Market Street Musings

Woke up early looking forward to the day.   With some touristy stuff on the schedule for Monterey and then on to Sacramento to see Joe & Carrie Cooper, it was going to be a good day!   And it was…   Our hotel was just a stone’s throw from historic 17 mile drive, so we opted for that first thing.  It was beautiful and De Ann did a great job capturing some of the beauty of it in her photos.  There are a bunch more on Facebook, if you have access to that.    We headed into downtown Monterey from there for a good lunch on Cannery Row and wandering through shops.

Full bellies and satisfied that we had seen some of the sights in Monterey, we hopped on the road for the drive to Sacramento.   Traffic sucked and it took longer than we thought, but we made it safely to the Coopers’ house and got the tour before heading off to dinner.  Joe & Carrie have a beautiful home and they were very gracious hosts.   We told them that we were only in Sacramento for one night, so pick a good restaurant.  They came through in a big way, with a sushi restaurant called Mikuni.   We had a great time and had some good food (I would suggest the “Pimp my Roll”, “Kaiser Roll” and the “Pepperfin”….mmmmm, good).   We headed back to the house for a nightcap on the patio (thankfully they don’t have a Jacuzzi so there was no reason for Joe to get naked…this time.)

Off to bed and up early for our day of driving.   Follow along if you’d like – we are going from Sacramento, straight up I-5 for about 500 miles to Corvallis, OR for a quick stop, and then on for another couple of hours to Portland, OR.  Thankfully we got an early start – De Ann has first driving shift and I’ll be taking over once we hit the mountains.    Have a great Friday everyone and we’ll catch you up in a few days.   We are spending some fun time with Ashley, so blogging will just have to wait until our drive to Victoria, B.C. on Sunday.

Until then…

Yesterday we had a pretty uneventful drive to Monterey from Orange County. It was fun to see all the California city and street names that I forgot I knew, but I sure don’t miss LA traffic and driving like a type A maniac. Getting to Dan’s Super Subs was an experience because parking near there is a nightmare. There’s a narrow little street that runs behind Ventura Blvd., and I had a purple fit when a garbage truck stopped, blocking traffic in both directions, and the 2 guys got out of the truck and went into a house! Despite the parking issue, we agreed that Dan’s is worth the hassle!

Last night we ate a highly recommended bistro, and if you read Ron’s summary of the experience you’ll wonder, too, if the folks recommending that place have actually been there. We had a great bottle of Monterey Syrah, though! Today we enjoyed the scenic 17-mile drive in Pacific Grove, and although I’ve been there once before I don’t remember it being that pretty. (I bet the drive doesn’t remember me being an 18-year twit with no appreciation for nature, either!) The iconic Lone Cypress has been there for roughly 250 years, and the contrast of huge pine and cypress trees against a stunning shoreline is just beautiful.

Later we headed back to Cannery Row for some touristy stuff and a tasty lunch overlooking Monterey Bay. Seagulls tried to steal our lunch (what is it with aggressive animals and Ron?) and I met a really nice sea otter, although he was a little handsy.

Now we’re heading to Sacramento to visit with Joe & Carrie Cooper. Happy travels!

After a few days of not too much driving, it was back into the car to head out for more fun on the road.  Before heading out, one more meeting with a friend and collegue (Thanks for the smoothie, Roger!) and a quick trip over to pick up some items from my brother’s place.  Then it was on the road north…making it to the San Fernando Valley in just enough time to hit the lunch rush at Dan’s Super Subs.   I’ve been thinking about why I love that place so much – is it the nostalgia of having gone there in high school, special trips down in college, or are the subs really that good?   I figured out that they really are that good!!   Off of the 101 freeway at Shoup, this little hole-in-the-wall is still family owned and operated.  I don’t know what happened to “Dan”, but the main family man there is Jack and he is always ready with a smile and a hearty sandwich.  The Italian (#1) for me, no onions.   A #16 Meatball (with cheese and onions) for my dainty sweetie…   What makes it so good is the bread, and on non-meatbally sandwiches, the Italian sandwich sauce that brings it all together.  I highly recommend it. 

Stuffed from the experience, it was back into the car for the drive to Monterey.   A quick wave of the hand as we passed by UCSB, my alma mater, and then a break in San Luis Obispo at the Foster’s Freeze.   Vanilla Malt and a Butterfinger Twister, and we continue on our healthy eating ways! J  We made it to Monterrey before 6, checked into our hotel (Deer Haven Inn).   Another Travelzoo special that appeared just as we were looking for a place.   Not the nicest hotel we will stay in this trip, but a decent room and a comfy bed.   A quick change and we grabbed a cab to downtown Monterey to have dinner at a well-regarded/rated restaurant – Montrio Bistro.

The restaurant had a nice environment, but was pretty dead.  Maybe 7 other tables occupied, so the staff on duty was pretty bored.   Which made them attentive to us.  Overly attentive, actually.    The food was good, but not great (our friends at Rioja and Vesta have raised the bar for us far too much.).   But because they had nothing else going on, our appetizer showed up quickly (good), but then the meals showed up before we were half way done with the app.   The app was pushed to the side to make room for the meal, at which point the waiter took away what was left of it and we were left wondering why we were being rushed out of there.   When the wait-staff wasn’t checking up on us, they were standing next to where our table was (as we were seated near the bar, though the restaurant was empty.)   The staff that weren’t busy were shouting at the TV as the Lakers were beating on the Nuggets, leading to quite the ambiance…    We finished our food, powered through our wine, and left for more of the nightlife. 

We found the Crown & Anchor, a nice little pub with a great selection of beer and wine.  We spent some time chatting and taking in the local scene, before heading back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.   Another great day of exploring and traveling, and we look forward to our time in Monterey and heading up to Sacramento next.   Check in with you later!

Until then…

Okay, so now I’m being the slacker.  Off having so much fun that I didn’t get to keep you all updated.  Please forgive.   We are back in the car to continue our roadtrip.  And since De Ann is driving, I have the opportunity to catch you guys up on the latest happenings.  I’ll make it quick, as De Ann already filled you on bits and pieces.

Day 9 – Sunday

Woke up early and spent some time hanging out with Harold, Leena, Jen and De Ann at the house.    Harold, Jen and I headed out for an awesome lunch with Pam and her brother and dad at the Boiling Crab.  For those that have never been, check out the menu and see what there is to have.    You basically just order a bunch of food and tell them what kind of sauce and how spicy you want it.  We went with the Whole She-bang (a combo of a bunch of sauces) and Medium temp.    We had 4 lbs of shrimp, 2 lbs of crab legs, spicy sausage, corn on the cob, 2 lbs of crawfish and a ton of fun.   They dump all of the food in the middle of the table, put bibs on you, and then everyone just dives into to piles, eating with your hands.  The food is great and everyone had a great time.     Harold, Jen and I headed back to the house and then spent the afternoon lounging by the pool – good downtime.    Meanwhile, De Ann spent the day with her old friends from OC (I’ll let her tell you all about it.)

We all met up at the house, got cleaned up and then headed to the Auld Dubliner for a little music, a couple of drinks and a lot of laughing at people.  Good times!!   We took a cab back to the hotel and crashed out pretty quickly thereafter. 

Day 10 – Monday

Memorial Day… a great day for parties, bbqs and general merriment!   Today’s adventures took us to the home of Brandon and his 10 month old daughter Bella.   Brandon’s place in Huntington Harbor provided a great backdrop for general laughter and BBQ fun.   We got the opportunity to congratulate our friend Linda, who finished the LA Marathon that morning with a personal best time.    She celebrated by drinking all of the bubbly she could find! J   Various people fell asleep in the sun or on the couch and pictures were taken.   Much food, including  a great Bananas Foster courtesy of Greg, was consumed and then party moved into the house so that we could watch the Nuggets make fools out of the Lakers.     Born and raised in LA, I have a soft-spot for the Lakers, but now that I’m in Denver, I’m trying to get into the local spirit.   Good year for that with them… not so much with the Rockies.    What can you do, right?    After the beating, we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep early.   Long day on Tuesday….

Day 11 – Tuesday

Up early and getting a bit of work done before all of our meetings.  I wont bore you with the details (Nice change of pace, I know), but we ran from our lunch meeting with Mike Faddoul, over to visit with my good friends at Miramar Ventures (Patti, Bob and Bruce) and all of the H&S folks whom I haven’t seen in awhile.   Always great to catch up.   Then it was back over to South Coast Plaza for a quick drink with Greg Palme before he had a run out to catch his son’s playoff game (which they won 13-1 – kudos!!).  We headed south to spend time with Jennie and Michael Boyer and their 5, yes 5 kids.   3 2-month old triplets mean that they are always on their toes.   We were impressed with their calm demeanor, the relative ease with which they handle the trade-offs and taking care of the troop.   Total rockstars, and we were still able to polish off 2 or 3 bottles of wine and catch up on old times.  And then a surprise, late night visit next door brought us back in touch with the Tinseths.  Elena and Andrew and their son live right next door and graciously stayed up late so that we could spend a little time with them as well.    A long drive back to Irvine put us back at the hotel after midnight, in time for a few hours sleep before our next meeting and then heading out to Monterrey… but you’ll hear about that next time.

Have a great day and a great week everyone.   Cant wait for the next few days of adventures, and hopefully we’ll have time to tell you all about it!

Until then…

It’s official. The entire trip has blurred into a single great memory. Was the BBQ yesterday or 6 days ago? Who can tell? According to the pictures it was yesterday, and it was a blasty blast. I am so lucky to call these witty folks my friends: Ron (the smartest and funniest of them all), Leena, Linda, Michelle, Marcus, Harold, Jen and my new friends Brandon, Bella and Greg. I haven’t laughed that much since, well, the last time. Thanks to all for a fabulous day of feasting, boating and laughing! Thanks to Brandon & Bella for hosting the madness at their lovely Huntington Harbor home!

Captain Greg and his floating harem of hotness!

Up early this Saturday morning, the start of week two of this fun little vacation.  I know that I’m going to get to the end of it and say “what happened!?!  I need 3 more weeks!”   Maybe next year!!   With our summer pretty well planned out, I don’t think that we can squeeze in anything more than a weekend here or there.   Ashley comes to Denver for a week in late June, De Ann is going to New York for a memorial service for her grandfather in June, my parents are probably making the drive to Denver to hang out in June/July.   Then it is Puerto Vallarta at the end of July, another week visit from Ashley in August, a long weekend in Dallas to visit the Preissler clan,  Vegas in September and New York for De Ann’s family Christmas and some travels on the East Coast.    I’m sure we’ll find a way to squeeze another trip in there somehow!   But for now, we are just going to enjoy the next couple of weeks.  Check out the calendar under “HAPPENINGS” at the top to get an idea of where we will be!

So, yesterday was a day for me to meet some of De Ann’s friends (some of whom she has known since she was 4 years old.)    First, we packed up the Hybrid and said goodbye to Paradise Point.  We didn’t take advantage of the resort nearly enough, but it was a good base of operations for the SD portion of the trip.  As an aside, there are ridiculous deals everywhere on hotels/vacations right now.  By way of example, Paradise Point is one of those places that looks and feels like you have gone to Hawaii, but it is in Southern CA, just a short drive for most of you.  We found a deal there that basically put the cost at $100 a night.   Even though times are tough right now, consider “traveling” in your own back yard.   Think about the $$ that you can save on the travel costs AND with everyone giving away rooms and such these days, it really is a good time to take a break for a little R&R.   Check out www.travelzoo.com and sign up for their weekly newsletter – they are great at finding the deals!

Back to our story…  we headed up the coast to Oceanside where we visited with the Sexton family.   I’m sure that I’ll mess up some spelling, but Jen and Mike (why do all of the Jen’s find a Mike or Matt in this universe??)  and their two beautiful kids Jillian and Keagan.    They put out a big spread of fruit, bagels and cinnamon rolls and we had a great time catching up with them.   Great people and very gracious hosts.   

We jumped on the road and headed east and then North to visit with Tricia, Matthew and Andrew Holmes in Murrieta.   Tricia and De Ann lived across the street from each other on a cul-de-sac in Orange, CA for their entire childhood.  They have stayed friends and visit whenever they can.  Tricia has been married to Brian for twelve years, but he is on deployment with the Navy (Thank you for your service, sir!).   She is busily getting the family ready to meet up with Dad/Hubby in Hawaii next weekend and we wish them safe travels.

From there, we battled the 15 (yes, its “The 15” because we are from CA and that is how we say it.  It’s not “I-15”… get it right, people…) and then the 91 (joy o’ joy) before finally working our way to Orange, CA for dinner at De Ann’s favorite Chinese place, Yen Ching.   “Dinner for 2, please” is actually a menu item and the food was outstanding.   Waaaaaaay too much for us, but luckily Leena hadn’t eaten yet and enjoyed our leftover’s when we got to their house.

For those that don’t know my family, my brother Harold (15 months older than I am) lives in Irvine, CA and works for Toshiba America Information Systems.   He is dating Jen Peterson and his roommate for the last few years is Leena Shirgaokar.    We arrived at their place and spent some time catching up with Leena before Harold and Jen arrived home from a beach bonfire.   We made plans for the day and then retired for some much needed rest.  All this meeting new people / being charming all of the time can really take it out of you.     We will be in The O.C. for the next few days before heading north to Dan’s Super Subs and then on to Monterrey, CA.   From there, it is Sacramento, Portland, Victoria, B.C., Seattle, Spokane and Yellowstone National Forest.   We hope you continue on this journey with us.

Until then…

Ron is really putting me to shame with his up-to-date posts of witty banter! With the first week behind us, I can say with certainty that it’s all running together already. Soon, I won’t remember what day it is or which state I’m in (except for Denial and Disbelief, with which I’m intimately familiar).

The drive to California was pretty uneventful, although we managed a Chinese Fire Drill on an offramp in San Bernadino County. Sadly, I missed the photo opportunity that presented…

No doubt you’re reading each word of Ron’s four mile long posts, so I won’t bore you with a repetitive account of each breakfast meeting, lunch meeting where we make our friends by their own damn sandwiches, dinner meetings, happy hours and after happy hour events since we arrived.

Sea World was great – not too crowded and not too many bratty kids. There was an older girl, maybe 10, having a melt down and being dragged off by her arm not 20 minutes after the park opened! Take it from me, kid, save the melt down until the end of the day. Other than that episode, wide open park of happy smiling people, many of whom fell for the sales & marketing pitch that the Shamu show has become. For the briefest second I considered becoming an animal trainer so I could snag a $0.47 whale tail necklace, too.

Paradise Point is a beautiful place to stay. Very quiet and peaceful, too, with a great gift shop & boutique. Sad to see it in the rearview, but happily moving toward the next of many destinations ahead of us. Until I type again, D.

It’s my Birthday!!  WOooooooo Hoooooooo!!   De Ann took great care of me on my birthday, just like she does every day!    A new Tommy Bahamas shirt, perfect for vacation lounging, and a “Life’s Good” hat with a picture of a pint glass that is partial filled and the words “Half Full”.. Perfect for my optimistic outlook on life, to be sure.    Another early morning meeting (why oh why do we do this) with our friend Bill Attinger.   We met at a place that De Ann and I referred to as the “Meat Palace”..   Tip Top Meats in Carlsbad is a European deli and butcher shop, that also serves breakfast.   Take a look at the menu, which we did when Bill booked the place, and you’ll notice one of the meals includes “all you can eat breakfast meats”….  Shockingly, we passed on that selection and opted for some traditional eggs, bacon and potatoes.   Food was great, another 14 cups of coffee morning, and two hours of chatting the morning away was a great way to start the day.

Then we headed over to a Starbucks to take care of some work and meet up with our friend Pat Keran.   Pat and his wife Tina are expecting a second child to complement the great son they have in Cooper.  It was great to catch up with Pat, but thankfully we didn’t have to eat anything.  I think Pat was looking forward to a free lunch, but alas, he had to buy his own pre-packaged $6 sandwich.   Suck it up Pat, you still have a job, right!?!    Leaving Pat in the rear-view mirror, we took the M3 back to the hotel where we lounged in the sun and caught up on the day’s calls and emails….

Headed back over to Oggi’s to meet up with Tom and drop off the car, before heading to Escondido to hang with Jason Hooper and his girlfriend Andrea.   Friends of De Ann’s from her previously life at Elan here in San Diego, it was great to meet them and catch up on life.   We headed over to the Elephant Bar for a little Seared Ahi Tuna dinner.     We were both exhausted from the day, so we called it an early night and retired back to Paradise.    All in all, a great birthday and a wonderful way to spend a Friday in beautiful San Diego.

Thanks again everyone for the calls, texts, emails and facebook posts!   Catch up with you tomorrow.    We’ll be checking out of San Diego and heading to OC, by way of Oceanside and Murrietta, so we’ll find you tomorrow!!

Until then…

Morning came WAY too quickly on Thursday, May21st.   Whose bright idea was it to schedule a breakfast meeting at 7:30a the day after we arrive, when we are technically on vacation.  That is bullsh*t, I tell you…   wait a second, I think it was me.  Dammit.   We actually made it to breakfast early, though one of our guests decided that sleeping in was more important than seeing his friends (great job, Ross!!)   It was great to catch up with Mike and Ross and find out what’s been going in San Diego.  We had a LOOOOOOOOONG meal at Coco’s, due to the impeccable service that we received!   14 cups of coffee later, we headed back to our room to change and head over to Sea World.

I love Sea World.  It s a great place to people-watch and going before summer gets here means that we didn’t have to fight too many crowds or kids.   But I gotta tell ya, the shows were pretty disappointing.  Moreso than I remember them to be, anyways.   For example, the Shamu show is now themed “BELIEVE” and it centers around this Marketing Department-inspired B.S. story about this boy who carves a whale-tail out of wood and wears it as a necklace.  He paddles his kayak into the ocean and he is created by Shamu, who swims around him, jumps over the kayak and otherwise frolics with him in the water.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that if there was a killer whale swimming around me and I was in a kayak, there would be quite a mess to clean up in and around my shorts…  and I’m fairly certain that the kayak would look like a seal from under the water and Shamu would gobble it up without giving it a second thought… but I digress.    So, they create this story and then they build this whole “if you believe, you too can be one with the animals” message that culminates with a ridiculous number of vendors walking up and down the aisles during the show selling….wait for it….. yes, selling WHALE TAIL necklaces.   I don’t know a parent out there that wasn’t bombarded by “can I have it daddy PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE” from their kids.     It was ridiculous.

And not that I don’t appreciate the splash zone, we sat in it.   But didn’t it used to be that the splashing was done as part of the tricks that the animals were performing?  Now they have, in both the shamu and dolphin shows, dedicated “SPLASH TIME” where they have trained the animals to douse the crowd with water using their tails.  Not really part of the show, just “here, have some water kids!”   Oh, towels are available for purchase for just $17.

All in all, pretty minor annoyances, considering we had a GREAT time.  We pet all of the animals, fish and creatures that they would let us pet (Sea Stars, Bat Rays, etc.)   We saw most of the exhibits and were able to see all the shows that we wanted to see.  It was a breezy day and not too warm, so we didn’t wind up riding the shipwreck rapids or the other water ride.    We had a great time and were back to the hotel by 4:30 to rest up before dinner.

For dinner, we went to Costa Brava , a Spanish tapas restaurant with a great wine selection and some delicious food.  We were joined by our friends Scott and Pelin Thorogood, and it was great to catch up with them and hear all about what is happening in their world.    After dinner, Scott & Pelin had to get home to relieve Grandma of babysitting duties, but De Ann and I stuck around to partake in another drink or two before catching a cab back to the room.    A great day all around – we are fortunate to have such good friends and the opportunity to vacation like this.   Life is good!

I’ve had hundreds of calls and letters wondering where the daily fix of the travel blog was, I apologize to each of you.   As can often happen on a vacation, we selfishly were spending time enjoying ourselves and neglecting the huddled masses, yearning to be free and whose only source of enjoyment and escape is to live vicariously through us.   Your complaints have been duly noted and we will rectify that situation ASAP.

As you might have guessed, Day 5 was fairly uneventful.  We had 521 miles to cover between the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and our hotel in San Diego.  The drive on the I-40 was long and boring, with not much to look at except 18 wheelers and other vacationing families.   We did stop at the Flintstone Campground (hopefully De Ann will post those pictures as the official photographer), but otherwise it was pretty uneventful.

We stopped at Oggi’s Pizza on the way into town to see Tom Coyle.   In typical fashion, by the time we stopped rambling on, getting caught up like two old ladies (no offense to any old ladies out there), we had been there for 2 hours and were dangerously close to missing our dinner reservations.   Tom was gracious enough to loan us his BMW M3 Convertible for the couple of days that we would be in San Diego, so that has proven to be good fun, all around.

Our sweet ride for the duration of our stay in SD

We headed to the hotel – Paradise Point Resort in Mission Bay, where we essentially collapsed into a ball of exhaustion.   We scrapped our plans to enjoy steaks at Donovan’s, instead taking a walk over to the Barefoot Bar & Grill in the Resort for some good grub and a drink or two.   Completely relaxed, we passed out in no time flat!!