Rose Bowl & Monrovia

Yesterday we drove up to the Rose Bowl for the Flea market that is held on the 2nd Sunday of each month.  We went there last October, you can see our earlier post about the Rose Bowl here.  This time we were smarter and parked right outside the main gate in the free parking area.  This saved a lot of walking from where we parked last time.  We were right next to the $20 parking area and it was free!

It was perfect a perfect fall day here in California, great for a visiting flea markets. It was in the 70's, a little cool, but the sun was shining bright.  All the "natives" were in their fall attire with an abundance of Uggs boots.  They wear boots for fashion, not function like we have to in New England.

It was really interesting as we saw a few of the guys that we have stood in line with at the estate sales managing their booth at this flea market.  I think they also do Costa Mesa & Long Beach.  Two more flea markets we need to visit before we have to leave. I didn't bring my camera, so I have no more picture of the flea market to share. After we couldn't walk any more, our legs were so tired, we continued our days adventure by driving over to Monrovia.  It is only two towns away from Pasadena, and Elly had planned to check the town out and have dinner there.

On our way, we took the back roads, we came upon three different open houses.  We stopped to tour the houses.   All of these houses were in quaint neighborhoods.  The pictures look much better than the houses did in person. We just saw the signs and decided to stop not knowing the real estate values in this area.  The first house we saw was a nice wooden bungalow. We figure it would be about $600,00.

View from the Street.  Your for $950,000

Backyard with pool.

We thought WOW!  Prices are lot higher here than in Murrieta.  For that kind of money, you can get a large estate in Murrieta! The next two were stucco houses. They were both very nice, but since there were built in the 20's, the bedrooms and bathrooms were small.  Neither had an 'en-suite' master bath.

This one was really cute.  It had three rooftop patios and was recently renovated.  It also had what they called a "wine cellar".  It just looked like a basement with a shelf with wine bottles to me. It is listed at $1,099,950. 

Yours for only $1,099,950.

It had a very nice size backyard with a nice pool.

The last one we saw was also a stucco, built in the 20's and recently renovated by the owner.  It has a nice garage and workshop in the back, but no backyard to speak of.  It was well done and had jacuzzi & bar upstairs off the master bedroom.  It also had a dining patio on the second floor.  You can see it in the front of the houe in the picture below.  But the rooms were small and has only 1 bath upstairs.  It listed for $950,000.

The dining patio upstairs is in the front of the house

Dining room with very nice painted ceiling.

We overhead the agent talking to some prospective buyers saying that there only a few houses for sale "north of Foothills".  After looking at the map, we realized the the area north of Foothills Blvd (one of the main street in Monrovia) which backs into the mountains, is the most desirable area in Monrovia. That is why the prices are so high, plus it's not too far from Pasadena and Los Angeles.

After we had seen enough overpriced houses,  we headed to "Old Town Monrovia".  Downtown Monrovia is very quaint. They still have a movie theater downtown.  On late Sunday afternoon, there was hardly a place to park! People were walking up & down the street, patronizing the local pubs and eateries, and going to the movies.  We walked around the town, even though we had walked enough already and took advantage of the benches placed all around the town.  I even got to chat with Mark Twain in front of the Monrovia Library!

While we waited for the restaurant to open, I chatted with Mark Twain

The fountain on the City green in front of the library

We decided to eat at the Caffe Opera and waited for it to open at 5:30.  We made reservations while we waited using www.opentable.com. using my Xoom table.  This is a great way to make reservations at a lot of restaurants nationwide.

This is where we ate dinner

 Once we were seated we order drinks and dinner.  Elly had the blackened salmon, I had the Coffee bean encrusted Rib-Eye and we shared a salad.

I had the Coffee Bean Encrusted Rib-Eye

Dinner was outstanding, especially after a long day at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.  After dinner, we headed home.  It took us about an hour to get home.  We were thoroughly exhausted after a long day of fun!