Wandering the back alleys and side streets in Old Town Pasadena

In front of City Hall are two large sculptured heads: baseball legends Jackie Robinson and his brother, both of whom grew up in Pasadena. But stroll a couple of blocks away and you enter the older world of  Old Town.

Because Pasadena’s Old Town is, in fact, old, it has narrow alleys, both small and large hidden plazas, quirky stores and upstairs restaurants with outdoor balcony dining and basement beer sellers-cellars. Some date back to the city’s founding in 1875; others opened just last month.

As I wandered through the area on a very hot October Sunday afternoon I discovered that ’21 Choices’, a frozen yogurt shop on Colorado that had been in that location for nearly 50 years, had closed.

In the next block, a new Tesla showroom occupied the location of the former Barnes & Noble.  Bookstores have vanished all along Colorado Blvd.

And ‘Chaddo’, an English tearoom that had been around for years and seemed very popular, has been replaced with a glorified hot dog eatery called the Meat District where L.A. street style hotdogs cost $14!  Well…changes happen and some are better than others.

Along Holly and Union Streets are some interesting shops, some new and some old.

Here are a few things I saw: