Top Posts of 2025

Boy, it's been a rough year. Between writing my first book, struggling to manage my celiac disease, and losing my sense of smell and trying to conquer long Covid—all with no health insurance—it's been a lot. 

I tend to thrive in chaos, but at some point I just shut down. And that's what happened after I finished writing my manuscript (while I was sick with Covid, might I add). I just couldn't do anything else.

I've slowly tried to put my apartment back together after two years of neglect. I cleaned under the bed (where my cat hides and sometimes pukes) for the first time in I don't know how long. I still have to change my windshield wipers and put a cover on my car backseat and figure out why my turntable doesn't work and sand down my built-in cutting board. 

Oh and now that I'm 50, I've got to get a pneumonia vaccine and a mammogram. And a follow-up colonoscopy. 

And a permanent job that provides benefits.

With all of this going on, I've managed to blog a little this year—much less than I'd like, and much less than what I have to blog about. Funnily enough, this year also brought some of the highest traffic I've ever had—and, for the first time, to posts that aren't solely about Southern California. 

It's nice to see my Nevada and Northern California posts getting some well-deserved attention!

In case you missed any of them, here are my top posts of 2025—featuring a little architecture, a lot of adventure, and a bit of personal sadness, too.

1. Photo Essay: Wallace Neff's Once-Affordable Bubble House Hits An Inflated Real Estate Market

 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2024

It's true, 2024 was a rough year. 

Between health issues and a job loss, I've worried about what was going to happen to me. 

But somehow, I've managed to keep plugging away, as I always seem to do. 

And there are some good things on the horizon—namely, the history book I'm writing for the centennial of The Los Angeles Breakfast Club, which will be published in 2025. That's taking up a lot of my time now—time I could be spending "out there" exploring, and on here sharing my experiences. 

I'm certain the sacrifices I'm making now—including not doing any freelance writing for other publications—will pay off in the end. But that just means it may look as though I haven't been as productive this year. 

At least, for now. 

But I still had plenty of good stuff to share—so, as is my tradition at the end of each year, here follows my Top 10 posts of 2024. 

That's based on clicks/page views alone and not by some subjective judgment on their quality. So, if you'd like to know what other people were reading in 2024, take a gander here:

1. 

Photo Essay: Piru's Newhall Mansion is a 130-Year-Old Queen Anne Design in a 40-Year-Old Body

In Case You Missed It: 2023 Edition

Happy New Year! (Almost.)

 

This year, a lot of my creative efforts shifted towards producing videos for KCET's "SoCal Wanderer" show instead of writing articles for the SoCal Wanderer blog, which meant I was doing a lot of retreading of old ground instead of exploring new places. 

Photo Essay: What People Were Reading in 2022

I know that the most popular things in life aren't necessarily the best things.

But I also know that some people only really pay attention to what other people already like. 

And if you don't have enough time to read everything on my blog, you might appreciate knowing what other people have been reading.

So once again, here's my ranking of the top posts on Avoiding Regret in 2022, in descending order from most views. 

Photo Essay: The Only Surviving Home from the Demolished Desert Inn Country Club Estates, Vegas

 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2021

I know I post a lot.

And even posting half as much as I used to, it can get overwhelming. 

So at the end of each year, I do this little roundup of the most popular posts of the prior 12 months. They're not necessarily the ones people liked the most. They're just the ones that got the most views. 

Which is I guess a measure of popularity (if not quality). 

I have my own favorites that didn't make this Top 10 list—but if you're looking for a good place to start, or maybe catch up on what you've missed, the following should be a good primer. 

So, in more or less descending order from the most popular post, here's a recap of 2021:

1. Photo Essay: Paying Tribute Aboard A Restored Navy Swift Boat, the Only Vietnam Memorial You Can Ride

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2020

What a weird year it's been. 

But despite the pandemic's closures and lockdowns, I still managed to get out and about—safely, often from the safety of my car. 

I just had to shift my focus away from scheduled group events and travel outside of Southern California and back to exploring my own backyard. 

And there's still a lot to explore.

This year, I've been grateful for California "car culture" more than ever—and have tried to make the most of it. 

I've spent a lot more time alone this year than I have since 2012 or 2013, but I'm more comfortable with my own company than I've ever been. 

And I'm glad some of those solo adventures were interesting enough for people to click and read.

So here's my annual list of "Top Posts" from the year, each of which was published sometime between New Year's Day and Christmas Day 2020. 

Click on the title or on the image to give the full post a gander.

1. Photo Essay: Pasadena's Vacant Hospital of St. Luke, Patron Saint of Physicians, Doctors, and Butchers

 

2. Photo Essay: The Survivor Cabins of Burbank's Besieged Country Club Drive

   

3. Photo Essay: A Tunnel Digger's Subterranean Bachelor Pad and Citrus Orchard

   

4. Välkommen to Highway 99's Turn-of-the-Last Century Swedish Village, Kingsburg

   

5. Photo Essay: The Mystic Shrine for the Brotherhood of Ancient Angels

   

6. Merci for the Memories, Taix—LA's Incredible Shrinking French Restaurant, Since 1927

   

7. How L.A.'s 'Old' City Hall Got Reborn As a Medieval Castle for Artisans, Brick by Brick

   

8. A Tropical Escape In a Time of Adversity: Mission Tiki Drive-In

   

9. Photo Essay: The Inland Empire's Last 'Golden Age' Movie Palace, Saved from Demolition

   

10. Pandemic Amusements: Through The Donut Hole

   

Thanks as always for reading! I've got plenty of past adventures already "banked" and ready to be shared in 2021. 

And although I've slowed down a bit (and am following the local government orders as closely as I can), I'm nowhere near stopping. 

Related Posts: 

Top Posts of 2019 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2018 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2017 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2016 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013 

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2012

Top Posts of 2019

If you're new to my site this year, welcome and thank you for taking the time to discover something new through my travels and adventures.

If you're a returning visitor, thanks as always for your loyalty and attention. I read all comments on this blog and on social, as well as all emails that come in (though I may not reply right away).

This site has always been a passion project for me. I have a few Google Ads enabled and just installed a digital "tip jar" to help fund the research that goes into these posts—but my blog was never meant to become a business on its own.

I am, however, grateful that it's become a powerful online portfolio of my work, which has led to a longstanding gig as "SoCal Wanderer" for KCET in addition to occasional contributions to the public media company's "Lost LA" and "Artbound" columns.

Some challenges this year—at least, on the technical side—included the permanent shutdown of Google+ in April (which really negatively impacted my traffic from both social and organic search) and the Photobucket power outage at the end of December that rendered nearly all of my images temporarily broken.

Regardless, I think 2019 was a good year for both writing and photography, so I'm proud to share the Top 10 posts of the year (for now, without photos):

1. The Worst of the Superbloom, At Walker CanyonMy heart sank. "People are the worst," I thought, as I climbed higher and away from the crowds.
2. The Tam O'Shanter: The Storybook Inn That Fed Walt Disney (And His Imagination)Disney animators used to eat there so often, they nicknamed it "the studio commissary."
3. Photo Essay: Inside the Fence at Surfridge Ghost Town, LAX AdjacentIt's nice to see something good come out of something bad for once.
4. Photo Essay: The Forgotten Highway Between LA and BakersfieldIt's actually not that easy to follow the entirety of the Old Ridge Route because, like Route 66, its alignment did change—and portions of it were even buried with the construction of the California Aqueduct.
5. Lost Spirits: The Disneyland of Distilleries (After the Fire)Some things are never really lost, if you can clone them later on.
6. Photo Essay: The Warehouse Restaurant, A Marina Eatery for 50 Years and CountingOnce a celebrity hangout, The Warehouse appears to be in the capable hands of its current owners, who bought the business in 1996.
7. Banned from Boeing? Post-Woolsey Fire Edition (Updated)Boeing couldn't possibly be blacklisting me because they didn't want journalists showing up, could they?
8. Photo Essay: The Town That Built The Hoover DamIf you were going to build something big—really big—in the middle of nowhere, you couldn't expect your workforce to commute.
9. Reenacting Western Migration, On the Brutal Stagecoach Route Between LA and San DiegoBy all reports, the journey was, quite simply, treacherous—replete with annoyances, discomfort, and plenty of hardship. 
10. Photo Essay: Riding the Tijuana-Tecate Tourist Train, Upon the 100th Anniversary of "The Impossible Railroad"
    The Tren Turístico is for tourists like me—and it no longer freely crosses back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.

I used to set a goal for myself of writing a new post every other day—or, on average, 15 a month, or about 180 a year.

I achieved that goal every year from 2011-15, and came up just a little bit short in 2009-10 and 2016-18.

This year, I had to revise my goal to 2 or 3 posts per week, or somewhere around 100-150 posts for the year. I'm going to come somewhere within that range, though it still feels like I'm falling way short.

If you're hungry for more content than that, I've got a lot of past posts that I continue to update as needed. You can start with my Top Posts of All Time and then move on to the prior years' Top Posts, below.

Related Posts:

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2018
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2017
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2016
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2012

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2018

I always tell people that I write because I must.

I try not to write what I think other people will like; I just have to get out whatever's inside of me.

It's a bonus when people are interested in it and do like it.

So while I don't judge my success as a writer by the number of hits I get or whether anyone clicks on the ads, it is nice to know when what I've created is appreciated by others.

I am not my traffic, but my traffic is not meaningless.

That's why I've been presenting these "Top Posts" at the end of every year since 2012.

Besides, if you missed any, now's a good time to catch up on some of the ones that other people have liked. And if you're just joining me, this is a good place to start.

Bonne Année and all that jazz.

1. Photo Essay: Riding a Ghost Train and Bunking Up In a Caboose (Or, This Is What A Traincation Is All About)



2. Photo Essay: A Tale of Two Ghost Towns in Daggett, CA



3. Who Wants To Buy A Bowling Alley?



4. Photo Essay: The Creepiest Street in LA, With Zombie Houses and A Witches' Lair



5. Photo Essay: Seeing the Forest from the Cars



6. The Oldest Bob's Big Boy, And Its Nearby Adoptive Brother



7. Photo Essay: Clown Motel, Gateway to the Haunted Miners' Cemetery



8. Photo Essay: Catedral de la Fe Flips Back To The State Theatre



9. Preservation Means Saving the Stories Beyond the Siding



10. Photo Essay: The Visiting Tall Ship of the Mexican Navy (Armada de México)



Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2017
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2016
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2012

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2017

Well, here we are in the final days of 2017—time to reflect back on the year that was.

I crossed a couple items off of my bucket list, fell in love with some new places I'd discovered (but, thankfully, no people), and fell into a hole in the floor.

I rode some trains, and I paid my respects to some dead planes.

I have my own favorite moments of the year, but as is my annual tradition, here follows what brought the most eyeballs to this site. (They're not necessarily the ones that people liked the most; they're just the ones that the most people looked at.)

It pleases me to no end that one of the most-read posts of mine was a personal story—a bit of a memoir that went back almost 20 years and came full circle this year.

After all, not all regrets have something to do with a particular place, and avoiding regret isn't always about crossing something off a list.

Photo: Creeper Lagoon Facebook

Sentimental Lady




Photo Essay: On the Sleeper Car to San Diego




Photo Essay: Making Magic Monsters That Move at a Robot Factory




Down the Rabbit Hole




The End of the Line at the Subway Terminal Building, Underground




Photo Essay: Birding Anza-Borrego During the Superbloom




Photo Essay: A Different Type of Church




Photo Essay: The Last of Pantages' Vaudeville Palaces




Photo Essay: The Boneyard at the Former Cal-Aero Flying Academy




Photo Essay: Where Airplanes Go To Rest

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2016
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2012

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2016

I think I grew up listening to too many year-end countdowns on my favorite radio stations, because I've felt compelled to do a "Year In Review" for the last three years, around this time of year.

Maybe it's just human nature—to want to look back and reflect upon where we've been, what we've done, and who has noticed.

I don't pay very much attention to the statistics of this site because I get a lot of satisfaction out of the process of assembling it—and I don't really measure my success by how many clicks or comments I'm able to elicit.

But nevertheless, some posts do resonate with people more than others, so it's interesting—if not meaningful—to at least know what those are.

This year, like many of the past years, certain posts from years ago still get a lot of traction now. So, in the spirit of not repeating myself, I've left those out this year.

As a result, here follows the Top Posts of 2016 that were actually posted in 2016, more or less in descending order:



Crossing the Border (Cruzando la Frontera)



Photo Essay: USS Iowa, The Last of the Battleships



Photo Essay: A Night on the Battleship



Photo Essay: Naples, the Dreamland of Southern California



Photo Essay: A Jeepney Tour of Historic Filipinotown



Photo Essay: The Extinction of Dinosaur Swampland



Photo Essay: A Farewell to the Palace on Mount Yamashiro



Open Letter to Our New President



Photo Essay: A Fake Cemetery (with Real Headstones)



Photo Essay: Belmont Tunnel and the Hollywood Subway's Fade Into Oblivion

I've got about 20 posts still in draft mode that I'm working on finishing up, so there's still lots more to come.

The most I can wish for you—and myself—is that the next year be better than the last.

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013

Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2015

To be honest, my most popular posts, pretty much any time I check, are a couple of years old now: my photo essays of the abandoned Rancho Los Amigos and George Air Force Base. I don't think anybody else is really documenting those places, so I'm one of the only resources out there for someone who's interested.

Sometimes, it pays to stand out.

Of course, I think I'm being predictable when I go snooping around yet another pile of crumbling ruins, but I guess I've carved out a niche for myself. The thing is, there are so many other things in this world that I'm interested in, so I can't spend all my time on the dark side.

But still, posts about urban exploration and relics and ruins tend to be pretty popular, as you can see by my Top Posts of 2015 below, ranked by number of views. They're not necessarily the best-written or best-photographed posts, but they certainly interested people the most.



Photo Essay: Into the Abyss of Downtown LA's Underground Tunnels



Photo Essay: Goodbye to a Goodyear Blimp



Photo Essay: A 1911 Historic Mansion, Defaced and Defiled



Photo Essay: Upon the Revitalization of the Red-Tagged Rialto Theatre



Photo Essay: Fox Theatre Fullerton, 90 Years Old and Starting Over



Keep Street Art on the Street



Photo Essay: Surviving the Apocalypse at Oat Mountain's Nike Missile Site



Daddy's Girl

I've got more than 30 posts in draft mode that I've started to write and haven't finished yet, so I can promise I've got some good stuff already planned for this blog in 2016.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Happy New Year.

Related Posts:
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2014
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2013
Photo Essay: Top Posts of 2012