Planes, trains, and automobiles

OK, there weren't any planes involved, and not too much in the way of automobiles (unless you can count buses), but Erik and I took our precious Friday off together to prove that you really can get around Southern California using rapid transit. We drove to the Gold Line station (the line's terminus is in eastern Pasadena, about 10 miles from our house), parked the car (for free!), and took the train into Union Station, which is a gorgeous Mission Revival building with lots of Art Deco touches (you may remember it from the police station scenes in Blade Runner). From there we hopped on a Dash bus (they're smaller buses that service the downtown area; you can ride on them for just a quarter!), went up to the San Antonio Winery, drank, ate, drank some more, grabbed another Dash bus, and then wandered around Chinatown in a semi-alcoholic fog. After that we got back on the Gold Line to Union Station (it was easier than catching another bus, and since Erik already had a Metro pass, and my one-day $3 pass allowed me unlimited riding on the Metrorail...well, you do that math), then took the Red Line into downtown and walked over to the Biltmore from Pershing Square. We wanted to have a drink in the bar, which is gorgeous, but unfortunately it wasn't due to open until 4:30, so we just relaxed and cooled off in the lobby whilst drinking Evian and watching people have tea. (I guess they serve tea at the Biltmore every afternoon; who knew?). We decided at that point to head back into Pasadena, so we went back to Union Station, got back on the Gold Line (the train we got on was an Express, which was great, since the trip back was faster, but as far as we could tell, there weren't any signs or anything that said it was an Express).

We'd meant to have dinner, but I was still really full from lunch, so we just sort of snacked and then went to see a movie. We had some free passes for the Pacific theater there, but they told us we couldn't use them for Spiderman (usually if a movie's been out for two weeks, then it's not considered a special engagement anymore, but that wasn't the case with Spidey. Fascists). So we went to see Fracture instead, which is actually a very good film -- very suspenseful, with good plot twists and great acting. I don't quite get all the fangirling over Ryan Gosling at ONTD, but I can't deny that he's a very good actor. And Anthony Hopkins, of course, is sublime. It was also sort of cool to see all the interior shots at City Hall, because the architecture is very similar to Union Station's (it turns out that they were designed by the same firm. Who knew?). Then we rode the train back to the Sierra Madre Villa station, picked up the car, and went home, tired but happy in the realization that we didn't have to spend half our budget on over-priced gas.

We're still waffling over going to Celebration next Saturday (both of us are extremely displeased with our jobs and could walk at any moment, so blowing tons of money at a convention might not be the wisest thing to do right now), but if we do go, we're definitely going to ride the train and then take the Dash buses and not have to deal with the inevitable parking nightmare that's going to occur when you have 40,000 rabid Star Wars fans descending on a small area of downtown.

So while you may not be able to get everywhere in SoCal using mass transit, you can get around if you plan ahead and do your research. And bring plenty of quarters and one-dollar bills. ;-)