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Union Station
Union
Station was built in 1939 and is located in Downtown Los Angeles on 800 N. Alameda
St. My Friend Emiko (who live far away from me) and I decided that we would
meet for lunch at Union Station on Jan 6th. The original plan was for both of
us to take the metro line to Union Station, but it turns out that the metro
doesn't run on Sundays. We later discovered that if we didn't mind driving a
little further we could have both taken the train in from stations that were
slightly farther from our homes. We plan to try this again on a Saturday when
for lines our running. I actually managed to get lost while going to the Station
so I arrived late, but only by a few minutes. I had never been to Union Station
and I was pleasanlty surprised, it was much pretty than I imagined it would
be. Emiko and I toured the Station and then walked down the street to get a
Phillippe's Philly Stake sandwhich. The place was packed and we had to wait
quite a while to get our sandwhiches. Overall, I wasn't impressed with the sandwhich,
I've had many Philly stake sandwhiches that were better.
After
lunch Emiko and I decided to take a walk down Olvera street which is composed
of a number of shops selling items from Mexico such as clothing, artwork, etc.
There was a Indian dance troop dancing out on the street while we were there.
I should mention that even though this was the beginning of January it was a
delightfully warm day so it didn't matter that the dancers weren't wearing much
clothing. Right next to the where the dancers were performing was a pavillion
with a nativity scene.
We
then headed down the street a come to an old fire station that had been coverted
into a museum. The station had several very old fire enigines and an old fire
alarm. There was a brass pole which when to a hole in the ceiling that the firemen
used to move quickly from their living quarters on the second floor to the engines.
On the wall were a large number of helmets from various eras during the station's
history. Emiko especially like an old stove that was in the station.
After
leaving the fire station we went to the old mission. The mission wasn't that
exciting, but it did have a small petting zoon with goats that was kind of fun.