Photo Essay: Paying My Respects with a Final Meal at Saugus Cafe [Updated—Reopened Under New Management]

[Last updated 1/20/26 10:52 PM PT—After being closed for just two weeks, The Original Saugus Cafe reopened as Saugus Restaurant under new management. A report on the reopening has been added to the bottom of this post.]

[Updated 1/10/26 12:54 PM PT to add clarification of some details revealed in an LAist article and The Santa Clarita Valley Signal.]

"While the future plans for the building are currently unknown, we want to share that Saugus Cafe will officially close its doors on January 4, 2026."

 

That was the message posted on the front door and at the cash register at the oldest restaurant in Los Angeles County when I went for (perhaps) a final meal on the second day of 2026.

Photo Essay: Starting Over at the Rose Parade (In the Rain)

Sometimes I like to not have a plan for New Year's Day, and just see when I wake up and decide on the spur of the moment if I want to go to the Rose Parade. I'll drive over there, snag a last-minute parking spot, and find somewhere to stand. 

But when I did that last year, I didn't love the position I got—too crowded, too many trees in the way, too tired to stand the whole time. And given the fact that I didn't love my view the year before that (with seats facing the back of the floats), last February I decided to finally spring for official Rose Parade grandstand seats. 

I spent a long time researching the different areas, looking for one without tall buildings casting shadows or trees, light poles, or street signs to obstruct the view. I got front row grandstand, far enough down the parade route so I wouldn't have to get there super early, and where I would more likely be able to find free parking at the last minute. 

I was going to start 2026 off right!

 

But 2026 had other plans for me. 

Year In Review: 2025 Updates to Past Posts

Los Angeles has been through a lot in the time that I've lived here. It took a big hit during the pandemic, and the homelessness crisis just keeps getting worse and worse. 

But nothing in my tenure here has compared to January 2025, when the entire city seemed to be surrounded by fire—and two communities were flattened in the blink of an eye. 

I can't even speak to what so many people went through, losing their homes and possessions and all sense of safety. I can only document a little bit of it, and help preserve the memory of some of our public places with the photos I've taken and the stories I've written. 

The more time that passes, the more it feels that I have a certain duty to share these stories and spread the word about places in danger of being lost, and places that have been spared and saved (including those from the Eaton and Palisades fires and the Sunset Fire at Runyon Canyon).

Because for as much as we mourn and grieve, we must also pay attention, intervene, and celebrate.

We couldn't manage to hold onto Pacific Dining Car. Or David Lynch. But the building that once housed Corky's returned to its former Googie glory. The Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park finally reopened. And The Los Angeles Breakfast Club turned 100.

While those all got their own new blog posts, here are the updates I made to older posts in 2025:

 

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: The Wizard of Oz Gets Weird at the Sphere Vegas

Speaking of The Wizard of Oz, the classic movie offered the perfect opportunity to return to the Sphere in Las Vegas. 

Because after dozens of times seeing it on television and home video (and most recently catching it on the big screen in 3D at Gardena Cinema), why not also experience it on the world's largest spherical structure with the world's largest screen?

It seemed like the perfect thing to do on Thanksgiving night—though not a holiday movie per se, but associated with the holidays after decades of TV broadcasts around the end of the year.

 

Photo Essay: A Wizard of Oz Christmas at Hotel del Coronado

One of the first places I visited when I started coming out to Southern California to visit was the Hotel del Coronado, on Coronado Island in San Diego. 

Hotel Del Coronado postcard (between 1907 and 1914), Baja California and the West Postcard Collection. MSS 235. Special Collections & Archives, UC San Diego. [Public Domain]

I fell in love with San Diego right away and tried very hard to get a job there, but fate led me to Los Angeles instead. Still, I've found ways of returning to the city to the south and its grand dame of a Victorian hotel, known simply as "The Del."

   

I've eaten at the restaurant, gotten a hot shell massage in the spa, and taken the historical tour (on a gloomy day during lots of construction, so my photos aren't publishable) and the haunted Halloween tour—but the one thing I was really yearning to do was see the Christmas lights. 

Photo Essay: Christmastime at the Arboretum's Queen Anne Cottage

Of all the world-class botanic gardens in the Los Angeles area, I've probably been to the LA Arboretum the least. 

I don't really know why—be it the distance or simply the absence of a miniature train and a corpse flower. 

But one thing the Arboretum shares with its counterparts, like Descanso Gardens and The Huntington, is that it's located on the grounds of a historic estate. 

This was once the land of pioneer E.J. "Lucky" Baldwin, who came to Northern California in search of gold in 1853. He settled in Southern California in 1875, purchasing the Rancho Santa Anita and later subdividing it to create Arcadia, where the arboretum is now located.

 

Despite his wealth, Baldwin lived quite humbly in a small adobe home. But in 1885, he built a magnificent Queen Anne cottage for the entertaining of guests—and to show off how well he'd done for himself. 

Photo Essay: The Chicken Takeover of a Sweeping Googie Coffee Shop on Ventura Boulevard [Updated for 2026]

[Last updated 1/19/26 11:34 PM PT—New photos added]

I've lived in Los Angeles long enough to see quintessentially quirky Southern Californian architecture either demolished or saved by Corporate America. 

Googie landmarks like the Holiday Bowl coffee shop, Mission Hills Bowl, and Friendly Hills Lanes are now a Starbucks, a Ross Dress for Less, and a BevMo. Norm's has been threatened with a hostile takeover by Raising Cane's. 

Photo taken 2018

And to save Corky's in Sherman Oaks, a.k.a. the former Stanley Burke's and Lamplighter restaurants...

 

 

...it had to be transformed into a Chick-Fil-A. 

Photo Essay: A Station Master's Tour of LA's Monumental Train Terminal

After nearly 15 years of living in Los Angeles, you'd think I've seen everything there is to see. But I'm constantly reminded of how much more there is, hiding beneath all those layers. 

Take Union Station, for instance. I thought my "holy grail" was getting back into the bar space that had become the Streamliner Lounge—which I finally got to do during this year's TrainFest in September.

But as it turns out, this great train station had even more in store for me—revealed to me during a recent tour I took with Los Angeles Railroad Heritage Foundation (LARHF). 

 

Now, all I knew was that it was going to be led my a former station master—so it certainly would be different than the architecturally-focused Los Angeles Conservancy tour I took all the way back in 2012.

Photo Essay: Holiday Bells and Whistles at the Bellagio Conservatory

This was my fourth time spending Thanksgiving in Las Vegas on a solo trip—and after taking myself out to dinner, I decided to head to the Bellagio for the Christmas display in its Conservatory & Botanical Garden.

I'd never seen the Conservatory displays at night—and I thought it might be a little less crowded, since Vegas itself is pretty quiet on Thanksgiving.