WINTER IN L.A

We really only have two seasons here.  Moist and a little cooler, dry and a lot hotter.  Actually, since we live only a mile from the ocean, our range is even less.  We put Mom on her plane back to Indy, sub-freezing temperatures, snow, rain, and general gloom.  We then put on our bright colors, broke out the scoot, and headed for the mountains behind Malibu.  Life is tough.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING . . .

completely different.  Bagpipes.  Grown men in skirts.  Running with blunt logs.  Ah, yes, it must be the Queen Mary Scottish Festival.  Mom was keen to go, and the weather cooperated with one of those only-in-SoCal-in-February days.  Both the old girls looked mighty good:

They had both individual piper and band competitions.  We tried a couple of the former, but that’s a little too much torture, especially as they were being conducted on the inside promenade deck which was all hard wood and metal surfaces.  The ears said “run away, run away.”  The full band competitions were held outdoors on a lawn and were much easier on the psyche.  The judges were from Canada (2), Scotland, and Ireland, so I guess this was a pretty serious competition.  Our untrained ears thought they all sounded great. 

 

If hotdogs are an option for lunch, you-know-who will choose them every time:

We’re seated here while watching the Highland Games portion of the festival.  They threw the stone, pitched the bale over the bar, cast the weight backwards over the bar, heaved the hammer, and tossed the caber.  What is it with the Scots and moving big weights?  How many ways can you say “throw?” 

There was a sheep herding demonstration using a variety of border collies terrorizing a group of four sheep.  It was pretty cool how they responded to voice and whistle commands over great distances.  According to the trainer giving the demo, dogs either are born with the instinct to stalk sheep or they’re not, and he can tell at the very first encounter whether the dog can be trained or not to herd.  It’s useless to try to train one that lacks the desire.

In the afternoon there was a demonstration of Scottish Country Dancing (they disfavor terming it “folk” dancing since the dances are engaged in by nobility as well as common folk).  This certainly isn’t the most exciting thing to watch, but I will say that it was intricate and I doubt I could remember the steps to one dance let alone the variety they performed.

We managed to avoid the clutches of the many “craft” and Scottish-gear stalls, but no visit to the Queen Mary is complete without a souvenir pin for Mom to add to her hat, so it was off to the shops to hunt one down.

We just about wore Mom’s nearly 87-year-old legs off going around the venues and the ship, so we called it quits and headed back to West L.A. for an early Valentine’s dinner at Tlapazola.  A Cadillac marguerita and lobster enchiladas did the trick for me!  Just another winter’s day in L.A.

FRISCO FLING

Last weekend we did a whirlwind trip to S.F. to see the Boyos (and their Girlos?) and their respective new/remodeled digs.  We left early (well, 7:30) Friday morning and had pretty good traffic flow all the way there.  I hardly cursed anyone at all.  L.A. was having a Friday lite day, I-5 was barreling along, and even the Bay Area wasn’t bad getting to and across the San Mateo Bridge.  But why oh why can’t they post the fare so you can see it well before getting to the booth?  Got gas right after the 99 cutoff, and then we stopped for an hour or so at Harris Ranch where Loni and I indulged in a late breakfast (thick bacon, 3 eggs, and buttermilk biscuits – Lipitor, anyone?) and Mom went all out with a rootbeer float(!) and a chicken salad.  Harris isn’t cheap, but the food is top notch even if you don’t order their beef.  Good weather all the way up, with the rain holding off until after we got there.  Got to the hotel a little after 3:00, so about 6 1/4 hours driving time door to door (just shy of 400 miles).  We stayed at our usual place by the airport and got a good rate, avoided the $40 daily parking that the S.F. hotels charge, and enjoyed free full breakfasts each day.  What you can’t escape in the Bay Area are the ridiculous 14%(!!!) “tourist” and occupancy taxes.  The hotel (Best Western Grosvenor) is a decent tourist hotel, definitely not “luxury” as they boast on their site, but it’s been recently remodeled and was clean, quiet and functional.  Great freeway access and only minutes to the City.  Works for us.

Meghan and John hosted dinner Friday night in their new apartment (their first together), which sits high on a hill with a dynamite view of the entire San Francisco and East Bay skylines.  Wow!  The rain had started, so the picture of the view isn’t the greatest, but it was spectacular:

The living room and the kitchen/dining area both look out on this.  Not too shabby.  And neither was dinner.  Meghan’s mom, Janet, was there from Phoenix and Alia and Mike came over from their place not too far away.   Heart-stopping and mouth-watering cheeses to start.  A great salad.  Janet’s recipe and Meghan’s culinary skills produced a scrumptious stroganoff which we washed down with several bottles of syrah, zin, and cab.  And, of course, individual apple crumb tortes with ice cream.  Oh, nurse!  Excellent.

Saturday we (sans Janet, who had an early flight) went to the new California Academy of Arts and Sciences in Golden Gate Park.  This was very cool.  I didn’t even mind the $25/head admission (although $20 for parking was a bit of a gouge on top of that).  We gathered in front of TRex for a group shot:

Then it was off to the rain forest with butterflies galore, the planetarium for a trip to the cosmos, and the aquarium for the depths.  I won’t attempt to recount the zillion creatures we saw.  Suffice to say that this a must-see on a visit to S.F.  They even had great food in the cafeteria!

Back to John & Meghan’s where we killed the rest of the cheeses, along with a delicious fig compote.  Two large and one small pizzas from the local joint (all delicious), and Anchor Steam beer, finished us off.

We were heading home on Sunday, but not before brunch at Mike & Alia’s apartment.  Wow, what a transformation from the last time we were there (for the wedding last summer).  They’ve gone from early fraternity casual (sorry, but this Blog tells it like it is) to a real home!  Kudos on the new look.  And major kudos for the brunch.  The pastries, sausages and bacon all were outstanding, but the best was the asparagus frittata home-made by Alia.  Yum.  Could I actually drive 400 miles after all this?  Yup.  Other than a quick stop for gas in Gilroy, we drove straight through.  No need for a stop to eat.

Family and food.  It absolutely gets no better.  Thanks.