Old Town, Vegetation and Little Italy

Oy!  We're tired and our feet hurt.  We walked up to the trolley station, which is 1.5 miles from here.  We took the trolley into Old Town.  It's where California started; Spanish missions were built starting in the 1500s.  There are a few historical buildings and a lot of shopping.  Apparently I was so underwhelmed I didn't take pictures of anything but the plants.  Vegetation in California is just amazing.  After living in the GPNW where the roses rot from too much rain and no sun, and Arizona where it's too dang hot, California is just unbelievable.
This is a succulent growing in a pot in Old Town.

 

A Bird of Paradise.

 

Another flowering tree of some sort.

 

Bananas!

 

The amazing periwinkle blue trees that are everywhere.

 

We had lunch in Old Town at a Mexican restaurant that was good.  Because we are weak, we ate the refried beans.  Bad humans!  We decided to walk down to Little Italy (three miles).  To navigate there, we fired up the GPS on the Android and put it in walking mode.  The challenging part of the walk was getting across the freeway.  On the screen it looked like India Street floated across the freeway, but it didn't; it was a car tunnel underneath.  However, there was a very narrow pedestrian walkway that apparently the GPS knew was walkable.  How did we live without smart phones?

 

Here is a house in Little Italy.  Do you not love the fence?

 

We caught the trolley back to the E Street station, and walked our 1.5 miles back to the park.  So, 6 miles today, plus wandering through Old Town and Little Italy.