Old Town San Diego

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Address:  Old Town
Date: February 2014
Website:  www.parks.ca.gov

  Old Town San Diego is said to be the birthplace of California.  Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo discovered the area in 1542.  In 1602 Sebastian Vizcaino named it San Deigo de Alcala.  The area became a bustling hub, military post and religious mission.

  In 1846 the first American flag was raised in Old Town's plaza.  In 1968 Old Town became a State Historic Park.  In 2014 we made a visit to take in the history, sights and food that Old Town had to offer.  We entered the Old Town area through the market.  We would come back here later for some souvenirs.

  The first order of business was to get something to eat.  We had some churros from one of the food vendors.  After enjoying our deep fried treat we headed further into the town for some history.

  San Diego's first courthouse was built in 1847.  It is also the first brick building built by the Mormons after the war with Mexico.  At one point it served as the mayor's office.

  La Casa de Estudillo is an adobe mansion and was built in 1829.  Adobe means it was made from earth and other organic materials.   This building is located in the center of town and was the social and religious center during the Mexican Era.  The Mexican Era ended in 1846 when the United States declared war on Mexico.

  In the center of La Casa de Estudillo is a garden with many interesting plants and flowers growing.

  Around Old Town there are also many plants, especially cactus.  There are also some resident cats.

  La Casa de Machado y Silvas was built in 1843 and used to be a restaurant.  This building is also said to be where the Silvas family hid the Mexican flag during the war in 1846.

  A covered wagon sits in the middle of the street.  This was the primary means of transportation for anyone who came to Old Town.

  Across from the covered wagon was the Cosmopolitan Hotel.  Back in 1827 it used to be the home of Juan Bandini and later in 1869 a second floor was added and it opened as a hotel.  The hotel has undergone some renovations but still maintains some original features such as the floorboards.  We sat at a table over these floorboards as we enjoyed a meal in the hotel dining room.  A highlight was the deep fried brussel sprouts.

  After lunch we enjoyed a walk and some shade down by Fiesta de Reyes which housed some other vendors.  It had a nice pineapple topped fountain out front.

  In the garden was a metal mariachi band.  Old Town plaza was a popular place for music, bullfights and other forms of entertainment.

  The Colorado Hotel is much smaller than the Cosmopolitan.  This is a reconstruction as we belive the original from 1851 was destroyed in a fire.

  As we headed out of Old Town we passed a theatre.  It wanted to be like The Swan theatre in England so it was named after a young swan.  The Cygnet Theatre runs performances throughout the year.

  We headed back to our car and passed the Immaculate Conception Church.  This church was built in 1865 and was the first church in California built outside of the mission system.  Just outside of Old Town we purchased some souvenirs from one of the many shops.  There was so much on offer but we took a small vase as a memento.  The mixture of food, fun and history had made for a great day.

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Map of Our World 
The Cosmopolitan Hotel (Old Town)
Old Town San Diego State Historic Park

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Post # 226

Sharks Take Buffalo By Storm

Location: Buffalo, New York, USA
Address:  420 Main Street
Date: July 2018
Website:  www.mainliberty.com

  As we traveled around Buffalo, New York we noticed that they have really embraced their city's name.  Everywhere we looked we saw American bison (aka buffalo).  There was this colourful mural on Hertel Avenue called Magic Buffalo (above).

  There was a buffalo sculpture outside of the Child & Family Services building near the airport.

  We enjoyed a very nice lunch at The Terrace at Delaware Park.  They had a well dressed buffalo painted on the wall inside.  There was a wedding in the rose garden beside the Terrace as we arrived.  This buffalo would have fit right in.  On second thought, the giant, furry head and horns may have made him stand out.
 

  There were buffalo in the artwork on the side of buildings.

  And finally, there was an actual American Bison at the Buffalo Zoo.  Of course.

  The only place we didn't see buffalo was at our hotel, Reikart House.  They had a little monkey bellhop called Jocko.  He was on our menus, coasters, writing pads and even hidden in the wallpaper.

 We were not looking for buffalo or monkeys.  We were looking for sharks.  We had heard there were some in Lafayette Square near the Soldiers & Sailors Monument.  Anyone who has been reading this far and thought this blog post was going to be about sports, we are sorry.  We do see how the title could have mislead you into thinking San Jose defeated the Sabres in a hockey game.

  2014 was a bad year for sharks in Buffalo.  Or a good year depending on how you look at it.  Sharknado 2 : The Second One premiered on July 30, 2014.  This was a made for TV movie based on the ridiculous premise of tornadoes pulling sharks out of the ocean and dropping them onto major cities.  In the original Sharknado, Los Angeles was under attack.  This time it is New York City.  Once again Ian Ziering, best known as Steve from Beverly Hills 90210, must save the day.

  When it came to filming the movie, a second crew traveled upstate and visited Buffalo to film a few scenes.  The extras grabbed pitchforks or anything else they could find in the trunks of their cars as the sharks fell from the sky.  You can see them running in the streets away from the Liberty Building (above).  In the previous photo you can see the small Statue of Liberty that sits on the roof of the building.

  Basically sharks rain down and it is either kill or be killed for these poor extras.  During filming we imagine they had no idea what they were fighting as the computer generated sharks were added later.

 An older, bearded man tosses three chainsaws up into the wind to fend off the sharks.  Yet another warning needed on chainsaws.  "Not to be thrown into a tornado."
 

  Finally, a Zevon Brothers Fireworks truck explodes right outside the H & R Block above.  The sharknado has been defeated for now.  The Last Sharknado is set to air in August 2018 and will be the sixth movie for the series.

  In August of 2014 a different kind of shark arrived in Buffalo.   Shark Girl appeared down at Canalside.  She came from Cleveland and was not flown in by the sharknado.

  Shark Girl is the creation of artist Casey Riordan Millard and she sits waiting for someone to join her on her rock.  We took a few photos with Shark Girl and she just sat quietly in her blue dress.

  In a city full of buffalo, it was fun to fish for a few sharks.  Oh, and we liked the monkey too!

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Map of Our World
Magic Buffalo , Child & Family Services Buffalo , Soldiers & Sailors Monument , Shark Girl
The Terrace at Delaware Park , Reikart House
Liberty Building
Buffalo Zoo
Sharknado (Buffalo)

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Post # 223

Meet Joe Black At Mike's PAPAYA

Location: New York City, New York, USA
Address:  132 E 23rd Street
Date: Nov 2014

  One of the most memorable scenes in Meet Joe Black is how Joe Black actually became Joe Black.  Susan (Claire Forlani) meets a young man (Brad Pitt) at a coffee shop and they are both smitten.  As they walk away each of them turns several times to say something but they never do.

 
  Brad stops once more in the middle of a busy intersection.  This is East 23rd Street in Manhattan.  He would be crossing in the far right crosswalk of the photo above. A car almost hits his bag and he steps back.  He bounces off a van and then again over a yellow New York City cab.   You will have to watch the whole movie to see if he survived.

  At the time of filming this scene, there was a pizza place we think was called the Gramercy Eatery.  For filming purposes it looks like they put up a brown banner to cover over the restaurant name. When we arrived to take our photos it was now Mike's PAPAYA and there was a slightly different green pizza sign mounted on the building.  This is now another lost filming location as the whole building has been torn down and replaced.

 
  The middle of the road where all the action took place is still there.  This is where Brad Pitt, a dummy and some CGI all worked to bring this scene together.  The building you can see down the street is the Metropolitan Life Tower located beside Madison Park. While you are visiting New York be very careful and never stop in the middle of a busy street.  Even if you thought you saw Brad Pitt, wait until you are safely on the curb before looking back.

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Map of Our World
Mike's PAPAYA

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Post # 211

The Mask at Warner Bros. Studios

Location: Burbank, California, USA
Address: 3400 West Riverside Drive
Date: Feb 2014
Website:  vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com

  We have a copy of The Mask on DVD that we got for free inside a box of cereal.  The movie was also a box office success and starred Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss.  When Stanley finds a special mask he puts it on and is transformed into... well, into Jim Carrey doing his stand-up routine.

  When we visited Warner Bros. Studios, we were lucky to see some of the filming locations from this movie.  The first location is found on Hennessy Street of the backlot.  Stanley lives in the apartment pictured above.  It is the building with Hardware written on it and fire-escapes on the front.  When Stanley first puts on the mask he becomes a green faced cartoon-like character.  He ends up bouncing down a hallway and out the window of this building.  He is flattened when he hits the ground below.  A car honks at him for being in the street.  Stanley pulls out a tiny little horn which lets out one giant-sized windshield shattering " Bahooogahh!"

  Later in the film Stanley is once again wearing the mask.  This time he finds himself face to face with a street filled with police.  The building above played the neon lit Warwick Hotel.

  When faced with this predicament, The Mask breaks into song and the police are surprised to find themselves losing control and dancing along.  The song he sings is Cuban Pete.  This song was previously made famous by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame.  All of the action takes place just beyond the dumpster you see in the middle of the road above.

  At one point The Mask leaps into the air and slides down a light pole beside this theatre (right hand side of the photo above).  The dance sequence continues and finishes with a conga line before The Mask sneaks off once again.  Our golf cart also snuck off once again as we continued our tour of the studio.

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See more locations from the Warner Bros. Studio Backlot.

Map of Our World
New York Street , Stanley Ipkiss Apartment

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Post # 191

Stata Center

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Address: 32 Vassar Street
Date: Sept 2010
Website: web.mit.edu

  MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is a private school specializing in science and technology.  Ray Stata was a graduate in 1957 and contributed to the construction of what is now the Ray and Maria Stata Center.

  The building is also known as building 32 and was designed by architect Frank Gehry.  Gehry is well known for creating unusual buildings around the world.

  The Stata Center opened in 2004 and looks like it belongs in some sort of cartoon world.

 

There is no shortage of skewed walls and odd angles.

The shiny roof on some portions of the building further distorts whatever it is reflecting.

  Windows appear to be different sizes and look as if they were glued onto the building after it was finished.

  A second level balcony offered even more unusual views.  We wondered what it would look like if we were peering out one of the funny windows.  Then again we don't quite have the qualifications to be accepted to MIT.

  We took a peek into one window and came face to face with a dead ringer for Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit movies.  It appears that some research is being done behind these curvy walls.  Who knows what future graduates may come up with?  At least the Stata Center will give them something to think about.

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Map of Our World
Ray and Maria Stata Center

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Post # 172