the bridge from the arroyo seco

this picture is from a little while ago, taken with my old camera. i was going through some old photos and realized it had never been posted here.

looking up hill ave toward the hills

black and white at the corner of hill and walnut.

surplus

but i'm not really sure what there is a surplus of... i've been by here several times but it looks like they either do most of their business out the backdoor, or they are closed. i love this classic old neon sign look, pasadena's got a good suply of them.

don't look now, but i turn 26 today! breaking beyond that quarter century mark. i'll be celebrating up in sonoma valley with some close friends, should be great.

photo request #10 - vroman's bookstore

tash over at the fantastic palos verdes daily photo wondered if i had any images up of vromans, a fantastic independant bookstore in pasadena. i didn't have any up until today. one of my favorite things about this bookstore is their "big city" newspaper and magazine stand out front. really cool!

as you can see i've been out snapping pictures late at night recently. i gotta get out in the sun for a few!

full moon over pasadena

snapped this off near lake avenue the other night. i'm not sure if the moon was actually full, but i think it was pretty close! i should have played with the settings a bit more, or used a tripod - the glow around the moon could have been prevented i'm sure.

roy's hawaiian fusion cuisine

i've never been to roy's. this pasadena location just opened a little while ago. while i was on the fence before about going, the fiery torches are bound to win me over soon! also, the fact that roy is the name of my favorite baseball player, is even more enticing...

any thoughts on this chain? is it worth checking out?

a single palm

not much to be said about this photo. it's a palm tree. been a while since I posted one, and come to think of it, it's been a while since we saw some pasadena sky on this blog!

twin cyclists

this artwork on the side of the seniors center along holly street has always caught my eye. i didn't realize that it was 3d until i went to take this picture and realized that the shelves, umbrella, hat, and several other items cast a shadow and are in fact hanging off the building. if anyone has any insight as to the artist information, please share!

for those of you looking for more from my recent ballpark tour, check out a blog entry right here.

photo request #9: fuller bookstore and coffee by the books

life observer, over at the wonderful cafe pasadena requested that i take a picture of the fuller bookstore and coffee shop. unlike other campus bookstores, they have yet to fully "sell out" and are still considered an independent bookstore rather than one run by efollet or something else. i'm pretty proud of my school for remaining strong in this regard.

coffee by the books is also pretty outstanding. located behind the bookstore, they serve fair trade coffee and other tasty goodies. really a fantastic alternative to the many starbucks in town.

canyon city liquor

although this sign probably doesn't really do much anymore, at some point it had some neon lights shining from it. it was found just east of pasadena in azusa, ca - nicknamed the canyon city - hence the name of the liquor store.

for those who are new to this blog, friday is typically a day to showcase neon from around pasadena. you can see past entries right here.

petco park

our visit to petco park this week was pretty amazing. i knew it was going to be a great park, but it totally surpassed our expectations. as a new dodger fan, i know i'm not supposed to like anything from the padres (especially when they beat you 4-0), but this park blew us away. from the perfect view of the field from pretty much every section we visited, to the numerous restaurants and bars around the stadium, to the open air concourses, and that quirky western metal supply building that they built the park around. it was pretty spectacular. the first park on our trip is going to be hard to beat. we went to the angels/yankees game tuesday night, on to san fran for a game yesterday afternoon, and finally Oakland for this evening's game.


one last photo - the newest dodger doing what he does best. glove in hand, just hanging out. manny being manny.

congrats steve and stef

my wife meredith snapped off this picture of the happy couple at the perfect moment at the end of their first dance. it was great to be a part of your day steve and stef, congrats once again!

fuller housing

chang commons is one of the newest housing options for students at fuller. named so because of a generous grant from do-won and jin-sook chang - founders of the clothing chain, forever 21.

we don't live in chang, but i can imagine its a nice place to live. it's new and right next to fuller's classrooms. apparently housing on campus is in high demand this year - several of our graduating neighbors were asked to move out of their apartments earlier than they had hoped.

angel stadium 'of anaheim'

even though i just got back to town, i'm heading out right away for a ballpark tour with my good friend aaron. we're hoping to get to san diego, san francisco, oakland, and of course the los angeles ballparks. it's going to be great, and will add to my ballpark quest.

this photo is not from our trip, but rather the first time i visited angel stadium, shortly after arriving in california last summer. the whole debate over their name - currently the los angeles angels of anaheim after years as the california angels and anaheim angels - is pretty ridiculous if you ask me. adding the 'of anaheim' to the name of the stadium as this photo shows is pretty crazy too. but i have to admit i do like the sign being propped up with giant baseball bats.

i'll try and get one or two photos of ballparks along the way, as well as some pictures from the wedding this past week.

arcadia methodist hospital

this is where my wife works. a smaller community hospital, just east of pasadena. the health care system in the usa is something i'm still getting used to, but having a spouse in the medical field gives me some fascinating insight.

heading back to pasadena today. my time in ontario has been fantastic, but it will be good to get back on the west coast - last trip of the summer is finished!

what happened?

pasadena's own indymac bank ran into some bankruptcy problems last july. you can read all about it right here. it's located at the corner of lake avenue and walnut avenue... or at least it was.

photo request #8: neon train sign

laurie of the fantastic glimpses of south pasadena site suggested i track down this neon sign on colorado. here it is. friday neon and a photo request all in the same day!

i've got a few other photo requests in the pipeline. sorry for the delay!

waiting for the flyaway bus

many people don't realize how easy it is to take public transportation from pasadena to los angeles international airport. simply take the gold line south to union station and then get on the flyaway bus which will take you directly to your terminal. $5.25 for the whole trip is a steal based on the price of gas and airport parking.

don't we have a deal with the pigeons?

of course we have a deal. they get out of the way of our cars, we look the other way on the statue defecation.

seinfeld fans will recognize this conversation from the merv griffin show episode - a classic conversation between george and jerry, and the perfect compliment for today's image. okay, one more quote from the same episode. george first, then jerry...


i don't get these birds. they're breaking the deal. it's like the pigeons decided to ignore me.

so they're like everyone else.

launderland

sounds so magical - like some kind of messed up dream for an amusement park. in actuality it's the just your average laundromat/washateria/launderette/self-service laundry - with a very cool name. found at the corner of villa and los robles.

september 2008 theme day: sister cities

today's theme day was a tough one. pasadena has 6 sister cities so you would think i'd have no problem. however, i have not visited any of them, and i'm ashamed to admit i'd only heard of one of them. fortunately the reason i had heard of it was because a good friend of mine had just visited. today's picture of tangier, morocco, is courtesy of jason good (a former co-worker of mine in the admissions office at eastern mennonite university). thanks for your help today.

over 100 other bloggers are working with this theme today. check them out!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

kobe diem?

it took a bit of searching, but according to this article, kobe likes to seize the day. i guess it's kind of his thing to sign carpe diem after his autograph, but i doubt many basketball fans are fluent in latin... confusing, strange, and oddly fitting. way to go vitamin water.

anyway, the real reason for posting this picture is the amazing amount of firewood stacked around this sign. i've always wondered about this place. is there a big need for firewood in pasadena? does anyone ever buy wood here?

andrew and the cicada

meet andrew. he likes bugs. likes them so much that he's been working on a phd in entomology. he found this little guy shedding his old skin on the morning of his brother's wedding (the wedding which i was involved in back in pennsylvania... it's been a busy summer, try and keep up) and decided to let it crawl around on his shoulder - eventually leading to the bug reaching his face (andrew says it's because they try and reach the highest point of whatever they are crawling on). hope you aren't too squeamish!

mezbaan indian cuisine

pasadena has several really great indian restaurants. i've never been to this one but i'm enticed by the banner advertising a lunch buffet. it's located in an area of old town that we don't get to very often, so i'm sure that is part of the reason we've never gone.

above the 210

i like the irony of this picture. empty tracks, a busy freeway, and the constant summer haze over it all. i can't wait for the sky to clear a bit as fall arrives.

for now i'm heading out of town once again. flying east to once again be involved in a wedding (the third one this summer!!). this time my good friend steve is getting married in ontario. i'll be posting more from pasadena and may sprinkle a few from canada while i'm on the road, or once i get back. comments are always welcome, but i may not be able to respond as quickly as i would like to.

big tujunga canyon road

on a crazy route suggestion of my friends ryan and alethia, i took a bike ride earlier this week that turned out to be one of the most difficult i've ever undertaken. tim and i set out early monday morning and headed out to sunland, ca where we turned into the mountains following big tujunga canyon road. what we faced was 15 miles and almost two hours of gradual climbing - almost 1500 feet of altitude change, winding up the mountain sides.

we ran out of water along the way, and were cursing ryan and alethia by the end, but we were also blessed with some amazing canyon views, and a very quick and fun 10 mile decent down hwy 2 back to la canada and eventually pasadena. almost 50 miles of intense riding is a crazy way to start off a monday morning.

one final image

here it is, the last image i'll post from my trip to the east coast. the bike trip was possible because I was asked to participate in the wedding of my college friend peter (congrats you two!). here we see a covered bridge in lancaster county (where the wedding took place), with the silhouettes of the wedding party at the end of the tunnel.

tomorrow i'll start posting images of pasadena. if you missed the link when i posted it earlier, you can see more photos from my trip right here.


10,000! - i'd like to say thank you to all of my loyal blog readers. sometime this morning this blog will surpass 10,000 visitors. in less than a year this thing has grown beyond anything i could have ever imagined. thank you all so much!

enough to take my breath away

my favorite image from the bike trip. this one is from our campsite at janes island state park on the eastern shore of the chesapeake. aside from a little cropping, this hasn't really had any editing done to it.

dolles salt water taffy

the size of the seagull in this shot completely took me by surprise. i was hoping to capture the scene on the boardwalk in rehoboth beach in delaware and the classic looking taffy sign, but the bird swooped in to my viewfinder. i like it!

this is another image from the recent bike trip. a few more pictures will follow and then i'll get back to posting about pasadena.

calm after the storm

we took cover to avoid the storm brewing above us as we biked through maryland. it included hail, rain, and some strong wind, and left us with some incredible sky above this farmhouse.

click here to see what we looked like on the other side.

photo request #7: images of fuller seminary

petrea over at pasadena daily photo recently mentioned that i needed to feature my very own school more often. she's right of course, so i'll delay the bike trip photos one more day in favor of some friday neon and an image of fuller's student center.

a few notes about fuller theological seminary:

- largest multi-denominational seminary in the world
- almost 5000 students from 67 countries
- 108 christian denominations represented
- in addition to the main campus in pasadena there are 6 extension sites across the western usa

if you want something "uniquely pasadenian" featured on this blog, please drop me a line or make a comment. i'd be happy to oblige if i can figure out a way to take the requested image.

economic roundtable with congressman schiff

we interrupt the planned bike trip photos with some photo-journalism. last night i had the opportunity to attend a forum on economics hosted by my congressman, adam schiff at the senior center in town. it was an interesting experience to see how people reacted to their elected official and the economic experts that were assembled for the event. the recent closure of pasadena's own indymac bank has had a huge impact on this community, as seen by the huge line of people who rose during the question and answer period (photo below). democracy in action. wonderful stuff.

bicycle trip beginnings

okay, over the next few days i'll be posting a few pictures from my recent bicycle trip. the first is a view of the philadelphia skyline taken from the ben franklin bridge where we crossed into new jersey on the first day of our journey.

if you are interested in seeing more pictures, i've created a short rundown of the trip which can be found right here. more to come tomorrow, enjoy!

working with contrast

this massive palm tree is in the trio apartment complex. i really like how the black and white makes it jump off the image.

canterbury records inc.

back home today. a great trip, but good to be back in pasadena! this image was taken last month. i love that the painter is up there painting around a sign that is missing the letter p. so much going on in this shot.

canterbury is really a fantastic record store (that actually still carries a lot of vinyl), the kind of place that has sadly become rare in a world of digital downloads and super walmarts.

three dog bakery

one of the more interesting businesses in the one colorado shopping area is this bakery specifically for our canine friends. i find it a little strange, but if we had a dog we may feel differently. this company is part of a much larger chain of stores across the usa and canada and curiously also in japan and hong kong.

the sky is big on orange grove

this plaza has been featured before, only from other angles. this picture is from shortly after we moved to pasadena, taken on our old camera, and on a bright spring day. i've played with the color a little, as well as the contrast.

il fornaio

high end italian eatery on the one colorado plaza stars in this week's pasadena neon.

bike trip update: one of the people on our ride works for the philadelphia inquirer. while we were riding he completed a new episode of his weekly video series "outdoor philadelpioa". you can see it right here.

scaffolding

criss-crossing lines of a new building in old town pasadena.

straight up city hall

another nighttime image of pasadena's picturesque city hall.

checking in from the side of the road

just a quick note from the bike trip. here we are fixing a flat along the side of the road in maryland. we've biked over 200 miles so far, with well over 100 still to come. highlights include our trip to dogfish head brewery, the cape may-lewes ferry, and weathering a hailstorm from the mens room at our janes island state park campsite.

internet options have been limited, so this is probably going to be it for now. tomorrow's post will be back to some older pasadena images. more pictures of the bike trip will be posted once i'm back home (aug. 18ish).

vroom, vroom

pasadena has a maserati dealership on fair oaks avenue. 'nuf said.

malibu coast

this picture was taken by my mom back in may when they were here for a visit. i really like the composition and how meredith, my dad, and i get lost in the rocks.

first ballgame?

i love this view of dodger stadium, it always makes me pause. when i opened the image to edit, i discovered this boy and his dad walking toward the stadium. maybe his first ballgame ever? i remember how incredible that experience was.

jake's

jake's on colorado claim to have some amazing burgers. i need to try them out. they also have billiards, which they advertise on top of the store in neon. the restaurant looks small, so the pool tables must be in the back or downstairs or something.

all saints at night

another view of all saints cathedral at night. i really like how this lights up. the banner on the church notes that they are currently celebrating their 125th birthday - quite the milestone!

be aware

it's always good to be reminded of how connected we are to nature. most of the storm drains around here are marked with these warning labels.

august 5th

i can't believe it has been two years. time goes by so quickly when you are having fun! this image is our exit to the ceremony, and i think the faces in the crowd are priceless. what a fun day, i love you meredith!

sad to be leaving pasadena and my lovely wife today, but i'll be heading east to be in another wedding. my good friend peter is getting married in about a week and a half, and leading up to the wedding i'll be embarking on a cycling tour with 6 good friends from college. the blog will continue to showcase all things pasadena - that is until i get to an internet connection to post some images from our trip. if not, i'll post some when i get home.