Hi there. I was cleaning out more old emails and I found this string of adventurous non-adventures from late 2015 and early 2016...details and photos. Instead of just trashing them, I decided to repost them here.
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Hi there and Happy January. I've been meaning to send you a note, catching you up on stuff. The new year, so far, has been BUSY! It seems like every moment I have had off from work has been jam-packed with trips or movies or being with my mom.
Here's a break down of the year so far...
It really started off with the tail end of 2015. I worked Christmas, so I had New Year's Eve/Day off. I Amtrak-ed it up to the Bay Area to ring in 2016. When Erich picked me up at the train station in Oakland, he mentioned this cool restaurant/bar he'd seen on some local TV show that features interesting local places. This one turned out to be an old lighthouse that had been converted to a restaurant/bar known as L.J. Quinn's Lighthouse. It was actually near the train station, so we stopped in on the way home. Very cool and funky. I dug it.
The next day we had breakfast just across from the ship and then headed for Disneyland and the tiki bar after all. Erich wasn't impressed. Despite the cool special effects and the beautiful tiki mugs and yummy drinks, the ambiance and decor were not up to par with his faves the Kona Club in Oakland or Frankie's in Las Vegas. (Oh my stars! I've turned Erich into a bona fide tiki-phile! Ha! He's now a tiki connoisseur! Yippie!)
The food may not look like the most appetizing dishes ever, but it was awesome! Erich had the Crab Relleno over black beans. I had the Crab Hash with eggs and Hollandaise sauce...and this was real, fresh crab...not the fake-o "krab" stuff. Ooooo so good. We would have gone back the next day, but they are closed on Mondays. Drat!
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Hi there and Happy January. I've been meaning to send you a note, catching you up on stuff. The new year, so far, has been BUSY! It seems like every moment I have had off from work has been jam-packed with trips or movies or being with my mom.
Here's a break down of the year so far...
It really started off with the tail end of 2015. I worked Christmas, so I had New Year's Eve/Day off. I Amtrak-ed it up to the Bay Area to ring in 2016. When Erich picked me up at the train station in Oakland, he mentioned this cool restaurant/bar he'd seen on some local TV show that features interesting local places. This one turned out to be an old lighthouse that had been converted to a restaurant/bar known as L.J. Quinn's Lighthouse. It was actually near the train station, so we stopped in on the way home. Very cool and funky. I dug it.
We only stayed for one drink (??)...just to check the place out. It was fun. There were peanuts to snack on. Throwing the shells on the floor was encouraged. Ha! Great views of the little marina and Alameda just across the channel. I'd totally go back some day.
Once we got to his house, we opened our Christmas presents to each other. My stars! His packages always look so beautiful...and mine looked I wrapped them in the dark.
The next day, Erich and I went to meet our friend Ashley at The Fat Lady in Oakland. The Fat Lady is a bar/grill...but years ago it had been a brothel.
After lunch, we went to see Ashley's new apartment and meet her cat. And then we went off to visit, for the first time, a groovy new (to me) and uber-fabulous tiki bar in Oakland called The Kona Club. LOVED it!
All three of us loved the Kona Club.We stayed for several drinks. While I can't speak for Ashley (who also used to frequent the Forbidden Island tiki bar in Alameda), I know Erich and I agreed that Kona Club was our new fav-o-rite tiki bar in the Bay Area! Wow! It was just great (we went when it was not busy---so we could totally sit, talk and enjoy ourselves).
Amazingly, just down the block from the Kona Club, is Hillside (?) Cemetery , which is the final resting place of Mr. Trader Vic himself, Victor Bergeron.
For New Year's Eve, we BART-ed into the city, caught a movie, had some cocktails and watched the fireworks on the Embarcadero. Being in SF is my favorite thing to do on New Year's Eve.
On New Year's Day., Erich drove me back to Fresno...and we got a ticket. Oops!
On January 2nd, we celebrated Fake Jan Day at work...whether anyone wanted to or not. Fake Jan Day, you ask? What is it? Google it HERE until I can explain in a later post.
Here is the video I made of the day. It's nothing special, but... HAPPY FAKE JAN DAY!
The following weekend, Erich, who had stayed in town after driving me home, decided to accompany me on my planned trip to LA. I was glad to have him along even though his presence changed to shape of the trip. He wanted to do/see some of the things I had already done---such as see the tiki bar at Disneyland. I wasn't planning on going that far south---but why not? Since we were going all of the way down there, and it was nearby, I made arrangements for us to stay on the Queen Mary the first night. Of course, even the altered plans with Erich along got further altered when, just as I was arriving to pick him up for the trip...he threw his back out! Yikes!
We got to the Queen Mary...but we never got to the Disney tiki bar that night as planned (or the bonus stop at Don The Beachcomber's I was contemplating). His back was in too much pain...but the boat was fascinating and huge. AND we found the bar on board anyway. Ha! I think we toured the whole ship (and, down the road, if I can find some other equally interesting places to stay, i am considering a travel article about unique/unusual places for travelers to stay). It was a neat experience.
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The next day we had breakfast just across from the ship and then headed for Disneyland and the tiki bar after all. Erich wasn't impressed. Despite the cool special effects and the beautiful tiki mugs and yummy drinks, the ambiance and decor were not up to par with his faves the Kona Club in Oakland or Frankie's in Las Vegas. (Oh my stars! I've turned Erich into a bona fide tiki-phile! Ha! He's now a tiki connoisseur! Yippie!)
Erich really wanted to visit a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in Hollywood. Since that was sort of the area i had planned to hang out in anyway, after our brief tiki stop at Disneyland, we braved the traffic and went north to Hollywood and visited the Hollyhock house. It was interesting--smaller than it looks and, although visitors could go in for a fee, you were only able to walk through a small portion of it. The rest was closed off to visitors.
We stayed at the same hotel we had stayed out the year before when we had visited LA and met up with my friend David from Australia, on the outskirts of Glendale near Eagle Rock. That morning, we were travelling to our destination for the day and stopped at random at this little diner called Cindy's. OMG!!! We loved it! The food was FAB and the place just had a great vibe! If/when we are in the same area in the future, Cindy's will be an instant go-to place. Wow!
The food may not look like the most appetizing dishes ever, but it was awesome! Erich had the Crab Relleno over black beans. I had the Crab Hash with eggs and Hollandaise sauce...and this was real, fresh crab...not the fake-o "krab" stuff. Ooooo so good. We would have gone back the next day, but they are closed on Mondays. Drat!
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| Crab Relleno over Black Beans |
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| Crab Hash with Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce |
After breakfast, we visited the Huntington Library---but don't let the name fool you. It's far more than a mere "library". Zowie! I had been there once before with my friend Christa. She and I barely scratched the surface (and that was completely MY fault as I was super late picking her up for the trip out there). Erich had seen pictures from that trip and wanted to go...and was blown away by the place. He and I did more than Christa and I had done...and even still we did not see it all. Henry (?) Huntington was the man Huntington Lake in the hills near Fresno was named after. The mansion was filled with art work (most famous are the Blue Boy and Pinky paintings) and just being in it made me feel like I was in the mansion on "Dynasty" (which was weird because Filoli, the "Dynasty" mansion, is in the Bay Area on the peninsula. I've been there...and this place was nothing like it!) Aside from paintings and sculpture and rare books (including a Guttenburg Bible), the grounds are filled with these extensive and incredible gardens! It's just stunning!
On the way back from The Huntington, I showed Erich a building that was used in the original HALLOWEEN (it was a hardware store in the movie. It's a restaurant now) and Michael Myers' house ( The house has been moved to a new location and is now a law office or something. I'd dragged Christa off to these places as well...)
After the Halloween stops, Erich and I went to the original BIGFOOT LODGE in Los Feliz. Years ago, he and I and Ashley and Ricki and Ted had gone to the Bigfoot Lodge in San Francisco---and had had a marvelous time. The SF location has since closed down. Erich and I visited the BIGFOOT WEST, a third location in Culver City which we both liked, but I really wanted to visit the original. We finally got there...but I was rather disappointed. One of the BIGFOOT LODGE's signature drinks had been called the Toasted Marshmallow---which is served with a real marshmallow on fire! No kidding! The one in Los Feliz didn't have those...nor did they have ANY of the signature drinks. Waaaagh. And hello? There were bigfoot signs and stuff, but no actual bigfoot on the premises (unlike in SF where there was a bigfoot statue onsite). Even the decor, although they were trying, wasn't up to snuff for me. Oh well.
Later that evening, we decided to go to a movie. I was hoping to see the new STAR WARS flick at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre (which is now an IMAX theater) in 3D (I've never seen a movie at the Chinese Theatre and would love to some day), but Erich really wanted to see this movie called "Carol" starring Cate Blanchett (and she is now up for an Oscar for the movie--deservedly so). So we went into Glendale to this beautiful shopping center (very much like The Grove in LA), had a bite to eat at this charming little organic (I think) restaurant and caught the flick.
The next morning, since Cindy's was closed, we stopped at Du-Par's in Studio City (on advice from a co-worker) for breakfast. Du-Par's is an LA institution. The breakfasts were HUGE...but not necessarily great. Nothing like Cindy's anyway.
We headed home after that. The very next day, Mom came to town. She was visiting from Washington. I only got to see her a little on my days off between working.
Mom has gone back to Washington now. Waaaagh! I've been working since then. I am off for the next few days though...and this year I am trying to catch up on my Oscar nominated flicks. The last two years I hardly saw any of them. This year...I'm hoping to see them all. I had already seen THE MARTIAN. Today I saw SPOTLIGHT and BROOKLYN,,,and ordered a (used) copy of MAD MAX: FURY ROAD on DVD. Tomorrow (well, now it's actually later today) I want to see the new STAR WARS movie in 3D (since I didn't get to see it in LA)...then want to see the nominated THE ROOM and THE BIG SHORT (yes--three movies in one day! Yowza!). Wednesday it will be BRIDGE OF SPIES and Thursday it will be THE REVENANT ...if I can handle any more movies by then, that is...
And at some point Thursday I'll also have to get my laundry done. O' the glamour of it all!
Stay tuned. February is already booking up with adventures. I'll never get any rest. Phew!
CHEERS!
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I did see all of those films. Whether February was interesting or not, I don't recall...I haven't found any old emails about it yet, any way.
CHEERS!
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