Fullerton March 15, 2008

I went down to the Fullerton Amtrak Station to hang out with some of my friends on Saturday, March 15th. It was cold and windy when Samantha and I first arrived. The group of friends wasn't as big as I had expected, but that didn't matter. The train action was better than the night before and offered a few photographic opportunities the results of which I plan to share in this post.


This first image has BNSF 5224 heading east and backlit with light shafts streaming down from the clouds.














BNSF 5432 heads into the setting sun as a couple photographers on the passenger platform capture images of the train going away.















After BNSF 5432 cleared the station, SACX 868 pulled into the station for its scheduled stop.















A westbound trailer train passes through the station on track 2 as the Southwest Chief, bound for Chicago, approaches on track 1














Passengers line up to board the Chief.














One of the crew shoots the breeze with a couple people on the platform.















All in all, we had a good evening hanging out with friends and watching the activity around the station.

Day at the Getty Center

Saturday, March 8th, my daughter's school had a get-away-day sponsored by the Getty Center.
We boarded one of the charter buses at the school and enjoyed the ride to West Los Angeles. We arrived around 10:30 and got in line for the tram up to the Center. Samantha looks out the window of our car as one of her classmates looks back toward us.

We spent more time outside the galleries. There were many photographic opportunities around the Center. We grabbed a few images before making our way up to the main lobby.

Samantha checks out the flower pot and the water flowing down to the lower fountain pool.

I tried to take a long exposure of on of the fountains in the main courtyard.

We stopped by the Family Room where Samantha had some fun decorating a mask and tracing some oranges.

We made a brief walk through the lower level of the West Pavilion and looked at some the paintings and sculptures on display.


















We eventually made our way to the garden area where Samantha enjoyed the sculpture of the "Walking Flower."















Speaking of flowers, the garden area provide a lot of chances to capture images of the many different flowers that were growing there.













We stopped and had our lunch under the shade of the umbrellas made of rebar with bougainvillea growing up through the structure.













We made our way back to the bus and made our way home. It was a nice day with Samantha.