M.G. in A.V.

Although I've lived in L.A. for nearly 8 years, there are still many parts of Southern California I haven't seen. For example, last Monday was the first time I'd ever set foot in Pershing Square (the "central park" in Downtown L.A.).

North of Los Angeles, on the other side of the great San Gabriel Mountains, lies the Antelope Valley (which Southern Californians call "the high desert"). I had never been to the Antelope Valley, largely because I never had a reason to go there, nor have I ever known anyone who lived up there. Recently the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning (my employer) hired a young woman named Marie to do Zoning Enforcement in the unincorporated parts of the Antelope Valley, and she happens to have grown up in the Antelope Valley and currently lives there. A couple months back I gave her a tour of my Zoning Enforcement "turf" (Florence-Firestone, in South Central L.A.), so I asked her to return the favor by showing me around the Antelope Valley yesterday.

All of the pictures I took yesterday can be seen here.

My original intent had been to take Metrolink (Southern California's commuter rail system) up to the A.V. and back, but that was not meant to be. I arrived at Union Station about 15 minutes before the train's departure, thinking that was enough "lead time." It turned out 2 of the 3 Metrolink ticket vending machines were broken and there was a long line in front of the one that was working. Even worse, every single person in that line seemed absolutely mystified by the ticket vending machine and spent several minutes trying to figure out how to buy a ticket. I got to the machine a couple minutes before departure - I bought my ticket quickly and ran to the platform just in time to see the train leave. I learned a valuable lesson about poor trip planning!

The ticket was non-refundable, but at least I have it as a souvenir of my first-ever attempt to use the Metrolink system:

So I ended up driving. It only took about an hour from Hollywood - it would have taken me just as long to go to San Bernardino or Irvine, if not longer. This picture from a Scenic View pull-off on the 14 Freeway shows the wide open spaces that greeted me:

It should surprise no one that my first stop was Antelope Valley Mall, where I met Marie:

These photos show some of the rustic landscapes and mountain vistas I saw in the A.V.:

These photos show some of the Zoning violations I saw in the A.V.:

The Antelope Valley reminded me of my homeland (Phoenix), but it is a different kind of desert. It is less arid and has joshua trees instead of saguaro cacti. I like it quite a lot; it has a rustic, rural feel but is very much within the Los Angeles orbit.

Props to Marie for being an excellent tour guide. I had a lot of fun yesterday.