Xmas Report ~ Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Like everyone else, I went shopping. Fortunately some of it was by train. While we were waiting for ours to show up at the nearest station, we watched some folks hang a wreath.



The ride itself was also enjoyed.



I also went to Campbell, a town full of cute shops full of things you don't need but which make nice presents, on San Jose's newest light rail line.



We restored an old HO scale Tyco (?) trolley, suitable for running on a loop around a tree; here it is seen in a "lineup" between an N Scale Model Power trolley and Gnomy not-specifically-to-scale tram.



We made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.



I applied my years of experience making model buildings to come up with a new, structurally sound design, which worked for a whole troop of girl scouts. This picture shows how to build one (those walls are glued together with powdered sugar frosting).



After Christmas we went down to Southern California to see more family.

We rode the green + blue + red lines to go downtown. The Redondo Beach station has some ineresting outer-spacey artwork.



The green line trains themselves are, in my opinion, the nicest looking modern light rail cars you'll see anywhere.



Our objective: outdoor ice skating in Pershing Square.



It was not so many years ago that "fun" and "downtown LA" were simply not mentioned together. Of course the evolution of cities is a complicated thing dependent on many factors, but I don't think its a coincidence that downtown went into decline when they ripped out the PE and LARy, and started bouncing back when they built the subway and light rail!

They do also have some cool looking busses (heresy, you say?) in LA.



A few days later we swung by the Port of LA Red Car in San Pedro.



No time to ride it this time--we were hurrying from a New Years Day ocean swim (brrr!) to more ice skating, in Van Nuys (pretty much the other side of LA--only try this on a holiday!).

For the sake of completeness, I should mention that our cat came along on our vacation.

It'll be nice to settle back into the usual routine of work, school, internet, and building models!