Flower Market and the LA River

One morning we got up early and drove into downtown LA to see the flower market. At first we thought we could go at about 2 AM (and were considering it), but it turns out the flower market is only open to wholesalers that early. We had to wait until after 7 or 8...and I think we ended up there around 9. It's in the warehouse district.

And it was in fact in warehouses full of people working: moving truckloads of tropicals and watering buckets of lilies. We kept having to dodge carts and hand trucks, and it was interesting to be on the edge of these people's daily routine. Some of my favorites were these bromeliads, and there was also a whole section full of huge orchids in all kinds of pinks. Many of other non-professionals there milling around were wedding planners or women planning their own weddings. Lots of cheap and healthy houseplants abounded, but eventually the pollen clouds starting getting to us and we made our way back the versa. It was hard to tear myself away and leave empty handed.

Next up was a drive by Han's house, even though she's back in Philadelphia. I wanted to get a picture of her street and door anyway, so I can more easily imagine her in LA. Ray and I spent a lot of time trying to imagining Han in LA. Her big piece of advice was to bring sunglasses, so when I imagine her here, I think about the sunglasses. Anyway: her apartment is nestled in a converted warehouse. The streets around it bustled with tractor trailers and delivery trucks, and it took us a minute to find it because the streets kept dead-ending at warehouses.


Last that morning, before heading back into downtown LA proper, was a trip over the LA river. We've been watching lots of movies and tv shows set in LA in the last few weeks, and they all had shots of the river--usually some murderer running through it or some shots to use this damp concrete void as a metaphor for the damp concrete void of LA. It was just a few blocks from Han's house, and after a very short and stinky delay behind five trashtrucks at a stop light, we took a couple of drives over it.
. There wasn't any place to pull over and take a picture--it's not that kind of river.