Adventures in Public Transportation

Being at a Dodger Game - Fun. Driving to and from a Dodger Game - Not So Fun. Parking at Dodger Stadium - $15. Hence, this experiment. Ride to the Gold Line in Sierra Madre in friend Rich's car (1/2 hour). Gold Line to Union Station (1/2 hour - $1.50).* Free Dodger Shuttle to Dodger Stadium (1/2 hour).

Buy cheap seats in the upper deck. View is pretty good, even if the players are the size of mites. Final Score - Reds 3, Dodgers 1.
Reverse field. Free Dodger Shuttle to Union Station - (1 hour). Gold Line to Sierra Madre Villas - (1/2 hour). Drive home - 1/2 hour. Home by 12:15 a.m.

Not sure we'll do it again that way, but it WAS an adventure!

*Meet friends Joyce, Tom, and Allison on the Gold Line, quite serendipitously and enjoy a fun conversation until we leave the shuttle bus and disappear into the crowds - Priceless.

Photos on the Web

I finally put up photos on my picasa site from our recent east coast trip. Of the 300+ photos, I culled about 24 of the best. I think I take better photos of nature than of cities, in general, but I found a few here that I liked. My two favorites are of the reflection in the red car and the Guggenheim with cool clouds.

Famous Friends

Here are two of my Claremont friends who are now famous! Well, famous among those who read the Claremont Courier. Last week the front page article concerned some guerilla art that had popped up in downtown Claremont. Not wanting to leave readers in the dark too long, the guerilla artists were unveiled in yesterday's Courier in this article.

One exception in the article must be noted. Even though my daughters used to babysit Ben (years ago), he no longer needs a babysitter.

Summer Teaching

There's nothing like coming home from vacation and jumping right into teaching, even if it's only a few hours a day. Yesterday I started the summer string camp at El Roble which will run from Monday-Thursday, 1:00-3:00, this week and next. Today our little community of orchestra students was up to 15. 12 violins and 3 celli. Where are my viola students? No matter. I really enjoy teaching these kids who are calm, friendly, smart, helpful and all those other great qualities.

Home Improvement the Easy Way

I recommend this method of painting walls in your house. Give your painter a key to the front door and the colors you want. Go on vacation. Return and write a check. Presto!

Thoughts on New York City

Home again, home again after an uneventful, on-time Jet Blue flight from JFK to LAX. I have to say that I enjoy that airline from the comfortable seats to the snacks to the tvs. I certainly got my fill of HGTV for 5 1/2 hours!

I had almost forgotten what an exciting city it is. Such energy! Great architecture! Things to see and do for everyone! I would like to go back soon (and not wait 18 years) and see another show or two, go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, go to the south end of Manhattan and stroll Little Italy, Greenwich Village, SoHo, etc.

As exciting and fun as the Big Apple is, I would find it exhausting to live there, constantly vying for space on the sidewalks, people shoving and running into you because there is no other place to physically be.

Claremont feels calm and friendly and a good place to land and try to catch up on some sleep!

Three Events - One City Day

If one is in NYC for just 2 days, one packs in as much fun as possible. First stop, Saturday morning in Central Park. The radio-controlled sailboat reminded me of Stuart Little, and now I think I need to reread that great book. Watching the road fill with bikers, we decided to join them and rent bikes for an hour. We made it around most of the 6-mile perimeter and riding there is a bit more harrowing than driving in Boston. But, it was great fun to see more of the park that way.

One reason to stay in midtown is the proximity to the Theater District. Upon the recommendations of several friends, we chose to see Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre. Wow. What a great show! We loved the troop of kid dancers as well as the little star of the show. Hal said that he wouldn't have picked this show but was really glad that I did. He said I could choose the next show, but it will have to be in LA.
Saturdays from 5:45-7:45 is "pay what you want" at the Guggenheim, so we topped off our day visiting this Frank Lloyd Wright-designed museum. The last time we were in NYC (1992 and 3) the Guggenheim was closed for renovation, so this was a first visit for us. We especially enjoyed the Kandinsky exhibit.

One Day - Three States

Woke up this morning in Rhode Island, took the train through Connecticut and ended up in NYC by 1:50. I have not been to this city since 1993, unless you count flying into JFK and driving immediately to Massachusetts. We think that the natives have fled and the throngs and throngs of tourists have taken over! Everywhere we turn we hear all kinds of languages and have people push and shove all over the place.

After walking to our hotel in midtown, we freshened up and continued wandering north through Rockefeller Center and eventually to MoMA where we walked around the block to stand in line for free tickets. The line moved pretty quickly, and we made it in in about 15 minutes or so. It's great to be able to take photos of the art (as well as people looking at the art), and I couldn't resist this detail of one of my favorite paintings. Recognize it?

The fifth floor is full of many favorite and famous works including Starry Night, Water Lilies, Matisse's Dance of Life, a Klimt, a Chagall, some Braques, more Picassos, and on and on.

We also got to see the Matisse exhibit on the top floor (no photographs there, please). The last time I went to MoMA in 1992, we saw a HUGE Matisse retrospective, so I guess it was time to return.

I was proud of myself for not needing to be reprimanded by the security guards as a number of people were!

Indian food and a stroll through Times Square as the sun was starting to set capped off our evening. Early bedtime tonight!

A Little Adventure

We have tried, in vain, to rent bikes for an afternoon excursion, so some friends offered the use of their bikes this afternoon while they went to the beach. So, Hal started off on the woman's bike, and I took the 10-year-old's bike and discovered that while downhill wasn't too bad, uphill was pretty tough (not that the uphills here are very big, but on the wrong-sized bike, it really doesn't work well). Hal graciously changed bikes with me about a third of the way into our jaunt, and he looked pretty out of proportion on the little bike.

(I really don't know why only photo at a time is enlarged when you click on it. Blogger, what's up with this?)

Downtown Newport

On this hot and steamy afternoon, we chose to walk to the historic downtown of Newport. We tried to rent bikes from the University, but the rental place was inexplicably closed. That meant that we got our 3 miles of walking in.

Besides the plethora of shopping available, a tourist can take a gander through the IYRS - the International Yacht Restoration School. If you want to learn about restoring old boats, this is where you can devote two years of your life to learning the craft. Beside models of all sizes and a lovely air-conditioned yacht library, you can see the big sheds where the work is ongoing, although it is slow, probably because of summer. The large boat on the right is the Schooner Yacht - the Coronet, originally built in 1885. It looks as though she'll be completely new by the time they finish her (but not in time for Christmas).