family photo

lake avenue church and a gray sky

our recent weather has been much more bright and sunny with some warm weather due this weekend.  have we come to the end of our winter gray in pasadena? 

more skywatch friday photos can be found right here.

tiny lenscrafters logos

...on the wall at paseo colorado

dena burgers

woah - what happened to mi ranchito, and what in the world is dena burger?

just a few of the questions i had the other day as i walked by the former mexican restaurant on the corner of los robles and orange grove.  mi ranchito appears to have gone the way of so many other businesses at this intersection.  i guess it shouldn't surprise me.  people seemed to prefer getting their tacos, burritos, and other mexican street food from the butcher counter at king baja ranch (oddly enough you can still buy coupons to mi ranchito from restaurant.com).

dena burgers (like pasa-"dena", get it?) seems like your standard los angeles county burger stop.  the menu includes a small selection of other sandwiches, plus breakfast items, burritos, pastrami, and stuff like that.  i ordered the cheeseburger and fries, and while it was certainly worth eating, it wasn't anything overly special.  the bun was enormous - maybe too big for the patty - and the fries were thinner shoestring-sized - pretty similar to the kind you find at chains with golden arches.

granted, this was just their second day in business, but i'd much rather go down the street to fatburger, or up the hill to connals.  but this place is really close to where we live, so i'm sure i will give it another shot.

perspective

cupcake stare-down

on wednesday our baby girl had her first birthday, so yesterday we had a party with some friends.  she enjoyed her first cupcake, ice cream, and of course, lots of laughs with many of our pasadena friends (including a stare-down with her friend dave).

the burrito express

while i wouldn't say it was the best place to get a burrito in pasadena, i did enjoy my meal at this classic north pasadena establishment.  i liked that there were some humorous signature items on the menu poking fun at customers, politicians, and locals.  i liked that the portions were sizable, and i liked that our meal for two came in around $12. 

but i couldn't help thinking that i've had much tastier mexican food from a taco truck or tiny stand.  i may go back, but i'm in no rush.

sprouts

sprouts' sign may say they are a farmers market, but that's not really the case.  sprouts is more like a scaled down version of whole foods market - mostly health foods, dried goods, and produce.  still, we enjoy shopping there from time to time.

revisited #4

one of my favorite buildings in pasadena is this old brick building next to the memorial park metro station.  i originally took a photo of this building back in january of 2008.  in the photo from today, the bike is gone, the man is gone, but the old building remains.

not a good use of water

a fire hydrant was knocked over by a runaway car on our street this weekend.  it was quite a sight to behold, but did make my stomach churn as i watched thousands of gallons of water get wasted in front of my eyes.

happy birthday!

i can't believe it has been one year since you were born.  we are so blessed to have you in our lives.  you are always moving, always happy (almost), and always making your parents proud.

love you!

more from the peace parade

as you can imagine, it is challenging to photograph a whole parade in session, but this image gives you some sense of our peace parading from sunday.

oh, and did you see that the parade was front page news in the pasadena star?

palm sunday peace parade

this year's version of the palm sunday peace parade (which has been happening in pasadena since the start of the iraq war - 8 years ago!) was quite possibly the largest and most interesting of all.  those in attendance had created large peace doves, hundreds of posters and banners, as well as noisemakers of all kinds.  we were privilidged to hear from james loney (the peace activist, not the dodgers firstbasemen) who shared about his experience as a non-violent peacemaker in iraq.  it was an incredible and meaningful event and made me proud to be a participant, and proud to live in a city where something like this can take place.

update: photos that a friend of mine took can be found right here.

lardon truck at city hall

i've been pleased to see that city hall has become a local hot spot at lunch time to spot the latest wave of gourmet food trucks.  the other day while passing by i spotted a gourmet ramen truck, a truck serving lobster rolls, and the one pictured here (sorry for the poor cell phone quality)...  the lardon bacon truck - home of the baco (a taco filled with cheese, potato, and bacon, served in a crunchy bacon taco shell).

oink! oink!

occidental college campus at dusk

happy skywatching!

veritas forum at occidental college

through my current internship i had the pleasure of attending an interesting event held at occidental college last night.  the veritas forum is a movement trying to get college students to consider whether there is a place for god in academia.  occidental welcomed mary poplin to campus to present a lecture titled, "does god belong in the university?  lessons from mother teresa".

just one more reason occidental is an interesting place to engage with the world.

one more from washington

a nice walk with friends to finish up our trip to the northwest.

menno mennonite

our trip to washington state was part of an annual tradition to gather with friends to practice a seder meal.  while the group has changed over the years, it has always included fuller students with connections to eastern mennonite university.  my friend matt is the current pastor at menno mennonite church (great name, right?), a small rural congregation in a farming community in rural washington.  his family was gracious enough to host our small gathering.

we had a wonderful time, and owe much of that enjoyment to our wonderful hosts (pictured below).

the sky is big (er?) in washington

this past weekend we ventured north to rural washington state to visit with some of our dear friends.  i'll post a few more photos from our trip in the coming days.

sandwiches by connal

i've driven by this place quite a few times and wondered if it was any good.  i kept thinking i'd stop by to check it out.  my interest only grew upon hearing that two of my favorite pasadena bloggers had enjoyed their visits (reviews at pasadena daily photo, and an immovable feast). 

my friend tim was raving about it the other day and that gave me just enough of a push to head up to washington boulevard to try it out.  it was worth the wait.  my burger was excellent, the fries were some of the best i've had in recent memory, and my order was affordable and arrived in a timely manor. 

best of all, i got a great photo of their vintage sign with my phone.

la luz de mundo

i've often wondered about this church along orange grove avenue - traditional church appearance, but star of david on top, and menorah on the doorway...  the sign is in spanish, so that isn't very helpful.  can anyone give me any insight?

george l. throop co

i know nothing about this establishment - other than what their sign says.

villa park public library branch

tucked up in the top level of the villa park community center is a tiny branch of the pasadena public library.  i appreciate the network of our amazing library system, and since this branch is only a short walk from where we live, it makes for a convenient walk with the baby.

revisited #3

in my continuing series of re-photographing some of my earlier subjects, i returned to this outdoor artwork in old town.  the last time i took a picture of this (way back in 2008), it was at dusk, or maybe dark.  this one is in full daylight.

i hope you enjoy!

the land of the freeway

pasadena's really not that bad compared to the rest of los angeles county, but we do have a few massive freeway interchanges in town - this one being no exception.

dish direction

it seems silly to me that each apartment would need its own satellite dish.  why can't  you just buy one for the building?

maybe the owners of this place just like the aesthetic qualities of a row of circular attachments...

hometown hero

way back in september i showed you a photo of a beautiful chain-stitched boxing jacket that had been worn by pasadena's hall of fame boxer, canto "tnt" robledo.  i had mentioned way back then that the villa park community center had a display honoring his legacy, but until this past week i hadn't seen it.

tucked back in a corner of the community center is this incredible installation.  if you'd like a closer look you can click on the image above to zoom in, or better yet, stop by and see it for yourself.

st. andrews cathedral interior

yesterday i attended an openhouse at st. andrews.  a building i have featured many times before - just from the outside.  i have to admit, the inside is just as spectacular, if not more so.

peekaboo!

april theme day: edges

on the first day of each month, daily photo bloggers from around the world pick one theme and share their images of that particular subject.  today, on april fools day, we get to play around with the edges.

i recently spotted this tiny blue gnome balancing on the edge of the laemmle theater in town...  promotion for this film, or a practial joke?  either way i figured it was appropriate for today's theme.  additionally, this photo also qualifies as a skywatch friday image.

whew!  busy day.

click here to view thumbnails for all participants