Industry Figure Tom Chappell

My buddy Larry Helmerich lured me into going on some mass-transit adventures in Los Angeles recently. It’s fun, and we’ve enjoyed learning the ropes of the system.

Today, we tried getting from his house in Sylmar (maybe 25 miles NW of downtown Los Angeles) to Old Town Pasadena (maybe 15 miles north of Los Angeles). It’s about a 35-minute or 40-minute drive from Larry’s house. We made it in 70 minutes, on mass transit, for $8 per person, round-trip.

(I should mention that Larry took all of the pictures that don’t actually feature him as a subject)

Here we are at the Sylmar MetroLink Station. First there’s me, because it’s my blog:

…and here’s Larry. He has basically always been this thin. And, yes, if you’re curious, he’s had to work at it all his life — he doesn’t just get it for free. At a recent reunion of his former Interactive Systems Software colleagues, they speculated that he had sold his soul to the Devil, but I know Larry, and he would have gotten a better deal than just just being thin and young — he’s one of those hagglers. Still thin, though, almost as if he’d been working out, pretty much daily, for the last nine months:

The train arrived dead on time:

…and in practically no time, we were down at Union Station, in downtown Los Angeles:

The transfer to the Gold Line was included in our MetroLink ticket, and before we knew it, we were up in Old Town Pasadena, at the Del Mar station (where my old friend John Blackburn and I once smoked cigars, not knowing that it wasn’t allowed — we figured it out when we saw a sign with a bunch of NO’s!, and I said, “Oh, a sign with that many NO!’s has got to include smoking cigars.” We high-tailed it out of there, only to run smack-dab into a night guard. It would have been ironic to have been ticketed for my twice-yearly cigar, but fortunately, he just bade us a cheery good evening.)

Here’s the Del Mar station. Each station is visually distinct, which is both pleasing, and helpful for wool-gathering passengers to notice their stop:

And really, what the heck is this thing for? Just to say, “Yep, this is Del Mar Station, where the crazy thing is?”:

I told Larry that I thought I’d seen a restaurant that John and I used to frequent, though I wasn’t really sure, because face-blind people are also bad at recognizing landmarks.

But I was right, it was the wonderful Crown City Brewery (where they give you a special T-shirt after you’ve drunk 100 different beers):

We feasted on beer and sundries, and returned to the outside world, passing both the Del Mar station:

…and the Castle-Green compound:

We wandered around, stopping in a travel store, where I bought a Tilley LT6B Breathable Nylon Hat (Canadian, with a lifetime guarantee). I was pleased to find that not only did they have hats in my freakishly-large head size (7 3/4), but even had, in stock mind you, size 7 7/8 — presumably for encephalitis victims.

I don’t have pictures of me buying the hat, or of Larry making a purchase at the lovely Pasadena Apple Store, but I do have a picture of this rooftop reindeer ball:

Then, because fewer MetroLink trains run on Sunday than on Saturday, it was time for us to head back to the lovely Del Mar station…

…and from there, back to Union Station…

…where we caught the return MetroLink.

Look at this first photo: that could be any shrunken old geezer. “Hey, you kids get off of that scaffolding!”:

…but no! Apparently, I’m actually jolly!:

Here’s my old friend, Industry Figure Larry Helmerich, also reasonably jolly:

Back safely in Sylmar, victorious, with our swag!