Southern CaliforniaLand

Larry on the Expo Line Train. I caught him with his "subway" face!

On Friday evening Larry and I hopped on the Metro to Union Station. We were on our way downtown to see a slide show extravaganza by our favorite Histotainer, Charles Phoenix. The show didn't start until 8:30, so we had plenty of time to have dinner on Olvera Street and roam around a bit to look at the colorful shops.

Metro Artisans. Peter Shire, right

Union Station is beautiful, inside and out!

Many of the vendors on Olvera Street were closing early on Friday night, but enough were open to give us a taste of excellent tourist knick-knacks!

Mural, "Blessing of the Animals" by Leo Politi

Detail, "Blessing of the Animals"

Once we were inside Union Station again for Charles' show, we saw many old friends from the Los Angeles Conservancy. Charles showed vintage slides from Southern California, narrating along the way in his humorous manner. Unbeknownst to us, Charles had a 102 degree fever during the talk. After the show, when he was signing autographs, he fainted and was rushed to the hospital in his polka-dot suit!  Turned out that he was dehydrated and just need to rest. Phew! Thanks, Charles, for being such a show-biz trooper!

Charles does look a bit blurry

My favorite slide of a 1960s Jack in the Box building

We had a wonderful evening in downtown Los Angeles, at the start of a beautiful weekend.