Halloween

 As celebrated by little free libraries within a two-block radius

black cat

spider

papel picado

free Halloween tchotchkes

camouflaged spider

a couple books in my library

July Leftovers

 

Olympic rings in the neighborhood

Funny sign on campus.
Do any students know what a calling card is?

Library contents in mid-July

D.'s picture taken at the LA Arboretum

Jacaranda and firework flowers in our yard 

Exploring

I am lucky to have friends who invite me places and offer to drive. One friend suggested going to Watts Towers, even though I countered by saying we could just watch a documentary.

 

We had read that there were tours, but that was not
accurate. We were still happy to walk around.

We were not in a rush so we poked around a bit.
The visitor center was closed 

but we enjoyed the outdoor art in the park

and in the neighborhood.

Someone else walking around told us about a garden.

The person working there said it was closed

but she let us pick peaches.

So many turtles!

From the Towers we headed to coffee,

which had an excellent little library.

There were pictures of lots of events here,
but we were the only ones on that morning.

Our last stop was IKEA, where I tracked my route.

Scenes from a Walk

I knew there were horses on this property
but had never seen goats before.

Just because

Little book library, little art supply library, little farmers market library.

This is a mystery to me.

These two signs are at the same intersection,
this one on the NE corner and the one above
on the SW corner. Why are they different
colors? Why is one Street and one Drive?

 

New Things

Because D. had taken some time off he was riding more, running more errands, and generally getting out more. I suppose that is why he scooped me not once, but twice.

He was the first to point out that
our neighbor now has a little library.

He was also the first to notice
the charging stations near Trader Joe's.

There are two kinds installed, Delta and
Signet, and each has two kinds of charger.

This definitely does not fit our car!

I noticed the new power box (sign reads,
"Work in progress. Please do not touch.
Thank you,"), but that was not as exciting.

This is both a new picture because I took it just
this week, but it does look just the ones I take each year!

And Yet Another Day of Vacation!

We cycled from home to Monrovia for breakfast. 

We tried to wait for the fog to lift before heading out.

There was still a haze, but visibility
improved as we went along.

We thought about eating at Peach Cafe and decided we did not want to wait 60-75 minutes for a table. At Cafe on Lemon we showed up at just the right time because there was no wait (although a line formed as we ate). 

As a bonus there was a fire station with
a little library right across the street. 

After riding home and cleaning up we headed to the art fiesta at Padua Hills Theater.

This piece caught our eye

and I liked the fountains,

which were not for sale.

It was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed
the sounds, sights, and chats with friends.

It was great to take some time off!

Vacation, Part Three

 Because the weather was great we decided to walk around Millionaire's Row in Pasadena,

which includes the Wrigley Mansion, which
is now The Tournament of Roses headquarters.

Nice that they have room in back for their fleet.

I know we will go back one day because while I was doing some research for this post I learned that there

is a Pasadena Tournament of Roses Little Free Library and we missed it by half a block! 😧

from google maps

We enjoyed looking at houses

and walking on the Colorado Street Bridge.

From there we could snap a picture of the front of the
United States Court of Appeals, the satellite location of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit based in San Francisco.

We poked around Defenders Park before moving the car
and heading to our the last part of our vacation.

The Usual

 What would a trip be without little libraries?

This one is a few houses down
from where we spent a few nights.

We made a special trip to this one, but even more
exciting was the old-style mailbox on the right side of the photo.

If the weather had been better maybe I would
have taken a picture like this, which I found on Google Maps. 

The official website showed a little free library
at the campground and the weather was much better
the next day so I was able to go check it out.