck. One guy had a Spongebob costume that was particularly horrible. Another was dressed as Jimi Hendrix which I didn't think was a bad outfit, just couldn't figure out his connection to Hollywood. (Unless you count the Woodstock Movie.)
When we got past the throngs, we rested a moment before hopping on the bus at least tried to hop on a bus. The driver whined and moaned when she saw my ECV, saying she didn't know how to operate the lift, didn't think my ECV counted as a wheelchair and wanted to refuse me service. I happened to have my disability parking tag with me and she gave in. Eventually we got settled for the run to my intended destination - Pink's Hot Dogs.
Pink's was a slight disappointment. The chili-cheese burrito dog now comes with bacon and just didn't taste as good as I remembered it. Daughter got the 'Harry Potter' dog (really a polish sausage) that didn't taste good at all. We'd originally wanted to hit this place 3 times on this trip but the once was enough.
On the bus back to Hollywood and Vine, we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign but couldn't get a good shot with the camera. We had to exit the bus just short of the subway as they were setting up a movie shoot in front of the Pantages Theater the reason for the old movie titles on the marquee was that the setting was the mid-late 40s apparently. The street was clogged with dozens of vintage cars and extras in costume. I can't wait to see what this movie is.
We got back to Union Station, had another 2 hour wait to catch Amtrak back to Anaheim. One of the train hostesses was really nice. Because of the hassle with getting my ECV on board and secured, there were no more seats upstairs where my wife and daughter were sitting. She offered to clear a seat for me but I took one back downstairs near my scooter.
When we arrived, Tammy had us call a cab rather than hike back around to catch a bus. On the way back to the motel, we caught our first glimpse of the fireworks over Disneyland.
* Their 'real' name!
It looked simple on paper a quick bus ride about 2 miles down to the ballpark where the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim* play and finding the station should have been easy.
Since Amtrak shares the station with the Orange County version of the MTA trains, which also runs the busses, we expected an announcement of the station. Nope. We shot past the ballpark by about half a mile before I realized there wasn't going to be an announcement for the station. (And I hadn't seen the signage or any indication of the station.) We bailed out and started back, my wife giving me the what-for every inch of the way. It didn't help when I actually saw the station peeking out from behind some bushes in a corporate business park and thought for sure there had to be a way to get to it though there nope. We finally got back out and around just to find the station is a LONG way back from Katella, behind a small, subdued brown sign. (Instead of the traditional Red/Blue signage.) As we trudged our way across the ballpark's parking lot the train we wanted came and left and we found out the next one wasn't due for more than 2 hours. I was ready to give up at this point but the wife was determined that we were getting into LA no matter what since she felt we had already paid a significant price in shoe leather. (Or in my case, rubber, as I was riding my scooter.)
Our train arrived as scheduled and we were finally on our way. The train ride was pretty nice and even Tammy began to relax. Union Station was fantastic and I had a great time taking pictures of the details. We headed out and found Tammy's favorite part of the trip Olvera Street.
Olvera Street is a little slice of Tijuana dropped into old LA or maybe it was the part Tijuana didn't want. Wall-to-wall flea market vendors hawking the finest Mexican souvenirs fresh from Taiwan. Tammy was in heaven, I was fighting for space to wheel my scooter through the throngs. Between rounds of shopping, we stopped for lunch at one of the many food stands and had a strange but tasty dish of (previously frozen) taquitos (shredded beef rolled into a corn tortilla) over a bed of canned refried beans, cheese and covered in a lime-chili sauce. In the more-spacious village square, Tammy picked up her 2nd churro of the day and watched guys in 'native' costumes dance. We were near Chinatown and Little Tokyo but didn't go looking for them I had hot dogs on my mind.
We caught the red line subway from Union Station to Hollywood and Vine and started walking down Hollywood Blvd. One of the first building we came to was the Pantages Theater, there they were putting up on the marquee an old horror film and had a lot of movie posters for several other old horror movies. We thought they were having a revival and Tammy wanted to check them out on our way back.
We proceeded up Hollywood Blvd., checking out a few shops and the stars on the Walk of Fame, all the way to the Chinese Theater. Even Tammy's patience reached an end when she got suckered by some guys in costumes to pay to take a picture with them and got besieged by dozens of others. She didn't realize these hucksters were all over the place. The costumes ranged from pretty good to suck. One guy had a Spongebob costume that was particularly horrible. Another was dressed as Jimi Hendrix which I didn't think was a bad outfit, just couldn't figure out his connection to Hollywood. (Unless you count the Woodstock Movie.)
When we got past the throngs, we rested a moment before hopping on the bus at least tried to hop on a bus. The driver whined and moaned when she saw my ECV, saying she didn't know how to operate the lift, didn't think my ECV counted as a wheelchair and wanted to refuse me service. I happened to have my disability parking tag with me and she gave in. Eventually we got settled for the run to my intended destination - Pink's Hot Dogs.
Pink's was a slight disappointment. The chili-cheese burrito dog now comes with bacon and just didn't taste as good as I remembered it. Daughter got the 'Harry Potter' dog (really a polish sausage) that didn't taste good at all. We'd originally wanted to hit this place 3 times on this trip but the once was enough.
On the bus back to Hollywood and Vine, we caught a glimpse of the Hollywood sign but couldn't get a good shot with the camera. We had to exit the bus just short of the subway as they were setting up a movie shoot in front of the Pantages Theater the reason for the old movie titles on the marquee was that the setting was the mid-late 40s apparently. The street was clogged with dozens of vintage cars and extras in costume. I can't wait to see what this movie is.
We got back to Union Station, had another 2 hour wait to catch Amtrak back to Anaheim. One of the train hostesses was really nice. Because of the hassle with getting my ECV on board and secured, there were no more seats upstairs where my wife and daughter were sitting. She offered to clear a seat for me but I took one back downstairs near my scooter.
When we arrived, Tammy had us call a cab rather than hike back around to catch a bus. On the way back to the motel, we caught our first glimpse of the fireworks over Disneyland.
* Their 'real' name!
