Armory Arts Festival - Pasadena, California

Yesterday, we headed out for an “adventure day” at the Armory Arts Festival in Pasadena, California. The first part of the “adventure” was taking the subway from North Hollywood almost to the door of the Armory. We try to take the subway whenever we can. I didn’t know what the parking arrangements were at the Armory and sometimes I would just rather leave the driving to someone else.

We boarded the Red Line in North Hollywood, and then transferred to the Gold Line at Union Station. If you like visiting Old Town Pasadena, but don’t like the traffic and the parking issues, I would recommend the subway for your next trip. Memorial Park Station is one block away from Colorado and Raymond, near the center of Old Town.

Click the pictures for a small photo gallery!

The Armory is an amazing place. They have a series of classes and events throughout the year, but on this day it was a children’s wonderland of art. There were booths for multimedia collage, monoprints, felt landscapes and sidewalk drawing with chalk.

I think Joseph did every activity they offered during the day and we spent over 4 hours at the festival. This is longer than we usually spend and points up the excellent quality of the festival. In the end, Joseph even won a free class a the Armory as part of their free raffle.

The entertainment was first rate, with Mexican dancers, Repercussion (a tremendous drumming trio) and 3 Peace Ensemble, a world music group.

After the festival, we wanted a little snack before getting back on the subway for the ride home. A small sign pointed us to Hey, That’s Amore!, an Italian coffeeshop and grocery. This is an amazing serendipitous find. The owner is from Sicily and makes a fine cup of coffee. I haven’t had such good coffee since we returned from Sicily over a year ago. He also sponsors evening Italian lessons, conversation nights and movie nights. We will definitely be returning here as often as we can. Check it out whenever you are in the neighborhood.

A 50 minute subway ride brought us back to our vehicle in North Hollywood and the end of a great day.