Public Transportation and Sightseeing

Los Angeles is not known for folks using public transportation. When in L.A., I actually liked taking the metro subway station. Unfortunately, as this metro site shows you, the metro subway station doesn't really go to that many places. L.A. is geographically big and becomes a huge challenge for taking public transportation. That's why when I read this WSJ article about this reporter attempting to sightsee around LA. using only public transportation, I read with a lot of bemusement and giggles. Although the reporter did spend only $30 for sightseeing around L.A. in 5 days, it sounds like it took a really long time to get from point A to point B using just public transportation. Although with L.A. traffic being what it is, I wonder how much time the reporter would have saved by driving to get to same places.

I did learn something new though. Apparently, there's a site by Michael Brein that has guides on how to sightsee cities based only on public transportation! That's pretty cool.

Spontaneous Combustion... in Manure??

And you thought you heard it all. There's another fire raging in L.A., in the Moorpark area right now. The cause of the fire? Spontaneous combustion of manure. Yup, not batteries, not electrical lines, not anything man-made. Manure.

According to this L.A. Times article,

The cause of the fire, which started Tuesday, is still under investigation, but Ventura County Sheriff's Department officials have said it appeared to have been started by spontaneous combustion of manure from a local ranch.

That has to be the weirdest piece of news I have heard in quite a long time.

Driving Saturn Aura in S.F.

Whenever I travel and rent a car, I end up getting to know a car I didn't even know existed. I traveled up to San Francisco bay area over the labor day weekend and rented a car from National (a rental that I've never heard of). And the car I got? Saturn Aura. Aura?? I have heard of Saturn but thought there was one Saturn. I was quite pleased with the car though. It was mid-sized car, handled smoothly although the steering wheel was a bit bigger than Toyota Camry's that I was used to. It made me think about a new car for future buying purposes, and that certainly isn't a bad thing for American cars.

Below are some pictures of San Francisco!

I went to Rassela's with a friend to enjoy some great Ethiopian food and live music.

It was a beautiful weekend, and I got to enjoy the view of the bay bridge.



Another view of the bay bridge and the farmer's market by the Ferry Building.


Farmer's market and Market street.


Another view of the farmer's market at the Ferry Building.