Topical Tuesday (9)

It’s amazing what we remember from childhood. I was telling Colleen that I thought we should go to a street nicknamed Candy Lane to check out the lights on Christmas Eve, and she instead persuasively argued we should visit a street nicknamed Christmas Tree Lane as it was closer to our location. She remembered visiting it for several years, and that her mom had told her that whenever anyone moved into a house on that street, Fulton Ave in Palo Alto, then even had to sign as part of their contract a statement that they would decorate their yard for Christmas and that the display would be over the top.

There were many beautiful houses on Fulton Lane. Though not every was decorated in a true over the top fashion, there were many interesting and unusual ideas from religious to whimsical. It was a hard subject for me to shoot, both as we were in a moving car (a special thank you to Colleen for driving slow even with an occassional honk of frustration from those behind us) and often there were pedestrians who seemed to be walking and stopping in front of just the house I wanted to photograph the most at the same speed as we were traveling. Still, I had fun and especially enjoyed the original Smurfs display and this house whose simple lights really transformed their house into a gothic ,almost mansion like setting.

Now on to the typical rest of the week through the iPhone lens.

Starting with Christmas displays in the daytime. I’m a huge fan of Christmas displays at night, and an even bigger fan of displays that also look great in the day time. As my running group often runs the same route up to (or past depending on the week and desired goal) Campbell Park, we often saw the same houses over the over again.

One house that caught my eye was decorated on all three visible sides. I wondered if they would keep it up past Christmas, and while I don’t know if it is still up, here it is the next day.

One of the best parts of the display was a little box saying how many days and hours it was till Christmas. As it was the next day at this point, I was able to see that it now reads “Ho ho ho” in the small boxes. I really like the oversize Christmas lights, I don’t think I saw them before this year.

I noticed this sign that while unfortunately it had been knocked to the ground, still conveyed a good message. On second thought, perhaps it is now more effective as people will notice the odd angle it is at and read it.

I remember in high school college my classmates saying they would never want a particular car as it was too boxy. On the ride home I noticed a car that seemed to embrace it’s outer cubeness to the point where the car was named The Cube. So while stopped at a red light, I took a quick photo to share.

Lastly this month is a special anniversary for me, as it marks the 12th year I’ve been in California. While I’ve loved this state from the moment I got here, a few things were especially memorable: the palm trees, all the one way streets (running in opposite directions parallely for many streets in downtown San Jose), and the restaurants. Seeing this sign this week really brought it all home for me. It is I representative of my first fast food meal here which was in a Green Burrito merged with a Carl’s Jr. I remember the first time I went to a Carl’s Jr. that was not so linked and wondering where all my favorite selections were until my friend, a California native after figuring it out and laughing a bit at my expense, explained that very few of them were housed at the same location. Oh well, I’ve since gone to Carl’s Jr. a few times, and The Green Burrito, not as many. I guess I like mom and pop restaurants over fast food regardless of what coast I’m living on.