We watched the train being built and Jory excitedly wanted to know when they were finish if we could ride it. Yes, the train, that would one day take you from Downtown to the beach, would be ridden by us once they finish. After more delays then I could begin to imagine, I heard they were opening from a co-worker. I looked it up on the internet and read the press release. There would be booths, music, free stuff, a mime, and most importantly a magician with a cat. Yep, you read that correctly, a magician with a cat. SCORE!
Thankfully the first weekend was free to ride. The train started rolling at 5AM. I knew Jory would have loved to have been the first riding the train, but if there were no big events going on then I figured we could sleep in.
We picked up Aunt Brenda and off we went at where the train began at La Cienega near the new Target aka
the Fedco site (man, I miss Fedco). I wasn’t sure where to park, so I just parked at Aunt Carol’s and walked the two blocks over, after dropping the family off in front of the train depot. As soon as I got up with them, who did I see. That’s right - - the magician with a cat. SCORE! I took a picture. I never saw him do magic nor did I see the cat do magic, but I saw a dude with a magician hat on with a cat lying on his shoulders. We can now move on to the next thing, now that I saw that awesome duo. A magician with a cat? Who thought of booking them? Genius!
We went into the underground parking to see all the free stuff they had, like if I spent $25 on catering from Subway I could get a free plate of cookies. Deal! There were a lot of bowties for sale, not sure if bowties are making a comeback or if they were prepping for prom and wedding season. They did have a lot of free literature mostly about the train line. The kids got free slap bracelets that warned them to be careful when crossing the railroad tracks. Those slap bracelets became a big hit as the day went on.
There was a small bus roaming around with moving eyes. Everyone tried to get their kid to take a picture with it. Jory didn’t want to take a picture with it, but he was curious how it was moving and wondering if it was a robot.
After this excitement, Jory, Layla, and I went up the wrong flight of stairs to get to the overhead train, but boy did my legs get a good workout. We found the right set of stairs and up went and on the train we hopped. Jory sat by a window with Oma, the baby sat on my lap and behind us Rowan and Aunt Brenda.
Jory loved it. I thought it felt like a train ride and I realized when we stepped onto it I really missed hearing, “Mind the gap.” Those British in some ways really have their act together. As always with public transportation, you meet, hear, and see interesting characters. At one point, I’m pretty sure my mom was trying to explain to Jory that the laughing man sitting in front of them was sick. The elevator definitely wasn’t going to the top floor, but it was going up enough that someone was letting him ride the train by himself. I think that conversation was utterly and completely over Jory’s head. He saw a man who liked to laugh.
The train stopped at every stop though you couldn’t get off at every stop, then finally we made it to the last stop in Downtown LA. Here, they had karaoke, vendors, free stuff. Yeah, their free stuff was the same free crap at the beginning of the line. And these vendors were selling jewelry so we made good time weaving through the tables, until we saw a converted camper being used as a stage for some dance interpretation. I stopped, I figured it would be good to expose the kids to it. It was interesting and truly amazing what they were able to pull off in such a little space. After the performance was over, we kept trekking on.
I saw the karaoke stage, it was empty. The festivities were nearing the end and there was no one at the tables. The upscale roach coaches were selling meals starting at $10, so obviously they weren’t meant for us to eat at. But we did see a Coke booth and a long line. So I got in line, they were giving away free Cokes why not. Then a man came up to my mom and said, “Come over here.” We thought he was cutting in line, but when we watched him, we realized we were standing in line to spin the wheel in order to get a free Coke or Coke product, but there was no line to walk up to the workers and ask for a Coke, so we got of the spin line and grabbed a warm Coke. The kids got some fruit juice/energy drink, except I didn’t see any bathrooms and I was worried about little bladder Layla having anything to drink. But it was a fun day, so I let her have a few sips.
One little nine or ten-year-old girl dressed sort of punkish got up on the stage and belted out a few hits. I thought about doing it, but it was too open, too public. It was time to go home. So we walked the block back to get on the train, only to be told that this was the exit only route, we had to walk back to the other side of the block in order to get back home. We can walk off the Coke, so off we went, back on the train, where I was informed no open cans on the train. Bye warm Coke my parched tongue appreciated you for the little while we were together. On the way home, Jory put together the paper trains and buses, he got for free and he was more interested in that then watching us travel back home.
We got back to where it all began and all the booths and the magician with a cat were gone. We got lunch/dinner from a pizza place, then went back to Aunt Brenda’s and had an impromptu picnic. A good day had by all and now I never have to ride that pointless train again, unless my beloved DC Talk was playing at the Staple Center.
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