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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On The Road Again!

Pit stop in Quartzite. My stop of choice is always Luvs truck stop.
So, I hit the road at exactly 5:30 p.m. Luis Miguel will be singing some cool stuff for the next hour or so and I am stoked cause I am finally on my way. I expected traffic to be heavy but to my surprise it really wasn't and before I knew it I was in the open highway. So I set the car speed at 80 miles per hour, just 5 miles over Arizona's limit and drove west.

I got to Quartzite in less than two hours. As always I had to stop at the Luvs truck stop for some of my magic brew. I always carry my own cup so refills are like .80 cents or so. What I do is fill it half ways with their strongest coffee and fill it all the way up with the Vanilla gourmet coffee, when combined it makes an awesomely good tasting coffee not too sweet and yet strong enough to keep me awake. Ummm que rico!



Of course my trusty steed would be photographed. What an awesome traveling companion it turned to be. Oh, and fast too! Here my pony poses in front of an old gas station. Take a look a the light, and specially the gas pumps.

Oh what a feeling to be able to keep up with those fools on the road that think they are speed racer participating in the Canonball Run or something. I thought I was going fast but the two tiny headlights on my rear view mirror caught up to me really fast, as I moved to the right to let this very fast car pass me thinking it's some sort of an expensive sports model I just laughed cause most of this speed racers were driving some kind of a basket case and were probably just trying to blow the engine. I don't know but in my case I prefer the "Better late than never" style of driving.

Over at Chiriaco Summit in Arizona one of my favorite resting spots and photo op place I parked the car by this old gas station complete with antique gas pumps and old props and signs. What a nice magical place this is.



Some poor traveler forgot his/her luggage and so it became a pro at this old school gas station. I so would like to photograph this during the day too.

The top of the old gas pump.
I got to La Puente earlier that projected. Do not blame me for this, blame my trusty steed, since I was in the process of taming him it took over at times and really welcomed the open road with as much gusto and speed as it wanted to show me.

Needless to say my sister was not ready for me, she knew I would be hungry so she had planned to cook for me. Well no worries, in less than a blink of an eye she had cooked some very tasty "bistec empanisado" or breaded stakes, complete with an awesome red salsa and some delicious re fried beans. Again, ummm que rico! Some catching up conversation later we finally retired and went to sleep.

Ummm milanesa emanisada. Que rico!
Today we go to Downtown Los Angeles and plan on visiting the Nokia Center. Sounds like fun to me...


By the way, my sister sends you all a kiss and then says talk to the hand because the rest of me is too busy. Geeez women!

See ya all later!

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