Union Station - Los Angeles

Well getting on another train meant a stop at another train station. This time it was Union Station in Los Angeles (it seems like many stations are called Union Station). The station was opened in May of 1939 and was considered as the last of the great railway stations in the United States. It would serve the Atchison-Topeka and Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads and saw heavy use during World War II but that use declined as rail travel was replaced by cars and planes.

It is now used by the buses, Amtrak and Metrolink so it once again sees heavy use.
A shot of the main hallway. It is nice but not as nice as the station in Chicago. I kind of wish I could have gotten a shot of the outside as it looks much better outside.
One of the gardens on the side.

A fountain which is on the other side.

A detail of that fountain.

Heading towards the tracks. You can definately throw yourself back in time in this station as it feels like a classic station.

Downtown Los Angeles

Of all the times that I have visited Southern California, I have never visited Downtown Los Angeles. Since I was basically staying overnight and had to catch the Southwest Chief on the next day, I decided that this would be a good time to stay in Downtown LA. The hotel I stayed at wasn't too bad although the room was a little on the small side. Oh well, it was cheap.

My train didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so I had a little more time to kill in LA than I had in San Francisco, so I wandered around the area a little bit.
The first building I stopped at was called the Santa Fe Lofts. I presume it was owned by the Santa Fe Railroad at one time because this is its logo. It looked like a pretty cool building though.Looking up at the building itself.

One of the things I like to see on buildings is the advertisements that get painted on as murals.

I decided to grab lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant. They served Coke made with real sugar. Yum. I had the rice vermicelli which was really good especially since there aren't a ton of good Vietnamese restaurants in my neck of the woods.

I believe the area I stayed in was called Old Downtown or something to that effect. I kind of liked this picture because of the contrast between Old Downtown and new Downtown.

I forget what this church was called but it was pretty neat looking. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the right angle to get a decent shot.

Another statue on the church.

This is the Los Angeles Times building. It was designed by Gordon B. Kaufmann and is an Art Moderne building. It was constructed in 1935.

A detail fo the building.

A nice overall shot of downtown Los Angeles.

Probably the most famous building in downtown LA is the City Hall building which was completed in 1928. It was used as the Daily Planet in the Superman TV series and it was used as itself during the Dragnet series. There is an emboss on the LAPD badges.

I'm not sure what kind of tree this was, but I like the purple.

Same tree but looking up at the sky.

Somehow, it just wouldn't be a picture of LA without some palm trees.

Another portion of the LA Times building.

A detail of that building.

Another shot of downtown LA.

This is a shot of the Walt Disney Concert Center. It was opened in 2003. The exterior is stainless steel.

I'm not sure what building this is, but it reminds me of the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

This was on the side of the AT&T building. I thought it was a neat looking piece of art.

Looking up at one of the buildings.

Looking up at another building.

Looking down one of the streets. I don't remember what street it was.

Another shot of Downtown from another angle.

Another portion of downtown LA.

Los Angeles Skyline

So I decided to head to Hollywood this time. I'd been there once before when I went to the Ronald Reagan Library but I didn't spend alot of time there. Little did I realize it would be a little on the chilly side.

As I was heading to Hollywood, the traffic was stop and go enough for me to get a not so good shot of the Los Angeles skyline. I wish I wasn't in such a hurry because I saw some cooler angles of the skyline.