Let’s start this weekend wrap-up in La Habra.  As a nearly vegan, you wouldn’t think I’d care so much about broasted chicken.  Well, I care about the statues and signs anyway.  I’ve got a bunch of the top-hatted statues at this page — about six rows down:
http://www.roadarch.com/critters/birdschick2.html

I’m guessing this place is from the 1960s:

 

Also in La Habra.  Apparently, this sign is still lit at night — or at least it was in 2011:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/moviefan931/5795929634/

 

This sign and hotel in Long Beach were restored earlier this year.  Here’s what the sign looked like last year:

And now.  I prefer the old brown color myself.  It looks real nice at night though — although it wasn’t lit when I was there about a month ago:
http://longbeachseen.com/?p=3745

 

Depressing news from Bellflower.  The Victory Drugs store is now known as Victory Home Medical Supplies.  The sign was transformed in stages.  Here’s what the sign (actually one of two identical signs on the building) looked like in 2012:

Then earlier this year, the “Drugs” neon was removed and the letters were painted over.  Then, the entire sign disappeared for a bit and returned looking like this:

 

Some happier news from Bellflower.  At least some things haven’t changed.  This was the fourth Chris & Pitts Bar-B-Q location built.  The only one I think with the faux log cabin look:

 

The Lennox Car Wash in Lennox just got a bright new paint job.  Here’s what the place looked like last year:

And this weekend:

For more mid-century modern car washes like this one, I’ve got three pages of ’em here:
http://www.roadarch.com/modarch/carwash.html

 

I deserved a treat towards the end of the day after all that blazing sun.  Ice cream was not handy — but I’d always heard good things about the Apple Pan’s pies.  Priced at just over $6 a slice but well worth it.  The L.A. icon opened in 1947.

You can watch the pies being baked through a window inside:

I went with peach which seemed the summer-y thing to do.  It came with a generous amount real whipped cream on top.  I also got a slide of pecan for home which didn’t last the night.  Thumbs up to both.

 

One more — a happy surprise in Santa Monica.  This photo is from last year:

And from Sunday.  I believe the sign is lit but, in the past, it was dark when I was there.  Maybe the neon’s been tweaked along with the new paint.  I’ve seen lots of freestanding arrows and drips on signs — but can’t think of any others with bottles:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25726169@N03/6862411772/

 

I’m not sure when the next roadtrip will be.  It’ll most likely be back up to the Bay Area.  Right now, I’m going to hunker down and work on getting this big backlog of photos from Idaho and California up at my website.

If you want more L.A. area photos, I put a couple dozen from this weekend up at Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

Til the next time —

dj