Wrapping up our quickie weekend trip.  I got the kids a good run first thing at Huntington Beach.  And then the fog lifted around 10 am as we moved inland a bit.

Lots of signs for you today.  These two from Garden Grove.  I haven’t seen night photos of either one so I assume they’re not lit:

 

At Chappy’s Liquor — it was prettier in pink:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/41757488@N00/381524369/

 

On to Orange.  Selman Chevrolet has been around since 1952.  I don’t know if the top panel on this sign was originally neon or when this towering sign was built.   Probably 1950s or 1960s — when people were just goofier:
http://annualmobiles.blogspot.com/2012/07/selman-chevrolet_14.html

 

Still in Orange — another one of these rustic, cottage-y Alta Dena Dairy drive-thrus:

 

On to Anaheim:

 

Also Anaheim.  This is one of the oldest El Tacos that I know of.  Probably 1960s.  Complete with embossed plastic sign (most of the surviving locations have flat plastic signs):

The building design included room for tables under the canopy on the right — and two drive-thru windows on left and far right.  I assume one window for placing orders and one for receiving them.  The canopies next to those windows are too small for today’s massive SUVs and such so I don’t think they’re used any more.  I can’t find any vintage photos to show if there were more signs or what-not on the roof in those arches:

 

A repurposed Pioneer Chicken sign.  For reference, here’s an intact one:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/roadsidearchitecture/16311735

 

Too many signs for you?  How about some 1960s era bowling alley buildings.  This one from 1960 when the La Habra 300 Bowl opened.    I don’t know what the “300” refers to.  Not the number of lanes:  there are only 32.  The address is actually 370 E. Whittier (La Habra) — but close enough I guess.  From left to right:  the coffee shop, the bar, and the bowling alley itself.

 

From Whittier:  a detail from the AMF Friendly Hills Lanes.  I can’t pinpoint a date.

 

The playground sculptures at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area have been on my list for a while.  The six sculptures are pretty far spaced apart so I took the dogs along to shoot them.  It was hot — felt like 80s — and I managed to find a quiet spot to get them in one of the lakes for some swimming and wading.  This sculpture has stairs inside the mouth (behind my dogs) to climb up and slide down the fish’s back.  Too bad this one was in the shade:

 

So, that’s it for now.  I’ll take another little weekender in July sometime.  Back to work on my website — working on Wyoming stuff right now.  I still have lots of Orange County (the more southerly part) to shoot.   Don’t forget, the Ipernity photos from this weekend are here:
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/roadsidearchitecture/