The dogs had fun running on the beach in Santa Cruz while I waited for the fog to lift.  The sun came out around 10 am and was with us all day long after that.  All that perfect-weather shooting made that five-hour drive home not quite as agonizing!  This was the first of many trips to the San Francisco Bay Area.  I can only afford maybe one trip up there per month, so it will take a while to finish this list.  If someone wants to drop a few grand in the donation bucket, it’ll get done much sooner!

On with Santa Cruz — I’ve got a big batch of signs to get things rolling.  This one was shot last night after my blog post was done:

The same sign by day:

 

A faded beauty for the Plymouth Court (originally  a motel):

 

Most likely, went by another name originally.  Lit at night but I didn’t get a chance to shoot it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/6730690315/

 

An institution in Santa Cruz — there since at least 1958:

 

A neon detail from The Jury Room bar:

 

More motel & apartment complex signs:

 

Here’s a clover modern sign on the side wall of Larry’s Photography — although the camera reference is probably lost on much of today’s younger generation:

 

This sign is at the Rip Curl surf shop.  I read somewhere that it was originally a grocery store sign:

 

A little strip mall sign — I don’t know how old this one is:

 

And one more sign from Santa Cruz:

 

It was nice to be at the Boardwalk before it opened and all the people were there — but I missed a chance to try these!

I’ve been told by the historical folks that the swiss cheese-hole fins on this Boardwalk building are “real” (vintage from at least 1967):

 

Moving on — this one in Boulder Creek:

 

And from Ben Lomond:

 

The city’s welcome sign:

 

And then on to the “Bay Area” — this sign in San Carlos (I believe the business is closed):

 

That should be enough neon overload to last you for a while!  But if not, there’s more signs, buildings & statues over at my Flickr stream from yesterday:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

The dogs and I will be hitting the road again in about three weeks.  Back down San Diego way for that one.

The dogs and I are back on the road again this weekend.  A full day of glorious sun — the forecasters are promising more tomorrow.  Started shooting today in Morro Bay — where the dogs got a good run at a fantastic more-or-less legal dog beach.  I think it’s three miles long and a really wide packed sand beach.  Yeah, I know, shoulda brought the camera.

Lots of photos to share — let’s start with this one in Morro Bay.  These plastic oval Foster’s signs are even rarer than their earlier neon cousins.  More about Foster’s Freeze and lots of photos at my site here:
http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/fosters.html

 

A couple of other great signs from Morro Bay:

 

Back inland for a bit.  This drug store in Soledad has one of those nice navy and orange neon Rexall signs:

It also has a nice under-canopy plastic sign:

And Rexall door pulls (that’s Sparkle’s reflection).  More Rexall signs from all over the country at my section here:
http://www.agilitynut.com/signs/rex.html

 

On to Salinas —

And the “star” of the Star Center — the neon is apparently still lit at night:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85853333@N00/8421214616/

 

One more from Salinas:

 

From Hollister:

 

From Morgan Hill – a former Sno-White Drive-in.   The sign and building have been adapted.  More examples of these signs and building (and a photo of what this Morgan Hill sign looked like originally) at my site here:

http://www.agilitynut.com/eateries/cadi2.html

 

Also in Morgan Hill.  I have no idea how old this Punch statue is — probably not very — but I thought he was pretty neat.  He is located in front of a cigar store.  I think he would have held a cigar box in his right hand.  I have no idea what that indentation in his belly is about.  Evidently, there’s a history to these statues — an oldie here:
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/4279104

 

Some neat freestanding letters in Gilroy:

 

And just last weekend, I posted a Sofspra car wash sign from Encinitas here at this blog — declaring that I thought it was the last one of its kind.  Well, today, I bumped into this one in Watsonville.  So, that makes two:

This location has more intact looking stalls than the one in Encinitas:

 

This building was just across the street.  An indecipherable name on the sign.  I have no idea if this was the original occupant or if there were any others like this:

 

One more from Watsonville.  This rooftop sign is at the long-closed Cabrillo Lanes:

 

Let’s close out with another mystery — this one from Aptos.  Just north of the Sno-White Drive-in is this mid-century beauty.  It now houses the Ambrosia Indian Bistro (I was hungry and tempted — but opted for onion rings at the Sno-White).  I don’t know if that triangulated glass is original (most likely not).

Surely, this giant spoon sign in front of the place must provide a clue as to the original business name:

That’s it for today.   The dogs and I have settled in Santa Cruz for the night.  Some shooting here in the morning and then working our way up to San Jose, Redwood City and thereabouts.  A long journey home and then back to work on Monday.  I’ll post this weekend’s wrap-up then.  Until then, here are some more photos from today over at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

dj

Most of the “outskirts” stuff has been checked off the list for now.  The next trip down this way should be mostly San Diego focused.

The day started with pea soup fog so I treated the dogs to a leisurely morning at the Del Mar dog beach.  The weather was not much better even by noon but I went ahead and shot some things that I’ll wind up shooting again next time.

From Encinitas.  This was a nationwide self-serve car wash chain established in the 1960s.  However, this is the only sign that I know of that still exists.  The only other still-open location that I know of is in Rochester, NH.  However, that one has a boring, modern box sign.   I assume those balls on top of the sign must have been sequentially lit.  This night-time photo of a later sign (location unknown) shows what that embossed bit on the right next to the name probably looked like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83307323@N00/3369816318/

 

Also from Encinitas.  This modern 7-Eleven gas station convenience store was based on one of my favorite gas station designs:  the Mobil “drum”.  This Michigan station is gone now but it gives you a reference as to what these stations looked like originally:
http://www.daads.org/preservation/mobil.htm

This tribute station in Encinitas was built in 2007 as a Mobil station originally:
http://www.theleucadiablog.com/2007/04/new-gas-station-question-and-comment.html

 

Thanks to the fog and some pranksters, I didn’t get to shoot the “Cardiff Kook” surfer station in Cardiff like I’d planned.  Next time.  Here’s some info about the statue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Kook

 

I was glad to see this Catalina Pools sign still standing next to I-8 in La Mesa.  The proximity to a building forced this arty angle:

 

Let’s close out with a couple of signs from San Diego.  I had to choose between glare or a tree on this one.  I went with the tree:

 

This sign was built in the 1950s for the Sheng Haw Low Cafe.  It has, thankfully, been declared a San Diego landmark.  The sign has been adapted a little bit by the VIP Restaurant and now for University Square.  The “and Shops” box at the bottom originally read “Fine Chinese American Food.”  I don’t believe the neon is lit anymore:

 

That’ll do it for this trip.  Don’t forget, there are a sampling of some other photos from this weekend over at Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut

The dogs and I will be back on the road this coming weekend (if the weather looks decent).  We’ll be heading up to the San Jose area for that one.

Hi folks!  This will be the first of several San Diego area trips.  If only I had a week off and I could do it all in one fell swoop.  Instead, it will probably take two or three months of random weekends to get ‘er done.

Today’s shooting was pretty low volume.  Lots of stuff north and east of San Diego in twisty windy mountains.  Tomorrow, we should be more in the heart of things.  No Monday holiday for me (Presidents Day) so I have to turn around & head home just as things start to get rolling.   But maybe I’ll miss some nasty traffic.

The dogs were tormented at the end of the day by beach aromas & views.  I saw nothing but “No Dogs” signs so they were out of luck.  Not that they didn’t get lots of grassy-running in today.  But they’ve come to EXPECT a beach at 4:30 pm every single day of their lives.   I’ve got a legal doggie off-leash beach spot picked out for first thing in the morning which should make up for things.

On with today’s photos.  Let’s start in Oceanside with the Surf Bowl:

 

Also from Oceanside.  The wrong time of day for sun on this one.  You can make out the patched holes from former neon tubing:

 

From Bonsall — where there was this sweet little place back in 2008:

 

Today, it’s sitting abandoned in someone’s back lot.  I had to do a little trespassing to shoot this one:

While I was briskly tiptoeing around, I saw another similar style giant cup sort of building.  I have no idea where this one came from:

 

I did a lot of shooting today at the Deer Park Winery & Auto Museum in Escondido.  I had never been there before.  There must be 100 or so restored, incredible cars — mostly 1950s & 1960s era:
http://deerparkwine.com/museum.html

But there’s other stuff, too:

Toy gas stations:

a Barbie room:

 

Here are just a couple of the cars — the Crosley Hotshot:  an American car deemed one of the worst cars ever built:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1657867_1657678,00.html

And a Nash Metropolitan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nash_Metropolitan

 

But I was there mostly to see the signs.  LOTS of neon signs.  But very hard to shoot since pretty much all of them are stuck way behind the cars.  I did what I could to hop the ropes & take some quick shots — expecting alarms to go off or personnel to see me on hidden cameras.  Luckily, nobody came to yell at me or arrest me.  This one was one of my faves:

A couple of nice window signs:

This one was w-a-y in the back and I had to scoot sideways between some big land yachts.  Very nice three-dimensionality to this one:

 

There was no way to shoot this one without the glare.  I’m guessing these were mass-produced and there was a business name at the bottom of the sign:

 

Back on the road — still in Escondido.  This wonderful circus tent like sign/building houses Escondido Coin & Loan.  I can’t find anything on-line about what this was originally:

The windows and some of the wooden cases inside suggest maybe jewelry store:

 

From Encinitas — where we called it quits for the day.  A very sweet use of perforated steel panels:

 

Also in Encinitas — the “Surfing Madonna” mosaic.  It’s about 10 foot by 10 foot and has been moved a couple of times.  More about it here:
http://www.surfingmadonna.org/about.html

 

Tomorrow should be a busy day — if the weather isn’t too crappy.  Sun was promised for today & it was pretty darned overcast.  So, tomorrow’s prediction of “partly cloudy” might mean anything short of rain!

I’ll get photos from tomorrow up on Monday or Tuesday.    Til then — Happy Post-Valentines & PrezDay Weekend!  And as for my pals back east… my heartfelt sympathy.

Oh, and some more photos from today over at my Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

dj & the dogs