Old one

This is from long ago, but is still cute.

Crocker

View from the Coffee shop.

Paris at Night

Vernon, France

This town held special interest for me because I once lived in a town called North Vernon, Indiana.

When the stained glass windows were destroyed in the war, these were created to replace them.

Winter landscape.

 Sign advertising honey.

Fountain at the Met

The view from Peggy Guggenheim's Porch

Pigeons

I notice there are no longer people selling pigeon food in the Piazza San Marco, and the pigeons that remain are looking pretty bad. Here is a blog commenting on this.

I once thought I would collect pictures of famous people feeding the pigeons in Venice. I have seen photos of Gertrude Stein and Claude Monet.


Here's Stein.

Here's Monet.

I talked my friends into doing it too.

Another tradition is gone.

Cemetery Rose Garden

This is a view of the rose garden in the Sacramento cemetery on Broadway.

New and old favorites of Venice

Child in red jacket is mine.

Monster 2

Somewhere over Utah.

Schloss Fuschl

We went here for lunch.

Mirabell Garden

Near my hotel in Salzburg was the Mirabell Garden.  Here are the three graces each with a musical instrument.

The mascots are unicorns.

There is the usual view of the castle.

Tucked into a corner is Bellini's.

I loved Salzburg, and this was one of my favorite spots.

State Capitol

Sacramento Neon

We will start with some neons no longer in their original places, starting with the Rosemount.

Different restaurants have existed in this space, but now it is empty.  It is common for neon to disappear or move from place to place.  Next we have the Iceland ice rink in North Sac which burned down.

Sometimes I don't remember where they are, like this lovely boat.




I read that this sign is no longer on display and went on sale 2003-05-26.  The life of a neon sign can be brief.  I should photograph more.



I have a friend who is an architect, and she told me an interesting story about why the most common figure in neon signs is the martini glass.  Apparently it used to be illegal in California to say that a business was a bar.  You couldn't call yourself the Brunelleschi Bar as you would in Florence, but you could display a martini glass with an olive in, something that any American would recognize.





This beauty above used to adorn a bar on Broadway in Sacramento.  Only the round window, across the street from Tower Theater, remains.

 

Try not to scream.  This is my friend Jean sitting in the window--I know I asked her to look like that.  She looks like someone in a Hopper painting.  She's very tolerant.




Is it still neon if no one ever turns it on?  This was originally Sam's Hoffbrau but has gone through several incarnations since then.





Swanson's Cleaners signs still look like this, but they are no longer neon.

I love this abstraction, but I can't remember where it is.

This neon used to adorn the outside of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. It has been rescued and hangs near the Old Spaghetti factory.

This is another that I don't remember where it is, but isn't it gorgeous.

The original Tower Records neon when it was in good condition.

Monument Valley

This is the locale for many movies.