The Last Bookstore, Angels Flight, Los Angeles, MetroLink and Friends

Took  a train ride (yep the metro link to the metro rail) and walked a few blocks what an adventure! Had Taylor along for a trip of firsts!  We were headed to the last book store and to explore a little bit of downtown LA -- well what we could walk too anyways as I was leary to go far from the stations :)  There was a very nice gentleman with an Australian accent that was so willing to help us find the bookstore when we disembarked the train. Taylor kept commenting on his accent. I was just happy someone was nice enough to tell us right or left instead of east or west.

The Last Bookstore is California’s largest used and new book and record store.  (the picture on the left is if you look straight up from the front door of the book store looks awesome HUH??) Currently in our third incarnation, we began in 2005 in a downtown Los Angeles loft.

 

That’s when owner Josh Spencer took his decade of experience selling everything from cars to clothes online and focused instead on his first love: books. During the revitalization of downtown LA, we grew quickly to our current 20,000 sq. ft. space in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th & Spring.
The name was chosen with irony, but seems more appropriate with each passing day as physical bookstores die out like dinosaurs from the meteoric impact of Amazon and e-books. We continue to BUY, SELL, and TRADE like we have from day one. In addition to over 250,000 NEW and USED books on two floors, including our new Arts & Rare Book Annex, our shared space includes tens of thousands of VINYL RECORDS and GRAPHIC NOVELS, a huge mezzanine level that includes the Labyrinth Above the Last Bookstore (with a back room of 100,000 books for $1 each!), Gather Yarn Shop, and the Spring Arts Collective gallery shops.  Truly something for everyone.
Somehow we became one of the largest independent bookstores in the world still standing. We continue to be amazed at how we got here. It’s ALL thanks to people like you who want to keep actual books and records existing in the world. Join the cause — visit us soon! -- My only critique of the store is that there was no air conditioning and it made it very hard to concentrate and look for good books but it didn't stop me from spending $40.

After the book store we headed off for lunch at this point the group went our separate ways to get lunch and explore. This is our group shot before boarding the metrolink at the la sierra station. we are missing liz and lorray (I think I spelled her name wrong) (leti's daughter). After grabbing lunch at el pollo loco and carls jr,  we headed to the gran central market place (it was basically a huge indoor market) I was able to get some zucchini and some other veggies and now I am going to make some good breads :) we then headed back to the train station as Cindy was tired and Taylor was also and frankly I was a tad cranky, but on the way back to the station I still managed to grab a few pictures and was able to log a cache. 







 This is the Angels Flight (or Angel's flight) is a landmark) narrow gauge funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars: Sinai and Olivet.
The funicular has operated on two different sites, using the same cars and station elements. The original Angels Flight location, with tracks connecting Hill Street and Olive Street, operated from 1901 until it was closed in 1969, when its site was cleared for redevelopment.
The second Angels Flight location opened nearby to the south in 1996, with tracks connecting Hill Street and California Plaza. It was re-closed in 2001, after a fatal accident, and took nine years to commence operations again, on March 15, 2010. It was closed again from June 10, 2011, to July 5, 2011, and then again after a minor incident on September 5, 2013. The investigation of this 2013 incident led to the discovery of potentially serious safety problems in both the design and the operation of the funicular, and Angels Flight service has been suspended since that time with no timetable for restored service.Before the 2013 service suspension, the cost of a one-way ride was 50 cents (25 cents for Metro pass holders). Although it was marketed primarily as a tourist novelty, it was frequently used by local workers to travel between the Downtown Historic Core and Bunker Hill. Local businesses have described the railroad as an important "economic link", and there is significant political pressure to re-open the railroad soon.

---I think that it would have been fun to take this flight :)