July 18, 2007:
In the morning Janet took us down to the beach for breakfast. It was a gorgeous day and the place where we stopped to eat was right on the beach itself. There was a dozen or more beach volleyball courts set up with a number of games going at 9 am on a Wednesday. Only in California I guess (or maybe Hawaii?).
After a nice sunny breakfast, we bid adieu and hopped in the car for a quick jaunt across town to spend the day with Nathan in West Hollywood. It was an approximately 20 mile trip, but as Google Maps will tell you, it's a 35 minute trip, or up to an hour and 40 minutes in traffic. We took I-405 to I-10 and managed to get there eventually. It could have been a lot worse, compared to a 20 mile commuting trip which many of us have experienced at one time or another, but after a couple of weeks on the road, mostly on highways, we were used to knocking out 20 miles in something under 20 minutes.
It's also amazing to see how big the interstates in southern California are. The new mixing bowl in Springfield, VA is 24 lanes across at the widest point, but you can only see maybe a third of those at one time. All these major interstates are 4, 5, or 6 lanes across for miles at a time--and most distressingly full for miles at a time.
Nathan's complex is in the Park La Brea area of L.A. One of the first things we learned was that somebody from Laguna Beach or the spinoff lived in the gourmet-looking complex across the street. I think they've even filmed some pool-side shots there--not that Nathan has a view from his apartment; we checked. His apartment is a regular two bedroom apartment with a big living room and a small kitchen, like most apartments built a long time ago.
We dropped our stuff off inside and then he took us on a drive around L.A. to see the sights that us regular schlubs only hear about or see on Entourage (no, we didn't make it by the Playboy Mansion). He drove us by a couple of the tv studios nearby (CBS and NBC??); we saw the Hollywood sign from the city (face north on N Gower St at Hollywood Blvd or Franklin Ave); we drove by the Whisky a Go Go and that place where River Phoenix overdosed (the Viper Room); we drove by the Chinese Theatre; we passed through some famous L.A. intersections of pop culture such as Hollywood and Vine; we drove down Rodeo Dr and saw the naked silver torso statue as well as two Ferrarris; I think we saw three Bentleys and two Rolls along the way as well; we also drove through some of the tony neighborhoods just to see some of the houses and palm trees.
Eventually we got hungry, and fortunately Nathan took us to one of the greatest restaurants I have ever experienced: Roscoe's House of Chicken N Waffles. I think there are several locations around L.A. It was a mid-size, basic restaurant, somewhere between an IHOP and Waffle House in design and amenities. There is a full menu, but you more or less order one of several combos of waffles and fried chicken. I think most of us have eaten enough good fried chicken in our lives to have a hard time saying any one batch was the best they'd ever had; that being said, this was as good fried chicken as I have ever had. The waffle, on the other hand, was definitively the best waffle I'd ever had. We all overate dramatically, but I left that placed convinced there was some sort of drug in the waffle or its butter or syrup. Can't recommend 'Scoes enough.
We went out later for the evening and stopped at a couple of Nathan's preferred places in L.A. We hit up Barney's Beanery, which was a cool dive to have a couple pitchers. We also headed over to another place which had more of a lounge vibe going on. We ran into a couple of Nathan's friends who were Syracuse TRF (television, radio, film) grads a year or two before my brother. It was pretty cool to go back and tell my brother that people from his program are working in L.A. Eventually we made it back to Nathan's place to crash before the long and awesome PCH drive to San Fran coming up in the morning.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Going back in time...Eleventh Day
Well, I'm making my first effort to re-create the trip blog. I WILL succeed.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
July 17, 2007:
Picking up where I left off in San Diego, (which by the way, was named after Saint Didacus of Alcalá--more commonly known as San Diego--who was was a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor, and not an animal part) in the morning Jason and I got up and went to the Hash House a Go Go for breakfast. We received this recommendation from John and Kristen. This place is midwest farm food on mega-amounts of HGH, or food GH or something. It has a rockabilly/punk feel about it. Each breakfast dish that we saw served that morning comes out on a white, oval platter about 3 feet long and a foot across at the widest point.
I ordered the smoked salmon, basil pesto, tomato and brie egg scramble which came with crispy breakfast potatoes and a biscuit, and Jason got the sage fried chicken eggs benedict which included spinach, smoked bacon, tomato, mozzarella and a chipotle cream. My salmon scramble was the best egg dish I've ever had in my life. I finished a little over half of it. There were a number of other tourists in the place and everyone kept leaning over to neighboring tables to see what other people had ordered. A nearby couple split a pancake that was about 18 inches across and 2 inches thick.
There are Hash Houses in SD, Las Vegas and now open in KC. You have to make an effort to go to one of them if you can.
After breakfast we knew that we had to walk it off a little before sitting in the car for a couple hours. We headed to Balboa Park to check it out. There are quite a number of interesting sights in the Park. One of the first things we stumbled across was a very nice bocce court with some games in progress. When we walked closer to check it out, one of the participants came over to say hello and recruit us for the club. I think they are looking for young blood to keep the club going. In all seriousness, though, it does look kind of fun. I think I got hooked on this genre of competition after watching curling in the last Winter Olympics. If anyone wants to go curling with me this winter there's a complex in MD that I want to go check out.
OK, tangent done. We then walked on to the museum area of the park. There are a number of cool museums that we didn't have time to see but I would like to next time I'm in town. The Museum of Man is pretty famous and there were several other exhibits including art galleries and a Globe Theater replica. The San Diego Zoo also borders Balboa Park, but we had to settle for the awesome stop at the Wild Animal Park.
Balboa Park was cool and a place that I look forward to checking out in greater detail. But we had to hit the road and head on to the City of Angels, or the LA greater metro area anyway. We hit I-5 and drove up the coast, which was a pretty nice drive. Saw a carrier a few miles offshore. Been there done that, though. (In another life I got to land on a carrier, spend the night and watch flight operations on the deck. Ask me if you're interested to hear about that.) We also drove past a number of really large houses with great views and no doubt manufactured drama being created and videotaped inside (i.e. we passed Laguna and Newport Beaches).
We made it to Phil and Janet's house in Hermosa Beach mid-afternoon that day. And while I hate commuting in the DC area, let's just say I'm not in a hurry to move to South Cali and have a 20 mile commute out there. Sheesh. Janet was stuck in jury duty til the evening, so we hung with Phil, had some libations (Phil makes a mean and delicious rum and coke) and told some stories. We also met the guard dogs, who while not too bad on the bite, had a hell of a bark.
We went down to the beach and saw the view down to Redondo Beach and Palos Verdes and up to Manhattan Beach at sunset. Absolutely stunning! We went to a great little Mexican place where they knew everyone on staff and had a great dinner. After dinner Jason and I walked around the beach bar area and found a place that had live band karaoke. We got there too late to sing (the line was real long) but it was cool too watch folks get up on stage with a live band and sing their favorite tunes. At the end of the night we caught a cab back and crashed in our respective rooms at Janet and Phil's. (They had separate rooms for us, which was the ultimate luxury on this trip.)
Another amazing day on the road and in California.
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