Front entrance, parking and triad of flags at the front of 400 National Way (1984), the fictional PlayTronics headquarters building in "Sneakers" (1992).

400 National Way, Simi Valley, California: 22 August 2013

part of the 400 National Way album

Of the films that I consider to be favorites, there are a select few that were also influential in some way. It is easy to say that the 1992 tech caper Sneakers is an excellent example of such a film.

I was four months away from turning twelve-years-old when Sneakers premiered on Friday, 11 September 1992. I cannot remember whether I saw it at the AMC Interstate Mall 6 (1974–1999) or General Cinema Altamonte 8 at Renaissance Center (1990–2000), but Sneakers was a real enjoyment for a young man already interested in electronics and computers.

Similar to the way that Back to the Future made me want to learn how to drive a manual transmission when I got a license — I did and have owned several cars with standard transmissions — Sneakers encouraged me to continue pursuing my interest in technology for fun and as a prime future career candidate.

The story's namesake protagonists are a group of technical and security professionals working together as a private tiger team available for hire. As a one scene character clarifies early on for the audience, "so people hire you to break into their places to make sure no one can break into their places?"

Written by Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes and directed by Robinson, Sneakers features a large ensemble cast including Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, Mary McDonnell and Ben Kingsley with Timothy Busfield, Stephen Tobolowsky, Eddie Jones, George Hearn and James Earl Jones supporting.

As is the standard practice in Hollywood productions, much of the filming took place in and around Los Angeles — the December 1969 flashback (Courthouse Square in the Universal backlot), the tunnel scene (2nd Street Tunnel) and Liz's music school (500 Bellefontaine Street in Pasadena), for example.

Since the film takes place in San Francisco, there are a few scenes featuring iconic Bay Area locations. I persuaded Mom to drive me over the San Mateo Bridge in the mid-1990s so I could hear the concrete seams that play a key part in the characters finding the antagonist. Coming from the city, they should be driving the other way, left toward San Mateo, in this shot.

In 2009, I stopped by the former Hills Brothers Coffee building (1925) plaza along The Embarcadero at 2 Harrison Street where Martin Bishop (Redford) makes a delivery. You can see the Muni F line under early construction.

More recently in January 2013, I planned to stop by the Sneaker's lair exterior at the Fox Oakland Theatre (1807 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland) but it was dark by time I arrived and decided to carry on.

But before the internet, I could not figure out just where a certain building was located. During the course of the plot, Bishop and gang expertly figure out the location of antagonist Cosmo (Kingsley). Identified as PlayTronics — "the future of toys" — the building actually serves another purpose as the front of Cosmo and his not-so-friendly thugs.

While the location is played as near San Mateo in the film, driving across the bridge as I did will not bring you anywhere close to the building, ironically home to Countrywide Financial in the 1990s and later acquired by Bank of America in 2008. What would Cosmo think about that?!

Fulfilling a two decades-long desire, I drove to 400 National Way a.k.a. 2800 Madera Road in Simi Valley on Thursday, 22 August 2013. I was staying in Newport Beach for a week on business and had this day free to tour greater LA shooting locations, starting with the trek to PlayTronics.

With James Horner's Sneakers score featuring Branford Marsalis playing the entire eighty-five mile journey, I made my way north through Los Angeles. After a late start and congestion due to an accident on I-5, I was finally at California State Route 118 Exit 22B for Madera Road northbound and my destination.

I do not know how many other people stop by because of Sneakers, but I did not expect any trouble since a public bank branch is on-site (or at least was; it is not listed on their website). I started at the southern dead end driveway, which features limited parking and two brick turnaround circles.

Walking west in front of the building on the south side, I wanted to get closer to where Cosmo's and Werner Brandes' (Tobolowsky) offices were located.

I was amused to find that a security camera is installed at the end, in front of what was the corner of Cosmo's secure third floor office.

It was great to see the trees living in the middle of the two turnaround circles doing well. You can see in the film frame of the PlayTronics sign above that the trees existed during filming in January 1992 but were still quite young and small.

Heading back toward the car, I took note of the triad of flags on display at the building. In the movie, the United States flag is displayed on the center flagpole while the other two are unused. Three flags were flying on this day: United States, State of California and Bank of America.

From the southeastern driveway circle, there is a view of the "very gentle slope" that Bishop misleadingly refers to while helping Whistler (Strathairn) on his heroic drive. On the hill beyond is a water tank, one of the forty storage facilities operated by Ventura County Waterworks District 8.

Moving around beneath the southeastern circle, you can see where the production installed the lit PlayTronics sign. To the right, they had also added a guard post with a boom gate at the entrance to the first row of parking. That is funny to me because there are seven other ways into the lot on this side alone.

That is a great thing about fiction; the workings of a location do not necessarily have to correspond with their real-world counterparts. Another example is when Brandes takes Liz (McDonnell) to PlayTronics. He is coming from a dead end and would have already passed the building to take the route we see him drive.

I next decided to drive around a bit myself. Given its proximity to an employee entrance and break area, I decided to photograph the loading dock while driving up to it. Aside from some reflections in the windshield, I got a nice view. Noticeably absent is the ladder that Bishop climbs down.

Turning right at the loading dock, I drove around the northern side of the building and past a parking garage to come around to the western parking lot. Pulling up the main row at the south, I approached a signed Bank of America entrance. Next to the door there is a nice patio with umbrella-covered tables.

Finally, it was time to head to the far corner of the parking lot, near where Whistler starts his drive. I parked in the last row and got out again. It was ninety-three degrees and would get up to ninety-seven before I left the property.

I walked east as far as I could and was highly amused to discover a gate is actually installed where there had been one in the film; Whistler backs-up through it at the start of his drive.

The gate keeps people away from the county water tanks installed there. One is readily visible sitting over the northeast corner of the parking lot, but the other is a little over a quarter mile north of that. The paved road ends at that second tank, although an unpaved road continues and connects to others winding through the undeveloped native terrain.

This vantage point also offered an unobstructed panorama of Simi Valley, the Ronald Reagan Freeway (SR 118) and the Simi Hills mountain range beyond.

Cooling off in the car, I sent one or two short emails to commemorate my accomplishment before it was time to head to my next destination.

It was great to finally be able to visit this place. Unlike so many other locations, everything here besides the botanical growth looks pretty much as it did on film.

Although some of the technology depicted is dated, this does not detract from the movie (quite the contrary). Indeed, Sneakers turned out to be far more predictive than we could have ever imagined.

Take this dialogue from the film between Bishop and Gordon (Busfield) that came to mind in August 2013, two months into the Snowden-induced revelations about the NSA and global surveillance.

BISHOP

Uh, sorry to waste your time, gentlemen.
I don't work for the government.

GORDON

We know. National Security Agency.

BISHOP

Oh, you're the guys I hear breathing
on the other end of my phone.

GORDON

No, that's the FBI. We're not chartered
for domestic surveillance.

BISHOP

Oh, I see. You just overthrow governments,
set up friendly dictators.

GORDON

No, that's the CIA. We protect our
government's communications. We try to
break the other fellas codes. We're the
good guys, Marty.

And then there is this poignant exchange with Bishop, Crease (Poitier), Whistler and Mother (Aykroyd).

BISHOP

It's interesting, don't you think you guys,
that the NSA's here? I thought the FBI was
supposed to do this kinda thing.

CREASE

Absolutely. This is outside the NSA's
jurisdiction.

WHISTLER

Unless the NSA didn't want anyone to
know about Janek's little black box.

BISHOP

I keep thinking about something Greg told me.
He said that our codes are based on an
entirely different system than the Russian
codes, so this box wouldn't really work
on them. The only thing it'd really be
good for is spying on Americans.

MOTHER

Well sure, with a box like that they could
read the FBI's mail.

WHISTLER

Or the CIA's. Or the White House's.

CREASE

No wonder they don't want to share with
the other children.

Hell, the phrase "Setec Astronomy" even appeared on a National Reconnaissance Office uniform patch. The very existence of the NRO was not declassified until Friday, 18 September 1992 — a week after the movie came out.

On a final note, Sneakers looks great on Blu-ray! Although it lacks any of the special features that are on the "Collector's Edition" DVD, the picture and sound on the region-free import Blu-ray (barcode 5050582929393) are wonderful.

The disc may lack bonus material, but does come loaded with numerous language dubs and subtitles. I dislike dubs when a film is not in English, but watching one I know very well in say, Japanese, is a lot of fun!

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn following its mother on a foraging trip in the woods east of the northern campground loop at Lake Kissimmee State Park.

Near Park Road, Lake Wales, Florida: 13 October 2013

part of the Lake Kissimmee State Park album

I have not yet written about Lake Kissimmee State Park in Lake Wales, only posting the below favorite photo of a white-tailed deer fawn, but my camping trip there in October 2013 was excellent. It was an ideal place to watch wildlife.

In addition to the usual suspects, we had close encounters with a rafter of turkeys who twice emerged from the woods into our campsite to look around, a pair of hawks, several flocks of turkey vultures, a drove of Florida Cracker cattle, woodpeckers and more orb-weaver spiders than I care to recall.

The highlight of this particular trip was discovering a white-tailed deer doe and her fawn foraging in the woods. I happened upon them while exploring the woods behind our campsite. It was just after 1530 when I first spotted them, so it was nice to have sunlight — I typically spot deer at dusk in state parks.

I followed the two of them through the woods for about thirty minutes, keeping some distance so as not to frighten them but staying remarkably close regardless. They kept an eye on me but mostly seemed interested in eating. Hopefully, this nonchalance toward humans does not prove unwise.

After the deer entered a particularly dense area of forest and realizing that I had not been paying any attention to our course, I decided to let them go and figure out my way back. I emerged from the woods just a few campsites down from Site 13 where we were staying; not bad, all things considered.

With a nice campground, the circa 1876 frontier cow camp recreation complete with guide, thirteen miles of trails and teeming wildlife, we definitely enjoyed this park. And on our way out, we stopped by the nearby Bok Tower Gardens where I captured those great butterfly pictures.

Footprints in the snow show where people walked over the completely frozen Capitol Reflecting Pool (1971) near the United States Capitol (1811/1866) and United States Botanic Garden (1867).

Near 100 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, District of Columbia: 29 January 2014

part of the National Mall album

Golden rat tail cactus (Cleistocactus winteri) in the world deserts environment within the Conservatory at the United States Botanic Garden (1867).

100 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, District of Columbia: 29 January 2014

part of the United States Botanic Garden album

Of all the diverse botanical species on exhibit at the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory, I found these Cleistocactus winteri native to Bolivia to be one of the most unusual and visually interesting.

A member of the Cactaceae (cactus) family, Cleistocactus winteri is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Cleistocactus winteri is only known to exist in two locations — a combined area of 96.53 square miles — within the Province of Florida. They occur on forest cliffs in seasonally dry inter-Andean valleys at elevations around 4,400 feet.

The northern subspecies is only found on a single cliff, while the southern subspecies occurs over a six mile or so stretch of cliffs. The latter is also subject to frequent collection by locals who in turn use them as ornamental plants.

There is no shortage of interesting and free things to do in the District, but I definitely recommend visiting the United States Botanic Garden. Open daily from 1000 to 1700, the various themed areas like the world deserts environment can provide a nice change of pace… especially during a wintertime trip.

A cast iron star-shaped anchor plate on the semi-detached brick house at 311 Queen Street (1880) in Old Town Alexandria.

311 Queen Street, Alexandria, Virginia: 30 January 2014

part of the Old Town Alexandria album