Today was Old Pasadena day.
There’s a historic precinct around the Pasadena Town Hall shown on the
visitors guide for tourists so we thought we’d check it out. En-route, we managed to find the local
equivalent of a Salvo’s/Vinnies, known as a Thrift Shop. Of course, that meant stopping in for a
browse. There wasn’t much of interest in
the clothes/music/books sections, but there were a few interesting bric-a-brac
items that were tempting. Fortunately common
sense prevailed and only one small jar was purchased, rather than the large glass
cake display.
We next stopped out the front of the Town Hall. It’s the building you can see from the window
of Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment in The Big Bang Theory. It’s most definitely an impressive
building. Apparently there has been
considerable effort by local (and tourist) geeks to figure out where the
apartment is, based on the view out the window.
The apartment clearly isn’t real – it is TV after all – and the view is
provided by a photograph. It is
suggested by said geeks that the photo is taken from either a local parking
structure or from a nearby building. I
drove past the parking structure, which wasn’t much of a highlight!
While in this area, we stopped in for a coffee/chai in a
local ‘tourist promenade’ and then browsed a really good antique shop. Lots of books, old clothes, jewellery etc
etc, however the owner managed to upset Andrea when she was picking out some
crystals, so we ended up leaving.
Wandering down to the proper Old part, the girls discovered
a second-hand clothing shop that was a little more upmarket than the one
earlier today. Run by some younger,
funky types, they buy clothes from people for 35% of the price they will sell
for, or give 50% of the price as store credit.
They are obviously then choosy about what they take and the prices are
somewhat higher, but both of them eventually emerged with some alleged
bargains. Of interest was the stream of
people entering the store with clothes to sell.
Most I saw went home with a large proportion of what they arrived with,
including one lad who went home with everything.
Beyond that, we wandered the streets, browsed the lovely
shops until we were hungry. A highlight
was a beautiful lolly shop targeted at adults called “sugarfina”. Highly recommended if any readers come across
one in their travels. Another highlight,
this time for me, was the Tesla shop.
They had two cars in it (and a chassis to show the motors) and they are
just lovely. Expensive, but lovely. We’ve seen a few driving around so I was
curious, and the sales guy reckons they’ve started selling them in Australia,
but I’m yet to see one in Perth.
Our final highlight of the day was having a late lunch at
The Cheesecake Factory. Neither Penny nor
Bernadette were there. Actually, the
store is quite different from the TV set.
None of the menu items mentioned any link either – one presumes negotiations
over marketing rights haven’t gone anywhere.
The vanilla bean cheesecake was gloriously rich!
On the way back to the hotel, I made a quick stop at a local
wine shop. Tiny thing – very boutique. One wonders whether the Dan Murphy’s or
Vintage Cellars concept would work here.
All the liquor shops seem to be individually owned and small, and I am
yet to see any large chain, nor can I find one on the internet.
Back at the hotel, it’s time for some laundry. Sounds like fun…
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