A Ridiculous Adventure

This morning I woke up with one thing on my mind: Adventure. There was and opportunity that present itself and I had motive. My dad was going to drop off my sister at an old house she was helping to restore in Silver Lake and I took the chance to tag along and entice my dad and brother into painting the town red.

Adventures in Los Angeles can be strange and expensive, but not always. Since I am currently working on a project based on this great city, I thought we could walk around Olvera Street and I could take pictures.

As is the case most weekends in LA, the parking lot nearest to our destination was full. This was the beginning of our deviation.

We had to park in the back lot of Union Station and walk through it in order to go to Olvera Street, but while we were in there, my dad said something that no true LA resident ever should:

"I've never been in here. I've only ever seen the outside of this place."

Blasphemy, but he continued:

"The only time I ever rode the Metro was when they first opened the Green Line and you got to ride it for free."

My dad came to this country in the 80s and the Green Line opened in 1995. He assured me that he's ridden his fair share of LA buses and Mexican trains, but those facts didn't make it any less appalling. How could this be?

(My little brother had also never ridden the Metro, but that didn't shock me as much.)

We had to change our plans. Conveniently, I had forgotten my wallet at my apartment in Azusa, which is situated right at the end of the Gold Line which happened to run right through Union Station. We bought our tickets and made our way from Downtown LA to Azusa.

Anyone who has ever ridden public transportation can tell you that it's nothing special. These trains aren't luxurious and they're not comfortable, but that's all a part of the experience.

We got to Azusa and made our way back. A little adventure and a new experience. While it may not seem like a whole lot of fun or very interesting at all, I would dare to say that you are wrong.

It was impulsive and it was daring because it was at least 45 minutes each way and we had no idea when my sister would be calling us to pick her up. Daring.

We all bonded a little more as we talked about my dad's childhood in Mexico and our weird family. Stories were shared on that stupid little train that maybe wouldn't have been told otherwise. It was just another ordinary day.

When you stop and think about traveling and adventuring, you think of going to places you've never been before and experiencing things you've never experienced. But the reality is that you're going to someone else's ordinary day.

You go see the Eiffel Tower and you go walk the Great Wall of China, but those things are a normal aspect of people's lives. The Metro Gold Line may be completely normal, but we chose to view is an an adventure. It was ridiculous, but it was wonderful.