Tuesdays with Moon: Body Works and a voyeur

What ever happened to "No Gas Tuesdays"? Still going strong. I've not driven my car on Tuesday since mid-June. There were a few Tuesdays I carpooled with another person but those were times when, because of schedule, couldn't take public transportation or walk. Just this past Tuesday was one of those times.

A good friend ask me to go to the exhibit, Body Worlds at a museum in Los Angeles. I planned the entire trip for public transportation but she came and fetched me to the starting point. She knows about No Gas Tuesdays and had no problem taking the train, metro, bus to our final destination.

Because of the train schedule we got to Los Angeles with time to spare so I plotted out breakfast. She, a native Californio, had not been to the Pantry Cafe in ages, so I planned that as our first stop. Though downtown has been my Friday destination for the last few months I'd not gotten to the Pantry so this was perfect. We had a light breakfast, hard to believe that's possible at the Pantry, and were off to Exposition Park to see the exhibit. This friend is good to travel with, likes to walk, and isn't afraid to try new things. My kind of travel buddy. She had so much fun we need to plan another day downtown. Using public transportation gives you an opportunity to see so much more. If we'd been driving we'd have gone to the museum, and maybe lunch, then home. We had quite a fun packed day and were gone ten hours.

If you get to downtown Los Angeles you've got to plan a trip to the Pantry. What a place, they've been in business since 1924 and I don't think have changed the menu much. I do believe there is a bit of the original grease and some of the wait-staff. They never close and it was always a good place to head after a night on the town.

The ride home was interesting. The seats are two-facing-two on the train and because we stayed so long we got into commuter-time and the train was crowded. We had no problem finding a seat but my our second stop a nicely dressed office working type of gentleman sat down facing us. No problem. He had his book to read and never lifted his head. End by the end of our trip he never read a word but did stare at his book the entire trip. Kathleen and I chatted the entire time and the subjects were varied. Gas prices, books we'd read, vacations we're planning, nothing I'd ever eavesdrop on.

When we were walking to the car I asked Kathleen if she though that guy enjoyed our conversations and she laughed. "He never turned the page! He was on page 361 when he got on and the same page when we got off. He could have at least joined our conversation."

Florida, give me your beach ... but nothing else.

Posting on either of the blogs has not been top of my list for a few months. I find myself distracted by a variety of things. We'd been camping then flew off to Florida for a wedding and although it was only five days, it took up space in my brain for planning.

The wedding was great and I'm not usually a fan of visiting relatives for an extended time. We all stayed at a large resort, had our own car, and met and socialized with relatives off and on, then had the big party at the reception. My darling companion and I had plenty of time to ourselves to explore the west coast of Florida, St. Petersberg specifically.

The west coast beaches have always been my favorite. Jeeze, I talked my beloved into buying a RV so we could spend more time at the beach. The beach we stayed on was so different and quite beautiful. St. Pete's Beach has long flat expanse of beach with very small waves rolling quietly in to the shore. At least that's what the surf was like when we were there. The sand is very different, as well. Almost white and so fine that it compacts and you can walk on it with little problem. In the surf line it's hard like concrete. The water was chilly but not as cold as Ventura the same time of year. Every morning there was a virtual rush hour with all sorts of people walking up and down the shore line.

One day we traveled into St Petersberg with the intent of seeing some of Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings. I was thrilled to see a brochure for The Museum of Fine Arts with my all time favorite painting of hers, The Poppy. When we arrived more than half of the museum was closed do to construction but to my delight, there in the gallery was this beautiful red flower. Ah, but that was it, one painting by her and nothing else. So we made a pilgrimage to see one painting. The weather was beautiful, the museum sits across the street from a small bay, so it wasn't wasted time in the least.

If this was the only time I'd spent in Florida I would have moved there in an instant. But, I know they have hurricanes, bugs and humidity. Hey, they even had traffic, nope, I'll still take LA.