Sketching All the Way to Los Angeles on Amtrak's Southwest Chief

It's the time of year we travel to the east and west coast to visit our far flung families. A few weeks ago I took off on a trip to visit Mom in Los Angeles. I planned to make the trip a sketching trip, so I chose to take Amtrak's Southwest Chief with my Brompton folding bike in a B Bag and my sketching supplies in the C bag. I packed my clothes in the garment bag Roberta made (see this post for photos of Roberta's garment bag). When it was all packed it weighed 37 lbs. The weight limit is 50 lbs. Here's a sketch of how 

I've been eager to try sketching with pen and watercolor in the big Strathmore 500 Series mixed media hardbound art journal I purchased at Wet Paint last month. I managed to fit the big journal and my smaller toned paper journal that use for quick sketches with pen and dry media with a compact watercolor kit I made out of a pencil case. Here's the list:

I took the Megabus from the Union Depot in Saint Paul to Union Station in Saint Paul to knock a couple days off the trip. I arrived in Ciccago with plenty of time to sketch other travelers:

I boarded the Southwest Chief and found myself sitting next to awesome cartoonist Tom Winkler. We had fun sitting in the observation car sketching each other (click on the sketch to make it bigger for the panoramic effect):

The scenery on the trip started off with the miles and miles of corn and soybean fields. Dull except for the occasional feedlot or acrobatic crop-duster:

After sleeping through much of Kansas, we were rolling through classic cowboy film  landscapes with buttes and mesas and spectacular desert vistas:

Raton, New Mexico is an interesting stop on the route:

Roberta and I are fans of Breaking Bad, so I had to insert the two main characters in the desert landscape west of Albuquerque:

I did lots more sketches of the desert, but I won't post them all. We arrived in Los Angeles in the afternoon and I unpacked and unfolded the Brompton and biked to the Dover where I stayed for the week:

For entertainment, Mom and I walked to the Farmers Market on Fairfax. Godd food and good music:

Los Angeles has a lot of weird trees. This is a pen and watercolor sketch of a tree growing next next to the Fairfax Branch Library:

Here's another pen and watercolor sketch of two big tiki heads belonging to a movie prop store I found just biking around (Los Angeles is a pretty good place for bicycling if you stay off the busy streets):

My mom and I went to the Page Museum at the LaBrea Tar Pits. Lots of skeletons to sketch like this extinct condor:

I did this watercolor sketch of the beautiful Union Station while waiting for the return trip on the Southwest Chief

There are awesome sketchers everywhere. While I was sketching the Union Station, Luis here showed me his sketches and his impressive pen kit:

Back on the Southwest Chief, I encountered Dotsero Doc and Penelope Proper dressed up in style of the Wild West. They allowed me to sketch them (Roberta and I love sketching costumed models). Here they are and the sketch I did of them:

The Southwest Chief goes through some amazing scenery. The Raton Pass is especially beautiful. After the steep climb and descent, it's mostly dull - a good time to talk with your fellow passengers and catch up on your sleep:

 Back in Chicago, I waited for the Megabus outside Union Station and sketched some of my fellow Megabus passengers:

 I'm back now in Minnesota with memories and sketches of my trip on the Southwest Chief and looking forward to the next sketching adventure:

Roberta Makes Garment Bags For Our Bromptons

Roberta created garment bags for our two Brompton bikes. Roberta designed the lightweight bags to fit inside a Brompton "B" bag eliminating the need for an additional luggage bag and helping protect the bike.

Now we can travel in style!

The garment bags have two pockets on each side with heavy-duty snaps:

The garment bag drapes over the folded bike

Easily fits inside a Brompton "B" bag padding the bike.

Sketching and Bicycling in Los Angeles

In the previous post, we visited family in San Clemente. We biked down to the Metrolink station and caught a train up to Union Station in Los Angeles. We got on the Purple Line all the way as far as it goes to Wilshire and Western. We got on our Bromptons and peddled down 4th Street to our motel. Los Angeles is a great place to ride a bike as long as you stay off the busy streets.

We were only a short bike ride from my Mom's apartment, the Los Angeles County Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. I did a sketch of a bubbling, oozing pit with pen and colored pencils in my small, Strathmore toned paper journal:

My sketch of the La Brea Tar Pits.

 Another fun place to sketch in Los Angeles is the Farmers Market. Roberta did a fun sketch i watercolor in her Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal:

Roberta's sketch in the Farmers Market.

Another Farmer's Market sketch in my small journal.

Another fun place to sketch is in front of Trader Joe's.

We wished we could spend more time in Los Angeles sketching and biking, but we had to leave. Here is a sketch I did of the beautiful palm trees in the Park La Brea community in my big journal:

The Palm Trees of Park La Brea.

Sketching and Bicycling in San Clemente, California

Last week, Roberta and I escaped the icy grip of the Polar Vortex and visited family in San Clemente in sunny, Southern California. We took along our Brompton folding bikes. We stow our journals, art supplies, water, suntan lotion and other stuff in Brompton S-bags attached to the front  bike frames:

Roberta & I peddling around San Clemente on our Brompton folding bikes.

Roberta and I sketching in front of the Beachcomber Motel.

Roberta captured the transition from the frozen farm fields of Minnesota to the blue skies and warm sea breezes of San Clemente (watercolor and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils on Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal).
Click on the sketches to make it bigger:

Sketches from the plane and on the ground in San Clemente.

San Clemente is a fun place to bike. There are a bunch of good bike lanes on on roads to the beach from where we were staying. We were staying way up in the hills. Here's a sketch I did of the view using watercolor on Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media paper:

Sketch of the view from a hill in San Clemente.

The late January chill and cold water doesn't stop the dedicated surfers of San Clemente. Roberta sketched a wetsuit hanging from a tree in a front yard up in the hills:

Roberta sketched this tree and wetsuit.

We did a bunch of sketching on and around the San Clemente Pier, a popular place for tourists and surfers:

Roberta sketched surfers on a cool. grey day.

My sketches in my small toned paper Strathmore journal –  La Gallette Creperie and the pier.

My sketches in the small journal of surfers from the pier.

My sketch of the umbrellas & heaters at the Fisherman's Restaurant on the pier.

Some sketches Roberta did on the pier.

We had a great time sketching and bicycling in San Clemente and we look forward to returning to the warm breezes, sunny days and dive-bombing hummingbirds:

Lots of hummingbirds in San Clemente.

Our Bus/Bike Sketching Trip to Duluth, Minnesota

Roberta and I got married July 14th thirty years ago. It's always a hot day on our anniversary. This year we took a trip to Duluth hoping Lake Superior's breezes would cool us off while we biked and sketched around town. We got cool weather for two of our three days in Duluth, but the wind shifted from the South on the last day giving us the same brutal heatwave everyone else was experiencing. In spite of the weather, we were able to do a lot of sketching and bicycling.

Roberta and I caught the Jefferson Lines "Rocket Rider" bus to Duluth early Sunday morning from St. Paul's  Union Depot. We had a comfortable ride up Highway 35 and arrived at the bus station in Duluth before noon. We unfolded our Brompton bikes and biked the three and a half miles to downtown on an on-road bike trail through a gritty industrial area on broken pavement, some of which was being repaved. There are plans to make a better bike path along this stretch connecting the Munger Trail with Duluth.

The bicycling is much better along the lakeshore north from downtown Duluth. We biked the Lakewalk, a paved trail  with lots of great scenery. Along the Lakewalk, we stopped to sketch at Leif Erikson park, Congdon Park and Lester Park. We also sketched a thick fog rolling in on the deck of Fitgers Restaurant. We also found a lot to sketch in Canal Park - the famous lift bridge from the deck of Grandma's and the fishing boat-turned snack shack called Crabby Ol' Bills. There is also a lot of sketchable stuff at the Duluth Depot. I had a lot of fun sketching the William Crooks locomotive in the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.

We look forward to returning to Duluth for more bicycling and sketching.

Here's Roberta's sketches (click on the sketches to make them bigger):

The view from Leif Erikson Park.

The Lift Bridge in Canal Park.

The falls in Lester Park.

Tischer Creek in Congdon Park.

Fitgers.

Crabby Ol' Bills.

My sketches...

A view of Canal Park from the Lakewalk trail.

The lift bridge at night.

Lester Park.

Tischer Creek, Congdon Park.

Fitgers and Canal Park.

The "William Crooks" locomotive at the Depot.

Here's a photo of Roberta sketching with our bikes parked near the falls:

Our Bromptons proved once again to be the perfect bike for exploring and sketching a city:

Sketching Mademoiselle Miel's Urban Apiary

Roberta and I are preparing for our next bike and sketching trip to Duluth in July, but we wanted to take a trip and sketch something right here in our hometown. We've explored and sketched a great deal of downtown St. Paul, but there's much above the street and skyway level we have not sketched.

Last year, Roberta and I attended one of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Beaker and Brush events called "The Amazing Honey Bee" with scientist Dr. Marla Spivak and Susan Brown (Mademoiselle Miel) who creates amazingly delicious honey/chocolate bon-bons. Mademoiselle Miels's honey bon-bons are chocolate confections filled with honey from local beehives. The bon-bons are delicious and artistic - some bon-bons are decorated with edible gold leaf.

I especially like the smoked honey bon-bons with a touch of single malt scotch.

The honey for Mademoiselle Miels's bon-bons comes from beehives in various locations including the  apiary we visited on a rooftop in downtown St. Paul with a wonderful view of the Mississippi River (to protect the bees' privacy we won't disclose the location). Madamoiselle Miel graciously allowed us some time to sketch the hives as she inspected the hives and performed routine maintenance on the hives in a white beekeeper outfit.

The bees were friendly and did not sting us as we sketched them.

Visit the Mademoiselle Miel website and blog to learn more about where you can get honey bon-bons and other fine products. Mademoiselle Miel has a new kitchen and showroom at 342 Kellogg Boulevard West in St. Paul across the street from the Minnesota History Center.

Click on the sketches to make them bigger:

Roberta's sketch of Mademoiselle Miel and her beehives.

Ken's sketch of the rooftop apiary.

Ken's sketch of the new kitchen and showroom.

Ken's sketch of Beaker and Brush talk at the Amsterdam Bar.

Sketches from Brompton Bike/Amtrak Train Trip to New York City - Part Two (Roberta's sketches).

I stayed on in NYC to take care of Nu-nu, Eric & Katie's cat, while they were traveling abroad. I concluded that biking in New York was by far the best (and cheapest) way to get around. One can cover a lot of ground in relatively little time. And you develop nerves of steel dealing with the traffic!
I was able to explore areas of Brooklyn that I'd never bothered going to in my years of living in Manhattan.  Click on the sketches to make them bigger.

Nu-nu 

This mini accordion-fold journal was a fun way to do quick sketches. 

Four panels from the accordion-fold mini. (Top) A community garden thrives in a narrow space between two buildings in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. This is on a busy street. The founders have brought a slice of the sane & humane to an otherwise commercial area.
(Bottom) The new "Freedom Tower" that replaces the two World Trade Center buildings. I think it's an improvement over the clunky towers that once dominated lower Manhattan.  This drawing was done over a partial list of ingredients that were in a superb dip from a Mediterranean restaurant in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn. 

Sunday afternoon in Columbus Park in Chinatown.

Hot late afternoon in Abingdon Square Park in the West Villiage.

More West Villiage sketches.

The Astral (left) is one of the largest old apartment buildings in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn.  The west-side bikeway (right) runs along the Hudson River. 

I'm intrigued with doing night scenes in watercolor. Not easy unless you're doing the painting from a well-lit space. In this case it was created while sitting in a frozen yogurt place. 

We go from Sunday afternoon in Williamsburg to daybreak somewhere in Indiana. This concludes the trip.