Soledad Canyon, Acton, CA March 2019

          CLICK HERE TO SEE THE RONALD REAGAN MUSEUM AND POMPEII EXHIBIT
                                  CLICK HERE TO SEE PICTURES AROUND ACTON CA.


Twelve days have flown by during this stay at Soledad Canyon RV.

Len has been shooting some pool in the afternoons and also on Wednesday night, the roving tournament in the parks starts after we leave so he will miss shooting in the tournament.

One day we took the Metrolink into Los Angeles, the ride into Union Station was about an hour and forty minutes. 
Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States.  It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station.
Approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a grand scale, Union Station became known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Today, the station is a major transportation hub for Southern California, serving almost 110,000 passengers a day.   Amtrak's fifth-busiest station, and by far the busiest in the Western United States and the tenth-busiest in the entire country.
From Union Station it is a short walk to Olvera Street, one of the oldest streets in LA. The oldest house in the city is Avila Adobe. The Avila Adobe, built in 1818 by Francisco Avila, is the oldest standing residence in Los Angeles, California.  Avila Adobe is located in the paseo of historical Olvera Street, a part of Los Angeles Plaza Historic District, a California State Historic Park. We also visited the Plaza Firehouse. The Plaza Firehouse was the first building to be constructed by the City of Los Angeles for housing fire fighting equipment and personnel. The City Council hired architect William Boring to design the structure which was built by Dennis Hennessy. Boring's design followed closely a fashion then current in his native Illinois, with the horses stabled inside the station as was the custom in colder climates. A unique turntable in the floor made it unnecessary to back the horses in or out. Construction began in May, 1884 and was completed by mid-August. Firehouse No. 1 opened for business in September that same year. There is no admission charge at any of the museums.  We also stopped in the Chinese American Museum and the had lunch at one of the local restaurants.  It was a long day but had a good time exploring the area, so much more to see, hope to return when we are in the area again.

We wanted to visit Regan's library and were lucky enough to visit while the Pompeii exhibit was on display.  The extra charge was well worth it. 
Around mid-morning on August 24, 79 A.D., Mount Vesuvius erupted.  Molten rock and pumice was expelled from Mt. Vesuvius at a rate of 1.5 million tons per second.  Rocks and volcanic ash filled the atmosphere, turning day into night.  Within 24 hours, the Roman city of Pompeii lay destroyed – and perfectly preserved – under 15 feet of ash and volcanic debris.  It is estimated that about 16,000 people died in the eruption.

In 1748 when explorers examined the site, they found that the volcanic ash had acted as a preservative, and many of the buildings and even the skeletons and remnants of city life were still intact. This city frozen in time provided historians with a glimpse into what life was like in ancient Rome.   These are not replicas, but rather original, 2,000-year-old objects that were preserved in the ash.  These artifacts include wall-sized frescos, marble and bronze sculptures, jewelry, ancient Roman coins, and full body casts of the volcano’s victims.

From Pompeii it was onto the library.  We walked onboard the actual Air Force One aircraft, tail number 27000, which flew seven U.S. presidents. The volunteers were a wealth of information.

We also viewed a full-size replica of the White House Oval Office, the office in which President Reagan never took off his suit jacket.  Len even stepped up to the podium and threw his hat in the ring for the next president. We also ate lunch at the Regan Country Café, good burgers and garlic fries, while we were visiting the library.

One day we took a drive to the Devil's Punchbowl, The most conspicuous features of the park are geological. The Punchbowl is a deep canyon cut by the runoff of large quantities of water from the higher San Gabriel Mountains occurring over a long period of time. These mountain peaks above the park are 8,000 feet in elevation while the Nature Center is located at 4,740 feet above sea level. The Punchbowl Canyon is 300 feet deep at the vista point. The peculiar up tilted rock formations to be seen in the entire area are layers of sedimentary rocks that were formed long ago by the depositing of loose material in horizontal layers by water. Later they were squeezed into their present steeply-tilted form by the continuing action of uplift along the Punchbowl and Pinyon Faults and pressures along the San Andreas Fault. The Punchbowl Fault is to the south of the rock formation while the Pinyon and San Andreas Faults are to the north.

Along the way we stop to view the Joshua's trees that were in bloom, there is a totally different look to the desert when it is in bloom. I find it beautiful.

Tuesday will be another moving day, stay tune to our next stop.