We’re spending a few days back in the L.A. area for three reasons:
• See the Fairplex Garden Railroad
• Shop at Downtown Disney
• Go to an Angels game
Since all three of those activities are on the east side of L.A., we’re doing them all today.

The Fairplex Garden Railroad is a permanent garden-scale railroad located within Fairplex (formerly the Los Angeles County Fairground). We’ve been interested in garden railroads for a long time and would love to create one in our yard but haven’t yet figured out how we could, with our topography. Like indoor layouts, the trains run through scale scenes and vignettes, but the trains are larger than indoor trains and run through outdoor gardens planted with miniature/dwarf plants also scaled to the train dimensions.

To see the railroad we had to drive out to Pomona, which is in the even-hotter inland country. Patrick rented a wheelchair at the Fairplex and pushed me around in it, as my twisted ankle won’t take the amount of walking we’ll be doing today. So in the wheelchair and under my parasol that I bought at the Festival of Sail in San Diego, I was fairly comfortable, but Patrick was not only in the 90+-degree sun but pushing me to boot. Large misting fans dotted the fairgrounds, and several vendors told us: You think this is hot?! You should have been here yesterday, it was 105! No, thanks.

The Fairplex Garden Railroad is the oldest (1924) and possibly the largest miniature railroad of its kind in the United States, at 100 x 300 feet. It was as fabulous as we expected! There are lots and lots and lots of trains, and the vignettes that they run through are so creative and wonderfully executed. There is a circus with a little circus train,

a 20-mule team in a desert scene,

a California mission,

a baseball game,

and many, many more scenes. Always at model railroads there are the Old Guys who love and run the trains.

What a treat! Steve, you have to come and see this place.

From Pomona we drove to Anaheim, to Downtown Disney to buy Patrick some new Goofy T-shirts. We walked through the big store that usually has several new designs, and there were NONE. No Goofy T-shirts. What’s up with that?! There were lots of Frozen and Monster items. I think Disney is forgetting its roots.

It was just a short hop from there to Angel Stadium, where by luck the Angels were playing the Mariners! “The Big A”

is the fourth-oldest Major League Baseball stadium, just behind Dodger Stadium. Even though it lacks some of the latest amenities, it doesn’t feel almost 50 years old, and I found a lot to like about it. It underwent a major renovation in 1997 (when Disney was the major shareholder) that included the “California Spectacular,” faux rocks beyond the outfield with a stream that cascades down a “mountainside” covered with real trees. It’s pretty hokey, but charmingly so, really. To the left are flags honoring the many division championships (there will be a new one for this year), American League Championships, and of course the 2002 World Series Championship. Beyond the Spectacular you see the San Gabriel and Santa Ana Mountains, a view that I think makes the stadium seem more expansive on TV. In person, it’s much more intimate.

Usually at any ball park I’ll try out their signature hot dog, the one they’re known for. But this time we went for the “Big Cheese” which offers specialty grilled cheese sandwiches. I thought we might find something we had seen at the Fairplex, a burger piled with macaroni & cheese, which looked mighty tasty – comfort food upon comfort food. But no, this was different. We split a Short Rib Grilled Cheese Sandwich: short ribs cooked tender for many hours, then layered over the cheese in a perfectly toasted hot grilled cheese sandwich – brilliant!

We weren’t able to walk around much due to my injured ankle, so we didn’t come in the Home Plate Gate, marked by two enormous baseball hats, or see the 2002 World Series Trophy, the Hall of Fame, or the murals on the walls celebrating the history of the Angels. (We did see a giant blow-up photo of Mark Langston, the former Mariners pitcher who went over to the Angels and blew the 1995 one-game playoff, about whom Mariners manager Dick Williams famously said, “He doesn’t have a gut in his body.” That always cracks me up.) The stadium is surrounded by parking lot, an unattractive but efficient feature, and the many ramps and escalators make for easy access which normally I might not appreciate, but with my limited mobility today I was grateful for it.

The fans seemed laid back, like a Spring Training crowd, but into the game at all the right moments; definitely less intense than the Dodger fans. The people around us were friendly to us in our Mariners gear, especially some teenaged boys who were asking about the Mariners’ chances in the Wild Card race (slim, but not non-existent). There was still no score by the 7th inning, which called forth the Rally Monkey on the big screens, and some fans pulled them out of backpacks. Mildly annoying, but not obnoxious. The woman who sang the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of the game also led the crowd in Take Me Out to the Ballgame, and the words were not provided on the big screens, an omission that I think is respectful to the fans. If they don’t know the words, maybe they should just go watch football.

In keeping with California stadium tradition (and because we’d had such a long day and my ankle was throbbing), we left after the 7th Inning Stretch. We were home in time to turn on the TV and watch Logan Morrison hit a 3-run home run in the top of the 9th to win the game for the Mariners. Go Mariners!!!